Aug 13, 2016 01:04 AM
"We Have No Idea Why Our Solar System is So Unusual"
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/201...usual.html
EXCERPT: “We have no idea why our solar system doesn’t look like these others, and we would love an answer,” said planetary scientist Kevin Walsh, of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado. Since the time of Copernicus, scientists have slowly moved Earth out of its originally-conceived setting as the center of the Universe. Today, scientists recognize that the Sun is an average star—not too hot, not too cold, not too bright, not too dim—situated at a random spot in a typical spiral galaxy. So, when Kepler began its planet-hunting mission in 2009, scientists anticipated finding planetary systems that resembled our solar system. Instead, Kepler mostly discovered planet types that our solar system lacks. With bodies like “hot Jupiters” (Jupiter-sized planets that orbit their star in only a few days) to “super-Earths” (massive rocky planets far larger than our own), exoplanet systems have a knack for surprising observers. Of the 1,019 confirmed planets and 4,178 planetary candidates identified to date, only one system resembles our own with terrestrial planets near the star and giant planets set at a distance....
US clears first private company to make Moon landing
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articl...ng-428182/
EXCERPT: A Cape Canaveral, Florida-based start-up has become the first private company approved by the US government to land on the Moon with less than 17 months remaining in the Google Lunar X Prize Foundation. The approval means Moon Express can proceed with plans to launch an unmanned lunar lander from Cape Canaveral by 31 December 2017, the deadline to claim one of the two prizes in the $30 million competition....
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/201...usual.html
EXCERPT: “We have no idea why our solar system doesn’t look like these others, and we would love an answer,” said planetary scientist Kevin Walsh, of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado. Since the time of Copernicus, scientists have slowly moved Earth out of its originally-conceived setting as the center of the Universe. Today, scientists recognize that the Sun is an average star—not too hot, not too cold, not too bright, not too dim—situated at a random spot in a typical spiral galaxy. So, when Kepler began its planet-hunting mission in 2009, scientists anticipated finding planetary systems that resembled our solar system. Instead, Kepler mostly discovered planet types that our solar system lacks. With bodies like “hot Jupiters” (Jupiter-sized planets that orbit their star in only a few days) to “super-Earths” (massive rocky planets far larger than our own), exoplanet systems have a knack for surprising observers. Of the 1,019 confirmed planets and 4,178 planetary candidates identified to date, only one system resembles our own with terrestrial planets near the star and giant planets set at a distance....
US clears first private company to make Moon landing
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articl...ng-428182/
EXCERPT: A Cape Canaveral, Florida-based start-up has become the first private company approved by the US government to land on the Moon with less than 17 months remaining in the Google Lunar X Prize Foundation. The approval means Moon Express can proceed with plans to launch an unmanned lunar lander from Cape Canaveral by 31 December 2017, the deadline to claim one of the two prizes in the $30 million competition....