News and Commentary
News Departments News Items of Interest Questions and Answers UFO Sighting Reports
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News and Commentary
Dear readers of Interplanetary Life -
Dear readers of Interplanetary Life - In recent months, there have been some rather interesting discoveries being made. One has to do with the asteroid Vesta, a small body in our solar system, was found by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft to have huge mountains, valleys, cliffs, troughs, ridges, craters and plains - anything that a regular planet would have. It has led some to say that Vesta is not really as asteroid. It seems that some kind of process is going on in the universe that when planet-like bodies are created, they would have these various geological features. Very interesting. Another very interesting discovery came from NASA’s Kepler mission where the first three Earth-sized planets were discovered. And one of the three planets was actually about the size of Mars which is considerably smaller than Earth. With this Kepler mission, NASA should be able to discover many of the smaller planets that are out there greatly increasing the number of extra-solar planets discovered so far. The more planets discovered, the more opportunities for life to exist beyond our solar system. So keep watching the news. It is getting exciting.
Web Sites of Interest
1. A website that provides much education on our solar system is called Views of the Solar System. Produced by Calvin J. Hamilton, this website covers the Sun and all the planets, main asteroids, comets, meteorites, history, etc. To take a look at this website, go to: http://www.solarviews.com
2. The National Geographic Society maintains a website on the internet which provides much information and up-to-date news stories about our own planet and also includes a special section called Science and Space which has recent news about discoveries in space. Just go to: http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science
3. The James Webb Space Telescope, named after the NASA administrator who crafted the Apollo program is designed to find the first galaxies in the early universe. The project is currently working towards a 2018 launch date. To learn more about this space telescope, go to: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/
4. The radio telescope observatory known as the Very Large Array is located on the plains of San Agustin near Socorro, New Mexico. This array consists of 27 radio antennas in three lines making a giant Y shaped figure on the ground. To learn more about this radio observatory and what it does, go to: http://www.vla.nrao.edu/