NASA’s Kepler telescope finds 26 additional planets

NASA Kepler Misson
NASA Kepler Misson, Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt

The Kepler space telescope have discovered 11 new planetary systems, hosting 26 confirmed planets. The discoveries adds to the list of confirmed planets outside the Earth’s solar system to 729, of these 60 has been found by the Kepler team

The Kepler telescope was successfully launched into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II at 10:49 p.m. EST March 6, 2009. Kepler is designed to find the first Earth-size planets orbiting stars at distances where water could pool on the planet’s surface. Liquid water is believed to be essential for the formation of life. The mission is focused on discovery and as the mission progresses, Kepler will drift farther and farther behind Earth in its orbit around the sun. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, which was launched into the same orbit more than five years ago, is now more than 62 million miles behind Earth.

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NASA’s Voyager hits new region at the edge of our solarsystem

Voyager - The Interstellar Mission
Voyager - The Interstellar Mission

NASA‘s Voyager 1 spacecraft have now entered a new region between our solar system and interstellar space. The data obtained from Voyager over the last year reveals this new region to be a sort of cosmic purgatory. In this area the wind of charged particles streaming out from our sun has become calmer, our solar system’s magnetic field is piled up, and higher energy particles from inside our solar system appear to be leaking out into interstellar space.

Although Voyager 1 is about 18 billion kilometers (11 billion miles) from the sun, it is not yet in interstellar space. Based on the latest data collected, the direction of the magnetic field lines has not changed, indicating Voyager is still within the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself. The data do not reveal exactly when Voyager 1 will make it past the edge of the solar atmosphere into interstellar space, but suggest it will be in a few months to a few years.

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Asteroid 2005 YU55 approaches Earth for a close flyby

Asteroid 2005 YU55
Asteroid 2005 YU55, passing earth

Today on Tuesday, November 8, an asteroid with a diameter of 400 meters will approach Earth’s atmosphere. Named Asteroid 2005 YU55, and deemed “potentially hazardous” by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Ma. will fortunately miss Earth by 0.85 lunar distance, or approximately 335,000 kilometers (208,000 miles).

The approach will mark the closest a known object with this size, has ever gotten to a collision with Earth since 1976. This will as far as we know, continue to hold true until Asteroid 2001 WN5 gets within 0.6 lunar distance in 2028. The Asteroid visiting this evenings was discovered 6 years ago in 2005, and was later named Asteroid 2005 YU55 accordingly. Since this discovery was done rather late, there is still possibility that scientists may find other large floating rocks heading our way before the arrival of Asteroid 2001 WN5 in 2028.

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NASA satellite UARS expected to crash somewhere on Earth end of September

UARS - Upper Atmosphere Research SatelliteUARS – Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite

NASA‘s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in late September or early October 2011, almost six years after the end of a productive scientific life.

It is too early to say exactly when UARS will re-enter and what geographic area may be affected, but NASA is watching the satellite closely. Currently it could land anywhere between 57 degrees north and 57 degrees south of the equator – most of the populated world. NASA say the risk to public safety or property is extremely small, approximately just 1 in 3,200.

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