I had the pleasure of reporting and writing the Many Worlds column -- sponsored by NASA's NExSS initiative and the Lunar & Planetary Institute -- for more than seven years, but the run came to an end in October. Now an archive of the more than 400 columns is easily available at http://www.manyworlds.space. The stories …
The Moon Rush Is On. Are We on Earth Ready For That?
An Indian spacecraft landed on the moon this month and a pioneering Japanese lunar lander is awaiting an imminent launch. A Russian craft trying to land in the same area -- the southern polar region -- recently crashed, as did a private effort by a joint Japanese-United Arab Emirates group and one by several Israeli …
Continue reading "The Moon Rush Is On. Are We on Earth Ready For That?"
The Late Heavy Bombardment Brought Oceans of Water to Ancient Mars, New Research Says
Mars looks largely desiccated today,but long ago it had oceans full of water delivered by asteroids during the Late Heavy Bombardment period, new research reports During that tumultuous time solar system history some 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago, an intense barrage of primordial asteroids called chondrites crashed into Mars. Using a measure called a …
How Planetary Orbits, in Our Solar System and Beyond, Can Affect Habitability
As scientists work to understand what might make a distant planet habitable, one factor that is getting attention is the shape of the planet's orbit, how "eccentric" it might be. It might seem that a perfect circular orbit would be ideal for habitability because it would provide stability, but a new model suggests that it …
Continue reading "How Planetary Orbits, in Our Solar System and Beyond, Can Affect Habitability"
The Virtual Planetary Lab and Its Search for What Makes an Exoplanet Habitable, or Even Inhabited
For more than two decades now, the Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL) at the University of Washington in Seattle has been at the forefront of the crucial and ever-challenging effort to model how scientists can determine whether a particular exoplanet is capable of supporting life or perhaps even had life on it already. To do this, …
NASA Suceeds in Making Precious Oxygen from Carbon Dioxide on Mars
Of the many barriers to a human trip to Mars where astronauts would land, explore and return to Earth, the absence of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere is a big one. Without oxygen that can be collected to support life and to provide fuel for a flight home, there can be no successful human …
Continue reading "NASA Suceeds in Making Precious Oxygen from Carbon Dioxide on Mars"
The First Major Image From The James Webb Space Telescope is a Show-Stopper
The first of what will no doubt be a future flood of images from the James Webb Space Telescope -- which has the largest telescope mirror to ever be sent into space -- was released today and it shows the spectacular deep-field world of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. The image shows the galaxy cluster …
Continue reading "The First Major Image From The James Webb Space Telescope is a Show-Stopper"
A Spectacular Look at Things to Come from the James Webb Space Telescope
NASA and the James Webb Space Telescope team have spoken for years about how the observatory, once it is in place and fully aligned and calibratated, will revolutionize astronomy and lead to a bounty of space discoveries. The agency has now released some early images, produced before the process of fine-tuning the telescope is finished. …
Continue reading "A Spectacular Look at Things to Come from the James Webb Space Telescope"
The European Space Agency Cuts Ties to Russia On Its ExoMars Mission. But U.S-Russian Cooperation Continues on the ISS
The European Space Agency has decided that is currently impossible to continue any ongoing cooperation with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and is moving forward with a "fast-track industrial study" to define how the mission can proceed without the Russians on its ambitious ExoMars astrobiology mission. In a release, ESA said that "as an intergovernmental …
The James Webb Space Telescope And Its Exoplanet Mission (Part 1)
The last time Many Worlds wrote about the James Webb Space Telescope, it was in the process of going through a high-stakes, super-complicated unfurling. About 50 autonomous deployments needed to occur after launch to set up the huge system, with 344 potential single point failures to overcome--individual steps that had to work for …
Continue reading "The James Webb Space Telescope And Its Exoplanet Mission (Part 1)"
Many Worlds 