| Sep 14, 2011: 36 Light-Years Away, the Most Earthlike World Yet? |
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From the very start of the modern planet-hunting era a decade and a half ago, the pioneers in this astronomical subspecialty were up front about saying it wasn't about astronomy; it was about biology. Their colleagues might be happy probing to the edge of the cosmos looking for exotic things like black holes and quasars and dark matter. But the planet hunters were ultimately looking for life on distant worlds. Assuming they were talking about earthlike life — which they were, since it's the only kind we understand — the target planets would have to be earthlike too. That meant they'd have to be about the same size as our home world, orbiting their parent star at about the right distance for water to exist in liquid, life-nurturing form. (Image by ESO) | Jul 19, 2011: Asteroid close-up captured by spacecraft |
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft was captured into orbit around the massive asteroid Vesta after a 2.7 billion kilometre journey and is preparing to begin a study of a surface that may date to the earliest era of the solar system, the space agency said Monday. The entry into orbit occurred while the spacecraft's antenna was pointed away from Earth, so mission controllers had to wait for Dawn to re-establish contact to confirm its success.| May 26, 2011: Cosmic distance record 'broken' |
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A cataclysmic explosion of a huge star near the edge of the observable Universe may be the most distant single object yet spied by a telescope. Scientists believe the blast, which was detected by Nasa's Swift space observatory, occurred a mere 520 million years after the Big Bang. This means its light has taken a staggering 13.14 billion years to reach Earth.| May 21, 2011: First Habitable Planet Close To Being Confirmed By Scientist |
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Scientists may be just steps from discovering the first habitable planet beyond our own. Gliese 581d, a planet orbiting the red-dwarf star Gliese, may be the first real candidate for human expansion. That is, if it didn't take 3,000 lifetimes to get there, according to Science Daily. 581d is the third candidate for becoming the first hospitable exoplanet from the Gliese system, but the previous two candidates have both been ruled out. Gliese 581e was ruled too cold, and 581g turned out to be entirely nonexistent.| February 15, 2011: New huge planet may hide in solar system |
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A new, enormous planet may soon be discovered at the edge of the solar system, say two U.S. astrophysicists searching for proof of the celestial body's existence. John Matese and Daniel Whitmire, researchers at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, created a mathematical model that shows a distant gas planet one to four times the mass of Jupiter could explain the patterns of comets in a particular region of the sky. |
| February 2, 2011: Kepler Planet Hunter Finds 1,200 Possibilities |
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| November 26, 2010: Saturn's moon has atmosphere with oxygen |
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Saturn's second-largest moon, Rhea, has a thin atmosphere of oxygen and carbon dioxide, according to a new study. The finding provides new insights into the chemical processes that occurred in the solar system, including the Earth, 3.5 billion years ago. Oxygen has been detected remotely in the atmospheres of moons such as Europa and Ganymede, but this is the first time it has been found "in situ" and near the ringed planet. Earlier this year, the Cassini spacecraft used a spectrometer to "sniff" the atmosphere as it flew within 97 kilometres of the north pole of Rhea.| November 3rd, 2010: Club Meeting |
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Come and see Dan Falk talk about his atempt to get the 'Ultimate Solar Eclipse Photograh"| October 2, 2010: Canadian Mars rover gadget awaits launch |
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A Canadian instrument designed to analyze elements on Mars is ready to help scientists figure out whether the red planet was ever able to support life. The APXS (alpha particle X-ray spectrometer) will be carried aboard NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity when it is launched into space aboard the Atlas V 541 rocket in fall 2011. The instrument is one of 10 that will help the rover in its mission to determine the planet's habitability — whether it ever was or still is an environment that could support microbial life such as bacteria. It was designed by University of Guelph physics professor Ralf Gellert and built by Richmond, B.C.-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.Astronomers believe they have found the first Earth-sized planet outside our solar system that is likely to support liquid water and therefore life. Planet "g," which orbits a red dwarf star called Gliese 581, is right in the middle of the star's "habitable zone," reported a team led by Steve Vogt of the University of California Santa Cruz and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C.
Is the United Nations taking a break from earthly pursuits to appoint an "alien ambassador" who would be charged with greeting any extraterrestrial guests who might make their way to our planet? While that would make for a good Monday morning story, the Malaysian astrophysicist at the center of the story denies that she will be adding alien liaison to her resume.
The Canadian Space Agency will spend $6 million on a prototype Mars rover to be built by MDA, the Canadian space technology giant behind the Canadarm. That's just the start, says Richmond-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates: Canada's space companies have always specialized in technology that no one else builds, and rovers for Mars and the moon may represent the next big thing after Canadarm.
Canada's northern lights are coming to the rest of the world, thanks to a new webcam being launched by the Canadian Space Agency. The space agency has teamed up with partners in Yellowknife and Calgary to develop the AuroraMax website for which webcams set up around Yellowknife will capture real-time images of the aurora borealis.
China could put an astronaut on the moon in 2025 and launch probes to explore Mars and Venus within five years, according to the boss of a Chinese space programme. Ye Peijian said China could make its first manned moon landing in 15 years, send a probe to Mars by 2013 and to Venus by 2015.
Nick Balaskas is on a mission. He wants to set a world record for the number of people who have walked on Mars. Although technically he would need only one person to achieve his goal, Balaskas has set his sights on 500 - a round number he developed based on the total number of individuals who have flown in space since the start of manned space flights 50 years ago, plus a few more for good measure.
Jupiter's opposition on September 21, 2010 will be the closest distance between Earth and Jupiter between 1963 and 2022. Amateur astronomers can get spectacular views of Jupiter through their telescopes that night and throughout September and October.
An Earth-sized planet that could support liquid water - and therefore life - has more than a 50 per cent chance of being discovered in the first half of 2011, two U.S. researchers predict. Samuel Arbesman, a computational biologist at Harvard Medical School, and Gregory Laughlin, an astronomer who specializes in numerical simulations and modelling, based their predictions on the properties of the exoplanets - planets outside our solar system - discovered so far.
Scientists have successfully tested a new type of laser-corrected vision for telescopes that takes the widest starry-sky views ever seen from the ground while eliminating blur caused by the atmosphere. Now astronomers can see entire single star clusters or many distant galaxies within the same field of view. That allows for more efficient use of expensive telescopes and observing time to tackle challenges such as examining thousands of early, distant galaxies.
Space exploration may pay off in the quest for renewable energy supplies for all of the globe's inhabitants, the president of the Canadian Space Agency said yesterday during opening ceremonies at the World Energy Congress in Montreal. "There is a tremendous amount of energy out in the universe," Steve Mac-Lean said during a speech that urged delegates to look beyond the boundaries of Earth. That untapped energy is manifest in such things as black holes, said MacLean who circled our "fragile yet resilient" planet during space missions in 1992 and 2006.
Most of the big, super-hot alien planets that astronomers are searching for in old star clusters may have been destroyed long ago, a new study suggests.
Visible volcanoes on alien worlds? Astronomers suggest coming space telescopes may allow for detection of eruptions on planets orbiting nearby stars. In an upcoming study in The Astrophysical Journal, a team led by Lisa Kaltenegger of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, look at whether NASA's 2014 James Webb space telescope will be able to eyeball ash cluttering alien atmospheres.
Two small asteroids in unrelated orbits will pass within the moon's distance of the Earth on Wednesday, according to NASA. It's an unusual event that shows the need for closer monitoring of near space for Earth-threatening encounters, a scientist with the program said.
It's a little too hot to send people, but NASA plans to send a spacecraft to the sun by 2018. As part of their Solar Probe Plus mission, the spacecraft will orbit in the sun's outer atmosphere, constantly sampling the environment and testing for radiation.The main goals are to discover why the sun's atmosphere is hotter than its surface, and what causes "solar winds" that affect the rest of the solar system.
Col. Chris Hadfield will become the first Canadian astronaut to command the International Space Station. Hadfield will launch aboard a Soyuz spacecraft late in 2012, Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science and technology, told a news conference Thursday in Longueuil, Que. The exact date of the launch has not been set, but it will likely be in either late November or early December.
Researchers from the Faculty of Science & Engineering will be part of a team of Canadian scientists responsible for a device that will measure and diagnose components of Mars's atmosphere. The instrument, dubbed MATMOS (Mars Atmospheric Trace Molecule Occultation Spectrometer), is a partnership between the California Institute of Technology, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It will ride aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a joint mission by NASA and the European Space Agency, slated to launch in 2016.