Space News Roundup – March 2014

[StarBase 118 Staff]

March 2014 has seen some incredible stories when it comes to the final frontier. Ranging from a truly universal scale down to things a little closer to home. We’ve complied a list of interesting space science news that should pique your interest!

Researchers detect evidence of “cosmic inflation,” helping prove the theory of the Big Bang

On March 17th, the BICEP2 collaboration announced their findings proving the idea of cosmic inflation, as well as the first images of gravitational waves that confirm a connection between quantum mechanics and general relativity. Read more about this incredible discovery HERE.

“Waves” detected on Saturn’s moon Titan

Scientists have detected the first liquid waves on a celestial body other than Earth. Images taken by the Cassini probe in Saturn orbit show evidence of these waves due to how light reflects off of the lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons on the surface of the moon.  The BBC discusses this intriguing phenomenon with planetary scientist Jason Barnes HERE.

NASA’s Kepler Mission detects 715 new planets!

Just another day at the office for NASA’s planet hunters. Researchers on the Kepler project using a new technique called “verification by multiplication” have verified over 715 new planets fairly similar in size to Earth orbiting 305 different stars. Read more HERE.

See what NASA’s JPL Deep Space Network is listening to in real time

This is a cool little toy from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory: “Real-time data is updated every 5 seconds and will allow you to examine how quickly the data is being received, how long a signal takes to and from each spacecraft and the current state of the entire network.” At the time of this artcile, DSS 43 in Canberra, Australia is talking with Voyager 2 at a range of 15.65 billion kilometers! Check it out HERE!

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, turns 80

Finally, we’d like to pay tribute to the man who will forever be known with human spaceflight. Yuri Gagarin, the first human to go into space and orbit the Earth, would have turned 80 on March 9th. Read more about Gagarin and his legacy HERE.

We’ll keep track of interesting space news and have more for you next month. Thanks for reading!

 

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