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Dec 14, 2018

Scientists Detect Hot Neptune Losing Atmosphere at an Extraordinary Rate

Posted by in category: space

Scientists have detected a so-called Hot Neptune losing atmosphere extremely quickly, possibly explaining why we find so few of them in the first place.

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Dec 14, 2018

Virgin Galactic’s Historic Space Trip Heralds a Coming Age of New US Human Spaceflight Leaps

Posted by in categories: space, transportation

Virgin Galactic just brought human spaceflight back to American soil after a seven-year hiatus, and other private companies are poised to make some giant leaps of their own.

Virgin’s VSS Unity suborbital spaceliner soared to a maximum altitude of 51.4 miles (82.7 kilometers) during a rocket-powered test flight over California’s Mojave Desert yesterday (Dec. 13).

The milestone marked the first U.S.-based crewed trip to the final frontier since NASA grounded its space shuttle fleet in July 2011. And it was the first spaceflight ever by a private vehicle designed to carry commercial passengers. (By one measure, anyway: Though many people place the boundary of outer space 62 miles, or 100 km, up at the “Karman Line,” the U.S. Air Force awards astronaut wings to personnel who reach an altitude of 50 miles, or 80 km.) [In Photos: Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Unity Soars to Space].

Continue reading “Virgin Galactic’s Historic Space Trip Heralds a Coming Age of New US Human Spaceflight Leaps” »

Dec 14, 2018

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Spots InSight Hardware on Mars

Posted by in category: space

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter may not have managed to spot InSight under its parachute, but it has finally spotted the lander, its parachute, and its heat shield resting on the Martian surface. The images confirm the location of InSight’s landing site, a little to the north and west of the center of the landing ellipse.

First, the fantastic hardware images:

HiRISE images of InSight hardware on Mars

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Dec 14, 2018

Surprises are in store for the New Horizons’ fly by

Posted by in category: space

There will be no New Year’s Eve revelry for those working on NASA’s New Horizon’s space probe. They will need to be stone cold sober with their wits about them when, on New Year’s Day 2019, it whizzes past one of the fossil building blocks of the planets and one of the most primitive bodies in the Solar System.

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Dec 14, 2018

The year’s brightest comet streaks by Earth this weekend

Posted by in category: space

Is this the “star of Bethlehem?”

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Dec 14, 2018

NASA’s Insight Lander on Mars Spotted from Space!

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space

NASA’s newly arrived Mars lander has been spotted by one its orbiting cousins.

The space agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter used its supersharp High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE) to photograph the InSight lander, as well as the hardware that helped the stationary robot ace its Nov. 26 touchdown on the equatorial plain known as Elysium Planitia.

“It looks like the heat shield (upper right) has its dark outside facing down, since it is so bright (saturated, probably a specular reflection),” HiRISE principal investigator Alfred McEwen, of the University of Arizona, wrote in an image description today (Dec. 13). [Mars InSight in Photos: NASA’s Mission to Probe Core of the Red Planet].

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Dec 13, 2018

How I discovered new worlds (and how you can, too)

Posted by in category: space

Thinking of trying something new today? How does “discovering new planets while sitting comfortably at home” sound? Learn how ordinary citizens can make a WORLD of difference in the ongoing hunt for exoplanets.


Have you ever wondered what it would be like to discover new planets? Learn how Planet Hunters TESS shows us how to find new worlds far away from our Sun.

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Dec 13, 2018

Branson’s Virgin reaches edge of space

Posted by in categories: space, transportation

The latest test flight by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic successfully rocketed to the edge of space and back.

The firm’s SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket ship reached a height of 82.7km, beyond the altitude at which US agencies have awarded astronaut wings.

It marked the plane’s fourth test flight and followed earlier setbacks in the firm’s space programme.

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Dec 13, 2018

Mars InSight Lander Seen in First Images from Space

Posted by in category: space

Here we are!

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Dec 13, 2018

“When we send astronauts to the surface of the Moon in the next decade, it will be in a sustainable fashion,” says NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine

Posted by in categories: space, sustainability

“When we send astronauts to the surface of the Moon in the next decade, it will be in a sustainable fashion,” says NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstinee. Learn how we’ll expand partnerships with industry and other nations to explore the Moon and advance our exploration missions to even farther destinations, such as Mars: https://go.nasa.gov/2GeqhZL

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