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Super-Earth: Alien Life Found?

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Okay, buckle up, space explorers! Scientists have found a SUPER-EARTH called HD 20794 d, and it’s only 20 light-years away! That’s practically next door in space terms! It’s a rocky planet, like Earth, but much bigger and heavier. HD 20794 d is more than six times as massive as our planet and twice as wide! HD 20794 d orbits a star similar to our Sun. But its orbit isn’t a perfect circle; it’s more like a stretched-out oval, called an ellipse. This means that sometimes the planet is close to its star, and sometimes it’s far away.

 

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The coolest part is that HD 20794 d travels in and out of the “habitable zone” of its star. This is the Goldilocks zone – not too hot, not too cold, but just right for liquid water to exist. And liquid water is one of the most important ingredients for life as we know it! When HD 20794 d is far from its star, it’s probably freezing cold. But when it gets closer, it might warm up enough for any ice to melt and form pools of liquid water.

Also read Bennu A Space Rock Full Of Life’s Secrets!

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Imagine a planet that goes through seasons like this! Scientists aren’t sure if there’s actually water on HD 20794 d. But if there is, it could mean that simple life forms might be able to survive there. It all depends on the planet’s atmosphere and temperature. This amazing discovery was published in a science journal called Astronomy & Astrophysics.

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Scientists used some super-powerful instruments, like ESPRESSO and HARPS, to find this planet. It took them years of careful study to make sure their discovery was real! Now, scientists are planning to use even bigger and better telescopes, like the Extremely Large Telescope to study HD 20794 d in more detail. They want to find out if there’s water, what the atmosphere is like, and if there’s any chance of life.

Also read, Aditya L-1: India’s Solar Mission Reaches Sun’s Orbit

Bennu A Space Rock Full Of Life’s Secrets!

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Our solar system is a busy place, filled with planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. But Earth is special – it’s the only place we know where life exists. Scientists have just made an incredible discovery that might change everything! Imagine a giant space rock named Bennu. It’s an asteroid, a rocky leftover from the early days of our solar system. And guess what?

Scientists have found the “basic building blocks” of life inside Bennu! It’s like finding a treasure chest filled with clues about how life began. A NASA spacecraft actually visited Bennu and brought some of it back to Earth in 2023. It was like a cosmic delivery! And when scientists started studying the sample, they were amazed by what they found.

Also read, Aditya L-1: India’s Solar Mission Reaches Sun’s Orbit

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Bennu is packed with organic molecules – the stuff that makes up living things. They even found nucleobases, which are the building blocks of DNA, and amino acids, which make up proteins! DNA is like the instruction manual for life, and proteins are like the workers that build and run everything. It’s like finding the LEGO bricks and the instruction booklet for building a living thing! But that’s not all! Scientists also found minerals and salts in Bennu, which suggests that water might have existed on the asteroid at some point. Water is super important for life as we know it. And they even found ammonia, which is another key ingredient for life.

 

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This doesn’t mean that life actually existed on Bennu. But it does mean that the ingredients for life were floating around in space, just waiting for the right conditions to come together. Scientists think that asteroids like Bennu might have crashed into Earth billions of years ago, bringing these important ingredients with them.

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It’s helping us answer some big questions, like how life started and where it came from. And who wouldn’t want to know the answers to those questions? Scientists are also wondering if these same “life ingredients” might have been delivered to other planets by asteroids. Could life exist elsewhere in our solar system? Bennu is giving us some exciting clues!

If the building blocks of life were found on an asteroid, does that mean there could be life on other planets too? What other things besides water and organic molecules do you think are needed for life to exist?

Chang’e-6: First Moon Mission to Collect Rocks from the Far side of the Moon and Land Back on Earth

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China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe has safely landed on Earth after a two-month journey to the far side of the Moon and back. The unmanned spacecraft touched down in the Inner Mongolia desert on June 25. It contains some very rare rock and soil samples that were collected after Chang’e-6 landed on the unexplored far side of the Moon. 

According to the China National Space Administration, Chang’e-6 used a computer system to check for any obstacles that would be in the way of landing, before touching down on the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin. This is a crater on the side of the Moon that always faces away from Earth, an area that’s hard to reach because it’s really far away and doesn’t have many flat surfaces that are easy to land on. It’s hoped that the Moon rocks will allow scientists to uncover more secrets about how planets are formed.

The First Indian Space Tourist: Gopi Thotakura

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US based Gopi Thotakura made history as he became the first Indian space tourist! Indian born and commercial pilot Gopichand Thotakura took off on May 19 and reached the edge of space on a Blue Origin spacecraft, along with five other crew members. The whole journey, from take off to landing lasted only about ten minutes, during which the spacecraft attained a maximum height of about 105km from the Earth. 

The passengers got to experience weightlessness for a few minutes and observe the Earth from a height. One of the passengers on this Blue Origin spacecraft made history by becoming the oldest person to travel to space. American citizen, Ed Dwight, who is 90, described the experience as “life changing”.

What is Blue Origin?

Blue Origin is the space tourism project by Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.

Word Check

Space tourism is the term for people paying to go for a trip to space.

First Privately Owned Spacecraft Lands on the Moon

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A privately owned spacecraft, named Odysseus, landed on the Moon on February 22. This spacecraft built and flown by a US based company, Intuitive Machines, landed near the south pole of the Moon. This is also the first US spacecraft that has landed on the lunar surface in more than 50 years. It’s also the first time that a lunar landing has been achieved by a company, rather than a government organisation like ISRO or NASA.

Watch Full Video on #IndiaOnMoon : Over the Moon – Chandrayaan -3, India’s Successful Lunar Mission

Also Read India Scripts Lunar History

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Odysseus was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft will be carrying out some important experiments for NASA. This mission was unmanned – which means no humans went into space with it. However, it’s hoped Odysseus will help astronauts prepare to send humans to the Moon in the future. The landing location is especially important for scientists. It’s one of the locations that NASA is considering for its mission to send humans back to the Moon.

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