Hello and welcome to Truthloader's science
in 90 seconds - awesomeness condensed.
And it's a space themed episode this week.
First up, and astrophysicists from the German
Aerospace Centre have discovered what they
say is the first solar system twin. Studying
the star KOI 351, the team found that it has
at least 7 planets, five of them rocky and
close to the centre, followed by two gas giants.
What's not so similar are the orbits - they
are packed in so tightly all could fit within
the orbit of the Earth around the sun. The
breakthrough, however, is in finding that
our complex system of planets and their gravitational
influence isn't unique - or even necessarily
unusual.
Next up, and it's one small crash for man,
one giant leap for mankind. Sierra Nevada's
Dream chaser space taxi took it's first unmanned
glide flight at Edwards Air Force Base in
California on October 26, lifted to 12,500
feet and then dropped. Everything went smoothly
- until one of the wheels failed to deploy
causing the plane to skid off the runway after
an otherwise excellent landing. The company
said the crew compartment was undamaged and
are planning a manned drop next year.
And finally, it was haloween last night and
we have a dark matter to discuss. Not that
kind of dark matter, the invisible space kind.
Dark matter makes up an estimated quarter
of the universe, but simply cannot be detected.
However, Scientists at the LUX dark matter
detector, housed deep below ground at the
Sanford Underground Research facility, say
they are getting closer and closer to pinpointing
the phenomenon. The first 90 day run of Lux
earlier this year didn't find dark matter,
but proved it was the most sensitive detector
in the world, and the team say they have high
hopes for 2014.
That's it for this week, check out the longer
versions of these stories up next in the playlist.
