In August, the European Southern Observatory announced the discovery of an Earth sized planet orbiting in the habitable, or Goldilocks Zone, of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. Given its location just 4.22 light years away, the newfound world is as close to Earth as a potentially life-supporting planet could plausibly be, raising interesting philosophical […]
NASA held a teleconference today to announce the confirmed discovery of 1,284 new planets as part of the Kepler Space Telescope’s primary mission. The new batch of planets, the largest found at any one time, bring the total number of new planets discovered by Kepler to 2.325. Of particular interest, the new batch includes 550 […]
When European Space Agency mission controllers received confirmation that the the ExMars probe had successfully separated from the upper stage of the Proton rocket which boosted it to orbit, they no doubt breathed a particularly deep sigh of relief. Everyone had to be aware that the decision to use Russia’s Proton as the launch vehicle, […]
Artists Concept: Image Concept NASA/JPL-Caltech JPL News Story: Astronomers using data from three of NASA’s space telescopes — Hubble, Spitzer and Kepler — have discovered clear skies and steamy water vapor on a gaseous planet outside our solar system. The planet is about the size of Neptune, making it the smallest planet from which molecules […]
Artists Conception : Credit Rob Gizis, CUNY BMCC An astronomer at Penn State University appears to discovered the first ever direct evidence of water ice clouds on another world. That world is WISE J0855-0714, an enigmatic brown dwarf of “failed star” located only 7.3 light years from Earth. The discovery was made using images from […]
NASA announced today the discovery of the first Earth sized planet located within the habitable zone of another star. The planet, named Kepler 186F, is orbiting a red dwarf (M) type star approximately 500 light years from Earth. Estimated to be only 10% larger than Earth, Kepler 186F is the outermost planet in a […]
NASA has launched DiskDetective.org, a crowdsourced science project aimed at engaging the general public in identifying planetary nurseries in the debris fields surrounding stars. RELEASE 14-038 NASA-Sponsored ‘Disk Detective’ Lets Public Search for New Planetary Nurseries NASA is inviting the public to help astronomers discover embryonic planetary systems hidden among data from the agency’s Wide-field […]
It has been quite a week for Orbital Sciences Corporation. Following the successful maiden launch of its Antares rocket on Sunday, OSC reported first quarter earnings on Monday, and they too were strong, showing a 31% growth in operating income. Today, the company annouced that it has been selected by NASA to build the Transiting Exo Planet Survey […]
If two recent stories are any indication, the ongoing budget battle between supporters of NASA’s heavy lift Space Launch System and the Commercial Crew program is about to enter a new and very unproductive phase. In an interview in the Huntsville Times, Alabama representative Robert Aderholt said in referring to a proposed $110 million decrease in the budget for SLS/Orion in NASA’s FY […]
Golden Spike Company, the recently announced venture which is seeking to conduct commercial trips to the lunar surface using mostly established technology, has turned to one of the newer forms of fundraising to finance a 2013 P.R. campaign. On Wednesday, the company began an Indiegogo campaign aimed at raising $240,000 for media outreach. Donation options begin at $10, which […]
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