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Black Hole - Galactic Merger

SPH hydrodynamical simulation showing how a binary black hole forms in the aftermath of a galactic meger. Depicted are the galactic discs of two interacting galaxies. When the merger is completed a close Keplerian binary comprising the two massive black holes forms at the center of a massive circum-nuclear disc (credit by L. Mayer et al., Science, 316, 1874, 2007).

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Credit: L. Mayer et al., Science, 316, 1874, 2007

LISA Pathfinder performance

Results based on just two months of science operations on ESA's LISA Pathfinder show that the mission has demonstrated the technology needed to build a space-based gravitational wave observatory.

LISA Pathfinder Orbit Schematic – Apogee Raising Maneouvers to reach Lagrange Point 1

Insert: LISA Pathfinder will be launched in late 2015 on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Vega, designed to take small payloads into low orbit, will place LISA Pathfinder into an elliptical orbit, with a perigee (closest approach) of 200 km, apogee (furthest approach) of 1540 km, and angled about 6.5º to the equator. Then, when Vega’s final stage is jettisoned, LISA Pathfinder will continue under its own power, beginning a series of six apogee-raising manoeuvres powered by its own propulsion system. These manoeuvres will be completed two weeks after launch.

After this, LISA Pathfinder will cruise towards its final orbiting location. A month after its final burn, it will jettison its propulsion module and continue its journey before settling into an orbit around the L1 Sun–Earth Lagrangian point. The entire journey, from launch to arrival at the operational orbit around L1 will take about eight weeks.

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Copyright: ESA/ATG medialab

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