The Midterm Assessment: How’s it coming?
In between the 2010 and 2020 decadal surveys is a Midterm Assessment. We’ll get a look at how this panel thinks things have things changed since 2010.
Move over Philae, we have a new lander in town
Europa might be the smallest of the Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter, but it is potentially one of the most exciting candidates for extra-terrestrial life in our diverse Solar System. This bite covers a tiny portion of the Europa Lander Report recently published by NASA.
New World Weather
Astronomers discover weather on a new world for the first time.
Diaries of a Dwarf Planet: What are Those Spots on Ceres?
The first asteroid ever discovered is serving up scientists a new set of firsts. The shiny patches that bespeckle its surface suggest there’s more to Ceres than meets the eye.
Have we really found Earth 2.0?
Last month Nasa announced, in what seems like a roughly annual event, the discovery of “Earth 2.0”. Described as a “Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth”, Kepler 452b is the first small planet (defined here as less than twice the radius of the Earth) to be in a roughly one year orbit around a Sun-like star.
But is it otherwise that similar to the Earth? Is it potentially habitable? To try and answer that, let’s look at the discovery paper.
Science at the edge of the Solar System
Pluto: the last and final of the ‘original’ 9 planets of the Solar System to be visited by a probe. NASA’s New Horizons arrived at this tiny world at the edge of the Solar System earlier this week bringing into sharp focus for the first time. Science was a plentiful from every new image that was released, so here’s a quick recap for you, just in case you blinked and missed it…