Space Stuff

NASA’s New Horizons Team Strikes Gold in Argentina

A primitive solar system object that’s more than four billion miles (6.5 billion kilometers) away passed in front of a distant star as seen from Earth. Just before midnight Eastern Time Sunday (12:50 a.m. local time July 17), several telescopes deployed by the New Horizons team in a remote part of Argentina were in precisely the right place at the right time to catch its fleeting shadow — an event that’s known as an occultation.
 
Cancel your summer trip to nearby Proxima b.
No chance of life, room service, say boffins
It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere ... I'm all alone
proxima_b_sun.jpg

NASA scientists have dashed hopes that Proxima Centauri b, an Earth-ish-like planet orbiting the closest star to the Sun, could be habitable.
Last year, it emerged there was a rocky exoplanet, dubbed Proxima Centauri b, within Proxima Centauri's crucial Goldilocks zone – meaning there was an alien world in the sweet spot around a star where it's possible to hold liquid water that's essential to life as we know it. Proxima Centauri is only about four light years away from our home planet. Everyone was excited.

Little is known about the star's Proxima b, which was dubbed a "second Earth". Boffins have, thus far, not been able to confirm the presence of liquid water nor an atmosphere on the exoplanet. Atmospheres are vital for life since it regulates its climate and temperature, preventing liquid water from freezing or evaporating, and shielding the necessary chemical building blocks from harmful radiation.

It’s difficult to determine if the planet does have an atmosphere since it has not been been seen crossing its star’s path, meaning scientists cannot use the traditional transit method to identify any potential elements in its skies.
 
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Whilst this isn't about space, it was shot from space ;)

Check Out This Stunning 80-Trillion-Pixel Cloudless View Of Earth

The mosaic of images was taken by the Sentinel-2 satellites, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), of which there are two – Sentinel-2A (launched on June 23, 2015) and Sentinel-2b (March 7, 2017). The two satellites orbit at a height of about 790 kilometers (490 miles). The mosaic was stitched together by EOX, a German mapping firm.

Direct link here...
 
Asteroid Florence buzzes Earth, brings two moons along for the ride
4.5km rock is the largest near-Earth object we've ever seen up close, albeit still 7m km away
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A NASA artist's impression of asteroid Florence
Be glad that the asteroid dubbed “Florence” won't revisit Earth for many, many years: observations during its weekend fly-by revealed that the space-rock is so big it's captured two moons.
 
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Possibly their best landing video yet. Amazing that this is almost routine already:
SpaceX sneaks in X-37B space plane launch ahead of Hurricane Irma
Air Force picks Florida as new center for mini-shuttle

The Falcon 9 lifted off cleanly at 1000 local time (1300 GMT), and the first stage separated a couple of minutes later. Given the secrecy surrounding the X-37B, the webcast cut away from the second stage deployment, allowing the space plane to discretely decouple and head off on its mission.

Meanwhile, the first stage was headed back to Earth. The Falcon wasn't pushing the X-37B into a high orbit and so was able to return to land for touchdown, instead of landing on SpaceX's autonomous barge Of Course I Still Love You. Touchdown was near perfect, with the rocket landing directly on the launch pad's SpaceX logo.
 
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