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Added on the 12/10/2016 12:36:39 - Copyright : Reuters - Next Media
OSIRIS-REx is ready to get the goods. On 20 October, after several years of patient study of its enigmatic target, NASA’s $800 million spacecraft will finally stretch out its robotic arm, swoop to the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, and sweep up some dust and pebbles. The encounter, 334 million kilometers from Earth, will last about 10 seconds. If it is successful, OSIRIS-REx could steal away with up to 1 kilogram of carbon-rich material from the dawn of the Solar System for return to Earth in 2023.
An international team of over 30 scientists say they have found an Earth-like planet just outside the solar system which might be viable for holding liquid water and supporting life. Mana Rabiee reports.
Staff at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California waited with bated breath as their latest project entered the make or break phase. The agency's latest spaceraft, called Juno after the wife of Jupiter, the Roman king of the gods, blasted off from Cape Canaveral in 2011 and traveled over 400 million miles through our solar system to reach its final destination, the largest planet in our solar neighborhood, Jupiter.
The search for life beyond our solar system has taken an exciting turn, after a Belgian-led team reported finding planets with the potential to host life.
A new Earth-like planet dubbed GJ 1332b has been discovered by astronomers at the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory in La Serena, Chile.