October 20, 2015

How Astronomers Will Investigate the "Alien Megastructures" (Source: Popular Science)
To test their hypothesis, the team hopes to listen for the tell-tale signs of life around KIC 8462852. They've applied for time on the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. They'll be competing with other scientists who want to use the giant telescope to answer other research questions. If their application is selected, next year the team will point the telescope's 100-meter dish toward KIC 8462852 and scan the radio signals emitting from that region.

Using technology that's being developed for the Breakthrough Listen project—a $100 million investment in the search for extraterrestrial life, which Siemion is involved in—the researchers will take the radio waves coming from KIC 8462852 and break them into many wavelengths, similar to a prism that separates white light into its rainbow components.

After the “prism” (which is really just a computer) separates the radio waves from KIC 8462852 into different frequencies, “we'll look at each channel relative to the others,” says Siemion, “and see if there's a lot of energy at just one frequency. If we heard narrow-band modulated radio emissions coming from that star, I can't imagine any other explanation,” says Wright, an astronomer at Penn State. No known natural phenomenon creates a radio signature like that. But the universe is big enough to contain plenty of unknowns. (10/20)

Large Hadron Collider Could Discover Parallel Universe (Source: Daily Mail)
It has found the 'God particle', but the Large Hadron Collider could soon detect a 'parallel universe'. The 'atom smasher' at Cern in Geneva is now operating at its highest level in a bid to detect miniature black holes, which are considered a key sign of a 'multiverse'. And data collected since June is now being analyzed.

The experiment may alarm critics who fear the LHC could bring about the end of the world, but scientists say the ground-breaking experiment could transform our understanding of the universe. 'Just as many parallel sheets of paper, which are two dimensional objects (breath and length) can exist in a third dimension (height), parallel universes can also exist in higher dimensions' Cern employee Mir Faizal said.

We predict that gravity can leak into extra dimensions, and if it does, then miniature black holes can be produced at the LHC.' He said: 'Normally, when people think of the multiverse, they think of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, where every possibility is actualized. (10/20)

Liberal Victories in Canada Could Move Space Policy (Source: CBC)
A sweeping victory for Canada's Liberal party could usher in changes in space policy. The Liberals won a majority in parliament in Monday's elections, making Justin Trudeau the nation's next prime minister. During the campaign, the party backed the development of a long-term space plan that had been recommended by an earlier committee but never implemented by the Conservative-led government.

Former Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau, a Liberal member of parliament, won reelection to his Montreal-area seat, and may be in line for a cabinet position in the new government. (10/20)

NOAA Weather Satellite Problems Delay Launch (Source: Space News)
Unspecified development problems have pushed back the launch of a new weather satellite six months. The GOES-R satellite is now scheduled to launch next October, six months later than previously planned and a year beyond its original launch date. NOAA said "schedule risks" in the development of the spacecraft by Lockheed Martin led the agency to move the launch to next October. The delay means NOAA will have to rely longer on the aging GOES-13 satellite, which will reach its ten-year design life next March. (10/19)

Aerospace Startups, Investors Matched Using Reality TV Show Format (Source: Reuters)
The business development company Starburst Accelerator, which calls itself the world's largest incubator for aerospace startups, said on Monday it has signed agreements with Boeing Co, Raytheon Co and other big companies looking for new technologies.

Starburst will expose the big aerospace companies to its stable of fledgling aerospace companies with products ranging from drones to aircraft seats to complex aviation software. It says many of its start-ups have technology that could radically alter the way aircraft are now built and maintained. It opened its new California office on Oct. 2 with an event similar to the "Shark Tank" television program, an ABC TV reality show in which entrepreneurs seek investments from a panel of potential investors, known as "sharks." (10/19)

Russia Plans to Propose Joint Satellite System to India (Source: Sputnik)
On Tuesday, the 21st India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation is scheduled to take place in Moscow. "The core of the proposal is a prospective project of renewed Gonets satellite system…As of today, it is at least 48 spacecraft in low orbits, but the shape of the [satellite] constellation can be modified depending on Indian partners' requests," the source said as quoted by the Russian Izvestia newspaper. (10/20)

Vision for Scottish Spaceport in Moray Left in Tatters (Source: Press and Journal)
Moray has crashed out of the race to be the base for the UK’s first spaceport. Both RAF Lossiemouth and Kinloss Barracks were on an original shortlist of sites in the running to host the groundbreaking project. And even after both were ruled out by the Civil Aviation Authority local campaigners vowed not to give up. (10/20)