Voyager nearing interstellar space.

Set out almost 30 years ago, the voyager probes are coming close to exiting the Heliosphere. The probes have collected some immensely important discoveries of our solar system, such as the ocean under the frozen surface of Europa and the frenzied magnetic poles on Uranus. By 2020, it is predicted that the plutonium powering the probes will become inert and the Voyager 1 and 2 will become soaring containers that carry the 'Golden Record'.

As pictured above, the discs contain music, photos, and greetings in 55 languages along with a message from the Secretary General of the United Nations.

It is not old news that Pluto has lost planet status. The definition of a planet has been changed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and according to the new definition, Pluto is now categorized as a dwarf planet. A round celestial object, which orbits the moon, should have enough gravitational force to 'dominate' the objects around it to be defined as a planet. The latter is a difficult requirement for Pluto to manage because of its small size.

Many dwarf planets have already been discovered and many are, in fact, larger than Pluto. According to a National Geographic article by Mason Inman "there are more than 40 of these dwarfs, including the large asteroid Ceres and 2003 UB313, nicknamed Xena—a distant object slightly larger than Pluto discovered by Brown last year." Pluto would be in a very awkward position because of all of the larger asteroids and other planets that are being discovered and defined as dwarf planets. The line between planet and dwarf planet would be far too thin for Pluto to remain as a planet.

I think of it as scientific progress that the definitions of planets are being changed and that we can re-evaluate the objects that make up our solar system. We have discovered so many other objects in space that we now have to categorize them differently.

Here is the National Geographic article.

The Dangers of Private Space Flight

This article details how private space flight could potentially be very dangerous. The writer uses records for past private space flights do make his point that private space flight is not space.

The problem with these records is the records are all from Cold War era private space programs. He is neglecting that since those programs went on, private space industries of today, such as Virgin Galactic have gone much further in craft design. Companies are using other methods, such as motherships(carrier airplanes that loft spacecraft) , as opposed to conventional launches. This author gives no mention at all to the safety records of current companies. As the main point of his argument, he is saying that it is not worth the money to fund these companies.

There is no evidence of argument from the side of the private flight companies themselves. It is most likely that companies are aware of any dangers, such as those presupposed here, and have or are currently coping with that specific danger that could hurt the prospects of space tourism as a successful industry.

Does anyone have a spare $200,000 lying around?

That's how much it costs to book a trip on the Virgin Galactic shuttle.

This whole private space travel thing is really exciting. While most private companies aren't necessarily going into space for scientific reasons, this is still a large stepping stone for space travel.

We can only hope that someday everyone without $200,000 will spend some time among the stars.

If we need to find some habitable planets, we'll know where to look.

According to recent findings, white dwarfs may be the best places to find those heavily sought after, habitable planets. That's thanks to the fact that the habitable zone around a white dwarf is very close to the actual star.

An exoplanet that close is observable by earth based telescopes.

These planets in the habitable could, of course, harbor liquid water, an proponent aspect of a planet that may have the potential for life. Here's the link.

One of the more recent discoveries in astronomy lately is a very 'cool' one. A Brown Dwarf in a binary system has the temperature just around that of a cup of coffee.

The internet provides different information for different audiences of this discovery. Here are the two links:
This is the news report of the discovery.
This is a scholarly report of the discovery.

Each site provides different context of information for a different reader. The news report cites the most basic information about the star. The primary focus of the article is the fact that the star is so low in temperature and it goes to show that the article is more of an attention getter than a hub of valuable information. It only provides enough information to make sense in the context of the subject as well as information that an audience of common astronomy knowledge can understand. It is also this audience that would only be interested in astronomy news that they could either understand the scope of or the scientific importance of the discovery or event.

The other site is a scholarly report of the discovery. The report is filled with astronomer jargon that would be useless to the news article because this is also useless information to that audience. This article would really only be used to scholars in the field. When compared to any other analysis of a celestial object, it is not immediately recognizable as anything special. As a scholarly report, it also does not have any entertainment value. Its only purpose is to inform provide information to someone who could actually make use of it.

For the first time, we have a satellite orbiting Mercury.

The craft will be measuring the planet's for gravitational fields to determine the size of the core. Scientists are also hoping to create a high definition map of the planet, as well as search for frozen water.

here's the link