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Science In Action: A Year of Space Firsts

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27/12/2018 GMT

A Year of Space Firsts

BBC World Service - Science In Action, A Year of Space Firsts

From robots landing on asteroids to flying closer to the sun than ever before.

From robot landings on asteroids and exploring the furthest reaches of the solar system, to flying closer to the sun than ever before.

The Parker Solar Probe has flown nearer to the sun than any other mission. The probe is now sending back data on the behaviour of electromagnetic waves emitted from the coronal mass. Fluctuations in these waves can lead to solar flares ,which in turn can have a huge impact on earth, including the potential to knock out global communications.

The Japanese space agency’s Hayabusa mission successfully landed two robots on an asteroid 4 years away from earth. Next year the mission will return to mine rock samples from beneath the asteroids surface by shooting a ‘space cannon’ to blast samples from within the asteroid.

NASA has a similar mission planned again to collect rocks from an asteroid, their method is to use kind of ‘space hoover’ to suck up samples.


Picture: The surface of the sun, Credit: NASA


Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Julian Siddle

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