Tag Archives: Space

May 3 2012

The Milky Way’s 100 Billion Planets

This artist’s illustration gives an impression of how common planets are around the stars in the Milky Way. The planets, their orbits and their host stars are all vastly magnified compared to their real separations. A six-year search that surveyed millions of stars using the microlensing technique concluded that planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception. The average number of planets per star is greater than one. This means that there is likely to be a minimum of 1,500 planets within just 50 light-years of Earth.

Apr 19 2012

Amazing Astronomy: Victorian-Era Illustrations of the Heavens

A chromolithograph of the planet Jupiter, observed Nov. 1, 1880, at 9:30 p.m. The piece of art reveals Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, akin to a hurricane on Earth, which has been raging on the planet for hundreds of years.

–GALLERY–

Apr 10 2012

Billionaires Could Start Buying Planets

Private companies should be able to buy land on The Moon or other planets for tourism, mining or even to sell property, a space policy expert has said.

Rand Simberg said that if governments started to provide property rights then entrepreneurs and billionaires might pile in and invest – and added that the ‘time is ripe’.

He has proposed a law that would circumvent the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which states no individual or government can have sovereignty over any body in space.

Apr 6 2012

Brain Scans of Nasa Astronauts Reveal Serious Deformities

HOUSTON – Brain scans of Nasa astronauts who have returned to Earth after more than a month in space have revealed potentially serious abnormalities that could jeopardise long-term space missions.