Twitter
Advertisement

NASA satellite launched to measure Earth's ice changes

A NASA satellite designed to precisely measure changes in Earth's ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice and vegetation has been launched from California. A Delta 2 rocket carrying ICESat-2 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 6:02 am (local time) Saturday and headed over the Pacific toward polar orbit.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

A NASA satellite designed to precisely measure changes in Earth's ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice and vegetation has been launched from California. A Delta 2 rocket carrying ICESat-2 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 6:02 am (local time) Saturday and headed over the Pacific toward polar orbit.

NASA Earth Science Division director Michael Freilich says that the mission in particular will advance knowledge of how the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica contribute to sea level rise. ICESat-2 carries a single instrument, a laser altimeter that measures height by determining how long it takes photons to travel from the spacecraft to Earth and back.

The mission is a successor to the original ICESat that operated from 2003 to 2009. Measurements continued since then with airborne instruments in NASA's Operation IceBridge.

Recently, the Hubble Space Telescope started a new mission to study six massive galaxy clusters that may help shed light on how the earliest galaxies evolved in the universe, NASA said. Learning about the formation and evolution of the very first galaxies in the universe is crucial for our understanding of the cosmos.

While the Hubble Space Telescope has already detected some of the most distant galaxies known, their numbers are small, making it hard for astronomers to determine if they represent the universe at large. Initial observations from the Beyond Ultra-deep Frontier Fields And Legacy Observations (BUFFALO) survey show the galaxy cluster Abell 370 and a host of magnified, gravitationally lensed galaxies around it.

Massive galaxy clusters like Abell 370 can help astronomers find more of these distant objects. The immense masses of galaxy clusters make them act as cosmic magnifying glasses. A cluster's mass bends and magnifies light from more distant objects behind it, uncovering objects otherwise too faint for even Hubble's sensitive vision. Using this cosmological trick -- known as strong gravitational lensing -- Hubble is able to explore some of the earliest and most distant galaxies in the universe.

With inputs from PTI

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement