Rasad-1

Iran has launched its second satellite into space. Rasad-1 is an Earth-observation satellite launched atop a Safir rocket.

Israel and other Western nations are concerned Iran is using a space program as a cover for developing rockets capable of reaching their cities. Couple that capability with Iran's continued nuclear program, and the concern increases. Iran, however, insists its nuclear program is focused on peaceful purposes, and that its goals in space are to put a man in space by 2020 and to land a man on the Moon by 2025.

Ten New Planets

France's CoRoT satellite, which is similar to NASA's Kepler, has discovered ten new exoplanets. All are Neptune-sized or larger, but they exhibit a range of other characteristics. One is barely as dense as water, for example, while another has the density of a rocky world. One orbits a star twice as old as the Sun, while another orbits a star that is roughly 600 million years old-- a babe in the cosmic woods. Two have elongated orbits, which is interesting because such orbits are thought to be unstable.

These ten bring the number of confirmed exoplanets to 565.

Gingrich On Space

In the Republican presidential debate on CNN last night, a citizen, not a reporter, asked Newt Gingrich what he would do about the U. S. space program. Gingrich gave something of a fuzzy answer-- not uncommon by politicians in these things-- but essentially he said he would de-emphasize NASA and depend more on private enterprise to open up space. He also said he's a supporter of space exploration. His response was consistent with answers he gave this blogger in an email interview a few years ago.

The debate was in New Hampshire, which is not a part of the country especially associated with the space program, so it's interesting the question was asked at all. Likely, none of the professional journalists involved would have asked the question.

Nine Billion Miles

NASA's two extraordinary Voyager spacecraft are now pushing through the edge of our Solar System-- a turbulent region of magnetic bubbles-- and heading into interstellar space. They will be the first manmade objects to leave the Sun's domain.

In numerical terms, the edge of the Solar System turns out to be roughly 9 billion miles away. That's yet one more fact the Voyagers have established. In an odd coincidence, according to projections, by mid-century the human population of Earth will be about 9 billion. By that time, the Voyagers may have reached true interstellar space.

Virgin Flight Tests

Virgin Galactic's series of flight tests for its SpaceShipTwo suborbital spacecraft is progressing well. Test flight objectives have progressed to testing the "feathering" mechanism of the craft, which will allow it to maintain stability through the high atmosphere as the ship returns to Earth. Future flights will test the mechanism at higher and higher altitudes.

SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry six passengers and two pilots. VG hopes to begin commercial flights sometime next year.

Asteroids And Life

A new study of pieces of a meteorite that dropped into Canada's Tagich Lake in 2000 suggests more of the basic building blocks of life may exist in asteroids than previously thought.

Researchers studying various sections of the 22 pounds of material obtained from the meteorite have found different concentrations of organic compounds, sugars, and acids in the various sections. That kind of variety in one body was unexpected, and may strengthen the case for life arriving on Earth from elsewhere.

That theory has been around for a while now. That the current water supply on Earth was delivered by comets after the new planet had begun to calm down is probably generally accepted by scientists today, so the idea that life could have arrived in a similar fashion can't be ruled out-- especially given the affinity between Earth life and water. Pushing Genesis somewhere out into the cosmos is not intellectually or emotionally satisfying, however. We may never know for certain exactly where and how we got our start. It is science with a mystical edge.

The Sun Acts Up

As human life depends on a stable Sun, astrophysicists like to think they understand the basics of solar behavior. So, when the Sun does something they've never seen before, they scramble to explain it.

Such an event happened June 7, when a moderate solar flare coupled with a huge coronal mass ejection. Scientists don't know yet if the two occurrences are somehow physically linked. The CME was also a bit odd. Usually, the mass ejected in such an event is in fact ejected-- blown out into the Solar System. This time, however, a big part of the mass ejected from the Sun actually fell back into the Sun. Scientists don't know yet why that happened, either, but they'll probably be working on it for years.