Space – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Jan 23
2019

From fruit flies to Boy Scouts: A brief history of science in space

The formal handover of the Chinese payload to NanoRacks at the Space Life Sciences Lab in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Photo credit: NanoRacks.

Small effort, big gains

Clearly, a lot of progress has been made toward making the space lab more analogous to the Earth lab in the past few years, and NanoRacks has played no small part in those improvements. Despite the challenges that still remain for microgravity research, some truly significant work has been accomplished. With just a little more investment, Carruthers believes, much larger gains can be made.

Jan 23
2019

NASA finds ice on the surface of the moon

Definitive evidence that our moon, both cold and dark, has water ice at both of its poles.

Jackson Ryan

Jan 23
2019

This high-tech LED lighting could grow veggies in space

OSRAM, a high-tech global lighting company, is developing better ways to grow vegetables both on Earth and in outer space. Here’s a peek at their CES offerings.

Jan 22
2019

Why your new heart could be made in space one day

Microgravity is ideal for making a range of materials, but will space manufacture ever be cost effective?

Jan 21
2019

Stargazers share images of the super blood wolf moon

Were you lucky enough to see it?

Jan 20
2019

VocativVideosBillboards Of The Future Might Be Floating In The Night Sky

Forget highway billboards… the future of ads might be floating in SPACE.

Jan 19
2019

Bizarre 4-Star System Forms Planets in a Vertical Disk Orbit

Researchers have discovered a highly unusual vertically-oriented protoplanetary disk orbiting around a four-star system.

Jan 19
2019

Geothermal Heating Could Make Life Possible on the Super Earth Planet at Barnard’s Star

In 2018, scientists announced the discovery of a extrasolar planet orbiting Barnard’s star, an M-type (red dwarf) that is just 6 light years away. Using the Radial Velocity method, the research team responsible for the discovery determined that this exoplanet (Barnard’s Star b) was at least 3.2 times as massive as Earth and experienced average surface temperatures of about −170 °C (−274 °F) – making it both a “Super-Earth” and “ice planet”.

Based on these findings, it was a foregone conclusion that Barnard b would be hostile to life as we know it. But according to new study by a team of researchers from Villanova University and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), it is possible – assuming the planet has a hot iron/nickel core and experiences enhanced geothermal activity – that this giant iceball of a planet could actually support life.

The findings were shared at the 233^rd meeting of the American Astronomy Society (AAS), which took place from January 6th to 10th in Seattle, Washington. The presentation, titled “X-Ray, UV, Optical Irradiances and Age of Barnard’s Star’s New Super Earth Planet – ‘Can Life Find a Way’ on such a Cold Planet”, was delivered during a press conference on January 10th and concerned findings that appeared in a recent study.

Jan 19
2019

This is how Jupiter protects Earth from asteroids

Jan 19
2019

Amazon is launching a public version of its invite-only robotics and AI conference for billionaires and tech elite

“Hear from leaders across science, academia, and business as they share the latest research and scientific advancements, industry innovation, and their perspective on how these domains will evolve,” Amazon’s re: Mars site says. Speakers from Amazon, MIT, UC Berkeley, NASA and Harvard are on the docket.

Amazon announces a new re: Mars conference that will gather experts in machine learning, robotics, automation and space in Las Vegas.