Events In Space We have what is being called the world’s first commercial spaceplane. The plane, which was under development for years is now ready to be shipped to NASA. The name of the craft is Dream Chaser. It was produced by Sierra Space. The plane will be sent into space where it can deliver cargo to the space station. On the way back it will unfold its wings for reentry into the atmosphere. A module will attach to the plane which will hold cargo. The cargo containers are single use only. When emptied they will be sent into the atmosphere to burn up. I personally do not like this idea. I had read an article talking about pollution being caused by old satellites and such crashing back into the atmosphere. That was something I never thought about. Even if this is not true, this is a very primitive way of doing things. I would like to see a cost estimate on doing it this way verses a reusable cargo container. I do admit however when we consider the cost of space vehicles, a cargo container is probably the cheapest element. By the way, the plane is rated at 15 flights. The retired space shuttles were rated for 100 flights. This sounds like a step backwards in some ways. Scientists are saying a super volcano eruption on Pluto may prove there is a hidden ocean under the surface of the planet. Pluto was declassified as a planet several years ago and is now considered a dwarf planet. We seem to be finding water exists in way more places than we suspected. Just recently it was announced a huge underground ocean was found on earth at a depth of 410 miles deep. There is so much water it is said the water amounts to three times the amount of all the water on the surface. I don’t believe we will be able to get to it any time soon because the deepest man has drilled is 4.36 miles. If the water is really there, it might be boiling hot. This has not stopped life from developing near volcanic vents in the ocean, which are also boiling water. Something very strange happened in space 70 years ago and even today there is still no answer for it. Three stars just disappeared. What could have happened? I have some theories about this but I was only an amateur astronomer. First of all, they may never have really been there. What the astronomers were seeing could have been images of stars in other locations cast there by gravitational lensing. This is a process which makes objects look like they are in multiple places. Maybe something interfered with that process. Another guess I have is maybe the objects were not stars, and some other types of objects we know nothing about. The third guess is maybe a huge black hole is now in front of them, and they can no longer be seen. Lastly, maybe they were giant alien craft which moved. Giant spacecraft have been reported being seen heading our way and disappearing in the past, but it is not talked about much. Sometimes even an old satellite can be useful. This is what happened when a satellite from the Cold War was used to take photos of the earth. The images were declassified and what was in them was very interesting. There were almost 400 Roman forts found in the images. They were located in Syria and Iraq. We are still learning about the Romans and the way they lived. Archaeologists are now saying at least some Roman forts were more like places where trade took place, rather than just being there for defense. There is a dwarf planet, not too far from Mars, which is said to have a lot of organic matter. The body is Ceres, and it is in the asteroid belt, which is between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres though small by earth standards, is the largest body in the asteroid belt. It is the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system. It has a diameter of 587.82 miles and compared to Pluto which is also now a dwarf planet, it is only 1/14th the size. The organic compounds found there were thought only to exist around a crater, but this idea has changed and it is felt they are more wide spread. It also has a large amount of water ice. Could life be existing somewhere on Ceres? We have found out there are immense collisions taking place in space. Scientists are saying they are so powerful they can cause gravity waves which are detectable on earth. They are said to affect space time. This means that besides distorting light they can even actually affect time. I find this a very hard concept to not only understand, but to accept. One has to wonder if in the past the earth was ever hit with the effects of this and people lost time and never knew it? The rational for a search for a ninth planet, just might be faulty. Astronomers based the fact there was probably a ninth planet on the fact its gravity was pulling on some bodies in space, but two physicists say this pull is not due to there being an unknown planet, but it is due to the gravitational field of the galaxy trying to align bodies over time. Could they be correct? I believe more study in this area is necessary. Chinese astronomers say their new space telescope will outdo Hubble. I say too bad for them we have the James Webb telescope, let’s see you top that right now. We are also launching other newer telescopes. One has a mirror that is a single 6.6 foot diameter. It is an ultraviolet-optical device. The Hubble mirror is 7.6 feet in diameter. Artificial Intelligence is getting into every field, including science. Astronomers used to have to scan the heavens and photos to detect things like a supernova explosion. Recently, an artificial intelligence program, that is what they are programs, has discovered one by itself. The program was specialized for this task and was named Bright Transient Survey Bot or BTSbot. It can automatically detect, identify and classify a supernovae. A supernovae is a giant explosion of a star and is very bright in space. The Keck telescope has discovered a quiescent galaxy which is massive. Quiescent means the galaxy no longer forms new stars. It also has a high red shift. This means the galaxy is probably moving away from us at a high speed. It is believed this galaxy comes from a former giant elliptical galaxy. Very few of these types of galaxies have been found.
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