NASA has announced that an experimental propulsion system that needs only energy from sunlight appears to produce sufficient thrust to power spacecraft. This means that, once a spacecraft is in orbit, it will be able to accelerate away from the earth to the edges of the solar system, without fuel. This means that travel throughout the solar system is going to become much more possible and far cheaper.
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A newly discovered planet in a binary star system located 3,000 light-years from Earth is expanding astronomers’ notions of where Earth-like—and even potentially habitable—planets can form, and how to find them.
At twice the mass of Earth, the planet orbits one of the stars in the binary system at almost exactly the same distance from which Earth orbits the sun. However, because the planet’s host star is much dimmer than the sun, the planet is much colder than the Earth—a little colder, in fact, than Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
Four international research teams, led by professor Andrew Gould of The Ohio State University, published their discovery in the July 4 issue of the journal Science.
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Have you ever regretted a missed opportunity to send a message to someone? Did you think that your life may well have been different if you had communicated certain things, and you would give anything to re-live that moment again?
According to scientists from Jesus College, Cambridge, U.K., you may get your chance to right the wrongs of the past – in the future.
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Information regarding a new "Twin Earth" could be revealed at a press conference hosted by NASA at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) Thursday, April 17.
The Kepler Space Telescope has made another important new discovery, details of which will be published in the journal Science, though publication is being delayed until after the press release.
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