Tech Billionaires Plan Audacious Mission to Mine Asteroids | Wired Science. There’s gold in them there hills. You know, those ones floating around in space. Asteroids contain many tons of precious metals, making them irresistible to scientists, aerospace engineers, futurists, fiction writers … and tech billionaires. A group of wealthy, adventurous entrepreneurs will announce on Apr. 24 a new venture called Planetary Resources, Inc., which plans to send swarms of robots to space to scout asteroids for precious metals and set up mines to bring resources back to Earth, in the process adding trillions of dollars to the global GDP, helping ensure humanity’s prosperity and paving the way for the human settlement of space. “The resources of Earth pale in comparison to the wealth of the solar system,” said Eric Anderson, who founded the commercial space tourism company Space Adventures, and is co-founder of a new company along with Peter Diamandis, who started the X Prize foundation, which offers prize-based incentives for advanced technology development.
Surprise! Alien Planet Made of Diamond Discovered | Supernova Explosions & White Dwarf Stars| Millisecond Pulsars & Extrasolar Planets. A newly discovered alien planet that formed from a dead star is a real diamond in the rough. The super-high pressure of the planet, which orbits a rapidly pulsing neutron star, has likely caused the carbon within it to crystallize into an actual diamond, a new study suggests. The composition of the planet, which is about five times the size of Earth, is not its only outstanding feature. [Illustration of the diamond alien planet] The planet's parent star is a special kind of flashing star known as a millisecond pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star formed from a supernova.
The entire system, which is only the second of its kind ever discovered, is located about 4,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Serpens (The Snake). A gem of a find Seventy percent of millisecond pulsars found have a companion, which provides additional energy to ramp up the pulsars' rapid rotation. Theonly planet known to be orbiting in such a system was detected in 1992 — until now. " Junk Problem Is More Threatening Than Ever, Report Warns | NASA's Micrometeoroid and Orbital Debris Programs | National Research Council Report. There is so much junk in space that collisions could start to increase exponentially, leading to a continuously growing pile of rubble in orbit, a new report warns. The independent report, released today (Sept. 1), surveyed NASA's work to meet the threat of space debris. It was sponsored by NASA, and conducted by the National Research Council, a nonprofit science policy organization. Space debris — an accumulation of broken satellites, spent rocket stages and other junk in orbit — is dangerous because it could hit and damage working satellites, as well as spacecraft like the International Space Station.
[Worst Space Debris Events of All Time] Furthermore, when two pieces of junk collide, they can break apart into many smaller pieces, significantly increasing the amount of debris in space. This happened, for example, in the 2009 crash of a U.S. Iridium communications satellite and a broken Russian spacecraft. It's a problem that will likely become more visible, and urgent, over time. 'Super-Earth,' 1 of 50 Newfound Alien Planets, Could Potentially Support Life | Rocky Alien Planet HD 85512b In Habitable Zon, Search for Life | Exoplanets & Extrasolar Planets. This story was updated at 12:51 p.m. EDT. More than 50 new alien planets — including one so-called super-Earth that could potentially support life — have been discovered by an exoplanet-hunting telescope from the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The newfound haul of alien planets includes 16 super-Earths, which are potentially rocky worlds that are more massive than our planet.
One in particular - called HD 85512 b - has captured astronomers' attention because it orbits at the edge of its star's habitable zone, suggesting conditions could be ripe to support life. The exoplanet findings came from observations from the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher instrument, or HARPS. “The harvest of discoveries from HARPS has exceeded all expectations and includes an exceptionally rich population of super-Earths and Neptune-type planets hosted by stars very similar to our sun," HARPS team leader Michel Mayor of the University of Geneva in Switzerland said in a statement. Largest Sunspot in Years Observed on Sun | Solar Storms, Flares & Sunspots | Space Weather & Sun Activity.
One of the largest sunspots in years has appeared on the sun, darkening part of its glowing face. The massive sunspot, called AR1339, is about 50,000 miles (80,000 km) long, and 25,000 miles (40,000 km) wide, reports SpaceWeather.com. For comparison, Earth itself is only 8,000 miles (12,800 km) wide. The sunspot behemoth isn't yet facing our planet, but was spotted today (Nov. 3) by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite. The spacecraft's photos of the giant sunspot show the solar region as it comes into view on the northeastern edge, or limb, of the sun. When it does turn our way in the days ahead, it should be an "easy target for backyard solar telescopes," according to SpaceWeather.com. The sunspot is actually a group of nearby darkened spots on the sun, some of which are individually wider than planet Earth. The intense magnetic activity around sunspots can often cause solar flares, which are large releases of energy that can actually brighten up the sun.
NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in Habitable Zone | NASA & Kepler Mission | Alien Planets & Solar Systems. This story was updated at 12:15 p.m. ET. MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has confirmed the discovery of its first alien world in its host star's habitable zone — that just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water to exist — and found more than 1,000 new exoplanet candidates, researchers announced today (Dec. 5).
The new finds bring the Kepler space telescope's total haul to 2,326 potential planets in its first 16 months of operation. These discoveries, if confirmed, would quadruple the current tally of worlds known to exist beyond our solar system, which recently topped 700. The potentially habitable alien world, a first for Kepler, orbits a star very much like our own sun.
The discovery brings scientists one step closer to finding a planet like our own — one which could conceivably harbor life, scientists said. The newfound planet in the habitable zone is called Kepler-22b. Hunting down alien planets More discoveries to come. Coal-Black Alien Planet Is Darkest Ever Seen| Extrasolar Planets & Alien Worlds | Kepler Planet Hunting Spacecraft. An alien world blacker than coal, the darkest planet known, has been discovered in the galaxy. The world in question is a giant the size of Jupiter known as TrES-2b. NASA's Kepler spacecraft detected it lurking around the yellow sun-like star GSC 03549-02811 some 750 light years away in the direction of the constellation Draco. The researchers found this gas giant reflects less than 1 percent of the sunlight falling on it, making it darker than any planet or moon seen up to now. [The Strangest Alien Planets] "It's just ridiculous how dark this planet is, how alien it is compared to anything we have in our solar system," study lead-author David Kipping, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told SPACE.com.
"It's darker than the blackest lump of coal, than dark acrylic paint you might paint with. It's bizarre how this huge planet became so absorbent of all the light that hits it. " "It's a mystery as to what's causing it to be so dark," Kipping said. 160 Billion Alien Planets May Exist in Our Milky Way Galaxy | Alien Planets & Solar Systems | Planet Detection & Gravitational Microlensing. Alien planets are incredibly common in our Milky Way galaxy, outnumbering stars by a large margin, a new study suggests. On average, each of the 100 billion or so stars in our galaxy hosts at least 1.6 planets, according to the study, bringing the number of likely alien worlds to more than 160 billion.
And large numbers of these exoplanets are likely to be small and rocky — roughly Earth-like — since low-mass planets appear to be much more abundant than large ones. "This statistical study tells us that planets around stars are the rule, rather than the exception," said study lead author Arnaud Cassan of the Paris Institute of Astrophysics. "From now on, we should see our galaxy populated not only with billions of bright stars, but imagine them surrounded by as many hidden extrasolar worlds. " Using a cosmic gravity lens The vast majority of these exoplanet detections have been made using two different techniques: transit photometry and radial velocity. Studying millions of stars. Diamond World Discovered by Astronomers: Scientific American Podcast. Say you need a diamond. You could go down to the jeweler, or you could put some carbon deep underground and let it sit for a couple billion years.
Or you could hop in a starship and cruise 4,000 light years over to a dead star called pulsar J1719-1438. The pulsar is exotic on its own—it's a super-dense remnant of a star spinning at about 10,000 rpm. But far more curious is the world orbiting it, which might be called a planet if it weren't so strange. It's about as massive as Jupiter, but much more compact. The object’s incredible density makes it subject to great internal pressure.
The next step for astronomers is to find out if the diamond planet has rings. —John Matson [The above text is a transcript of this podcast.] NASA'S Wise Mission Discovers Coolest Class of Stars. Venus has an ozone layer, too - space - 06 October 2011. Long ago, Venus was thought to be Earth's twin – until measurements of its atmosphere revealed it to be a sweltering hellhole stifled by a runaway greenhouse effect. Now Europe's Venus Express spacecraft has found a new trait that both Earth and our sister planet share: an ozone layer. The finding could help astronomers home in on life on other planets. Venus Express found ozone's spectral signature in a layer 100 kilometres up in the planet's atmosphere, at concentrations of no more than 1 per cent those found in Earth's atmosphere. Computer models suggest that Venus's ozone is formed when sunlight breaks up carbon dioxide molecules.
The oxygen atoms freed in this reaction meet up on the planet's cooler night side to form molecular pairs (O2) and triplets (ozone, or O3). Ozone is important for life on Earth because it blocks damaging ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Instead, it bolsters the idea that a planet must have at least 20 per cent as much ozone as Earth to suggest life. 5 Strangest Facts About Pluto | Pluto Trivia | The Solar System | Space.com.
Life's Little Mysteries Staff | August 23, 2011 01:18pm ET Pluto is so far away from Earth that everything we know about it can be written down on a couple of 3 x 5 inch index cards. Pluto will come into clearer focus in a few years' time, though, as NASA's New Horizons probe is due to make a close flyby of the dwarf planet in July 2015, marking the first time a spacecraft has ever visited the frigid, faraway world. For now, though, here are the five strangest facts about the former ninth planet in our solar system.