Released From Nearly 10,000 Feet Off The Coast Of Italy
ESA’s experimental reentry vehicle passed its milestone descent and landing test on last week at the Poligono Interforze Salto di Quirra off the east coast of Sardinia in Italy. The full-scale Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) prototype was released from an altitude of 3000 m (about 10,000 feet) by a helicopter, falling to gain speed to mimic a space mission before parachute deployment.
Gliese 667C Reexamined By European Southern Observatory
A team of astronomers has combined new observations of Gliese 667C with existing data from HARPS at ESO’s 3.6-metre telescope in Chile, to reveal a system with at least six planets. A record-breaking three of these planets are super-Earths lying in the zone around the star where liquid water could exist, making them possible candidates for the presence of life. This is the first system found with a fully packed habitable zone.
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