Latest news with #Zhukov
West Australian
6 days ago
- General
- West Australian
Mt Lawley resident Marie Sakalo celebrates 103rd birthday surrounded by friends and four generations of family
Mt Lawley resident Marie Sakalo has turned 103 years old, but she's not counting. She has shared some of her top secrets to lead a long and happy life, and not to mention beauty advice that has kept her skin looking fabulous. With skin that anyone would envy, Ms Sakalo said that the key is to always moisturise twice a day, hinting that an Olay night cream works wonders. She also believes that 'no marriage' also seemed to do the trick to looking so good. Ms Sakalo said that she loves her family and found great happiness in feeling needed and helping people, especially when it came to looking after children. 'Don't just take care of yourself, take care of the people around you,' she said. 'Don't be lonely, don't lock yourself away.' Ms Salako said she was always proactive with her health saying a lot of people become sicker because they don't get to the doctor quick enough. A die hard Fremantle Docker's supporter, Ms Salako predicted that this year will be the year they'll take home the flag, so watch this space. She celebrated her milestone surrounded by her two children, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, who described her as an 'amazing, resilient and grateful' woman. The family's four generations range from 103 years old to just 18 months old and all now live in Perth. The Juniper Riverslea resident marked the milestone on July 30 with a special afternoon tea alongside staff and friends at the Mt Lawley aged care home before heading to her eldest daughter Alla Donaldson's home for an evening of bubbles, cake and a big family get-together. Ms Sakalo lived alone in a two-storey unit in Mt Lawley before relocating only a couple of blocks away, just three weeks shy of her 100th birthday. Born near Kyiv, Ukraine, in 1922, much of Ms Sakalo's early life was shaped by war and political upheaval. Her father, an engineer, was sent to Siberia for opposing the communist regime but survived and returned to Ukraine a broken man. The family was displaced multiple times before being sent to camps during WWII. Ms Sakalo's former husband, a surgeon in the Zhukov army, became a respected doctor in Polish and Ukrainian refugee camps after the war. The young family eventually relocated to France, then Italy, before boarding a ship in 1949 bound for Australia. Ms Donaldson said her mum had made it her mission on the ship to ensure the children onboard received food, because she'd experienced starvation during the war. Originally bound for Brisbane, a railway strike meant Ms Salako, her husband and son were sent to a migrant camp in Cunderdin before relocating to Northam, where their first daughter was born. From there, the family moved to East Fremantle, East Perth, North Perth and finally settled in Mt Lawley in 1962, a suburb Ms Sakalo has now lived in for 63 years. Before the war, Ms Sakalo was working in dentistry, but after arriving in Australia she dedicated herself to raising her three children. Education and family were always her priorities. 'Mum's philosophy was number one, family is most important; number two, having a roof over your head; and number three, educating the children,' Ms Donaldson said. Ms Sakalo played an instrumental role in raising her grandchildren, babysitting three days a week while Ms Donaldson worked as a general practitioner. Her first grandchild, Melissa, was born on Ms Sakalo's birthday, a bond made even stronger by their shared talent for sewing. 'Melissa has inherited my mother's ability to sew beautifully,' Ms Donaldson said. For most of her life, Ms Sakalo lived independently in Mt Lawley. Ms Sakalo was still living alone in a two-storey unit, complete with a chair lift, until a fall saw her move into Juniper Riverslea Residential Aged Care Home. 'I'm settled and happy here. I like it here,' Ms Sakalo said. 'I like mixing with people, having morning coffee, reading magazines. 'Fish and chips on Friday are my favourite — a nice piece of fish and fresh cooked chips, that's what I like.' She even has her favourite spot to sit, where she can look out to Optus Stadium and the river and even people watch. She now enjoys sitting in Riverslea's communal lounge, overlooking the Swan River, and is adored by staff who describe her as gentle, kind and always appreciative. 'She never grizzles or grumbles,' Ms Donaldson said. 'She's shy but she's lovely — and she's been an incredible role model to all of us.' Four generations of the Sakalo family live within 20 minutes of each other, a closeness that Ms Sakalo cherishes. 'We're very blessed,' Ms Donaldson said. Ms Donaldson said her mum is the oldest Ukrainian born female in Australia.
Indian Express
19-06-2025
- Science
- Indian Express
How scientists created an ‘artificial' total solar eclipse to unlock the Sun's secrets
The sun's corona (or outer atmosphere) has proved a difficult subject for solar scientists on Earth to study, appearing only in a total solar eclipse. This phenomenon, occurring once in around 18 months, was their only opportunity to observe parts of the corona. However, with Proba-3's recent mission, research can advance at a much quicker pace. The European Space Agency (ESA) on June 16, announced that the Proba-3 mission had created an 'artificial total solar eclipse' in orbit. This was achieved as the mission's two spacecraft – the Coronagraph and the Occulter – flew in formation 150 metres apart, and aligned so that the Occulter's disc covered the sun's disc, casting a shadow onto the Coronagraph's optical instrument. 'I was absolutely thrilled to see the images, especially since we got them on the first try,' Andrei Zhukov, principal investigator for ASPIICS at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, said in a statement. The mission was launched in December 2024. It involved sending both satellites into the solar orbit. In March this year, both spacecraft flew 150 metres apart, in formation up to to a millimetre's precision, without control from the Earth for several hours. When creating the artificial solar eclipse, the satellites aligned in formation based on the position of the Sun. Then, Occulter's 1.4-metre large disc would be used to block the sun's disc. This would cast a shadow of approximately 8 centimetre, across the Coronagraph's optical instruments, positioned behind the Occulter. Thanks to the precision, these instruments were able to provide the images of the corona. 'Our 'artificial eclipse' images are comparable with those taken during a natural eclipse. The difference is that we can create our eclipse once every 19.6-hour orbit, while total solar eclipses only occur naturally around once, very rarely twice a year. On top of that, natural total eclipses only last a few minutes, while Proba-3 can hold its artificial eclipse for up to 6 hours,' Zhukov explained. This mission could prove crucial for solar scientists, with previously unseen angles of the elusive corona becoming available for study. One benefit could be the study of solar wind, described by the ESA as 'the continuous flow of matter from the Sun into outer space.' Driven by the corona, these winds usually consist of charged particles, and constantly rain down upon the Earth as well. However, this can be interrupted by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or solar storms. This subsequently affects space weather, which in turn can affect Earth's power grids, communication systems, and satellite operations. With the data from the Proba-3 mission and any subsequent missions focused on corona imaging, solar scientists can be better prepared for the potential threat of a severe solar storm – which NASA describes as 'a sudden explosion of particles, energy, magnetic fields, and material blasted into the solar system by the Sun'. Another question that Proba-3 would be able to solve is how the corona, which extends millions of miles across space, but still reaches temperatures above a million degrees Celsius, burns much hotter than the surface. To understand the reasoning, Proba-3 is attempting to study the corona at a minimal distance from the sun's surface. Due to the quality of the equipment, fewer stray rays would hit the detector, more details would be captured, and fainter features would be detected as compared to a traditional coronagraph. 'Current coronagraphs are no match for Proba-3, which will observe the Sun's corona down almost to the edge of the solar surface. So far, this was only possible during natural solar eclipses,' Jorge Amaya, Space Weather Modelling Coordinator at ESA, said in the ESA release. Alongside the key data provided by Proba-3, its precision flying in formation also paved the way for future missions, such as the ESA's Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), scheduled to launch in 2035. This mission will contain three identical spacecraft, arranged in an equilateral triangle formation, trailing behind the Earth in its orbit around the Sun. The mission is scheduled to last two years, aiming to capture images of the corona for further study, and then re-enter the Earth's atmosphere five years post-launch, as per the ESA. (This article has been curated by Purv Ashar, who is an intern with The Indian Express)
1News
17-06-2025
- Science
- 1News
Artificial solar eclipses created by two European satellites
A pair of European satellites have created the first artificial solar eclipses by flying in precise and fancy formation, providing hours of on-demand totality for scientists. The European Space Agency released the eclipse pictures at the Paris Air Show yesterday. Launched late last year, the orbiting duo have churned out simulated solar eclipses since March while zooming tens of thousands of kilometres above Earth. Flying 150 metres apart, one satellite blocks the sun like the moon does during a natural total solar eclipse as the other aims its telescope at the corona, the sun's outer atmosphere that forms a crown or halo of light. It's an intricate, prolonged dance requiring extreme precision by the cube-shaped spacecraft, less than 1.5 metres in size. Their flying accuracy needs to be within a mere millimeter, the thickness of a fingernail. This meticulous positioning is achieved autonomously through GPS navigation, star trackers, lasers and radio links. Dubbed Proba-3, the US$210 million (NZ$346.03 million) mission has generated 10 successful solar eclipses so far during the ongoing checkout phase. The longest eclipse lasted five hours, said the Royal Observatory of Belgium's Andrei Zhukov, the lead scientist for the orbiting corona-observing telescope. He and his team are aiming for a wondrous six hours of totality per eclipse once scientific observations begin in July. ADVERTISEMENT Scientists already are thrilled by the preliminary results that show the corona without the need for any special image processing, said Zhukov. "We almost couldn't believe our eyes,' Zhukov said in an email. 'This was the first try, and it worked. It was so incredible.' Two spacecraft of the Proba-3 mission aligning to create an eclipse to capture a coronagraph in space. (Source: Associated Press) Zhukov anticipates an average of two solar eclipses per week being produced for a total of nearly 200 during the two-year mission, yielding more than 1000 hours of totality. That will be a scientific bonanza since full solar eclipses produce just a few minutes of totality when the moon lines up perfectly between Earth and the sun — on average just once every 18 months. The sun continues to mystify scientists, especially its corona, which is hotter than the solar surface. Coronal mass ejections result in billions of tons of plasma and magnetic fields being hurled out into space. Geomagnetic storms can result, disrupting power and communication while lighting up the night sky with auroras in unexpected locales. While previous satellites have generated imitation solar eclipses — including the European Space Agency and NASA's Solar Orbiter and Soho observatory — the sun-blocking disk was always on the same spacecraft as the corona-observing telescope. What makes this mission unique, Zhukov said, is that the sun-shrouding disk and telescope are on two different satellites and therefore far apart. The distance between these two satellites will give scientists a better look at the part of the corona closest to the limb of the sun. ADVERTISEMENT "We are extremely satisfied by the quality of these images, and again this is really thanks to formation flying' with unprecedented accuracy, ESA's mission manager Damien Galano said from the Paris Air Show.
Nahar Net
17-06-2025
- Science
- Nahar Net
A look at first artificial solar eclipses created by two European satellites
by Naharnet Newsdesk 17 June 2025, 17:11 A pair of European satellites have created the first artificial solar eclipses by flying in precise and fancy formation, providing hours of on-demand totality for scientists. The European Space Agency released the eclipse pictures at the Paris Air Show on Monday. Launched late last year, the orbiting duo have churned out simulated solar eclipses since March while zooming tens of thousands of miles (kilometers) above Earth. Flying 492 feet (150 meters) apart, one satellite blocks the sun like the moon does during a natural total solar eclipse as the other aims its telescope at the corona, the sun's outer atmosphere that forms a crown or halo of light. It's an intricate, prolonged dance requiring extreme precision by the cube-shaped spacecraft, less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) in size. Their flying accuracy needs to be within a mere millimeter, the thickness of a fingernail. This meticulous positioning is achieved autonomously through GPS navigation, star trackers, lasers and radio links. Dubbed Proba-3, the $210 million mission has generated 10 successful solar eclipses so far during the ongoing checkout phase. The longest eclipse lasted five hours, said the Royal Observatory of Belgium's Andrei Zhukov, the lead scientist for the orbiting corona-observing telescope. He and his team are aiming for a wondrous six hours of totality per eclipse once scientific observations begin in July. Scientists already are thrilled by the preliminary results that show the corona without the need for any special image processing, said Zhukov. "We almost couldn't believe our eyes," Zhukov said in an email. "This was the first try, and it worked. It was so incredible." Zhukov anticipates an average of two solar eclipses per week being produced for a total of nearly 200 during the two-year mission, yielding more than 1,000 hours of totality. That will be a scientific bonanza since full solar eclipses produce just a few minutes of totality when the moon lines up perfectly between Earth and the sun — on average just once every 18 months. The sun continues to mystify scientists, especially its corona, which is hotter than the solar surface. Coronal mass ejections result in billions of tons of plasma and magnetic fields being hurled out into space. Geomagnetic storms can result, disrupting power and communication while lighting up the night sky with auroras in unexpected locales. While previous satellites have generated imitation solar eclipses — including the European Space Agency and NASA's Solar Orbiter and Soho observatory — the sun-blocking disk was always on the same spacecraft as the corona-observing telescope. What makes this mission unique, Zhukov said, is that the sun-shrouding disk and telescope are on two different satellites and therefore far apart. The distance between these two satellites will give scientists a better look at the part of the corona closest to the limb of the sun. "We are extremely satisfied by the quality of these images, and again this is really thanks to formation flying" with unprecedented accuracy, ESA's mission manager Damien Galano said from the Paris Air Show.
NDTV
17-06-2025
- Science
- NDTV
European Satellites Create First Artificial Solar Eclipse
Cape Canaveral: A pair of European satellites have created the first artificial solar eclipses by flying in precise and fancy formation, providing hours of on-demand totality for scientists. The European Space Agency released the eclipse pictures at the Paris Air Show on Monday. Launched late last year, the orbiting duo have churned out simulated solar eclipses since March while zooming tens of thousands of miles (kilometers) above Earth. Flying 492 feet (150 meters) apart, one satellite blocks the sun like the moon does during a natural total solar eclipse as the other aims its telescope at the corona, the sun's outer atmosphere that forms a crown or halo of light. It's an intricate, prolonged dance requiring extreme precision by the cube-shaped spacecraft, less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) in size. Their flying accuracy needs to be within a mere millimeter, the thickness of a fingernail. This meticulous positioning is achieved autonomously through GPS navigation, star trackers, lasers and radio links. Dubbed Proba-3, the $210 million mission has generated 10 successful solar eclipses so far during the ongoing checkout phase. The longest eclipse lasted five hours, said the Royal Observatory of Belgium's Andrei Zhukov, the lead scientist for the orbiting corona-observing telescope. He and his team are aiming for a wondrous six hours of totality per eclipse once scientific observations begin in July. Scientists already are thrilled by the preliminary results that show the corona without the need for any special image processing, said Zhukov. "We almost couldn't believe our eyes," Zhukov said in an email. "This was the first try, and it worked. It was so incredible." Zhukov anticipates an average of two solar eclipses per week being produced for a total of nearly 200 during the two-year mission, yielding more than 1,000 hours of totality. That will be a scientific bonanza since full solar eclipses produce just a few minutes of totality when the moon lines up perfectly between Earth and the sun - on average just once every 18 months. The sun continues to mystify scientists, especially its corona, which is hotter than the solar surface. Coronal mass ejections result in billions of tons of plasma and magnetic fields being hurled out into space. Geomagnetic storms can result, disrupting power and communication while lighting up the night sky with auroras in unexpected locales. While previous satellites have generated imitation solar eclipses - including the European Space Agency and NASA's Solar Orbiter and Soho observatory - the sun-blocking disk was always on the same spacecraft as the corona-observing telescope. What makes this mission unique, Zhukov said, is that the sun-shrouding disk and telescope are on two different satellites and therefore far apart. The distance between these two satellites will give scientists a better look at the part of the corona closest to the limb of the sun. "We are extremely satisfied by the quality of these images, and again this is really thanks to formation flying" with unprecedented accuracy, ESA's mission manager Damien Galano said from the Paris Air Show.
