From the archives.
Solar rotation rates. Credit: NASA
Most Astronomy 101 courses continually pound the idea that our own star is almost boringly average. After all, it’s only one of billions of G-spectral type, solar-like stars in the galaxy.
But the sun’s relative magnetic quiescence, in comparison to other sun-like stars, may be the reason we’re here to talk about it. Or so suggests new observations of a nearby bright solar type star that is a close analogue to our own.
You can watch the entire 24-hour broadcast right here: http://asteroidday.org/live | View the full schedule, here.
Asteroid Day LIVE Speakers from Luxembourg
Time is running fast! There’s officially only one month left until Asteroid Day 2017 and our live broadcast programme is taking clear forms. The schedule is set, the outline drafted, a studio set being built and most of the speakers confirmed. Here’s our rundown of whom you can expect during the 6 hours live from Luxembourg on June 30th from 12 – 6 PM (Berlin time / UTC+2). This line-up in addition to the many guests and speakers over the course of the 24-hour-live-broadcast during the other programme slots by our partners at ESA, JAXA, NASA, the University of Arizona and many others.
Posted in space
CHICAGO — NASA is revealing new details Wednesday about its first-ever mission to fly into the sun’s atmosphere.
The Solar Probe Plus will be the first spacecraft to fly directly into the sun’s atmosphere.
NASA says it will zoom within 4 miles of the sun’s surface and will hopefully answer decades old questions about the physics of how stars work.
While the middle part of the 20th century saw the world’s superpowers racing to explore space, the first global competition of this century is being set in a much smaller arena: our DNA.
May 26 (UPI) — Officials with Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, say their scientists have identified plankton and other microorganisms among dust samples collected from the outside of the International Space Station.
“The micrometeorites and comet dust that settle on the ISS surface may contain biogenic substance of extra-terrestrial origin in its natural form,” Roscosmos officials said in a news release. “The ISS surface is possibly a unique and easily available collector and keeper of comet substance and, possibly, of biomaterial of extra-terrestrial origin.”
NASA officials said they couldn’t confirm the story.
