Some Solar_Power Satellites Of The Future Might Be Solar_Powered Blimps That Float Around In The Stratosphere.

Futurism

If you're not already using a VPN, you haven't been paying attention

We can do more to protect our data.

Is it really all that important to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) for most of Your Communications?

Sunrise at Stonehenge marks The Longest Day of The Year and The Start of Summer!

Project Blue for Alpha Centauri.

One Search for Planets in The Alpha_Centauri System is: Project Blue. https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/10/project-blue-aims-to-snap-the-first-picture-of-an-exoplanet-in-alpha-centauri/

This is The Smallest Sized EXOPLANET Discovered by NASA's TRANSITING EXOPLANET SURVEY SATELLITE so far!

NASA's TESS mission finds its smallest planet yet

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered a world between the sizes of Mars and Earth orbiting a bright, cool, nearby star. The planet, called L 98-59b, marks the tiniest discovered by TESS to date.

Two other worlds orbit the same star. While all three planets’ sizes are known, further study with other telescopes will be needed to determine if they have atmospheres and, if so, which gases are present. The L 98-59 worlds nearly double the number of small exoplanets – that is, planets beyond our solar system – that have the best potential for this kind of follow-up.

“The discovery is a great engineering and scientific accomplishment for TESS,” said Veselin Kostov, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. “For atmospheric studies of small planets, you need short orbits around bright stars, but such planets are difficult to detect. This system has the potential for fascinating future studies.”

A paper on the findings, led by Kostov, was published in the June 27 issue of The Astronomical Journal.

Keep reading

(via For plants on alien worlds, it isn't easy being green - space - 11 April 2007 - New Scientist)

We Found the Universe’s First Type of Molecule

For decades, astronomers searched the cosmos for what is thought to be the first kind of molecule to have formed after the Big Bang. Now, it has finally been found. The molecule is called helium hydride. It’s made of a combination of hydrogen and helium. Astronomers think the molecule appeared more than 13 billion years ago and was the beginning step in the evolution of the universe. Only a few kinds of atoms existed when the universe was very young. Over time, the universe transformed from a primordial soup of simple molecules to the complex place it is today — filled with a seemingly infinite number of planets, stars and galaxies. Using SOFIA, the world’s largest airborne observatory, scientists detected newly formed helium hydride in a planetary nebula 3,000 light-years away. It was the first ever detection of the molecule in the modern universe. Learn more about the discovery:

Helium hydride is created when hydrogen and helium combine. 

Since the 1970s, scientists thought planetary nebula NGC 7027—a giant cloud of gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus—had the right environment for helium hydride to exist. 

But space telescopes could not pick out its chemical signal from a medley of molecules. 

Enter SOFIA, the world’s largest flying observatory! 

By pointing the aircraft’s 106-inch telescope at the planetary nebula and using a tool that works like a radio receiver to tune in to the “frequency” of helium hydride, similar to tuning a radio to a favorite station…

…the molecule’s chemical signal came through loud and clear, bringing a decades-long search to a happy end.

The discovery serves as proof that helium hydride can, in fact, exist in space. This confirms a key part of our basic understanding of the chemistry of the early universe. SOFIA is a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that allows astronomers to study the solar system and beyond in ways that are not possible with ground-based telescopes. Find out more about the mission at www.nasa.gov/SOFIA

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Lanterns! (at Molly Woo's)

Here's a good new Kindle Book on The Future of Driverless Vehicles to read. "Life As A Passenger: How Driverless Cars Will Change the World" by David Kerrigan

'Puffed up planet' orbiting small star HATS-6 found

A huge planet "too big for its star" orbiting a faint star has been discovered by Australian researchers -- with the help of a backyard astronomer.

A Huge_Planet that’s "too big for its Host_Star" has been spotted orbiting a Faint Red_Dwarf Star by some Australian Researchers - with the help of a Backyard Astronomer.  

Here are two Extrasolar_Planets in The Habitable_Zone of The Particular K_Type Star they orbit where it's possible that There could be Liquid_Water on The Surface of each one of Them.  If there are indeed Oceans of Liquid_Water on Their Surfaces.  Then these recently discovered Exoplanets could be Good SETI Search Targets!