ASTRONOMER-FRIENDLY SKIES IN THE FORECAST

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OFF THE EARTH, FOR THE EARTH

They're back!

Our amazing heroes, NASA astronaut Terry Virts, ESA astronaut Sam Cristoforetti and Rosocosmos cosmonaut Shkaplerov of mission #43 are back on Earth safely:

THE UNPREDICTABLE NATURE OF PLUTO'S SATELlITES

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Most moons in the Solar System, including Earh's satellite, rotates on its axis at the same speed as it orbits a planet, hence we see the same side of the Moon facing Earth. Not on Pluto, but then again, Pluto is not a planet. 

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE ISS

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Canadarm grapples SpaceX Dragon on the ISS:

A STEP TOWARDS LEAVING LOW-EARTH ORBIT

Humanity's next great leap in exploration resides in our ability to expand our knowledge of reality as enabled by frontier science R&D. The one-year expedition is especially close to my heart, featuring a middle aged astronaut and a cosmonaut (anyone can do science, if they really put their mind to it).

"It is the blueprint for global cooperation – one that enables a multinational partnership and advances shared goals in space exploration," says NASA. It is true, time to remember that in the best science fiction fashion (Star Trek comes to mind) not warring countries, but planets are represented in the galactic federation, and not conquest, but peaceful research and science is the ultimate goal.

Earth photographed from the ISS:

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PLANET HUNTER

The main goal of the Kepler Mission is to find Earth-like exoplanets, planets outside our Solar System. The Kepler spacecraft measures the brightness of stars, looking for signs of dimming that would indicate the presence of an orbiting planet. Transits that manifest as dimming, information can be learnt about the parent star; researchers can determine a planet's size, orbit and other characteristics. So far, more than 1800 terrestrial planets have been confirmed to exist. What an abundance of life not dissimilar to our planet's could this mean!

More on the Kepler Mission and exoplanets:

THE SEARCH FOR ANOTHER EARTH

TWO PLANETS, ONE STAR

TWO PLANETS, ONE SUN

Even though Mars is called the "Red Planet", the blue sunset is snapped by Curiosity presently doing research on Mars, and the red sunset is of Earth.

This picture evokes humanity's perennial longing to discover our neighbour. Mars is the only other planet where we can observe the Sun, our star-Mars' and Earth's-to set so identically that the two worlds seem interchangeable.

Photo credit: NASA