The exoplanet "closest" to the Earth

The Kepler space mission has exposed the exoplanet, closet to the Earthlike identified so far. Dub Kepler 10b, the planet is unstable (solid) smaller than those found, since the diameter is the same to just 1.4 times the Earth, while its mass is 4.6 times that of Earth.

In attendance can be no illusions, however, about the possibility of life existing in it, because although Kepler 10b orbits a star (Kepler 10) very similar to our Sun, its distance to it is twenty times less than separating the sun Mercury.

Searching from space in the bowels of the Earth

The ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers of creature approved out an research on the ISS that will shed light on conditions in the depths of our planet. In orbit about 400 km height, Geoflow help us understand how the Earth works inside. Extend to a depth of almost 3000 km; the layer is composed of semi-solid materials graceful slowly under the thin outer shell. For study, it is considered that the mantle is divided into several layers of different viscosity as a result of increased pressure and temperature with depth.

Iceland glaciers are home gases in solar nebula

The layer of under Iceland glaciers of the deepest layer would house gases from the solar nebula, the cloud of dust and gas that gave rise to the planets of the Solar System, according to a study released today by the scientific journal "Nature". This cloud, composed mainly of hydrogen, helium and dust existed in the first tens of thousands of years of history of the solar system and led to several of its planets, before being spread by winds from the Sun Now, 4 000 600 million years later, scientists at Harvard University have found traces of helium that was part of the solar nebula, trapped in tiny bubbles in volcanic rocks from under the glaciers of Iceland.