Space exploration saw a huge breakthrough recently which may herald a new age of being able to examine planets light-years away from our own.  The NASA Spitzer Space Telescope detected, for the first time ever, light coming off of a super-earth planet 41 light-years away.  Though the planet was discovered back in 2004 and is known to not be habitable, being able to see light coming from it has allowed scientists to gain understanding of the planet’s composition and temperature.

Until now, the way that super-earths were discovered and studied relied on them passing between their parent star and the earth, so that a shadow of the planet could be seen.  Now, there is a whole new way to learn about them and study their atmospheres.

Mining other planets and asteroids is a staple element of a great many science fiction stories.  The prospect of being able to loot other rocks for the precious minerals that they contain is a corporate dream, though with the technology we have today it looks like that dream is probably unrealistic.  That does not, however, stop people from trying to figure out a way to do it.

Some people who are far too rich for their own good (director James Cameron among them) are looking to make the dream a reality.  Their targets are the many asteroids near the planet Earth and their goals include the veins of gold and platinum which they believe to be encased within.  Some experts estimate that as much as $50 billion worth of platinum could be present in one 30-meter diameter asteroid.  With hundreds of thousands of these asteroids within a reasonable distance of Earth, the potential for huge profit is there. And with huge profit comes the incentive to get things done.

With the space programs of the United States and Russia declining, China has been pushing the boundaries of its own space program and trying to make a name for itself in the history books.  It was only a matter of time before the Chinese accomplished things that other countries haven’t, and it looks like it will come in the form of being the first to put a female astronaut into space.  This summer, China’s fourth space mission will commence and if it goes off successfully they will have obtained their goal.  In addition to launching a female astronaut, this will also be China’s first attempt at a manned space docking.

In 1988, astronomers made an interesting prediction: Stars need not be stationary in the vastness of space.  What they theorized are referred to as “hypervelocity stars” and they travel through the galaxy at speeds of up to 1.5 million MPH.  In 2005, these predictions were justified when the first hypervelocity star was sited.  Since that time, 21 such heavenly bodies have caught the eyes of scientists and they continue to search for more.

At first, the thought of a star racing through space seems a bit odd.  Apparently these stars have their origins in binary systems which manage to wander a bit too close to the vast black hole that resides in the center of the Milky Way.  The immense pull from the black hole’s gravity rips one of the stars inward, to be absorbed, while the other is whipped about and sent hurtling through the cosmos.  They then fly through the galaxy until they reach its edge and proceed to travel into the depths of the universe.

Once thought to be mostly defunct, the Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA) is looking to get back into the game of space exploration.  For the last few years, the only activity that the RFSA has been regularly involved in is giving rides to and from the International Space Station (ISS), though this may change if they have their way.  Recently, the RFSA has approached Russia’s government with a detailed plan of what they hope to accomplish during the next 20 years.

On the list of hopeful projects is the sending of probes to Jupiter and Venus, the construction of a network of unmanned stations on the surface of Mars and another manned moon landing.  While accomplishing all this, the RFSA also wishes to put their new SAR-400 humanoid space robot to the test.  The first stop for the SAR-400 is the ISS, where it will be helping with simple repairs, though its creators are hoping the robot can eventually fulfill a much greater role.