Science continues to achieve amazing advances in our ability to detect, measure, and analyze planets orbiting stars far outside our solar system.
So far, scientists have discovered and confirmed the existence of more than 800 planets. Most of the planets, however, are huge gas giants, like Jupiter or Saturn in our solar system. The latest advance in detection capabilities came this week, when scientists announced that they have detected the lightest planet to orbit a Sun-like star — and the star just happens to be Alpha Centauri, a weird, triple-star system that is the Sun’s nearest galactic neighbor.
Alpha Centauri, for those who fell asleep during astronomy class, is a mere 4.3 light years away. Of course, one light year is 6 trillion (6,000,000,000,000) miles away, but who’s counting? The planet scientists have detected is about the mass of our good Earth.
Before you start worrying that little green men might appear on your doorstep tonight, take a deep breath: the Earth-sized planet is closer to Alpha Centauri B than Mercury is to the Sun, so it’s probably not conducive to life. Still, the discovery is remarkable. In the not too distant future, scientists will use this detection technology to find a planet about the size and mass of Earth, orbiting a star a lot like Sol, at a distance that would suggest that it is likely to be temperate. What will that mean? My guess is that we will train every radio telescope and sensory device we have in the direction of that planet, listen as hard as we can, and hope.
The Dragon capsule therefore becomes the first privately owned space vehicle to reach the ISS. This morning the astronauts on the space station opened the capsule and entered it, conducted a quick inspection and found no sign of any problems with the interior, and indeed reported that the capsule had that familiar “new car smell.” So far, SpaceX’s Falcon rocket and its Dragon capsule have performed flawlessly — reaching orbit, conducting the maneuvering tests that showed that the capsule could safely be brought near the ISS, and then ultimately delivering the payload.
Today saw a big step in that direction. A 
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The discovery was made by the Cassini spacecraft, which has been flying around the huge gas giant and its famous rings. Cassini reached a point within 46 miles of the south pole of ice-covered Enceladus, one of Saturn’s many moons, and on its close pass Cassini actually flew through the jets of water vapor and ice that make up the geysers emanating from the moon. In so doing, the probe “tasted” the vapor and determined that it consists of water, organic compounds, and salt, at the same salinity levels as Earth’s oceans.
Consider this: Voyager 1 was launched in 1977. When its mission began, Jimmy Carter was President, disco was king, the Vietnam War was fresh in everyone’s memory, and I hadn’t even celebrated my 21st birthday. A lot has happened in the intervening years, but all the while Voyager 1 has steadily journeyed through the solar system, exploring Jupiter and Saturn and otherwise performing its mission. It’s still doing so, nearly 35 years later, moving at 11 miles per second and continuing to transmit data about the the solar wind and other conditions in the outer reaches of the solar system.
NASA is warning that the 
The U.S. Space Surveillance Network tracks more than 16,000 pieces of debris orbiting the Earth. The junk includes spent rocket bodies, unused satellites, and other discarded materials — all of which are circling the globe at speeds of more than 17,000 miles per hour. A lot of the debris was generated when the Chinese government unwisely used a discarded weather satellite as a target for an anti-satellite missile test. There already have been space collisions, and experts fear that the amount of junk will cause even more crashes and damage to vehicles exiting and entering Earth’s atmosphere.
Of course, American exploration efforts are not limited to manned space flight; NASA continues to make excellent use of unmanned probes and drones to explore the planets, asteroids, moons, and outer reaches of our solar system. Many people — including Dr. Science — believe unmanned space exploration is the most sensible approach. They reason that space is too hostile to human beings and therefore it is too expensive to design crafts that can safely house humans in that hostile environment. In their view, we get more far more science bang for the buck through use of unmanned devices.
Once it settles into orbit, Dawn’s mission will be to photograph the asteroid, deploy instruments that can detect the minerals and elements found on the asteroid, and gather data that will allow scientists to assess the geological forces that shaped the asteroid. After orbiting Vesta for a year, Dawn will move on to Ceres, an even larger asteroid.
The space archaeologists use space telescopes, powerful cameras, and infra-red imaging to identify materials buried beneath the surface. Ancient Egyptians built using mud brick, which has a different density than the surrounding soil and allows the outlines of buried structures to be detected. One use of the technology was applied to make discoveries at the ancient Egyptian city of Tanis, which will forever be recalled by fans of Indiana Jones and Raiders Of The Lost Ark as the home of the Well of Souls and the Ark of the Covenant.
You can’t really argue with the selection of the Kennedy Space Center or the National Air and Space Museum — one has housed and launched the shuttles for decades, and the other is probably the premier American museum of its kind. It probably also makes sense to have one of the shuttles on the west coast, and California is a logical location because Edwards Air Force Base was the landing site for some shuttle flights. But New York City? Does The Big Apple really need another tourist attraction? And what is the connection between Gotham and the space program, really? Proponents of other disappointed sites like Houston, where the Johnson Space Center and mission control are found, 
