Hasta La Gadget!

Not all Earth-sized planets are Earth-like. Take for instance the planet Kepler 78b, it’s Earth like in size but orbits too close to its parent star for any chances supporting life as we know it. That doesn’t mean there’s not a huge number of Earth-like planets orbiting in the right temperature zone around their stars in our solar system alone that are both Earth-like in size and orbit a parent star in the Goldilocks zone.

In fact, astronomers have issued a new study created using data NASA has collected to estimate that in the Milky Way galaxy alone there are 8.8 billion stars with Earth-size planets that orbit in a habitable temperature zone. That means scientists believe there at least 8.8 billion planets of the right size, in the right temperature for life to exist in our galaxy alone.

To put that into perspective, that’s more Earth-like planets orbiting stars in the correct temperature zone and there are people on the Earth. Scientists say that the next step in locating the most Earth-like worlds is to look for atmospheres on these planets using powerful space telescopes. The biggest problem facing this now is that these telescopes have yet to launch.

Scientists calculate that in the Milky Way galaxy where we live, about one in five stars are like our Sun in size, color, and age. Many of these suns are also thought to have planets orbiting in the habitable zone where water could be liquid according to calculations performed by scientists. This is important because this marks the first time scientists have actually calculated the number of stars that are believed to have planets like Earth rather than estimating. Though they did look at only 42,000 stars to extrapolate their figures. The scientists calculate that 22% of the stars in our galaxy have planets similar to Earth with a margin of error of plus or minus 8 percentage points.

[via Fox News]

I’m not a huge fan of heights. It’s not necessarily that I’m afraid of being up high, I simply dislike the thought of an abrupt stop if I should fall from some undisclosed height. This is the reason I could never venture tens of thousands of feet into the air in a gigantic capsule suspended underneath a massive helium balloon. Yet, that is exactly what World View wants to offer people.

World View sees its service as a much cheaper alternative to taking a trip aboard Virgin Galactic. Virgin Galactic will take you on a trip in SpaceShipTwo up to 68 miles above the Earth’s surface for a price of about $250,000 per passenger. World View will take you to a significantly lower altitude of 100,000 feet for a not exactly cheap $75,000 ticket price.

The company plans to use a large capsule connected to the bottom of a massive helium balloon. 100,000 feet isn’t high enough for passengers to experience weightlessness, but World View says it’s all about the view. The capsule could stay aloft for hours or even days for scientists performing experiments. After each mission, the capsule will be gently returned to Earth using a large parachute.

World View has announced its service as the FAA is set to make a public determination on its craft. The FAA believes that the capsule used by World View will be classified as the spacecraft and will have to meet space safety standards. The capsule will hold six passengers and two pilots.

[via Discovery]

Scientists at Stanford University have demonstrated how the formation of Earth’s core is even more complicated than previously understood. Using new 3D imaging techniques, the scientists used a pair of diamonds to squeeze molten metal through rocks under pressure, showing that iron can be squeezed out of rocky silicates deep beneath the surface of the […]

Dinosaurs! No. Blue whales! No? Pandas? Ha. It really depends on what you consider a thing and what’s not a thing. And what’s actually living and what’s not traditionally considered living but is. And what’s on Earth and what’s inside Earth. Because if we’re counting any sort of organisms, it could very well be mushrooms and trees that take the world’s biggest title. [MinuteEarth]

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It’s nearly impossible for us to imagine how the Earth might look to someone who’s only ever seen it from a local’s vantage point. But thanks to the Library of Congress, we don’t have to imagine—newly posted images of 19th century drawings show us exactly what humans thought the Earth looked like far before we could ever have known for sure. The Smithsonian compiled a few of them, and some of our favorites lie below. You can see the rest over at The Library of Congress here. [Library of Congress via The Smithsonian]

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