Poll: Interstellar travel
When will humans leave our solar system for the first time?
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Interview with the Planet Hunter Geoff Marcy
Interview with Geoff Marcy from the Berkeley University about the search after a second Earth.
Space Interferometry Mission
The Space Interferometry Mission also known as SIM Lite and formerly known as SIM PlanetQuest is equipped with a 6-meter Michelson stellar interferometer, operating in the visible waveband, and will be launched into an Earth-trailing solar orbit where it will operate for a mission lifetime of five years....Darwin Mission
The European Darwin Mission will be a flotilla of four or five free-flying spacecraft that will search for Earth-like planets around other stars and analyse their atmospheres for the chemical signature of life in the mid of the next century....Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF)
The Terrestrial Planet Finder is a mission which primary target is to search after Earth-like planets and currently under study by NASA. At the moment are two complementary concepts for this mission. The visible-light Coronograph and a formation-flying infrared Interferometer....-
Kepler Space Telescope
The Kepler Space Telescope from NASA is designed to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. The telescope is named after the German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), which is best known for the Kepler's laws of planetary motion. -
COROT Space Telescope
COROT stands for Convection Rotation and planetary Transits and is a big step forward for the ESA for the search after extrasolar planets. It is the first mission for the search after rocky planets around nearby stars. Furthermore it is the first European Mission for asteroseismology at other stars.
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Planck Space Telescope
Planck is Europe’s first mission to study the relic radiation from the Big Bang. -
Herschel Space Telescope
Herschel is the largest space telescope ever launched. Its 3.5 m-diameter mirror will give astronomers their best view yet of the Universe at far-infrared and sub-millimetre wavelengths. -
Chandra X-Ray Observatory
The Chandra X-ray Observatory, formerly known as the Advanced X-ray Astronomical Facility (AXAF), launched by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999 and belongs to NASA's Great Observatory program. Also to the program belong the Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telecope. -
Dawn Mission
NASA's Dawn Mission will examine the asteroids Ceres and Vesta. In fact in March 2006 was the Mission canceled but short time later the NASA Management decided to reinstate the Dawn mission, because many scientist all over the world supported the mission.
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Black Holes
Black holes are objects so dense that not even light can escape their gravity and since nothing can travel faster than light, nothing can escape from inside a black hole. The expression black hole was coined by John Wheeler. -
Brown Dwarfs
Brown dwarfs are the link between stars and planets and are not massive enough like stars on the main sequence and sometimes called as failed stars. As a result of their mass-poor they don't start the hydrogen fusion. But brown dwarfs heavier than 13 Jupiter masses do fuse deuterium. -
Mars
The planet Mars is the last terrestrial planet and the fourth planet of our solar system. He is the most likely target for a manned space mission. Already the first ancient civilizations were fascinated by him and honoured Mars as a god (for Romans/Greeks were he the god of war). -
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the sun and belongs to the terrestrial planets, sometime Venus is called Earth's sister planet, because both are very similar in size, mass and composition. Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love.
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The results of the Huygens Mission
After a journey of 7 years on board the American Cassini spacecraft the little European space probe Huygens was released on 25 December 2004 and reached the upper layer of Titan's atmosphere on 14 January 2005. After a parachute descent of 2 hours and 28 minutes the probe landed on the mysterious Saturn moon Titan. Now the first results were released by the European Space Agency (ESA). -
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Interview with Bernard Foing about the European SMART-1 Mission
Interview with Prof. Dr. Bernard Foing from the European Space Agency (ESA) -
Interview with Dmitri Titov about the European Venus Express Mission
Interview with Dr. Dmitri Titov from the Max Planck Society (MPG)