Looking for the Shadows of New Worlds.

Astronomers have used many different methods to discover planets beyond the solar system, but the most successful by far is transit photometry, which measures changes in a star's brightness caused by a mini-eclipse. When a planet crosses in front of its star along our line of sight, it blocks some of the star's light. If the dimming lasts for a set amount of time and occurs at regular intervals, it likely means an exoplanet is passing in front of, or transiting, the star once every orbital period.

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has used this technique to become the most successful planet-hunting spacecraft to date, with more than a thousand established discoveries and many more awaiting confirmation. Missions carrying improved technology are now planned, but how much more can they tell us about alien planetary systems similar to our own?

A great deal, according to recently published studies by Michael Hippke at the Institute for Data Analysis in Neukirchen-Vluyn, Germany, and Daniel Angerhausen, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. They show that in the best-case scenarios upcoming missions could uncover planetary moons, ringed worlds similar to Saturn, and even large collections of asteroids.

Top 5 Things To Do at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

D-News. Giant Space Lasers Will Hunt For Ripples In Spacetime!

World View has successfully completed a major milestone test flight.

World View, the commercial spaceflight company, has successfully completed a major milestone test flight, keeping the company on track to meet its 2017 goal for manned private flights to the edge of space. This test flight carried a scaled down, replica spacecraft to a final altitude of 100,475 feet (30624 meters), successfully marking the transition from sub-scale testing to a historical next stage of development – full scale testing.

World View is a space experience launching in 2017 that presents a drastically different approach to the adrenaline-laced rocket ride we think of today. World View will have its Voyagers, planet earth's new class of discerning explorers, gliding peacefully along the edge of space for a two-hour sailing-like experience within a luxury capsule transported via high-altitude balloon.

Safe at sea with satellites

At sea, space technology is used to help save lives every day: managing traffic between ships, picking up migrants and refugees in distress or spotting oil spills. The European Space Agency is once again at the forefront developing new technologies and satellites: to keep us safe at sea and to monitor the environment. Space makes a difference here on Earth and certainly at sea where there is no infrastructure.

SciShow Space.

Close Encounter with Enceladus October 28..

NASA's Cassini Spacecraft is about to make a daring plunge through one of the plumes emerging from Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Mission Status Report. Dawn.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft fired up its ion engine on Friday, Oct. 23, to begin its journey toward its fourth and final science orbit at dwarf planet Ceres. The spacecraft completed two months of observations from an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers) and transmitted extensive imagery and other data to Earth.
The spacecraft is now on its way to the final orbit of the mission, called the low-altitude mapping orbit. Dawn will spend more than seven weeks descending to this vantage point, which will be less than 235 miles (380 kilometers) from the surface of Ceres. In mid-December, Dawn will begin taking observations from this orbit, including images at a resolution of 120 feet (35 meters) per pixel.
Of particular interest to the Dawn team is Occator crater, home to Ceres' bright spots. A new mosaic of images from Dawn's third science orbit highlights the crater and surrounding terrain.

Mickes Space Plans.

The Milky Way: Crash Course Astronomy #37

Cassini at Saturn's moon Enceladus.

On Oct. 28, 2015, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will take the deepest dive ever through the plume of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Scientists hope this close flyby will shed light on what's happening beneath the moon's icy surface. With a global ocean and likely hydrothermal activity, could Enceladus have the ingredients needed to support simple forms of life?

3D Animation of Oct. 28 Spacewalk Activities.

This 3D animation depicts the activities spacewalkers Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren will perform Oct. 28. The duo will service the Canadarm2 robotic arm, route cables for a future docking port and place a thermal cover over a dark matter detection experiment.

DNews. Are We Sabotaging Our Search For Life On Mars?

Look east before sunrise in late October for a beautiful conjunction of bright planets.

Whats up for 2016, Mickes Space ?

White House Astronomy Night.

On Monday, October 19, President Barack Obama hosted the second White House Astronomy Night, bringing together students, teachers, scientists, astronauts, and others to spend an evening stargazing.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Deputy Administrator Dava Newman participated in the event; John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate, and astronauts Cady Coleman, Robert Behnken, Eric Boe, Douglas Hurley and Sunita Williams, Karen Nyberg and Megan McArthur also participated.

Participants learned about astronomical discoveries and participated in space-related educational activities to help promote the importance of STEM education and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers who will explore the stars.

This Week @NASA.

My grandson Leo.

Cassini Mission to Saturn.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will sample an extraterrestrial ocean on Wednesday, Oct. 28, when it flies directly through a plume of icy spray coming from Saturn's moon Enceladus. The agency will hold a news teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 26, to discuss plans for and anticipated science results from the historic flyby.
The teleconference participants are:

• Curt Niebur, Cassini program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington
• Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California
• Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at JPL
  

Space to Ground.

Lou Friedman - Looking Back 35 Years.

Louis Friedman tells the story of how he, Bruce Murray, and Carl Sagan formed The Planetary Society 35 years ago.

SciShow Space.

Jenny On Console: Episode 14 - Audio T/S & Voice Recovery.

ESA Euronews: Unlocking the secrets of the Jupiter's Icy Moons.

Earth from Space: Multicoloured Mexico City.

Space Station Live.

NASA Commentator Lori Meggs at the Marshall Space Flight Center speaks to Rob Ploutz-Snyder, a biostatistician at the Johnson Space Center whose job it is to help design experiments and then keep track of all of the data and statistics that the International Space Station crew members gather as participants in scientific research for NASA’s Human Research Program.

Spacecraft Discovers Thousands of Doomed Comets.

SciShow Space.

Commercial Crew Comes to Washington.

President Obama welcomed NASA’s first commercial crew astronauts to the White House on October 19, 2015.
NASA’s commercial crew program is NASA’s plan to launch American astronauts to the International Space Station from American soil.
These pioneering astronauts – Robert Behnken, Eric Boe, Douglas Hurley and Sunita Williams – talked about the importance of launching to space from American soil, and how the International Space Station is paving the way NASA’s Journey to Mars.

NASA just announced an unexpected asteroid flyby October 31. Our closest flyby of this size since 2006.

It’s time to get to know a new friend: asteroid 2015 TB145, a sizeable chunk of rock that’s hurtling through space at speeds of over 126,000 km/h (78,293 mph) right now. Discovered just 10 days ago, the asteroid has caught the attention of scientists at NASA because on October 31, it’s expected to draw closer to Earth than anything this size has since July 2006.
But before you reach for the keys to your apocalypse bunker, relax. When we say "close", we’re talking relatively, which in this case means 1.3 lunar distances, or about 499,000 km (310,000 miles) from Earth.
"This is the closest approach by a known object this large until 1999 AN10 approaches within 1 lunar distance in August 2027," a NASA report states. "The last approach closer than this ... was by 2004 XP14 in July 2006 at 1.1 lunar distances."
Detected on October 10 by the Pan-STARRS I survey in Hawaii, which employs several astronomical cameras and telescopes from around the world to identify potentially threatening near-Earth objects, asteroid 2015 TB145 is estimated to be between 280 to 620 metres (918 to 2,034 ft) in diameter. 

Space Station Live: Fighting Cancer in Space.

The search for signs of life in a mysterious star system hypothesized to potentially harbor an "alien megastructure" is now underway.

The search for signs of life in a mysterious star system hypothesized to potentially harbor an "alien megastructure" is now underway.
Astronomers have begun using the Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a system of radio dishes about 300 miles (483 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco, to hunt for signals coming from the vicinity of KIC 8462852, a star that lies 1,500 light-years from Earth.
NASA's Kepler space telescope found that KIC 8462852 dimmed oddly and dramatically several times over the past few years. The dimming events were far too substantial to be caused by a planet crossing the star's face, researchers say, and other possible explanations, such as an enormous dust cloud, don't add up, either.
Source: Space.com

MOMA-Digging Below the Martian Surface.

The Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer, or MOMA, is an exciting instrument that will dig up to 2 meters below the Martian surface to extract soil to analyze. Dr. Veronica Pinnick of The Goddard Space Flight Center, is a scientist developing and working with this instrument.

Developing Technologies for Morpheus - ALHAT

To make a journey to and from Mars possible, new technologies have been developed and tested. Jon Olansen, Manager of The Morpheus Project at NASA explains the ALHAT sensor that will assist Morpheus' landing on Mars.

D-News. We’re Not Saying The Kepler Discovery Is Aliens, But…

What is the mega structure of Jupiter's size at KIC 8462852 ?

Leet us ask Michio Kaku.

# Hubble Hangout.

Hubble Captures New Maps of Jupiter

Amy Shira Teitel. I Wrote a Book!

SciShow Space.

Speed of Sound.

On October 16, 2015, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly became the new record holder for most time in space by an American astronaut. He broke fellow astronaut Mike Fincke’s mark of 382 days, and will extend that record well beyond 500 days by the end of his yearlong mission.

Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are spending a year aboard the International Space Station, testing the limits of human research, space exploration and the human spirit.

This Week @NASA.

Space to Ground.

Morpheus - Landing on Mars.

Morpheus is the world's first prototype lander that uses liquid oxygen and liquid methane as a means of propulsion. Jenny Devolites , of Johnson Space Center is the Morpheus Lander Test Conductor and Systems Engineering and Integration Lead. She is responsible for creating tests that will ensure a safe landing by Morpheus on Mars and it's safe return to earth.

Nebulae: Crash Course Astronomy #36.

D-News. How Do We Weigh Stars?

Earth from Space: Deep blue Red Sea reefs.

3-D Flyover Visualization of Veil Nebula.

This 3-D visualization flies across a small portion of the Veil Nebula as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. This region is a small part of a huge expanding remnant from a star that exploded many thousands of years ago. Hubble resolves tangled rope-like filaments of glowing gases. The 3-D model has been created for illustrative purposes and shows that that the giant bubble of gas has a thin, rippled surface. It also highlights that the emission from different chemical elements arises from different layers of gas within the nebula. In the imagery, emission from hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen are shown in red, green, and blue, respectively.

Amy Shira Teitel. This Plane Saved Neil Armstrong So He Could Go to the Moon.

Training like an Astronaut.