One of the most damaging meteor strikes in recorded history occurred earlier this year over the frigid Russian town of Chelyabinsk. The meteor injured as many as 1000 people when it entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the Russian city creating shockwaves that shattered windows and rained shards of debris on people in the city. Scientists […]
Last year NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory revealed a Spiderman-inspired grippy claw
     |
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]
You’re looking at the Upsala Glacier on the Argentine side of the North Patagonian Icefield—or at least, some of it. Because this photo shows that the glacier is rapidly retreating as a result of climate change.
| |
A new analysis of Kepler Space Telescope data by Berkeley astronomers suggests that as many as 40 billion planets with climates similar to Earth’s may be calculated to exist in the Milky Way galaxy. Of those, 11 billion orbit stars similar to our sun. The rest of the hypothetical planets orbit red dwarf stars, which […]
The internet’s chock full of wonderful ways to carve a Halloween pumpkin every year, but few can hold a glowing candle to what the scientists, engineers, and researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab come up with. Every year the lab holds a pumpkin carving competition and the results, and the carving techniques, are exactly what you’d expect from the geniuses who landed the rovers on Mars.
| |
Back in December of 2012 NASA awarded a total of $30 million to three different private space companies. Each of the three companies received about $10 million and included Boeing, SpaceX, and Sierra Nevada Corp. So far, SpaceX has been the most successful with its Dragon capsule already having traveled to the ISS. The company […]
NASA has offered up three amazing images captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope. The three images are somewhat eerie, yet incredibly beautiful to look at. All three of the images are 100% real and are actually planetary nebulas. They are created by material ejected from dying stars.
These three nebulas all have official names – starting with the Exposed Cranium Nebula. This one clearly looks like a brain and is situated about 5000 light years away from Earth in the Vela constellation.
The next image is called the Ghost of Jupiter nebula and is about 1400 light years away from Earth in the Hydra constellation.
The final image is called the Little Dumbbell Nebula because it vaguely resembles a squat dumbbell. It’s located about 2500 light years from Earth in the Perseus constellation.
NASA says that all stars about the same mass as our Sun will eventually die and wind up as similar structures. As the stars die, they become red giants and throw their outer layers into the cosmos. Ultraviolet light from the core the dying star then energizes the injected layers causing them to glow.
NASA has been targeting the first test flight for the Orion space capsule to happen in 2014 since July of 2012. Orion is a multipurpose crew vehicle that is designed to take astronauts to the ISS and possibly beyond. NASA has recently said that the Orion is on target for its inaugural test flight to […]
Every now and again, something happens that causes one to question whether common sense is as common as believed, not the least of which is when someone brags in a public space about doing something illegal. Such was the case regarding Lauri Love, a British man who has been charged for hacking both NASA and […]
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
