A meteor exploded three times in Hungarian airspace on Friday evening, and a Hungarian community was able to take a photo and make a video of the phenomenon. You can check them out below.
According to hvg.hu, a greenish shooting star, a fireball was visible from Hungary around 9.08 PM on Friday. The Hungarian Meteoritics Society (Magyar Meteoritikiai Társaság) could take a video and a photo of the unique phenomenon. The society said they have a system of so-called ‘fireball cameras’.
Fireballs are meteors that have a brightness exceeding magnitude 5, the brightness of Venus. When they enter the atmosphere of the Earth, they heat up and explode. Friday night saw a greenish fireball that exploded three times.
Four applicants shortlisted for the Hungarian astronaut programme dubbed Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) were presented on Tuesday, and they will start a two-year training programme, the foreign ministry said.
The four-member team includes a doctor and three engineers, and one of them will spend nearly one month on the international space station, the statement said. The shortlisted applicants were presented at a press conference where ministry commissioner for space science Orsolya Ferencz declared that Hungary was “returning to space”. She added that the 1980 space travel of cosmonaut Bertalan Farkas, who was a guest at the press conference, acted as a catalyst for Hungarian science.
“The aim of the current astronaut programme is to set Hungarian science and the high-tech industry on a long-lasting upward track,” she said. Gabor Magyari, who is in charge of astronaut recruitment and training in HUNOR, told the event that 240 valid applications had been assessed in line with the requirements of the European Space Agency, NASA, the International Space Station and the programme’s private company partner, Axiom Space.
The shortlisted applicants include 33-year-old electrical engineer Gyula Cserényi, 31-year-old space development engineer Tibor Kapu, clinical orthopaedic surgeon Ádám Schlegl and 40-year-old aviation design engineer András Szakály.
Hungary’s shortlist of candidates to become the country’s next astronaut and participate in a 30-day mission at the International Space Station in late 2024 or early 2025 has been narrowed down to four, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Saturday.
A shortlist of eight candidates was selected out of more than 240 applicants, who were then tested at the Kecskemet airbase of the Hungarian Armed Forces, Szijjártó said on Facebook. It was on the basis of these tests that the expert body conducting the selection process narrowed down the list of candidates to four, the minister added.
The Hungarian astronaut’s mission will involve testing Hungarian space equipment on the ISS as well as conducting experiments for Hungarian research groups, Szijjarto said. The remaining four candidates will be subjected to further training and testing over the coming year, he added.
View from the international space station – aurora borealis:
Projections show the space industry as being one of the fastest-developing sectors of the 21st century, Szijjártó said. Hungary aims to play a part in this with the astronaut programme it has established as part of its space strategy, the minister said.
Researchers built a Hungarian satellite at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics which plays a pioneering role in Hungary’s technological development. The MRC-100, a new satellite was completed in cooperation with the teachers, researchers, and students of the university. This small satellite, designed to test the level of electrosmog in the atmosphere, will launch into orbit from the United States. So, how long did it take to develop the satellite, when will it be launched into space and what does Elon Musk have to do with it all? You can find out the answers below.
According to 24.hu, the university’s researchers started working on the MRC-100 satellite in 2019. They designed this device to examine and measure the level of electrosmog in the orbit on which it will be launched to.
University Experiments
Budapest University of Technology and Economics has been conducting research and developments related to space science for years now. The Department of Broadband Communications and Electrical Engineering was responsible for creating this new device. It was named MRC-100. They named it after the University’s Radio Club, as this is how they wanted to pay tribute to the club’s 100th anniversary, coming up in 2024.
Even though it is a small satellite, it is still considered the largest in size in the series for which it was made.
Other universities carried out experiments and measurements on this device as well. In addition, the MRC-100 also includes measuring devices from the University of Szeged, the Széchenyi István University in Győr, and the University of Debrecen.
SMOG Project
The MRC-100 satellite is part of a series, called the SMOG Project. The university’s researchers developed several other satellites for this project series before. Three years ago they developed a pocket satellite, named SMOG-P. With the help of this satellite, they created the world’s first electromagnetic pollution map. The basis of its operation is that it collects the electromagnetic waves of digital TV broadcasting, measures them, and presents their effects.
Launching and Sponsors
The planned release of the satellite will take place in May 2023. However, it must be delivered to the launching company at least six months prior. Soon, the MRC-100 will leave for Glasgow, where the installation of the satellite platform is scheduled.
The domestic sponsors of the project include the National Media and News Agency and also the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Amateur Radio Digital Communications Foundation is sponsoring the launch, which will take place in the United States.
Elon Musk is one of the most frequently mentioned names concerning space science. His name has come up several times regarding this development as well. So, what exactly is the connection between them? The connection is that Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the satellite, MRC-100, into outer space.
The MRC-100 mini-satellite, the largest constructed at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics so far, will be launched into space in May 2023 by Falcon-9, the rocket sponsored by American businessman Elon Musk, the Hungarian media authority (NMHH) said on Wednesday.
NMHH, a sponsor of the project, said the satellite will carry an electrosmog meter, a stabiliser, a GPS device and a camera. The satellite will be fueled by solar panels and batteries to ensure operation in dark as well, NMHH said.
The 600g satellite will also carry equipment developed by the universities of Szeged, Gyor and Debrecen.
The satellite is on its way to Glasgow for installation on the satellite platform, and will be taken to space on board of Falcon-9 from the US, NMHH said in a statement.
It is unacceptable that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government would send a man to space for HUF 40 billion (EUR 97 million) while it is unable to set aside funds for raising teachers’ salaries and subsidising utility bills, Zoltán Varga, a lawmaker of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK), said on Sunday.
Citing foreign press reports and space industry portals, he said that Orban’s government is going to spend USD 100 million on sending a Hungarian into the outer space with the help of the US company Axiom Space.
This is unacceptable in a period when the country “is plunging into a cost-of-living crisis caused by ruling Fidesz,” Varga told an online press conference. “If this happens, Hungary is indeed light years away from a true European democracy,” he said.
A responsible government would never do such a thing in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, the DK lawmaker said.
A shortlist of eight people have been selected from 244 applicants to become the next Hungarian astronaut who will participate in a 30-day mission at the International Space Station in late 2024 or early 2025, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told a ministers’ meeting of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Paris on Tuesday.
Hungary’s largest space programme to date has a budget of 100 million dollars, Szijjártó said. The astronaut, to be selected a few weeks before the mission’s launch, will test 12 Hungarian devices and conduct 8 experiments for Hungarian research groups, he said.
Szijjártó also signed an agreement with ESA, which will allocate 4 billion forints of support over five years to Hungarian SMEs to help them prepare the technological background for participating in large European projects.
In the past decade, some 140 Hungarian-made devices have been shot into space, and all have accomplished their mission, he said.
Hungary supports the ESA in strengthening Europe’s role in the world space industry, he said. The “peaceful use of space” boosts companies with large value-added, which have a large role in the present times of crisis, he said. “Access to space is also a matter of sovereignty,” he said.
According to the head of the Hungarian space programme, a Hungarian person could walk on the Moon in 2036.
Balázs Zábori, the project leader of the Hungarian astronaut programme, gave a presentation at the Hungarian Science Day. The 33-year-old physicist is one of the key figures in Hungarian space research, rtl.hu reports.
Zábori is a space systems engineer and technical leader of Hungarian developments carried out in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA), a member of the Hungarian ESA delegation, and a space industry advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He is also a member of the technical advisory board preparing ESA’s manned lunar programme and project leader of the Hungarian astronaut selection and training programme, Telex writes.
Asked when the next Hungarian astronaut could step on the Moon, he said, “2036 is the most realistic date at the moment.”
Zábori also said that mankind will go back to the Moon, and with a rocket that will have Hungarian instruments on board. The ESA is currently selecting the people it wants to send to the Moon. 149 Hungarians applied for the programme, eight of whom were shortlisted for the second round.
A space science research team at ELTE university’s department of geophysics and space science will lead an international project assisting the undisturbed operation of satellites and spacecraft by providing forecasts based on data recorded on land.
The launch of the project dubbed FARBES is being supported by Horizon Europe with a total budget of over 850,000 euros, of which ELTE will receive 242,625 euros, the university said.
The FARBES project aims at utilising plasmasphere and radiation belt models in the European Space Agency’s space security programme, it added.
Other participants of the project are the Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales from France, the British Antarctic Survey, the Czech Academy of Sciences’ institute of thermosphere physics, the University of Athens and the US New Mexico Consortium.
The dosimeters of the Space Research Department of the ELKH Centre for Energy Research (CER) are also part of the experiment that takes place in the first mission of NASA’s Artemis program. The mission will provide key data on the cosmic radiation field for the future creation of human crewed spacecraft, a lunar orbiting space station, and a lunar base.
Ready to launch
According to the latest information, the launch window for the first phase of Artemis will open today between 14:33 and 16:33 CET. The Orion spacecraft and the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket are already assembled and waiting for the pre-launch tests to be done. “Launch Complex 39B”, the iconic site of the Apollo and space shuttle launches has been renovated and will be the starting point of these historic series of missions, ek-cer.hu reported.
The Orion spacecraft on the SLS rocket at launch pad 39B (Photo: NASA)
We are entering a new era of human space travel and getting closer to see a human walk on the surface of the Moon again. By using the experience gained in these missions we can make serious progress in achieving a safely feasible human journey to Mars. NASA’s Artemis mission aims to open a new chapter in the field of human space exploration with strong international collaboration; building a novel spacecraft carrying human personnel to the Moon, an orbiting lunar space station and a base on the surface. As a result of many years of preparation, postponed launches, extended deadlines and budget rethinking, the system that allows the first lunar test flight of the Orion spacecraft (Exploration Mission-1) is ready. Space radiation measurements are one of the major tasks during the mission, in order to understand the potential adverse health effects on future astronauts working in the harsh cosmic environment.
The planned orbit of the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis 1 flight test around the Moon (NASA)
Owing to the four decades of experience in detecting cosmic radiation the Space Research Laboratory of the Centre for Energy Research will participate in the next “giant leap” of humanity in several respects (see also: “Hungarian instrument orbiting the Moon”). The laboratory’s so-called “passive dosimetry” group (using non-electric detectors) was invited to take part in the first major step in the program: the Orion spacecraft’s unmanned flight around the Moon. The crew’s seats will be occupied by so-called humanoid phantoms having several hundred dosimeters integrated inside and mounted outside of their body for measuring purposes.
There are a lot of key radiation related issues which must be carefully studied when planning human missions such as the understanding of the relationship between the skin exposure and dose absorbed in the internal organs, the design of the optimal radiation shielding conditions and determine appropriate dose limits. Studying the penetration of cosmic rays inside the body is only possible with the help of humanoid mannequins – and this is not a new idea. Human skull imitations were used in radiation measurements as early as the 1990s on-board several space shuttles and the Mir space station, as well.
EK researchers participated in a series of experiments in the past using a highly detailed phantom made by the German Aeronautics and Space Agency (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR) sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA). The soft tissues and lungs of the phantom in the Matroshka program were made of tissue-identical low-density polyurethane and had real human bones. Hundreds of measurement positions were designed inside the body for active (energy-demanding) and passive (post-evaluation) radiation detectors. Measurements were performed outside the International Space Station and later inside various modules between 2004 and 2011. It is interesting to note, that similar phantoms are used in the testing and calibration of radiotherapy irradiation equipment in health care.
Helga and Zohar already in the Orion capsule (Photo: ESA/DLR)
The MARE experiment
The Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE) performed on-board the Orion spacecraft will apply humanoid phantoms as well, which are also manufactured by the DLR under an ESA contract. Researchers experienced in phantom measurements are participating in the experiment using their dosimeter sets from several countries (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, the United States and Japan). Similar to the Matroshka missions, the aim is to determine the quantity and quality of ionizing radiation absorbed in different tissue types, thereby assessing the radiation exposure of the crew. An essential difference is that in this case the phantoms are imitating the female body. The difference in the tissue distribution and organ structure of the male and female body are important from biological and radiation protection point of view, so the new results will be unique. During the mission two identical phantoms – named Helga and Zohar – will be seated side-by-side and Zohar will also wear the AstroRad radiation protection vest. The vest has already been tested on-board the International Space Station, but the lunar journey creates unique conditions resulting in useful new information. In addition to the 1,400 sensor positions inside the phantoms, measurements will also be made on the outer surface of the vest in order to assess how much radiation dose can be avoided when wearing the protective equipment.
The passive dosimeter sets
There are quite a few dosimetry data available from the Apollo missions, so the results of the MARE mission promise to be very important. The participating research teams have been conducting measurements in the Columbus module of the International Space Station for more than 10 years as part of the DOSIS-3D experiments. Using the experiences gained in the collaboration, a measurement set-up was developed in which cosmic radiation can be detected simultaneously with different types of passive dosimeters. This sets consisting of thermoluminescent dosimeters and solid-state nuclear track detectors will be placed on the body surface of phantoms and below and above the radiation protection vest, respectively. On the surface of the solid-state nuclear track detectors the particles with higher energy release (such as protons and atoms that fly at near the speed of light during supernova explosions) cause visible tracks, while thermoluminescent detectors store the information of the particles with lower energy release (gamma radiation, neutrons) get through the spacecraft’s walls. These detectors will be evaluated in the ground facilities at the end of the mission.
Thermoluminscent detectors prepared to the MARE mission in their 3D printed holders (on the left) and solid-state nuclrear track detectors irradiated with different doses during calibration tests (on the right) (photos: EK-CER)
Ultimately, based on the results of the 42-day experiment we will be able to find out what kind of radiation conditions prevail in the Orion spacecraft and how effective the AstroRad radiation protection vest is. By supplementing all this information with the data of the most modern active (electronic) dosimeters and several other on-board instruments, humanity can gain knowledge that will greatly contribute to the safe execution of further Artemis missions. The Centre for Energy Research will also participate in the next steps, WE ARE GOING to the Gateway space station, as well!
Almost half of the average rainfall is missing this year. Hungary has had its driest seven months since 1901. The drought situation is so severe that it is now visible from space.
The Időkép Facebook page has shared a photo that shows the severity of the situation. Between 10 August 2021 and 10 August 2022, Hungary turned completely yellow. Ten out of Hungary’s 12 water boards had to be put on water emergency alert.
The drought has caused record low water levels in many rivers and lakes. Agriculture is also suffering from the drought. Grassland is burning out and crop yields are low. There are more and more destructive fires.
No need to worry, it will not be an actual dog on the Moon. Instead of our furry friends, brand-new space technology will be launched to visit the Moon in 2023. The device, developed by Hungarian company Puli Space Technologies and named after the beloved Hungarian breed, is a water detection device. Its name is Puli Lunar Water Snooper, following the developers’ theme of black shepherd dogs.
As hellomagyar.hu reported, the whole story began in 2020, with a competition NASA held for companies to develop miniature devices easily usable on the Moon. They named the competition “Honey, I Shrunk the NASA Payload”. The funny name is quite indicative: the project needed devices that are small, light, and very portable. These are all key concepts in space travel. Out of 29 countries, 132 entries were made. They were all concepts of miniature scientific devices that can help monitor the lunar environment and explore resources.
But what exactly is this “dog”?
The Puli Lunar Water Snooper, also known as PLWS, is a 10x10x3,4 cm sized device. This tiny, rather portable box is a water detector. It only weighs about 400 g, but it is able to detect hydrogen and hydrogen-containing volatile matter, like ice. NASA has stated before that there is a lot of ice on the poles of the Moon. This is the goal of this project, to find and utilise that water to help astronauts with their supply.
Puli Lunar Space Snooper, credit:pulispace.com
The Puli Lunar Water Snooper came in first place in the first round of this competition in the summer of 2020, taking home a grand prize worth USD 30,000. The next round of the competition was to prove to NASA that their project can be done in a year with a detailed plan. Out of the 10 teams entering, this time, the PLWS finished in the still impressive second place. The developing team had proven themselves, and this way, in the next mission, a PLWS will truly snoop for water on the Moon.
Now, PLWS prepares for its journey to the Moon where it will work in radical conditions. Its area of interest will be the Moon’s “always shaded” parts where it is usually around -200°C.
42 years ago today, Hungary was the seventh nation to send a person into space. Brigadier Bertalan Farkas was the first-ever Hungarian man to leave Earth’s exosphere. He was the first and only Hungarian astronaut, and on May 26th, we commemorate the day he left for space. He spent an unforgettable week on the Salyut 6 orbital space station in 1980.
While we celebrate the day of astronautics and space on April 12th, the day Bertalan Farkas became the first Hungarian to enter the cosmos is equally important. Generations of Hungarians know his name and celebrate him as a legend. He wrote his name in Hungarian history books back then, and he will certainly be known for many decades to come.
About his life
He was born in 1949 in the eastern Hungarian town of Gyulaháza. He was a diligent student with a great passion for football and sports. When the time came though, he chose to attend the Aeronautical College in Szolnok and join the Hungarian Air Force. Following his passion for flying, later, in 1976, he became a first-class fighter pilot. From 1949, Hungary was under the control of the USSR, and thus, when he decided to become an astronaut, he joined the Interkosmos program designed to help the Soviet Union’s allies to get their astronauts to space.
Bertalan Farkas today, with his spacesuit, source: mandiner.hu
The route to space
Bertalan Farkas took part in a long and hard training both here in Hungary and then in the Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Centre in Moscow where he was the one selected to visit the Salyut 6 orbital space station and carry out many important scientific experiments for the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, especially the department of Physical Sciences. Later in his life, this is how he remembered back to which were the greatest sights in space:
To see Hungary from outer space for the first time, to see the sunrise and the sunset… Then seeing the constellations of the cosmic night, the mountain ranges in South America, the beauty of the deserts of Africa, and the red sand clouds over India.
For the past 42 years, no Hungarian got to visit space after him. But this February, it seemed like this would be changing, as a new space program called HUNOR (Hungarian to Orbit) was launched. They have already selected the 100 young people from whom the lucky one gets to visit the International Space Station in 2024.
A U.S. SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a professional and three civilian passengers was successfully launched at 17:17 pm (GMT+2),Friday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It is the first all-private space mission to the International Space Station.
The flight has been organised by Axiom Space Inc., a U.S. privately funded space infrastructure developer startup. Based on Washington Post’s information, the international crew consists of Mark Pathy, the chief executive of a Canadian investment firm; Larry Connor, the managing partner of an Ohio real estate group; Eytan Stibbe, a businessman and former Israeli Air Force Fighter pilot; and Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut who serves as an Axiom vice president. According to SzeretlekMagyarorszag, one of the crew members, Canadian businessman and philanthropist, Mark Pathy is of Hungarian descent through his paternal grandparents. The wealthy entrepreneurs paid $55 million for the space adventure.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s Endevaour space capsule, which is part of his latest Crew Dragon fleet, blasted off on its 10-day mission Friday morning and will reach the ISS within approximately 22 hours. However, unlike the recent, much-publicized suborbital flights carried out by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, the Axiom company says its mission should not be considered tourism.The crew is expected to carry out scientific research in an orbiting laboratory at the space station’s newly built commercial wing. Axiom revealed a few details about the 25 biomedical research projects which include collecting data used to study space travel’s effects on aging cells and heart health and experiments involving the effects of microgravity on sleep and chronic pain.
In addition, crew member Eyta Stibbe plans to pay a tribute to his late friend Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut, who lost his life in the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia catastrophe when the spacecraft disintegrated during re-entry, killing all seven astronauts on board. Following that disaster, NASA suspended space shuttle flights for more than two years to investigate the lethal incident. Space.com writes that the cause of the disaster, as the investigation board later determined, was a large piece of foam that fell from the shuttle’s external tank and breached the spacecraft wing. Surviving pages from Ramon’s space diary, as well as small keepsakes from his four children and mourning widow, will be brought to the station by Stibbe.
Last year, SpaceX flew another mission with four private passengers. However, at that time the crew remained inside the capsule orbiting the Earth for three days. The mission, dubbed Inspiration4, was billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman’s privately funded trip which had the main purpose to raise a donation for a St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Prior to the trip of their lifetime, the current crew spent more than 1,000 hours training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and SpaceX’s headquarters outside of Los Angeles. They will spend eight days aboard the space station before the all-private space mission ends its course and have a scheduled splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida.
Bükk National Park is located in the Bükk Mountains in Northern Hungary near Miskolc. It was the third national park established in the country and it has a total of over 431 km2 area dotted with forests and mountaintops.
It is one of the best locations to build an observatory available to the public and tourists, and starting from early March this year, it will finally be realised after the inauguration of the Bükki Csillagda.
The Bükki Csillagda will be one of the newest tourist attractions of the Bükk National Park and it will be the most modern and most anticipated educational centres of natural sciences in Hungary, Funzine reports.
The Bükki Csillagda observatory and planetarium were planned after the nomination of the Bükk National Park to the list of International Dark Parks by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) in 2017.
Photo: Facebook.com/bukkicsillagda
Photo: Facebook.com/bukkicsillagda
Photo: Facebook.com/bukkicsillagda
Photo: Facebook.com/bukkicsillagda
IDA is a US-based non-profit organisation that wants to “preserve and protect the night-time environment and our heritage of dark skies through quality outdoor lighting”.
The Bükk National Park is the third Hungarian park to ever receive this title followed by Hortobágy National Park, the first national park of Hungary, and the Zselic National Landscape Protection Area.
In 2018, the first designs for the observatory were drawn and the Hungarian government had supported the idea with nearly 1 billion forints (€ 2.7 million).
The construction started in 2020 and at the end of last year, the dome of the visitor centre was placed on the building.
The Bükki Csillagda observatory, educational centre and planetarium opening on 8th March, on the day of international women’s day, offers a plethora of exciting programmes for visitors:
Learn about the secrets of the night sky
Get a glimpse of the world of meteorites and light phenomena
Attend a virtual space travel
5D depiction of the universe
Admiring the night sky with the observatory
Photo: Facebook.com/bukkicsillagda
One of the main attractions of the exhibition within the centre is a 32-kilogram iron meteorite.
It is the most modern exhibition of its kind and in addition to the observatory, visitors can wander around the local forest and attend a 4 kilometres long educational pathway including the model of our solar system, says the location’s Facebook page.
One hundred applicants out of more than 240 entries submitted by Jan. 31 have been shortlisted for the next round of tests for the Hungarian programme to send the country’s second astronaut to space, the foreign ministry’s commissioner for space research and programmes said on Monday.
The 86 men and 14 women applicants for the programme dubbed Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) are already in the process of filling out tests on their skills online, Orsolya Ferencz told a press conference in Budapest. The next astronaut Hungary plans to send to space will be selected based on physical, psychological and professional criteria, in line with the Astronaut Policy of the European Space Agency (ESA), she said.
Simultaneously with the selection procedure, the identification of Hungarian-developed technical equipment and experiments to be tested in space is also under way, Ferencz said. Péter Sztáray, state secretary for security policy, noted that the government adopted the country’s first space strategy in 2021 which includes sending a man on a space mission as a priority. Details HERE.
“After the selection process, a Hungarian astronaut can be expected to be sent on a mission to the International Space Station in the first half of 2024,” he said.
The 100 million US dollar programme defines supporting the development of the domestic science and industry sectors as another priority.
Hungary’s first man on a mission to space was Bertalan Farkas in 1980.
Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, and Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin, director general of Russia’s state space research agency Roscosmos, have signed a letter of intent on continuing bilateral cooperation in the field of space research for peaceful purposes, the Hungarian foreign ministry said on Saturday.
The document was signed as a follow-up to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Feb. 1 visit to Moscow, the ministry said in a statement.
Hungary and Russia have developed effective cooperation in space research for peaceful purposes over the past fifty years, the ministry said, adding that as a member of the European Space Agency, Hungary aims to maintain extensive and balanced cooperation with its foreign partners.
The ministry noted that three joint space research technology development programmes have been launched over the past three years with the involvement of Hungarian and Russian research institutions, universities and companies.
Representatives of the two countries’ governments soon are set to sign an agreement on allocating additional resources and instruments required for the further successful cooperation of their researchers in the implementation of those three joint projects, the statement said.
Another prospective area of bilateral cooperation would be ensuring that Hungary sends a second astronaut on a space mission, the ministry said, noting that Hungary was the seventh country to send its own man to space in 1980 under Russia’s Intercosmos programme.
“We are proud that Hungarian technologies developed as a result of that space mission still serve the safety of astronauts in the Russian module of the International Space Station,” the ministry said.
Believe it or not, comet hunting is a really serious sport among astronomers, and being able to spot the first comet of the New Year is a pretty big deal.
In 2022, the honour of spotting the year’s first comet goes to a Hungarian astronomer named Krisztián Sárneczky, who is the third-ever Hungarian astronomer to have a comet named after them.
Sárneczky, the astronomer at the Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, spotted the comet in the early hours of January 2 with the help of the 60 cm Schmidt telescope of the Piszkéstető Observatory, RTLreports.
The Hungarian astronomer had managed to take three photos with 104 seconds of exposure; he concluded from them that what he discovered was a so far unknown, small comet.
The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams had reported the following: “Krisztián Sárneczky, Konkoly Observatory, reports the discovery of a fast-moving comet during a visual inspection of three stacked 104-s unfiltered CCD survey images.”
“The object shows a compact inner region (condensed false nucleus) about 8″ x 10″ in diameter and a fan-shaped tail at least 20″ long in a westward direction. On a 312-s stacked image, there is a faint outer diffuse coma about 40″ in diameter, with two jets in p.a. 230 and 350 deg.”
Interestingly, the last time a Hungarian had discovered a comet was 36 years ago with about a week’s difference. Miklós Lovas discovered the comet in 1986 using the same telescope Sárneczky used.
Since Sárneczky was the first to discover this particular comet, it was named C/2022 A1 (Sárneczky).
Additionally, Sárneczky had discovered an asteroid in 2017 which bears his name (10258 Sárneczky) and helped co-discover over 379 numbered minor planets and 5 supernovae.
According to the discoverer, the next time we could see this comet would be over tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years in the future, but some calculations are still underway, Indexwrites.
National Geographic reports that the comet is small and very fast, and it has a retrograde motion to Earth. It will be closest to the Sun at the end of January.
Even Maik Meyer, the discoverer of the Meyer comet group, congratulated the Hungarian astronomer on Twitter.
First Hungarian-discovered comet in a looooooong time! Huge congrats!!
(Tho I think it counts as a professional discovery since this came out from his long-running search program with our 60/90 Schmidt telescope.) https://t.co/MlUWP9BkTC
