Lifeboat Foundation

Caltech researchers have found evidence of a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune (which orbits the sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun.

The researchers, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, discovered the planet’s existence through mathematical modeling and computer simulations but have not yet observed the object directly.

“This would be a real ninth planet,” says Brown, the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy. “There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third. It’s a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that’s still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting.”

Read more

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The solar system may have a ninth planet after all.

This one is 5,000 times bigger than outcast Pluto and billions of miles farther away, say scientists who presented “good evidence” for a long-hypothesized Planet X on Wednesday.

The gas giant is thought to be almost as big as its nearest planetary neighbor Neptune, quite possibly with rings and moons. It’s so distant that it would take a mind-blowing 10,000 to 20,000 years to circle the sun.

Read more

Space Tourism … and Much More.

Copyright ©2016 Parabolic Arc.

Read more

PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 20 (UPI) — Astronomers at Caltech say they’ve discovered significant evidence of a large, hidden body at the edge of the solar system — a 9th planet. The team of researchers have dubbed the body “Planet Nine.”

The scientists haven’t actually seen Planet Nine. No one has. But they’ve inferred its presence by studying the orbits of several icy objects beyond Neptune. Scientists noticed the orbits of these Kuiper belt objects, or KBOs, feature similar anomalies.

The orbital oddities suggested the objects were all being affected by a singular source, the gravity of a large object.

Read more

A scrappy but successful startup in the space industry, Masten Space Systems, is making new moves toward opening an office at Cape Canaveral.

Masten recently hired former NASA engineer Jason Hopkins as a business-development scout at Kennedy Space Center.

“I’m basically paving the way to get us set up here and have an office here,” Hopkins said. “Masten is a very small, efficient company, with about 30 people total at the Mojave (Calif.) Air and Space Port. We are considering another office here with the same capabilities.”

Read more

“Though humble in appearance, this object is the product of great ambitions. Dubbed a “Lunar Rake,” it was designed and manufactured in the late 1960s in partnership with NASA. A facsimile of the implement that astronauts would theoretically use to scrape up dust on the moon, this model was used only during training.”

Read more

Hopefully one day soon we’ll be able to add a fifth cosmic phenomena that can travel faster than the speed of light to the list — humanity.

When Albert Einstein first predicted that light travels the same speed everywhere in our universe, he essentially stamped a speed limit on it: 670,616,629 miles per hour — fast enough to circle the entire Earth eight times every second.

But that’s not the entire story. In fact, it’s just the beginning.

Continue reading “4 Cosmic Phenomena That Travel Faster Than The Speed Of Light” »

The material to create space elevators will be developed by 2030, enabling a new golden age of space travel, according to a study published in the journal New Space.

“The material needed to have a 100,000 km rope will become real before 2030 and enable the creation of this low-cost access to space,” wrote Cathy W Swan, of SouthWest Analytic Network, Peter A Swan and John M Knapman, of the International Space Elevator Consortium, and David I Raitt, retired from the European Space Agency.

A space elevator would make launching people, satellites and craft into geostationary orbit dramatically cheaper than at present, with the researchers estimating it would drop from the current prices of $25,000 per kg for commercial launches and $40,000 per kg for governmental launches to $100 per kg for materials.

Read more

“Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who lived aboard the International Space Station from 2012 to 2013, recently explained to CBC Music how difficult it was to play guitar in space, along with some pointers for future space musicians.”

Read more