Vatican astronomer believes in life beyond Earth

Vatican priest-astronomer believes in the survival of extraterrestrial galaxy. The possibility of intelligent life beyond Earth is regularly discuss at a conference held at the initiative of the Catholic Church. Director of the Vatican Observatory, the Jesuit priest Jose Funes does not exclude the existence of life beyond Earth. "Up to now we have not found any evidence that there is extraterrestrial life" - said the astronomer.

The Pipe Nebula

East of Antares and towards the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, there are dark spots that extend over fields full of stars.

Cataloged in the early twentieth century by astronomer EE Barnard, these dark interstellar dust clouds include B59, B72, B77 and B78, which are seen in silhouette against the starry background.

European-Russian mission ExoMars in 2016 and 2018

The administration of the National Hot Air and Space USA (NASA) had to discard collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) ExoMars expedition due to budget cuts; it seemed that the mission now will never be started. However, ESA continued to aggressively seek out potential partners and recently announced a proposed agreement with the Russian Space Agency, under which the Federal Space Agency shall provide two rockets to send spacecraft European-Russian mission ExoMars in 2016 and 2018.