New (Earth-like?) Planet Found

Vela Constellation
Credit: IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine

A new exoplanet, labelled HD85512b,  has been found in the "Goldilocks Zone" around a star in the Vela constellation.

The "Goldilocks Zone" refers to the region around a star whose distance from the star means that the temperature is in the correct range for liquid water to be present. Our own planet, of course, inhabits this zone. If we are hoping to find another Earth-like planet out there, the "Goldilocks Zone" is the place to look.

The new exoplanet, HD85512b, is thought to be slightly warmer than Earth - around 30 to 50 degrees celsius, and very humid. For it to retain liquid water on its surface, and therefore be habitable, it would need to have at least 50 % cloud cover. It is not yet known whether this is the case. However, out of the 562 exoplanets discovered so far, HD85512b appears to stand the best chance of being habitable.

arXiV: 1108.3561

Read more about the search for exoplanets

Opportunity Mars Rover reaches Endeavour Crater

After 3 years of slowly crawling across the bleak Martian surface, the NASA Mars rover Opportunity has reached the rim of the Endeavour crater.

West rim of the Endeavour crater photographed by the Opportunity rover.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Opportunity has already visited Victoria Crater and studied the layers of rock that lie within. Endeavour is 25 times wider and much deeper than Victoria, which means that Opportunity will be able to study older Martian rocks during its time here. Scientists hope that studying rocks that were formed during an earlier era of Mars' history will answer questions about the presence of water on the Red Planet.

Just last week, strong evidence emerged for the existence of flowing water on Mars. The aim of the Martian rover's rock analysis is to determine whether liquid water has ever existed for long periods of time on the surface of Mars.

NASA press release

Space Shuttle Retirements: The End of an Era

The last of NASA's space shuttles, Atlantis, has gone into retirement. The shuttle touched down on July 21^st at the Kennedy Space Centre, delivering its four crew members safely back to Earth.

The space shuttle program has faithfully delivered astronauts, supplies and maintenance to the International Space Station since 1981. The space shuttle Discovery launched the Hubble Space Telescope and the shuttles have since made several missions to repair and install new instruments in the telescope.

The fleet of shuttles that operated in the program – Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour – were revolutionary in that they were reusable. Earlier spacecraft such as Apollo, which carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the Moon in 1969, returned to Earth by splashing down in the ocean, but the winged space shuttles could glide majestically down to land on a runway.

Atlantis lands for the final time.  Source: NASA

The decision to retire the fleet of shuttles was made in 2004, following the deaths of the crew on board the space shuttle Columbia, which broke apart on re-entry into the atmosphere. A previous accident, in which the Challenger shuttle broke apart just 73 seconds after take-off in 1986, had already claimed the lives of 7 NASA astronauts.

The average cost of launching a space shuttle into orbit is around $450 million. In 2005, NASA spent almost 30% of its total budget on the space shuttle program. The decision to close down the program will mean job losses for around 3,000 NASA employees.

Until plans for a replacement for the space shuttle program are drawn up, astronauts will be transported to and from the International Space Station by Russian spacecraft. There are reports that a private company - either Orbital Sciences, Lockheed Martin or Boeing - will step in to fill the gap of providing a reusable spacecraft to replace the retired shuttles.

For more information, don't miss this program airing tonight at 9 pm on BBC2.