Monday, June 22, 2015

Carnival of space #411


Hello everybody and welcome to the #411 edition of "Carnival of Space". Many things happen in space all the time and here are some of the best astronomy and space articles from around the globe! 


Carnival of space #411
Carnival of space #411


Do you like to see Iridiums' flares? I surly do, and David from UniverseToday tells about the new generation of these communication satellites which unfortunately will not flare very well.

The biggest event of July in space is undoubtedly the arrival of New Horizons to Pluto after more than ten years! Nancy from  UT sends us a new Video which Will Get You Excited for New Horizons’ Pluto Encounter (as if you already aren’t…).

Zain from brownspaceman also likes Pluto and share with us some unknown facts about it: Pluto is absolutely fascinating! Here are my top 5 favorite things about Pluto!
  

Paul from The Meridian Journal And a new mission is on the way to investigate alien ocean: all systems go for new NASA mission to Europa

Paul also sends us an article about Mars: Methane discovered in Martian meteorites: a clue to possible life?

Joe from SpaceFlightInsider goes way beyond the solar system: Using a new technique on Kepler data, astronomers are able to determine the mass and density of exo-planets smaller in size than the Earth. The method uses Other planets in the system to look at changes in the planet's motion as it passes in front of its parent star.


The following articles are by Brian from NextBigFuture
Beyond Earth, Jupiter’s moon Europa is considered one of the most promising places in the solar system to search for signs of present-day life, and a new NASA mission to explore this potential is moving forward from concept review to development.

NASA’s mission concept -- to conduct a detailed survey of Europa and investigate its habitability -- has successfully completed its first major review by the agency and now is entering the development phase known as formulation.

The mission plan calls for a spacecraft to be launched to Jupiter in the 2020s, arriving in the distant planet’s orbit after a journey of several years. 

And also on Exoplanets
 A team of astronomers has measured the mass and size of the smallest exoplanet yet, a Mars-sized planet named Kepler-138b orbiting a red dwarf star about 200 light years from our solar system. Kepler-138b is the first exoplanet smaller than the Earth to have both its mass and its size measured. Kepler-138b is one of three planets that orbit the star Kepler-138 and that pass in front of it -- or transit -- on every orbit. Each time a planet transits the star, it blocks a small fraction of the star's light, allowing astronomers to measure the size of the planet. All three Kepler planets were identified by NASA's Kepler mission, which has discovered over a thousand planets around other stars. This video shows a mass-radius diagram based on measurements of 127 exoplanets. The video begins by showing a range of planets with masses up to that of Jupiter's, then gradually zooms toward the smaller masses and radii to display a comparison of the physical properties of the Kepler-138 planets relative to Earth, Venus, Mars and Mercury. Fifteen years ago the first exoplanet that was found was 3000 times larger than Kepler 138b. [Via Centauri Dreams]

Adam Savage shares the story of his Star Trek Captain's Chair, which he became obsessed with building from scratch after acquiring an insufficient replica. With the help of friend Jeremy Williams, Adam spends a day wiring in the electronics to bring his new Enterprise command chair to life. After much problem solving and troubleshooting, the effort pays off in a big way.

And of course, go out in the evening and look west to see Venus and Jupiter together. I've added many new photos to the article from last week
The new moon Venus and Jupiter 18-June-2015
And a video of the moon Vens and jupiter setting

This is all for this week, Thanks for being with us