In the news (I)

Good evening folks.

In this post I thought I'd commentate on a couple of articles that are space-science related in the news this month. There appears to be a lot going on lately, whether this be that I am more frequently checking or that there is actually more activity I don't know - anyway here goes!


EXOPLANETS!  --planets outside our solar system--
This is big interest of mine and certainly a hot topic in astrophysics, at the time of writing, 518 planets have been discovered outside of our solar system. The significant thing about these this month is that rather a small rocky one has been found, I say small, it is still 40% more massive than the Earth. This is the first exoplanet to be discovered that is composed of a rocky material (all others being large gas giants), like our very own Solar system's inner planets, however due to it being a mere 1.8 million miles away from it's star - the rocky material that composes it is certainly in a molten liquid state.

Kepler-10b, artists impression
Credit: NASA

Most of the planets discovered so far have been far greater mass than Earth and are usually far larger than our largest neighbour Jupiter. Without getting technical, these planets are spotted because they make their parent star move due to gravity, this movement is for shorthand referred to as a star 'wobble'. The bigger the planet or the closer the planet to the star, the larger the wobble; this is why mainly huge planets are found first.

This news obviously shows progress is being made in finding smaller planets, but as for a planet that really is  Earth-like, I.e. being far enough from it's parent star to be fairly cool, I doubt this will occur this year. My reasoning for this is simply that it took 8 months to detect this one, and it had the advantage (in terms of being detectable) of being 20 times closer to it's star then Mercury is to our Sun! Still, it is still fantastic to hear about the various combinations of planets that are out there.



The problem with Astrology
I must admit, this next piece of news made me laugh. I will post the video below first for your perusal.


Credit: BBC

So, Astrology has been around since ancient times in various forms. Generally it is the belief that the bodies of our solar system and galaxy that we can see, can be used to obtain information about ourselves. Lately this is in the form of star signs, telling you how your day will be and maybe even your future.

Astrology, along with palm reading, Scientology and Go Compare adverts, make up a high percentage of my pet hates. The position of Saturn in relation to the Sun has about as much effect on your day as the position of  the clothes in your wardrobe, in fact; the latter has significantly more to do with your day. [Rant over].

The funny thing about this video is that the only science that this pseudo-science is based upon has turned out to be wrong, for thousands of years - it was formerly based around a different North star. Now the genuine followers of Astrology are panicking because they have been living in the wrong star sign, due to using two different North Stars. Guess they didn't see that coming...



European Space Agency (ESA) - Rivalling NASA
So finally I quickly wanted to show people this image:

ESA's space sport in French Guiana

Whilst I'm a scientist in the field of space physics, I was blissfully unaware that Europe was such a big contender, above shows the European space-port in French Guiana (N.E. of S.America). This seems almost science-fiction, it is a shame to see this kind of place doesn't make the news quite as much as NASA.

If you live in the UK, in 2009 the government paid  ESA approx. €254 million. So it would interest people to see how their money is spent. Since it's creation in 1975, it has sent over 200 rockets into space. ESA has dubbed 2011 'The year of rockets' for Europe, with as many as one per month going up (that's almost as many as Heathrow in a cold December!). So it is exciting times ahead.


I'm going to leave it at that tonight, see you soon!
James