ISS, Exoplanets Update
Hey Space Placers!
We now have 6 astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as 3 new astronauts of Expedition 44 joined the 3 already on board. The Russian Soyuz successfully rendezvoused with ISS just after midnight EDT on 7/23/15.
NASA's exoplanet hunting spacecraft Kepler was the topic of a news conference on 7/23/15. It was announced that Kepler had "confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another “Earth.”
Sky Guy in VA
We now have 6 astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as 3 new astronauts of Expedition 44 joined the 3 already on board. The Russian Soyuz successfully rendezvoused with ISS just after midnight EDT on 7/23/15.
NASA's exoplanet hunting spacecraft Kepler was the topic of a news conference on 7/23/15. It was announced that Kepler had "confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another “Earth.”
"The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone -- the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet -- of a G2-type star, like our sun. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030."
 |
| Artist's Conception of Kepler 452-b (R) & Earth (L) CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle |
What a time we live in - exploring our own solar system and discovering new planets beyond our own system.
Sky Guy in VA
Comments
Post a Comment