Huge 150m Asteroid Among Three Space Rocks To Fly Past Earth This Weekend - World News - Mirror...

It will make a clean pass by our planet and is expected to reach speeds of more than 24,000mph. The asteroid is one of three which will pass Earth this weekend, with two others flying past on Saturday. 2024 GD5 is estimated to be between 11 metres and 24 metres in diameter and will fly past our planet at 3:39am.

Any objects coming within 128million miles of Earth is technically considered an NEO. NEOs are relatively common, despite the scary-sounding name. These asteroids can also be incredibly far away from Earth and still be classified as an NEO by astronomers. NASA said: "As they orbit the Sun, NEOs can occasionally approach close to Earth.

"Note that a 'close' passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometres. Occasionally, asteroids' orbital paths are influenced by the gravitational tug of planets, which cause their paths to alter. Scientists believe stray asteroids or fragments from earlier collisions have slammed into Earth in the past, playing a major role in the evolution of our planet."

Source: See here

Is Space Science Worth The Money?

Space science costs money. To study the Universe and the worlds within it, we have to employ scientists, build observatories and research facilities, and launch spacecraft — among other things. So why is it worth the money? What does space science do for society?

Space science is a broad field that includes disciplines like astrophysics, cosmology, planetary science, and the study of space weather and space environments. Space science uses observational tools such as optical and radio telescopes, exploration missions such as orbiters and rovers, computational and theoretical methods, and more. All of this work aims to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and mechanics of the Cosmos and all that exists within it.

The process of conducting space science also provides a societal benefit by being interrogative, rational, and collaborative. A society that cultivates these kinds of qualities enriches itself. That cultural richness is part of what gives science, including space science, value. Both the outcome (scientific knowledge) and the process (scientific inquiry) of space science are primary benefits.

Although governments around the world understand the value of basic science, it can be hard to prioritize its funding given the variety of competing needs within a nation. NASA's space science programs in 2024 amount to roughly 0.1% of annual U.S. spending, which represents a decrease in recent years. As such, space science sometimes needs to rely on justifications beyond its intrinsic value.

But, as Griffin explains , much of what humans do, from falling in love with one's spouse to enjoying one genre of music more than another, is based on emotional and intuitive motivations. This is a human characteristic, and it plays out in our drive to understand the Universe and our place within it. In many ways, this is why we invest in space science: we want to go to new places and discover new things, witness the beauty and majesty of the Cosmos, understand where we came from and what might be possible in our future, and achieve astonishing feats.

Reference: Found here

SpaceX Sends 23 Starlink Satellites Into Orbit Atop Falcon 9 Rocket

This was the seventh flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which had previously launched ESA Euclid, Ax-2, Ax-3, CRS-30, and two Starlink missions.

Following stage separation, the first stage was planned to land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Source: Found here

Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Robot Is Leaping Into Retirement

Atlas, the humanoid robot that dazzled followers for more than a decade with its outdoor running, awkward dancing and acrobatic back flips, has powered down. In other words, it is retiring.

On Wednesday, Boston Dynamics, the company that created it, announced the arrival of the next generation of humanoid robots — a fully electric robot (also named Atlas) for real-world commercial and industrial applications.

For anyone worried about what would happen to the hydraulic bipedal machine (a robot home? the junkyard? a window display?) that was created for research purposes, the company had an answer. A spokesman, Nikolas Noel, said that retirement would mean that the Atlas would move to its "robot retirement home," which is to say that it would be "sitting in our office lobby museum" with other decommissioned robots.

"For almost a decade, Atlas has sparked our imagination, inspired the next generations of roboticists and leapt over technical barriers in the field," Boston Dynamics said in a farewell video posted on social media on Tuesday.

The company's farewell video captured the brawny 6-foot-2 machine in action over the years. That included taking a stroll in a grassy field, leaping on boxes (or picking up 10-pound ones), carefully walking on a rock bed and awkwardly shimmying.

But the video also featured some mishaps, including the robot's frequent stumbles such as falling over on platforms, rolling down a hill and leaking hydraulic fluid from its leg inside a lab.

The new model has a big round head that spins completely around, is leaner and can nimbly rise from a horizontal position to a bipedal stance in seconds. Its hips appear to be reversible, so it might be better than us at some yoga poses.

The company's commercial models include Spot, an agile four-legged robot, and Stretch, an elongated warehouse platform.

Reference: Visit website

Scientists Say They Have Found Evidence Of An Unknown Planet In Our Solar System

For years, some astronomers have been suggesting that unusual behaviour on the edge of our solar system is best explained by another, undiscovered planet. That helps explain the orbits of objects that lie at the very far reaches of our solar system, more than 250 times away from the Sun than we are.

Now Konstantin Bogytin, an astronomer who helped popularise the theory, says that he and his team have found yet more evidence that suggests that planet exists. The new work represents "the strongest statistical evidence yet that Planet 9 is really out there", he said.

The new work looked at those objects that have their movement made unstable because they interact with the orbit of Neptune. That instability meant they were harder to understand, so typically astronomers looking at a possible Planet Nine have avoided using them in their analysis.

"This upcoming phase of exploration promises to provide critical insights into the mysteries of our solar system's outer reaches," the team writes in their paper.

Read more: See here

Pluto’s Heart Was Likely Created By An Ancient Collision

A huge heart-shaped feature on the surface of Pluto has intrigued astronomers since NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured it in a 2015 image. Now, researchers think they have solved the mystery of how the distinctive heart came to be — and it could reveal new clues about the dwarf planet's origins.

The feature is called Tombaugh Regio in honor of astronomer Clybe Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930. But the heart is not all one element, scientists say. And for decades, details on Tombaugh Regio's elevation, geological composition and distinct shape, as well as its highly reflective surface that is a brighter white than the rest of Pluto, have defied explanation.

A deep basin called Sputnik Planitia, which makes up the "left lobe" of the heart, is home to much of Pluto's nitrogen ice.

The basin covers an area spanning 745 miles by 1,242 miles (1,200 kilometers by 2,000 kilometers), equivalent to about one-quarter of the United States, but it's also 1.9 to 2.5 miles (3 to 4 kilometers) lower in elevation than the majority of the planet's surface. Meanwhile, the right side of the heart also has a layer of nitrogen ice, but it's much thinner.

The findings are part of a study about Pluto and its internal structure published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy .

Read more: Found here

SETI Chief Says US Has No Evidence For Alien Technology. 'And We Never Have'

"We don't have any evidence of any credible source that would indicate the presence of alien technology in our skies. And we never have," said Bill Diamond, president and chief executive officer of the SETI Institute, headquartered in Mountain View, California. "The idea that the government is keeping something like this secret is just totally absurd. There's no motivation to do so."

Related: 'It's getting closer and closer for sure.' How SETI is expanding its search for alien intelligence (exclusive)

SETI is a key research contractor to NASA and the National Science Foundation, and collaborates with industry partners throughout Silicon Valley. Space.com caught up with Diamond for a close-encounter with his own thoughts and counterpoints to claims of alien visitation and to ask whether there's any signal in all the UFO noise.

Diamond said that, while we should not outright rule out the possibility that we might someday discover evidence of alien technology in our skies, "we should equally not jump to the conclusion that UFOs are alien technology in the absence of any compelling evidence to that effect. And there is no compelling evidence," he contends.

The fastest spacecraft that humans have ever built and continues to head outward from Earth is NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. It was hurled outward back in January 2006, cruising by Pluto and is still adding mileage to its odometer.

"If you sent that spacecraft to our closest neighbor star, Alpha Centauri , it would take 80,000 years to get there," said Diamond. "Any civilization that has mastered the ability to traverse the incomprehensibly vast distances of interstellar space would have technology so far advanced from our own as to be beyond our comprehension."

"If such beings exist, they would likely send hardware here first and not biology, and they certainly wouldn't crash-land in our deserts," he said, like the alleged and highly acclaimed 1947 nose-dive of a UFO and its accident-prone occupants near Roswell, New Mexico.

Source: Visit website

NASA Refines National Space Technology Development Priorities

As NASA focuses on exploring the Moon, Mars, and the solar system for the benefit of humanity, the agency's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) is shifting how it prioritizes technology development . As part of this refinement effort, NASA is asking the American aerospace community for feedback on nearly 190 national space technology needs – or shortfalls – it has identified for future space exploration and science endeavors.

"Our ambitious future missions pose many unique challenges, and STMD is positioned – as the nation's tech base for civil space – to innovate and advance solutions for those problems," said Dr. Kurt Vogel, associate administrator for Space Technology at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "STMD is developing many critical technologies, but shifting to a more open and collaborative approach allows us to better prioritize our efforts and align with key stakeholder needs while ensuring we all get the most bang out of our investments."

NASA aims to collect broad aerospace community feedback on critical technology shortfalls – like additive manufacturing, cryogenic fluid management, in-situ resource utilization, and others – ahead of future operations on the Moon and Mars . Understanding and prioritizing the most important and impactful efforts allows STMD to appropriately direct available resources to best support mission needs for NASA and the nation.

Over the next month, NASA's key technology stakeholders, including U.S. industry, academia, and other government agencies, will participate in virtual meetings, provide feedback, and submit their shortfall priorities to the agency. NASA will process the data and aggregate a final list in order of priority, and it plans to make the final list available to stakeholders and the public.

"Our prioritization process must be rigorous, detailed, and consistent year-over-year," said Vogel. "We intend to be open and transparent, build trust, and provide a valuable tool for STMD and our stakeholders to guide investment strategies across the civil space community."

More details: Found here

Where Is Planet Nine? Its Hiding Places Are Running Out

From observing other stars, we know the possibility of such an as-yet-undiscovered world isn⁘t too far-fetched (figuratively speaking). In 2000, astronomers published a paper showing that an exoplanet might exist around the star HD 163296 at a distance of nearly 50 billion kilometers, over 10 times Neptune⁘s distance from the sun (not-so-humblebrag: I was an author on that paper), much farther out than models at the time suggested. Indeed, several planets were later found orbiting that star at great distances. So a priori, it⁘s possible a planet might exist in the cold, dark depths of our own solar system. It could even be quite large, the size of an ice giant like Neptune .

Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, they gave this hypothetical planet the moniker Planet Nine (or P9), a bit of fun-poking at astronomers still unhappy that the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto⁘s planetary status in 2006 . And since I brought it up, I⁘ll add that I don⁘t think ⁘planet⁘ is something we need to define; in fact, I don⁘t think it can be defined . It⁘s a concept, not a definition, like ⁘red⁘ or ⁘continent.⁘ The edges around such words are fuzzy, and we shouldn⁘t allow our thinking about them to be overly constrained by arbitrary definitions.

Anyway, over time, more indirect evidence for P9⁘s existence came to light , notably a slight tilt of the sun⁘s spin axis, none of which was conclusive, but all curious enough to keep astronomers searching for a culprit.

Still, all the indirect evidence in the world (or worlds) doesn⁘t add up to a single direct observation of the planet. So the game was afoot.

Many telescopes take sky surveys, wide-angle image campaigns that map large swaths of the heavens to look for what astronomer call ⁘ transients ⁘: objects that change brightness or position over time. These include exploding stars, black holes fitfully gobbling down matter, asteroids and, potentially, Planet Nine.

Brown and Batygin have led the charge to sift through the search data. Along with their colleague Matthew Holman they published their latest results in the April 2024 issue of the Astronomical Journal .

Read more: Found here

NASA Selects New Crew For Next Simulated Mars Journey

NASA has selected a new crew of four volunteers to participate in a simulated mission to Mars within a habitat at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

HERA enables scientists to study how crew members adapt to isolation, confinement, and remote conditions before NASA sends astronauts on deep space missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Crew members will carry out scientific research and operational tasks throughout their simulated mission to the Red Planet, including a "walk" on Mars's surface using virtual reality. They will also experience increasing communication delays lasting up to five minutes each way with Mission Control Center as they "near" Mars.

In a first for HERA, one crew member, Shareef Al Romaithi, hails from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and will participate in the mission through a partnership between NASA and the UAE's Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC).

As with the previous HERA mission this year, NASA's Human Research Program is conducting 18 human health studies during the mission. The experiments will evaluate the physiological, behavioral, and psychological responses of crew members in an environment similar to what astronauts will face on a trip to Mars. Seven of these studies are collaborations with the MBRSC and the European Space Agency (ESA). Insights gleaned from the studies will allow researchers to develop and test strategies aimed at helping astronauts overcome obstacles on long missions deep into space.

Jason Lee is an associate professor-in-residence at the University of Connecticut⁘s School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering. He teaches thermal fluids, manufacturing, and sports engineering courses. He also serves as his university's mechanical engineering undergraduate director and its NASA Connecticut Space Grant Consortium campus director.

Stephanie Navarro is a space operations officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. She has more than a decade of prior enlisted service in the Air National Guard and was deployed in support of Operation Freedom Sentinel to help provide secure communication capabilities in the Middle East. She began her civilian career as an information technology specialist for the U.S. Army, providing systems engineering for data-center modernization efforts in Hawaii. Navarro currently works at Northrop Grumman as a senior systems engineer, specializing in satellite communication programs.

Source: Visit website

NASA Vs. Musk And Bezos: Who Pays Aerospace Engineers More? The Answer May Shock You

Aerospace engineers entering the field today, or looking to advance in their careers, have a multitude of options. They can apply at traditional aerospace companies like Boeing or Lockheed, become government employees at NASA, or seek employment and glory at the next generation of aerospace companies, including private firms like Elon Musk's SpaceX or Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.

Thanks to the higher profiles of these billionaire-owned companies, traditional aerospace firms and NASA are having difficulty recruiting engineers with the "right stuff," so to speak.

Generous compensation packages undoubtedly aid in recruiting. Ann Richmond, deputy director of talent services at NASA, admitted to Fortune.com that NASA has "little bit of a tougher time" competing with private space companies when it comes to salary.

According to Fortune.com, NASA uses the federal government's General Schedule for pay scales, with salaries determined based on the level of degree held, and starting at $54,557 for an engineer with a bachelor's degree. If you have a doctorate, your starting salary will top out at $73,038.

Private companies have fewer financial constraints when it comes to hiring. SpaceX has listed starting salaries for aerospace engineers ranging from $95,000 up to $115,000. A group engineering manager at SpaceX earns $207,314, according to Comparably.com. The average salary in engineering sits at $136,515, Comparably.com reported.

Read more: Visit website

NASA Confirms Origin Of Space Junk That Crashed Through Florida Home

By Jess Weatherbed , a news writer focused on creative industries, computing, and internet culture. Jess started her career at TechRadar, covering news and hardware reviews.

NASA has confirmed suspicions that the strange object that crashed into a Florida home last month did indeed come from the International Space Station (ISS). The agency analyzed the cylindrical object after it tore through the roof and two floors of a house in Naples on March 8th and established that it came from a cargo pallet of aging batteries that was released from the ISS back in 2021.

It's not unheard of for space-related junk to find its way back to Earth — components from rockets launched by SpaceX and (more recently) the China National Space Administration have crashed into properties, for example, though such debris typically burns up in the atmosphere. NASA said that also should have happened in this incident, and it's now trying to work out why it didn't.

"The hardware was expected to fully burn up during entry through Earth's atmosphere on March 8, 2024," said NASA. "The International Space Station will perform a detailed investigation of the jettison and re-entry analysis to determine the cause of the debris survival and to update modeling and analysis, as needed. These models require detailed input parameters and are regularly updated when debris is found to have survived atmospheric re-entry to the ground."

Reference: Found here

SpaceX Faces Competition From Blue Origin, Rocket Lab And Itself

But after several years atop the space industry, rivaled only by nation states such as China, Elon Musk's space venture may finally be facing a space industry that has grown in its wake and is poised to challenge SpaceX on a number of fronts.

Several space ventures, including Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, Rocket Lab and the United Launch Alliance — the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing — are poised to debut new heavy-lift rockets this year to compete with SpaceX's Falcon 9 workhorse. The Pentagon is looking for another provider for the lucrative business of launching national security payloads. Boeing is set to finally launch a crew of astronauts for NASA to the International Space Station, giving NASA, which has relied on SpaceX for the past four years, another way for its astronauts to orbit. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

And while SpaceX has dominated the internet satellite industry by launching some 6,000 Starlink satellites, Amazon, backed by a $10 billion investment, is gearing up to fly its own constellation as well.

Those developments, however, may be too late to pose a serious challenge, analysts say, as SpaceX continues to press ahead with reserves of money, momentum and a wartime-like urgency that Musk has infused into the company. Its deep ties to NASA and the Pentagon, which have awarded it billions of dollars in contracts and elevated it to prime contractor status, have also given it a lead that will be difficult to erode.

And SpaceX continues to operate at a blistering pace, expanding the frontiers of what is possible. It flew its Falcon 9 rocket nearly 100 times last year — an unprecedented cadence in an industry that for years flew closer to about a dozen times a year. This year, it's aiming for nearly 150 launches of the booster, which flies back to a landing site so it can be reused.

In a report, Morgan Stanley estimated that SpaceX's revenue for fiscal year 2024 should reach $13 billion, a 54 percent increase over last year. By 2035, as SpaceX's Starlink internet satellite constellation grows, revenue could reach $100 billion, the firm reported.

More details: Visit website

2,000-foot-wide 'Potentially Hazardous' Asteroid Has Just Made Its Closest Approach To Earth ⁘ And You Can See It...

The hefty asteroid, named 2013 NK4, is around 2,000 feet (610 meters) wide, making it about twice the size of the "god of chaos" asteroid Apophis, which will make a superclose approach to Earth in 2029, EarthSky reported .

The space rock made its closest approach to Earth at 10:50 a.m. EDT Monday (April 15), when it reached around 2 million miles (3.2 million kilometers) from our planet, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) . At the time, it was traveling at around 37,000 mph (59,000 km/h).

The asteroid is big enough to destroy a large city and cause serious environmental impacts if it were to smash into Earth. According to NASA's calculations, the space rock will likely never get anywhere near impacting Earth. However, due to its size and proximity to our planet, it is still considered a potentially hazardous asteroid .

While the asteroid poses no threat to Earth, its close approach is still of great interest to astronomers, who are currently tracking the space rock with radio telescopes. They hope to capture specialized radar images, known as delay-Doppler images, which should help shed more light on the asteroid's size and shape.

Source: Visit website

The April 8 Total Solar Eclipse

On April 8, 2024, the Moon's shadow swept across North America, treating millions to a breathtaking view of a total solar eclipse. As the Moon passed in front of the Sun, it revealed the Sun's wispy white outer atmosphere — the corona.

Pictures of total solar eclipses are beautiful — they capture a moment happening so far away, yet feels so close at the same time. But being there in person, you experience it in 3D. The eclipse doesn't just appear in the sky. You feel it all around you. The light slowly dims, then suddenly engulfs you in darkness from every angle, while the Sun's corona emerges in the sky.

Although you know totality is coming, its arrival can still be overwhelming. For some people, their hearts race or their eyes well up with tears. You try to absorb everything you can in those minutes: from the corona, to the planets peeking out around the eclipse, to the temperature drop, to cheers of excitement from the community around you, even changes in animal behaviors.

Total solar eclipses are a great reminder that humans are animals — we, too, feel the strangeness that causes other animals to have unusual behaviors. When experiencing the sudden change to darkness, and the sudden restoration of light, it can feel eerie and special. The world returns to normal around you, but those minutes of totality were anything but.

On April 8, millions of people gathered across the path of totality, including at 14 NASA "SunSpot" locations where attendees could speak to NASA experts and engage in educational activities. At many locations, visitors set up blankets, lawn chairs, and picnics as they prepared to watch the Sun turn into a crescent until its bright face completely disappeared.

During totality, viewers could spot planets. In this view from Dallas, Venus and Jupiter were very bright. Their brief appearance in the middle of the day were reminders of Earth's place in the solar system.

Viewers could also see bright pink prominences flowing out from the Sun. Prominences are unstable clouds of plasma suspended above the Sun by strong magnetic forces. The prominences spotted during the eclipse were many times larger than Earth itself. It's rare to be able to spot prominences from the ground unaided by a telescope, so seeing these prominences with just your eyes was a unique opportunity for those on the ground.

Source: See here

Quanta Magazine

These periodic orbits around a model of the Jupiter-Europa system show the varied and intricate possibilities that mission planners must knit together.

To plan convoluted tours like this one, trajectory planners use computer models that meticulously calculate the trajectory one step at a time. The planning takes hundreds of mission requirements into account, and it's bolstered by decades of mathematical research into orbits and how to join them into complicated tours. Mathematicians are now developing tools which they hope can be used to create a more systematic understanding of how orbits relate to one another.

"What we have is the previous computations that we've done, that guide us as we do the current computations. But it's not a complete picture of all the options that we have," said Daniel Scheeres , an aerospace engineer at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

"I think that was my biggest frustration when I was a student," said Dayung Koh, an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "I know these orbits are there, but I don't know why." Given the expense and complexity of missions to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, not knowing why orbits are where they are is a problem. What if there is a completely different orbit that could get the job done with fewer resources? As Koh said: "Did I find them all? Are there more? I can't tell that."

In 2021, Koh came across a paper that discussed how to grapple with chaotic orbits from the perspective of symplectic geometry, an abstract field of math that is generally far removed from messy real-world details. She started to suspect that symplectic geometry might have the tools she needed to better understand orbits, and she got in touch with Agustin Moreno , the author of the paper. Moreno, then a postdoctoral fellow at Uppsala University in Sweden, was surprised and pleased to hear that someone at NASA was interested in his work. "It was unexpected, but it was also quite interesting and sort of motivating at the same time," he said.

Read more: See here

Robots Cook Your Burger And Fries At This New California Fast Food Restaurant

More details: See here

NASA Next-Generation Solar Sail Boom Technology Ready For Launch From New Zealand - Space Coast...

Home » Home » WATCH: NASA Next-Generation Solar Sail Boom Technology Ready for Launch from New Zealand

ABOVE VIDEO: NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System seeks to advance future space travel and expand our understanding of our Sun and Solar System.

(NASA) – Sailing through space might sound like something out of science fiction, but the concept is no longer limited to books or the big screen. In April, a next-generation solar sail technology – known as the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System – will launch aboard Rocket Lab's Electron rocket from the company's Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand.

Solar sails use the pressure of sunlight for propulsion, angling toward or away from the Sun so that photons bounce off the reflective sail to push a spacecraft.

This eliminates heavy propulsion systems and could enable longer-duration and lower-cost missions. Although mass is reduced, solar sails have been limited by the material and structure of the booms, which act much like a sailboat's mast. But NASA is about to change the sailing game for the future.

The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System demonstration uses a twelve-unit (12U) CubeSat built by NanoAvionics to test a new composite boom made from flexible polymer and carbon fiber materials that are stiffer and lighter than previous boom designs. The mission's primary objective is to successfully demonstrate new boom deployment, but once deployed, the team also hopes to prove the sail's performance.

Like a sailboat turning to capture the wind, the solar sail can adjust its orbit by angling its sail. After evaluating the boom deployment, the mission will test a series of maneuvers to change the spacecraft's orbit and gather data for potential future missions with even larger sails.

"Booms have tended to be either heavy and metallic or made of lightweight composite with a bulky design – neither of which work well for today's small spacecraft. Solar sails need very large, stable, and lightweight booms that can fold down compactly," said Keats Wilkie, the mission's principal investigator at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

Reference: Visit website

Scientists Find Planet That May Be More Habitable Than Earth

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories , we're happy to send you some reminders

A recently discovered planet about 1,200 light-years away might be more habitable than Earth, according to scientists.

This information will be used when choosing which objects to focus our attention on as potentially habitable spaces.

This improves upon a previous method which relied heavily on the 'Goldilocks zone' or habitable zone - the range of orbits around a sun with the right temperature to support liquid water.

The exoplanet is described a super-Earth - its mass and radius are bigger than Earth's but smaller than Uranus and Neptune - and it has an equilibrium temperature of -40 degrees.

About the new measuring index, one of the paper's lead authors, Rory Barnes from the University of Washington's Virtual Planetary Laboratory, said: "Basically, we've devised a way to take all the observational data that are available and develop a prioritisation scheme, so that as we move into a time when there are hundreds of targets available, we might be able to say, 'Okay, that's the one we want to start with'."

The actual habitability of Kepler-442b is uncertain because its atmosphere and surface are unknown.

After successfully landing robots on the red planet, NASA is continuing its plans to send humans up to join them.

Source: See here

UFO Spied Over Texas During Solar Eclipse

Folks out viewing the eclipse in Texas on Monday seemed to get a bit of a surprise when they looked up and got an eyeful of UFO instead. According to The Daily Mail , a video of the incident shows a darkened sky with cloud cover as the Moon makes its way over to the top of the Sun.

The outlet notes that Texas was one of the numerous hotspots to view the totality of the eclipse, only visible for a little under four minutes at the most. But for some around the Arlington area, they got the extra showcase with the UFO.

The people filming the video can be heard mentioning "aliens" and they couldn't believe what they were seeing. "Something is flying through the air," one person can be heard, while others ask what it is they're seeing.

Plenty of people were confused about the reality of the situation, but some on social media claimed it wasn't anything otherworldly. "It's literally a helicopter shadow coming through the clouds," they wrote on X (formerly Twitter). "Seen this several times with airplanes."

Is it possible people saw a UFO in the skies over Arlington? Sure, but it is just as possible they were fooled by the Moon's trickery. It is more likely one of the more rational responses.

Read more: See here

U.S. Government Plans Review Of Space Technology Export Controls

COLORADO SPRINGS — The State and Commerce Departments will start a process this summer to update space systems on export control lists, potentially lessening the restrictions on some technologies.

Speaking at the 39 th Space Symposium April 9, Chirag Parikh, executive secretary of the National Space Council, said the upcoming review was needed to reflect rapid changes in space capabilities since the last time space export controls were reformed in the early 2010s.

"It's been over a decade since we had the last significant amount of export control review on space technology," he said. "I think the technology has evolved. I think the global capabilities of space have evolved."

Parikh said the plan is for the State Department and Commerce Department to release an advance notification for potential rulemaking in mid-June. That will consider what technologies currently on the U.S. Munitions List, which is administered by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), could be moved to the Commercial Control List, which is under the less restrictive Export Administration Regulations (EAR).

The notification does not mean any technologies will be moved from ITAR to EAR, but it will solicit comment on what technologies should be considered. "We encourage you to provide official responses when that comes out," he said, "and we look forward to being able to further facilitate some of the efforts going on here."

"While we've made progress, technology also moves on. If we don⁘t evolve our export control rules to cover what⁘s happening now, we're going to find ourselves in the exact same place we were a decade ago," said Mike Gold, chief growth officer at Redwire and who previously advocated for export control reforms, during a panel at the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference in February.

Parikh said he was aware of the need to keep U.S. companies competitive through updated export controls. "We need to make sure that we have a fair and level playing field so we have competition globally and we can also enable partnerships along the way as well."

Source: See here