space

Mars!

I read Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy newsletter and you should, too! Because science is fun and outer space is neat.

Today’s edition (linked above) includes a shot of Mars taken from the Mars Express explorer, which launched in 2003 and is still working and sending back shots like this one.

I like it so much I’ve made it my desktop wallpaper and am finding excuses to close windows, so I can see it. I love the clarity and the two standout details–the cute little moon of Phobos and the gigantic Olympus Mons volcano, which is about twice as high as Mt. Everest and around 600 km wide.

As I said, space is neat.

Here’s a 2K version. The newsletter has links to versions that go all the way up to 6K.

Click to embiggen, because you will want to embiggen this.

One system, seven rocky exoplanets and the possibility of life beyond Earth

Yesterday NASA announced the discovery of seven Earth-size planets in orbit around a small star some 40 light years away. All seven planets could potentially have water and three of these are in the habitable zone.

This is very neat.

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water.

The discovery sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system. All of these seven planets could have liquid water – key to life as we know it – under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone.

The planets are very close to each other and to the sun (all are closer than Mercury is to our sun), which in this case is not an issue because the sun is an ultracool dwarf. This is the closest group of planets we’ve found that could potentially support life.

The idea of life existing beyond Earth gives me hope. I’d like to think that others out there have done better than we have here.

And that they’ll be nice to us.

This poster illustrating the relative size and positions of the planets and sun is also neat: