The U.S. Senate has confirmed Professor Dava Newman as the NASA deputy administrator, writes Janelle Nanos for BetaBoston. “It’s an enormous honor to serve at NASA in times when our country is extending humanity’s reach into space while strengthening American leadership here on Earth,” says Newman.
Jordain Carney writes for The Hill that the Senate has approved Professor Dava Newman to be NASA’s next deputy administrator.
In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Prof. Sara Seager imagines what space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life will be like in 2045. Seager writes that, “Data has been flooding in from the nation’s latest space telescope, one with a 30-meter-diameter mirror (the Hubble’s, for comparison, was 2.4 meters).”
Professor Sara Seager describes her favorite photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, which shows newborn stars surrounded by raw planetary materials, in an article for The New York Times. “This image is my favorite because even more astonishing than the beauty is the implication,” writes Seager.
Prof. Kerri Cahoy speaks with John Hopton of redOrbit about miniature satellites or CubeSats. Cahoy explains that CubeSats are becoming increasingly popular because “they can be tucked into rockets and taken into space pretty cheaply, and we’ve been miniaturizing our electronics and our mechanical devices for spacecrafts so we can actually do something with these mini satellites.”
CBC News reports that MIT researchers have detected a circular ring of debris circulating the minor planet Chiron. “If true, Chiron would join Chariklo as the second centaur with such a halo. It would also become only the sixth ringed body in Earth's solar system,” CBC reports.
MIT researchers have found that the minor planet Chiron may have a system of rings, reports Monte Morin for the Los Angeles Times. The researchers observed Chiron passing in front of a bright star and observed that Chiron's shadow contained some features “that suggested something surrounding the centaur was blocking the light.”
MIT researchers have found that the high temperature of intracluster gas, which condenses to form stars, may be hindering the development of new stars, reports Jonathan O’Callaghan for the Daily Mail. The researchers hope to use the new findings to better understand how stars form in surrounding galaxies.
Mary Bowerman writes for USA Today that while the Mars One Project has narrowed its applicants to the top 100, MIT researchers question whether the technology exists to accomplish the mission. "A lot of the technologies you need to sustain life on Mars are very much in development,” says Ph.D. candidate Sydney Do.
Following the announcement of the shortlist for participants for the Mars One project, Michael Rundle of The Huffington Post reports on an MIT study indicating that current technology makes the mission infeasible. Even with additional technology “the Mars One mission would become exceedingly expensive and unsustainable” over time, explains Ph.D candidate Sydney Do.
The Huffington Post reports on an analysis of the Mars One project led by Professor Olivier de Weck. “We’re not saying, black and white, Mars One is infeasible,” explains de Weck. “But we do think it’s not really feasible under the assumptions they’ve made.”
Chris Berdik writes for Boston Magazine about Professor Sara Seager’s search for Earth-like exoplanets. “I believe that in our lifetime we will be able to take children to a dark sky,” said Seager. “And point to a star and say, That star has a planet with signs of life in its atmosphere.”
Justin Bachman writes for Bloomberg BusinessWeek about Prof. Dava Newman’s proposal for the skin-tight BioSuit, meant to replace today’s bulky spacesuits. BioSuit “shrinks onto the body, achieving pressurization not with gas but with a soft exoskeleton of heat-activated materials that shape to fit the traveler’s frame.”
Prof. Sara Seager speaks with New York Times reporter Dennis Overbye about the search for Earth-like planets. “We can count as many as we like,” Seager explains, “but until we can observe the atmospheres and assess their greenhouse gas power, we don’t really know what the surface temperatures are like."
NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered methane and carbon in Martian rocks, reports Andrew Soergel for U.S. News & World Report. “Organics are important because they can tell us about the chemical pathways by which they were formed and preserved,” says Prof. Roger Summons, a member of the Curiosity team.