Space Stuff

Curiosity rover's crater 'offered multiple microbe-friendly environments'
Chemical analysis of Gale Crater finds Martian lakes were a lot like ours
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Planet is 'hotter than most stars'
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Scientists have found a hellish world where the "surface" of the planet is over 4,000C - almost as hot as our Sun.

In part, that’s because KELT-9b’s host star is itself very hot, but also because this alien world resides so close to the furnace.

KELT-9b takes just two days to complete one orbit of the star.

Being so close means the planet cannot exist for very long - the gases in its atmosphere are being blasted with radiation and lost to space.

Researchers say it may look a little like a comet as it circles the star from pole to pole - another bizarre aspect of this discovery.
 
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It came from space! Two-headed flatworm stuns scientists
The regeneration process continues to baffle boffins
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A flatworm sent to the International Space Station has sprouted two heads, an anomaly that never happens in the wild, according to a paper published in the journal Regeneration.

Flatworms may not look particularly interesting at first. But lop one to pieces and it’ll magically grow a new head and tail to become a different worm. The regeneration process is a well-known, although it is not completely understood.

As if the problem wasn’t hard to solve on Earth, a group of scientists booted 15 headless and tailless planarian flatworms (Dugesia japonica) up to the ISS for five weeks to see how the process was affected by space travel. A control group was kept in spring water on Earth.
 
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Voyager 1 passes another milestone: is now 138AU from home
Tape drive due to shut down in 2018 as 1.4 kbps link becomes too skinny
Voyager 1 has just ticked off another milestone: on Tuesday it reached 138 astronomical units from Earth, or about 20,600,000,000km from the planet on which you're (presumably!) reading this story.

It's not an achievement that will be widely noticed or celebrated, because every kilometre it travels sets a new record for the most-travelled artefact humans have ever created.

It now takes 38 hours and 15minutes for a radio signal to make it to Voyager and back to Earth, a period of time that is both remarkable and terrifying: we think that the Universe is about 27 billion light years across, but we're just 19 light hours into it.
 
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A spy satellite buzzed the space station this month, and no one knows why
About six weeks ago, SpaceX launched a spy satellite into low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. As is normal for National Reconnaissance Office launches, not much information was divulged about the satellite's final orbit or its specific purpose in space. However, a dedicated group of ground-based observers continued to track the satellite after it reached outer space.

Then something curious happened. In early June, the satellite made an extremely close pass to the International Space Station. One of the amateur satellite watchers, Ted Molczan, estimatedthe pass on June 3 to be 4.4km directly above the station. Another, Marco Langbroek, pegged the distance at 6.4km. "I am inclined to believe that the close conjunctions between USA 276 and ISS are intentional, but this remains unproven and far from certain," Molczan later wrote.

In recent days, Ars has run these observations by several officials and informed sources. They are credible, these officials say, and curious indeed. "This is strange," said one astronaut who has commanded the International Space Station. "I don't really believe in coincidences. But I can't really think of anything that would be worth highlighting a close approach."
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Life on Mars: Elon Musk reveals details of his colonisation vision
The paper outlines early designs of the gigantic spacecraft, designed to carry 100 passengers, that he hopes to construct.

“The thrust level is enormous,” the paper states. “We are talking about a lift-off thrust of 13,000 tons, so it will be quite tectonic when it takes off.”

Creating a fully self-sustained civilisation of around one million people – the ultimate goal – would take 40–100 years according to the plans. Before full colonisation takes place, though, Musk needs to entice the first pioneers to pave the way.
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