Creating a hotspot for understanding Venus – the Planetary Spectroscopy Laboratory – Europlanet Outreach
http://www.europlanet-eu.org/...tspot-for-understanding-venus-the-planetary-spectroscopy-laboratory/

A new simulation facility at the Planetary Spectroscopy Laboratory of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) could help revolutionise
our understanding of the hot, hidden surface of Venus. The Planetary Spectroscopy Laboratory (PSL) can analyse rock samples similar to those found on the surface of Venus
at temperatures up to 1000 degrees Celsius, enabling researchers to interpret accurately data acquired by space missions and ground-based observations.

https://news.wsu.edu/2018/02/07/wsu-builds-nasa-alien-ocean/

Engineers know how to design submarines on Earth, but building one gets a lot trickier when the temperature drops
to -300 Fahrenheit and the ocean is made of methane and ethane.

Washington State University researchers are working with NASA to determine how a submarine might work on Titan,
the largest of Saturn’s many moons and the second largest in the solar system. The space agency plans to launch
a real submarine into Titan seas in the next 20 years.

The researchers re-created a Titan ocean in a laboratory. They have published a paper on their work in the journal,
Fluid Phase Equilibria.

Oběžná dráha kolem Slunce....ehm.....auta. :D
Tohle před 10 lety říct někde na veřejnosti, ihned skončíte na izolovaném pavilonu psychiatrické léčebny! :-))

Tesla Roadster orbit SpaceX launched by Falcon Heavy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH2tUmEjujw


So Long, And Thanks for All the Fish!

Stephan's Quintet with the CFHT
http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/en/news/StephansQuintetLSB/

An extremely deep multi-band optical image from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT, Hawaii. USA) casts a new light on the formation process of the famous group
of 5 colliding galaxies. The image reveals structures undetected thus far, in particular a very extended red halo composed of old stars, and centered on an elliptical
galaxy, NGC 7317, which had been ignored in previous studies on the dynamics of the global collision. These results are published in the Monthly notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society by a team from the Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg (France), CEA Saclay (France) and the Lund Observatory (Sweden).

Neskuteční bouráci!!! To byl balet!

WATCH LIVE: SpaceX launches the Falcon Heavy, the rocket that could go to Mars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQx6YBtQZbw

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia21904/contrasting-crescents

In this view, Saturn’s icy moon Rhea passes in front of Titan as seen by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Some of the differences between the two large moons are readily apparent. While Rhea
is a heavily-cratered, airless world, Titan’s nitrogen-rich atmosphere is even thicker than Earth’s.

This natural color image was taken in visible light with the Cassini narrow-angle camera on Nov. 19, 2009, at a distance of approximately 713,300 miles (1,148,000 kilometers) from Rhea.

Oujééé...
Planety v systému TRAPPIST-1 pravděpodobně nesou značné množství vody | ESO Česko
http://eso.org/public/czechrepublic/news/eso1805/?lang

První náznaky složení exoplanet o velikosti Země

Nová studie sedmi planet obíhajících kolem mimořádně chladného červeného trpaslíka TRAPPIST-1 ukázala, že tělesa jsou většinou tvořena horninami a mohou nést dokonce větší množství vody než planeta Země.
Hustoty jednotlivých těles v systému, které jsou nyní známy mnohem přesněji než doposud, naznačují, že některé planety mohou obsahovat až 5 % hmotnosti v podobě vody – tedy 250krát více než v oceánech na
Zemi. Teplejší planety ležící nejblíže své mateřské hvězdy mají pravděpodobně husté atmosféry obsahující značné množství vodní páry, vzdálenější pak mohou být pokryty silným ledovým příkrovem. Čtvrtá
planeta systému je, pokud jde o velikost, hustotu a množství záření dopadajícího na povrch, nejpodobnější Zemi. Ze všech sedmi těles obsahuje největší množství hornin a má potenciál udržet na povrchu
vodu v kapalném stavu.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-tests-atomic-clock-for-deep-space-navigation

In deep space, accurate timekeeping is vital to navigation, but not all spacecraft have precise timepieces aboard. For 20 years,
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, has been perfecting a clock. It’s not a wristwatch; not something
available in a store. It’s the Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC), an instrument being built for deep space exploration.

VIRGO:

Webb Move from Houston to LA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_ILuL9uueA

Hubble’s View of Little Blue Dots
http://aasnova.org/2018/02/02/hubbles-view-of-little-blue-dots/

The recent discovery of a new type of tiny, star-forming galaxy is the latest in a zoo of detections shedding
light on our early universe. What can we learn from the unique “little blue dots” found in archival Hubble data?



https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2018/hubbles-majestic-spiral-in-pegasus

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a spiral galaxy known as NGC 7331. First spotted by the prolific galaxy hunter William Herschel in 1784,
NGC 7331 is located about 45 million light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus (the Winged Horse). Facing us partially edge-on, the galaxy showcases
its beautiful arms, which swirl like a whirlpool around its bright central region.

Astronomers took this image using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), as they were observing an extraordinary exploding star — a supernova — near the galaxy’s
central yellow core. Named SN 2014C, it rapidly evolved from a supernova containing very little hydrogen to one that is hydrogen-rich — in just one year. This
rarely observed metamorphosis was luminous at high energies and provides unique insight into the poorly understood final phases of massive stars.

To je neskutečné!!

OU Astrophysicists Discover Extragalactic Planets for First Time
http://www.ou.edu/content/web/news_events/articles/news_2018/ou-discover-planets.html

A University of Oklahoma astrophysics team has discovered for the first time a population of planets beyond the Milky Way galaxy.
Using microlensing—an astronomical phenomenon and the only known method capable of discovering planets at truly great distances
from the Earth among other detection techniques—OU researchers were able to detect objects in extragalactic galaxies that range
from the mass of the Moon to the mass of Jupiter.

Sailing to the Nearest Stars - Planetary Habitability Laboratory @ UPR Arecibo
http://phl.upr.edu/press-releases/sailingtotheneareststars

Space travel visionaries solve the problem of interstellar slowdown at our stellar neighbour

Milner plans to invest 100 million US dollars in the development of an ultra-light light sail that can be accelerated to 20 percent of the speed of light
to reach the Alpha Centauri star system within 20 years. The problem of how to slow down this projectile once it reaches its target remains a challenge.
René Heller of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen and his colleague Michael Hippke propose to use the radiation and gravity
of the Alpha Centauri stars to decelerate the craft. It could then even be rerouted to the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri and its potential Earth-like
planet Proxima b.

Akatsuki's Amazing Views of Venus - Sky & Telescope
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/akatsukis-amazing-views-of-venus/

Almost everyone considered Japan's Venus-bound orbiter a lost cause, but Akatsuki survived, reached its objective, and is wowing scientists with results.