November 7, 2021

Star System With Right-Angled Planets Surprises Astronomers (Source: New York Times)
Star systems come in all shapes and sizes. Some have lots of planets, some have larger planets and others have no planets at all. But a particularly unusual system about 150 light-years from our own has scientists scratching their heads. In 2016, astronomers discovered two planets orbiting the star HD 3167. They were thought to be super-Earths — between Earth and Neptune in size — and circled the star every one and 30 days. A third planet was found in the system in 2017, orbiting in about eight days.

What’s unusual is the inclinations of the outer two planets, HD 3167 c and d. Whereas in our solar system all the planets orbit in the same flat plane around the sun, these two are in polar orbits. That is, they go above and below their star’s poles, rather than around the equator as Earth and the other planets in our system do. Now scientists have discovered the system is even weirder than they thought. Researchers measured the orbit of the innermost planet, HD 3167 b, for the first time — and it doesn’t match the other two.

It instead orbits in the star’s flat plane, like planets in our solar system, and perpendicular to HD 3167 c and d. This star system is the first one known to act like this. While none of the planets are thought to be habitable, were you to stand on one you would see a rather intriguing view of this peculiar system. “If you had a telescope and you were looking at the trajectory of the other planets in the system, they would be going vertically in the sky,” Dr. Bourrier said. (11/6)

Astronauts to be Added to Hall of Fame at NASA KSC Visitor Complex (Source: KSCVC)
Veteran astronauts Michael E. Lopez-Alegria, Pamela A. Melroy and Scott Kelly, will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame® at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on November 13, 2021. The much-anticipated ceremony will honor these three extraordinary individuals who have all demonstrated outstanding accomplishments in furthering NASA's mission of exploration and discovery and have been selected to receive one of the highest honors in their industry. Postponed from the original date due to the pandemic, the November ceremony will see Lopez-Alegria, Melroy and Kelly join the 99 individuals who already hold the esteemed title of U.S. Hall of Fame Astronaut.

Set against the dramatic backdrop of the majestic space shuttle Atlantis, the official ceremony will take place at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on November 13, 2021, and will be attended by an impressive array of legendary astronauts. The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame was spearheaded more than 30 years ago by the six surviving Mercury 7 astronauts. In November 2016, a new U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame opened at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, as part of the Heroes & Legends attraction. (11/4)

China’s New Hypersonic Weapon Is Just Like The U.S. Military’s X-20 Space Bomber (Source: 1945)
Back last month, American intelligence officials revealed that China had conducted a largely successful test of a new hypersonic weapon that entered earth’s orbit before reentering and impacting miles away from its intended target.

The news prompted a slew of headlines about China shocking the world with an advanced new hypersonic missile; the problem is, neither of those assertions is true. The weapon China tested a few weeks ago was not a missile, nor was it new technology. In fact, the Soviet Union deployed a dozen and a half similar weapons during the Cold War, and the United States very nearly leveraged the same basic premise to field a hypersonic sub-orbital bomber in the 1960s.

China’s recent test was of something we usually call a FOB, or fractional orbital bombardment system, and it might be more prudent to compare it to the U.S. Air Force’s secretive X-37B uncrewed orbital vehicle than a hypersonic missile-like Russia’s air-launched Kinzhal missile. (11/7)

NASA Mars Helicopter Set for Grand Journey Back to its Original Airfield (Source: C/Net)
NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity was considered a success after its very first flight, but the little machine had grander ambitions. It's now logged 14 flights across the Jezero Crater on Mars and is about to make a grand journey back to its original takeoff location, called Wright Brothers Field. Ingenuity will be tracking its bigger buddy, the Perseverance rover, on a trip back to where they both started out. It's part of a plan to wrap up the rover's current science campaign in an area called Seitah. If all goes well, the two machines will reconvene near their landing site and then head out on a new adventure together to a different part of the crater. (11/5)

NASA is Sending a Lander to Drill for Ice on the Moon’s South Pole (Source: Digital Trends)
NASA has chosen the landing site for a new lunar explorer: A robotic lander that will be sent to the moon’s south pole in an area near the Shackleton crater. Carrying three different technology demonstrations which aim to test out capabilities ahead of a crewed mission to the moon, the Nova-C lander will be built by the company Intuitive Machines. (11/7)