Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

June 14, 2015

Work-experience schoolboy discovers a new planet
Keele, UK (SPX) Jun 14, 2015
A 15-yr-old schoolboy has discovered a new planet orbiting a star 1000 light years away in our galaxy. Tom Wagg was doing work-experience at Keele University when he spotted the planet by finding a tiny dip in the light of a star as a planet passed in front of it. ``I'm hugely excited to have a found a new planet, and I'm very impressed that we can find them so far away'', says Tom, now aged 17. It has taken two years of further observations to prove that Tom's discovery really is a planet. ... read more

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RoboSimian Drives, Walks and Drills in Robotics Finals Showing off its robustness and versatility, the ape-like RoboSimian robot, developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, took fifth place in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) ... more		Japanese space agency plans to get samples from Martian moon The Japanese space agency announced Thursday a plan to send a spacecraft to one of the two Martian moons for surface samples to bring back to Earth for analysis. ... more		Hubble detects stratosphere-like layer around exoplanet Researchers say they've identified a protective stratosphere-like layer around an exoplanet called WASP-33b. The layer acts a sort of sunscreen, protecting the blazing hot planet from ultraviolet light. ... more
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First US deep space weather satellite reaches final orbit More than 100 days after it launched, NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite has reached its orbit position about one million miles from Earth. Once final instrument checks a ... more		China launches space junk monitoring center China on Monday launched a space junk monitoring center to protect its spacecraft in orbit. The new center, to be managed by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National ... more		Russia launches dozens of drones as Ukraine claims 'important success' Russian jets violate Estonian air space in 'brazen intrusion' U.S. defense in free fall		Supersonic NASA parachute torn to pieces in latest test NASA scientists working toward putting people on Mars said Tuesday a supersonic parachute they are developing to slow a vehicle's approach to the Red Planet partially deployed in a test, but immediately ripped apart. ... more
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NASA Spacecraft Detects Impact Glass on Surface of Mars Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 09, 2015 NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has detected deposits of glass within impact craters on Mars. Though formed in the searing heat of a violent impact, such dep ... more		Rover Ready for Solar Conjunction and Period of Curtailed Operations Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater at the 'Spirit of St. Louis' crater near the entrance of 'Marathon Valley.' The rover is now configured for Solar Conjunction with all sequences on ... more		Fossil fuels harm health from 'cradle to grave': report Trash, mulch and security: All jobs for troops in Washington Rising oceans to threaten 1.5 million Australians by 2050: report		Hubble in 'Oh Planet, What Art Thou?' 25th Anniversary Video When Hubble was launched in 1990, the only planets we knew about were those orbiting our own sun. Since then, astronomers using both space-based telescopes such as NASA's Kepler observatory and grou ... more
Atmospheric signs of volcanic activity could aid search for life Planets with volcanic activity are considered better candidates for life than worlds without such heated internal goings-on. Now, graduate students at the University of Washington have found a way t ... more		Electric thruster propels China's interstellar ambitions An electric thruster, creating a thrust as gentle as a breath blowing out a candle, could send a spacecraft to Mars, so long as it keeps "blowing" and accelerating the craft over time. Electric prop ... more		NASA Lets You Experience "Pluto Time" with New Custom Tool Just how dim is the sunlight on Pluto, some three billion miles away? While sunlight is much weaker than it is here on Earth, it isn't as dark as you might expect. In fact, for just a moment during ... more		Using Minecraft to unboggle the robot mind Researchers from Brown University are developing a new algorithm to help robots better plan their actions in complex environments. It's designed to help robots be more useful in the real world, but ... more

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