Space news and Exploration II

[ScienceRocks]

Amazing Pluto! Glaciers of nitrogen ice flowing into mountains of water ice. #PlutoFlyby @NewHorizons2015







Stunning Nightside Image Reveals Pluto’s Hazy Skies
Backlit by the sun, Pluto’s atmosphere rings its silhouette like a luminous halo in this image taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.
nasa.gov

 

[ScienceRocks]

So much for Nasa only being a islamic outreach!!! You loserterians must have iq's of 20!!!!

Most powerful rocket ever edges closer to lift-off
By Anthony Wood - July 24, 2015 1 Picture

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) has completed its critical design review – a major stepping stone on the way to becoming certified for manned spaceflight. Once complete, the SLS will be the most powerful launch vehicle ever constructed, capable of taking humans to hitherto unreachable destinations including a manned mission Mars.

 

[ScienceRocks]

RT @coreyspowell Pluto's Charon -a jigsaw puzzle of chasms, streaks, light & dark craters. by @EliBonora #PlutoFlyby

 

[ScienceRocks]

Intrigued scientists take a second look at rocks found by @MarsCuriosity. http://go.nasa.gov/1MplTBx

 

[ScienceRocks]

Kepler Mission Discovers a Near-Twin of Earth Orbiting Sunlike Star - Scientific American

« …In addition to Kepler 452 b, the team has discovered 11 yet-to-be-confirmed candidate planets that appear to be small, rocky and potentially suitable for life. One of them, presently known only as KOI-7235.01, looks to be only 15 percent larger than Earth, and orbits right in the middle of its star’s habitable zone. If confirmed, it would surpass even Kepler 452 b to become the most Earth-like world astronomers have ever found beyond our solar system… »

 

[ScienceRocks]

Signs of glacier flows on three worlds: Earth, Mars, Pluto. (Images via @NASA_Landsat, @HiRISE, @NewHorizons2015)




NASA's next great exploration will target Europa, a truly extraordinary world. http://1.usa.gov/1eqdOP6 @NASAEuropa

 

[ScienceRocks]

Direct Thrust Measurements of an EMDrive and Evaluation of Possible Side-Effects

The Emdrive has been proposed as a propellantless space propulsion. NASA had investigated and found measurable propulsion. Now German researchers Emdrive experiments have eliminated other possible sources of error and still measure a small (20 micronewtons) of propulsive force. There is a lot of discussion of the Emdrive experiment on...

 

[ScienceRocks]

Cassini sees a bright basin on Saturn's moon Tethys http://bit.ly/1VK9hcr

 

[ScienceRocks]

'Trillion-Dollar Asteroid' Zooms by Earth as Scientists Watch (Video) http://oak.ctx.ly/r/3fax7




Yet, stupid people whine about how there's nothing up there and it is a waste. Dumb people!

 

[Wry Catcher]

Direct Thrust Measurements of an EMDrive and Evaluation of Possible Side-Effects

The Emdrive has been proposed as a propellantless space propulsion. NASA had investigated and found measurable propulsion. Now German researchers Emdrive experiments have eliminated other possible sources of error and still measure a small (20 micronewtons) of propulsive force. There is a lot of discussion of the Emdrive experiment on...

This posted today:

Impossible EM Propulsion Engine Confirmed by Scientists - IGN

 

[westwall]

Direct Thrust Measurements of an EMDrive and Evaluation of Possible Side-Effects

The Emdrive has been proposed as a propellantless space propulsion. NASA had investigated and found measurable propulsion. Now German researchers Emdrive experiments have eliminated other possible sources of error and still measure a small (20 micronewtons) of propulsive force. There is a lot of discussion of the Emdrive experiment on...

This posted today:

Impossible EM Propulsion Engine Confirmed by Scientists - IGN

Yes, I was looking at some of the test results. If they can scale this thing up, and it still works, it would open the solar system up to manned exploration in a heartbeat. I hope it is proven to work!

 

[ScienceRocks]

Mars orbiter prepares for next year's InSight lander arrival
By David Szondy - July 29, 2015 1 Picture

Space travel is a constant exercise in forward planning, with mission control thinking years and sometimes decades in advance. A case in point is NASA's InSight Mars lander, which is scheduled to touchdown on the Red Planet on September 26, 2016. This may be more than a year away, but the space agency is already moving its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) into a new orbit to provide communications support during the landing.

 

[ScienceRocks]

New color map highlights diverse geological features on Ceres
By Anthony Wood - July 29, 2015 2 Pictures

NASA has released a global color map of the dwarf planet Ceres showing the highs and lows of topography on the rocky body's surface. The new map comes with new official names for many of the craters and other geological features dotting the surface of the planet, named for religious figures from a variety of cultures approved by the International Astronomical Union.

 

[ScienceRocks]

EPIC 206011691: two super-Earth planets orbiting an M0 dwarf 65 parsecs away.

Petigura et al. (2015) "Two Transiting Earth-size Planets Near Resonance Orbiting a Nearby Cool Star"
1507.08256 Two Transiting Earth-size Planets Near Resonance Orbiting a Nearby Cool Star

 

[ScienceRocks]

KOI-2138 b, a Super-Earth orbiting quite a... massive A star:.

The Extrasolar Planet Encyclopaedia KOI-2138 b

 

[ScienceRocks]

Surprising Comet Discoveries by @ESA_Rosetta's Philae Lander Unveiled http://oak.ctx.ly/r/3ftoi

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA's Spitzer Confirms Closest Rocky Exoplanet
NASA s Spitzer Confirms Closest Rocky Exoplanet NASA

Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have confirmed the discovery of the nearest rocky planet outside our solar system, larger than Earth and a potential gold mine of science data.

Dubbed HD 219134b, this exoplanet, which orbits too close to its star to sustain life, is a mere 21 light-years away. While the planet itself can't be seen directly, even by telescopes, the star it orbits is visible to the naked eye in dark skies in the Cassiopeia constellation, near the North Star.

HD 219134b is also the closest exoplanet to Earth to be detected transiting, or crossing in front of, its star and, therefore, perfect for extensive research.

"Transiting exoplanets are worth their weight in gold because they can be extensively characterized," said Michael Werner, the project scientist for the Spitzer mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "This exoplanet will be one of the most studied for decades to come."

The planet, initially discovered using HARPS-North instrument on the Italian 3.6-meter Galileo National Telescope in the Canary Islands, is the subject of a study accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Study lead author Ati Motalebi of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland said she believes the planet is the ideal target for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in 2018.

HD 219134b was first sighted by the HARPS-North instrument and a method called the radial velocity technique, in which a planet's mass and orbit can be measured by the tug it exerts on its host star. The planet was determined to have a mass 4.5 times that of Earth, and a speedy three-day orbit around its star.

Spitzer followed up on the finding, discovering the planet transits its star. Infrared measurements from Spitzer revealed the planet's size, about 1.6 times that of Earth. Combining the size and mass gives it a density of 3.5 ounces per cubic inch (six grams per cubic centimeter) -- confirming HD 219134b is a rocky planet.

Yes, a 1.6 earth radi planet has been confirmed! A super earth.

---===================================

Telescopes Find Distant Uranus-Sized Planet Through Microlensing http://buff.ly/1MAcAjk

 

[ScienceRocks]

Planetary Resources Moves Closer to Mining Asteroids

Redmond, Washington – July 15, 2015 – Planetary Resources, the asteroid mining company, is taking steps towards its goal of opening up democratic access to the Solar System’s resources. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded the company two grants to advance the innovative designs of a compact hyperspectral imager and a 3D printed integrated structure and propulsion system. These technologies will play major roles in Planetary Resources’ mission to detect and identify commercially viable near-Earth asteroids.

 

[LuckyDuck01!]

Now that possibly habitable exoplanets have been located, perhaps it is time for ALL major powers to unite their space propulsion programs for the purpose of researching faster-than-light propulsion.

 

[Vikrant]

Humans will never unite till we are attacked by aliens