A significant layer of water ice has been spotted across the mid latitudes of Mars, located just a few feet below the planet’s surface. This new finding adds a new layer to the geological history of the Red Planet, and also may offer a useful source of water for future human expeditions sent there.
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No-one could possibly accuse entrepreneurial wunderkind Elon Musk of being less than ambitious: between revolutionizing the electric car industry (Tesla), expanding the solar-electric generation industry (SolarCity), and devising new rapid mass-transit methods (Hyperloop), it’s a wonder he has time for more out-of-this world endeavors, namely his SpaceX spaceship manufacturing and transport company. And now Musk says that SpaceX’s ambitious BFR spacecraft could be used to carry passengers not only to the Moon and Mars, but also on shorter trips around the globe, including trans-Atlantic flights that could be undertaken in less than half an hour.
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Astronomers with the Pale Red Dot Project have announced the discovery of an Earth-like planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the star closest to Earth. The newfound planet, currently called "Proxima b", has the fortune of being 1.3 times the mass of the Earth, and orbits within the star’s Goldilocks Zone, meaning that it is just the right size and temperature to host liquid water, one of the requirements for life as we know it.
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As the old saying goes, life can move pretty fast, but this is especially true in space, where the difference in orbital velocities between two different objects can literally be faster than a speeding bullet. Last month, British astronaut Tim Peake posted a photograph of a 7 mm (1/4 inch) impact chip in one of the International Space Station’s Cupola windows, suspected to have been caused by a miniscule piece of debris no bigger than a few thousandths of a millimeter across.
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