The Sky Tonight

July 25, 2014

'Challenges' in quest to find water on Earth-like worlds: study
Paris (AFP) July 24, 2014
A study of unprecedented detail has revealed astonishingly little water on three distant planets, hinting at potential obstacles in the search for Earth-like worlds rich in H2O, astronomers said Thursday. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, a team conducted detailed measurements of the atmospheres of three gas giants orbiting stars similar to our Sun, expecting to find "lots of water". Between 60 and 900 light years from Earth, these worlds are so hot, with temperatures between 900 and 2,200 degre ... read more

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Earth survived near-miss from 2012 solar storm: NASA Back in 2012, the Sun erupted with a powerful solar storm that just missed the Earth but was big enough to "knock modern civilization back to the 18th century," NASA said. ... more		Are we alone? Alien pollution might reveal the answer Earthlings often wonder if life exists on other planets, and researchers said Wednesday that hunting for traces of pollution from distant worlds could provide the answer. ... more		China's biggest moon challenge: returning to earth China's lunar probe, Chang'e-5, will be launched around 2017 and its mission to collect samples from the moon and return to earth is the most challenging yet, according to Wu Weiren, chief designer ... more
				Transiting Exoplanet with Longest Known Year Astronomers have discovered a transiting exoplanet with the longest known year. Kepler-421b circles its star once every 704 days. In comparison, Mars orbits our Sun once every 780 days. Most of the ... more		Seeing Earth As An Exoplanet: What Signs Of Life Are Visible? An extraterrestrial spacecraft lurking in a satellite's orbit near Earth would be able to see city lights and pollution in our atmosphere. But what if it searched for signs of life on Earth from afa ... more

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Voyager Spacecraft Might Not Have Reached Interstellar Space In 2012, the Voyager mission team announced that the Voyager 1 spacecraft had passed into interstellar space, traveling further from Earth than any other manmade object. But, in the nearly two years ... more		UEA research shows oceans vital for possibility of alien life Researchers at the University of East Anglia have made an important step in the race to discover whether other planets could develop and sustain life. New research published in the journal Astrobiol ... more		Sierra Space clears design milestone for missile tracking satellites in SDA Tranche 2 Top diplomats of North Korea, China agree to oppose 'hegemonism' The Surprising Overlap In Skills Required To Fly An Aircraft And To Excel At iGaming		Comet ISON's Dramatic Final Hours A new analysis of data from the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft has revealed that comet 2012/S1 (ISON) stopped producing dust and gas shortly before it raced past the S ... more
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