Space news and Exploration II

[ScienceRocks]

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.02323.pdf

ABSTRACT
We report the discovery of KELT-10b, the rst transiting exoplanet discovered us-
ing the KELT-South telescope. KELT-10b is a highly in ated sub-Jupiter mass planet

:
WASP-120b, WASP-122b and WASP-123b: Three newly discovered planets from the WASP-South survey
O.D.Turner, D. R. Anderson, A. Collier Cameron, L. Delrez, M. Gillon, C. Hellier, E. Jehin, M. Lendl, P. F. L. Maxted, F. Pepe, D. Pollacco, D. Queloz, D. Sègransan, B. Smalley, A. M. S. Smith, A. H. M.J. Triaud, S. Udry, R. G. West
(Submitted on 7 Sep 2015)

We present the discovery by the WASP-South survey of three planets transiting moderately bright stars (V ~ 11). WASP-120b is a massive (5.0MJup) planet in a 3.6-day orbit that we find likely to be eccentric (e = 0.059+0.025-0.018) around an F5 star. WASP-122b is a hot-Jupiter (1.37MJup, 1.79RJup) in a 1.7-day orbit about a G4 star. Our predicted transit depth variation cause by the atmosphere of WASP-122b suggests it is well suited to characterisation. WASP-123b is a hot-Jupiter (0.92MJup, 1.33RJup) in a 3.0-day orbit around an old (~ 7 Gyr) G5 star.

[1509.02210] WASP-120b, WASP-122b and WASP-123b: Three newly discovered planets from the WASP-South survey

 

[ScienceRocks]

China now confirms the Chang'e 4 will be the 1st craft to land on the far side of the moon before 2020. This clearly indicates Chang'e 5 to be launched in 2017 will be landing on the moon surface facing earth.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20..._134603260.htm

China is planning to be the first country to land a lunar probe on the far side of the moon, a Chinese lunar probe scientist said Tuesday.

The mission will be carried out by Chang'e-4, a backup probe for Chang'e-3, and is slated to be launched before 2020, said Zou Yongliao from the moon exploration department under the Chinese Academy of Sciences at a deep-space exploration forum Tuesday.

Zou said government organs have ordered experts to assess the plan over the past 12 plus months. "China will be the first to complete the task if it is successful."

 

[Sun Devil 92]

The far left plans to go to the sun....

At night.

 

[ScienceRocks]

The far left plans to go to the sun....

At night.

Since most of the most intelligent people on this planet are "far leftist" I am assuming that they wouldn't do such a thing...A satellite on the far side of the sun? Maybe!

 

[ScienceRocks]

Ceres' Bright Spots Seen in Striking New Detail http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4714…

 

[ScienceRocks]

Photonic laser propulsion roadmap to laser pushed wafersats to 25% lightspeed

DE-STAR, or Directed Energy System for Targeting of Asteroids and exploRation, is the brainchild of UC Santa Barbara physicist Philip Lubin and Gary B. Hughes. DE-STAR initial objective is to deflect asteroids. The DE-STAR system could be leveraged for many other uses, such as stopping the rotation of a spinning asteroid and achieving relativistic...
Read more »

 

[ScienceRocks]

New from Mars Express: a sweeping view over the south pole of #Mars http://ow.ly/S1Kx9

 

[ScienceRocks]

Elon Musk discusses making Mars more habitable by nuking the poles and being reading to ferry astronauts to ISS within 2-3 years

Elon Musk told Stephen Colbert, Spacex will be ready for human passengers within two to three years. Mars is "a fixer upper of a planet," Musk says, but it can be made to be more like Earth if it can be made hotter. When it comes to turning on the planetary furnace, there's a slow way and fast way, he explained. The slow way is to release greenhouse gases, the same process being blamed for global warming on Earth. The fast...

Personally, I'd set up a few thousand ground carbon machines that put the stuff into the atmosphere...After a few hundred years maybe I'd plant a shit ton of grass like plant to change the atmosphere with more oxygen.

 

[ScienceRocks]

'Completely wild': Pluto close-ups from New Horizons boggle astro-minds http://nbcnews.to/1Og84GI

 

[ScienceRocks]

SpaceX Unveils The Interior Of Crew Dragon | Video http://dlvr.it/C6jfdd

Musk rules!


New Photos of Pluto Show a World More Complex and Beautiful Than Ever
New Photos of Pluto Show a World More Complex and Beautiful Than Ever

An "over-the-top" complex mix of craters, ice flows, mountains, valleys and apparent dunes coexist on Pluto in the latest amazing images from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.

"Pluto is showing us a diversity of landforms and complexity of process that rival anything we've seen in the solar system," New Horizons' principal investigator Alan Stern, from the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, said in a statement. "If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top — but that's what is actually there." At Space.com, we combined the new Pluto images into an awesome video.

After a break to send particle, solar-wind and space-dust data back to Earth, the New Horizons spacecraft has resumed sending images snapped during its July 14 flyby of Pluto. The new images released today (Sept. 10) have resolutions of up to 440 yards (400 meters) per pixel, and they show a chaotic hodgepodge of features offering many scientific puzzles.

Look at the video and pics at the link!

 

[ScienceRocks]

Underground magma ocean could explain Io's 'misplaced' volcanoes
September 10, 2015 by William Steigerwald

This five-frame sequence of images from the New Horizons spacecraft captures the giant plume from Io's Tvashtar volcano. Credit: Credits: NASA/JHU Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Tides flowing in a subsurface ocean of molten rock, or magma, could explain why Jupiter's moon Io appears to have its volcanoes in the "wrong" place. New NASA research implies that oceans beneath the crusts of tidally stressed moons may be more common and last longer than expected. The phenomenon applies to oceans made from either magma or water, potentially increasing the odds for life elsewhere in the universe.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-09-underground-magma-ocean-io-misplaced.html#jCp

 

[ScienceRocks]

Firefly Space Systems successfully tested its first engine, the Firefly Rocke... https://www.inside.com/space/u6plq/Firefly-Space-Systems-successfully-tested-its-firs?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=twitterhandle&utm_campaign=@GoInsideSpace… #space #news





Arianespace successfully launches two Galileo navigation satellites [URL='http://t.co/BWIhfQcwCl']http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/arianespace/arianespace-successfully-launches-two-galileo-navigation-satellites/…


[/URL]

 

[ScienceRocks]

Steps to Interstellar laser pushed propulsion and a 16 year trip to Alpha Centauri

The impossible task of traveling 25.6 trillion miles to Alpha Centauri, our closest star, is now possible. Using a Directed Energy System for Targeting of Asteroids and exploRation (DE-STAR), a versatile, scalable phased-array laser system, it can be reached in a short 16 years. Our project entails carrying out both computational and experimental studies of specific uses of DE-STAR to investigate photon recycling and spacecraft propulsion. Photon recycling is a unique term used to describe a form of energy conservation relative to this project. This effect will greatly improve the efficiency of spacecraft making interstellar flight more plausible. What lies beyond our solar system is one of the biggest mysteries of mankind and it finally has the potential to be solved.

The DESTAR interstellar laser propulsion system is modular, scalable and on a very rapid development path. It lends itself to a roadmap.

There has been a game change in directed energy technology whose consequences are profound for many applications including photon driven propulsion. This allows for a completely modular and scalable technology without "dead ends".

Laser efficiencies are near 50%. The rise in efficiency will not be one of the enabling elements along the road map but free space phase control over large distances during the acceleration phase will be. This will require understanding the optics, phase noise and systematic effects of our combined on-board metrology and off-board phase servo feedback.

 

[ScienceRocks]

[1509.02917] A HARPS view on K2-3

A HARPS view on K2-3

K2 space observations recently found that three super-Earths transit the nearby M dwarf K2-3. The apparent brightness and the small physical radius of their host star rank these planets amongst the most favourable for follow-up characterisations. The outer planet orbits close to the inner edge of the habitable zone and might become one of the first exoplanets searched for biomarkers using transmission spectroscopy. We used the HARPS velocimeter to measure the mass of the planets. The mass of planet b is 8.4±2.1 M⊕, while our determination of those planets c and d are affected by the stellar activity. With a density of 4.32+2.0−0.76 gcm−3, planet b is probably mostly rocky, but it could contain up to 50% water.
==================


K2-3 is 2.14 times bigger then earth by radius and probably has oceans that are many thousands of miles deep...Think about that for a second.

There's a chance that this has a mass over 10 times that of earth and is another mega earth.

I just looked through the paper and C and D mass isn't yet 100% but what I found was interesting...C mass is a lot like Kepler 138d as it is very low but only 1.6 earth radi's...Well, it maybe another gas dwarf! On the otherhand,,,,k2-3d has a mass of over 11 times that of earth with 1.53 radi's...So it has a density of 17.5! That is 3 times that of earth...So likely mostly iron...

Weird how one planet can get all the heavy stuff and the other gets screwed.

==========================
SpaceX shows off Crew Dragon interior

• David Szondy
• September 11, 2015
• 5 PICTURES

Last year, SpaceX unveiled its Crew Dragon, which is scheduled to begin ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017. Now the company is giving the public a look at the interior. Sporting a minimalist design, it's intended to not only provide safety, but a considerable degree of comfort.

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA releases first clear image of Pluto's small moon Nix

By Loren Grush on September 11, 2015 02:08 pm

Today, NASA released the first crisp image of Pluto's jellybean-shaped moon Nix. The photo was taken by the New Horizons probe on July 14th as the spacecraft flew by Pluto.

Until now, the only close-up photo we had of Nix was a blurry, enhanced-color image. From that photo, NASA estimated that Nix is 26 miles long and 22 miles wide, shaped a bit like a football. This new picture, taken by New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), reveals the moon isn't smooth but rough around the edges. There also appears to be a large crater on its surface.

http://www.theverge....ix-new-horizons

 

[ScienceRocks]

Russian cosmonaut back after record 879 days in space

Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka returned safely to Earth with two other astronauts from the International Space Station Saturday with the record for having spent the most time in space.

Mars panorama from Curiosity shows petrified sand dunes
September 12, 2015

Large-scale crossbedding in the sandstone of this ridge on a lower slope of Mars' Mount Sharp is typical of windblown sand dunes that have petrified. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Some of the dark sandstone in an area being explored by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows texture and inclined bedding structures characteristic of deposits that formed as sand dunes, then were cemented into rock.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-09-mars-panorama-curiosity-petrified-sand.html#jCp

 

[ScienceRocks]

First Image of Planet Birth Shows Tightly Packed Worlds
by Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor | September 11, 2015 05:27am ET

A controversial space image does indeed show the first picture of planets being born, a new study confirms.

When an image of the system HL Tau was unveiled last year, it sparked controversy over whether or not grooves in the disk of dust surrounding the star could be explained by the presence of newly formed giant planets. Now, a new paper suggests that the orbit of those planets could serve to stabilize rather than eject one another, as had originally been suggested. That means this image is the first time scientists have observed a forming planetary system, and a tightly packed one at that.

"The big question is, are we really seeing giant planets carving out the disk out of which they are forming?" lead author Daniel Tamayo, from the University of Toronto in Canada, had said in a presentation at the Emerging Researchers for Exoplanet Science Symposium hosted at Pennsylvania State University in April.

 

[ScienceRocks]

RT @paoecua A mist of water ice crystals hangs in the Gran Canyon of Mars, Valles Marineris





New Pluto Images Show Possible Dunes, Crepuscular Rays, Unimaginable Complexity http://www.universetoday.com/122309/new-pluto-images-show-possible-dunes-crepuscular-rays-unimaginable-complexity/…

 

[ScienceRocks]

World's first all-electric propulsion satellite goes on line

• David Szondy
• September 13, 2015

Boeing has announced that the first satellite with all-electric propulsion is now fully operational. Launched last March, the ABS-3A 702SP (small platform) satellite was formally handed over to its owner, Bermuda-based telecommunications company ABS, on August 31. It will provide communications services to the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

ABS-3A launched on March 1 atop a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX’s Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida along with EUTELSAT 115 West B. The geosynchronous comsat's key technology is its Xenon Ion Propulsion System (XIPS). Previously, hybrid systems that use a mix of chemical and ion propellants have been sent into orbit, but this is the first time a satellite has been deployed with an all-electric drive.

Boeing says that the technology is based on 210,000 hours of ion propulsion flight experience and is 10 times more efficient than liquid-fueled rockets. Four 25-cm (9.8-in) thrusters using xenon as a propellant allow the 702SP satellite to maintain stationkeeping while using only 5 kg (11 lb) of fuel per year. This is a great saving because the satellite needs less fuel and smaller thrusters, which reduces launch costs.

After launch, the XIPS drive allowed ABS-3A to power itself into geosynchronous orbit, where it is stationed at 3° West longitude. A second 702SP satellite (ABS-2A) for ABS is scheduled to launch next year.

"With a successful launch, testing, and execution of orbit operations, we were able to deliver the first 702SP to ABS about one month earlier than planned," says Mark Spiwak, president, Boeing Satellite Systems International. "The 702SP product line was designed to bring the latest technology into the hands of customers seeking adaptable and affordable solutions. In addition, the 702SP’s patented dual-launch capability helps customers share launch costs, which can significantly lower overall expenses for a satellite owner."

 

[ScienceRocks]

Astronomers peer into the 'amniotic sac' of a planet-hosting star
Astronomers have successfully peered through the 'amniotic sac' of a star that is still forming to observe the innermost region of a burgeoning solar system for the first time.