Volume 11, Issue 2 NOVEMBER, 2017

Hello Space Pioneer,

We did our best once again to pick the most interesting space news for our November issue. As we said goodbye to Cassini, it is time to focus on new space missions and endeavors. We strongly encourage you to search for more space news after you are done reading this issue of Astro Newsletter. The truth is, you can never get enough space news! We currently have 21 schools participating in Future Explorers Program and 10 schools in Partner School Science Program. It goes without saying that we expect mindblowing projects and everlasting friendships to be made throughout the school year. The first 3­4 weeks of the programs were already quite fruitful. Enjoy your read!

This is the first time a ring has been discovered around a trans­neptunian SPACE NEWS IN A FLASH object, and the team said this discovery shows that the presence of ­ Dwarf Planet Haumea Has a rings could be much more common Ring than was previously thought, in our Solar System as well as in other ­ SpaceX Launches, Lands Dwarf Planet Haumea Has a planetary systems. Recycled Rocket Ring

­ Small Asteroid or Comet A unique opportunity to study the 'Visits' From Beyond the Solar dwarf planet Haumea has led to an intriguing discovery: Haumea is System surrounded by a ring. Add this to the already long list of ­ Planet Nine Does Exist, NASA unique things about the weird­shaped Evidence Suggests world with a dizzying rotation and a controversial discovery. The team said their data shows that ­ Sun­Like Star May Have On January 21, 2017 Haumea passed the egg­shaped Haumea measures Devoured 15 Alien Planets in front of a distant star, in an event 2,320 kilometers in its largest axis. It known as an occultation. The takes 3.9 hours for Haumea rotate ­ Dwarf Planet Ceres Once Had background star can – pardon the pun around its axis, much less than any an Ocean? – shine a light on the object passing in other body in the Solar System that front, providing information about a measures more than a hundred ­ Scientists Answer to Mystery distant object — such as size, shape, kilometers long. It orbits the Sun in of What Formed Martian and density — that is otherwise an elliptical loop that takes 284 Landscapes difficult to obtain. Since an years to complete. Additionally occultation with Haumea had never Haumea has two small moons. been observed before, scientists were (http://www.universetoday.com) first eager, and then surprised. SpaceX Launches, Lands Small Asteroid or Comet 'Visits' Planet Nine Does Exist, NASA Recycled Rocket From Beyond the Solar System Evidence Suggests SpaceX launched a rocket that had A small, recently discovered asteroid Planet Nine is out there, and already flown to space and landed it ­ or perhaps a comet ­ appears to have astronomers are determined to find it, successfully on an ocean platform, as originated from outside the solar according to a new statement from part of its ongoing effort to recycle system, coming from somewhere else NASA. In fact, mounting evidence costly rocket components. in our galaxy. If so, it would be the suggests it's hard to imagine our solar The satellite aims to provide first "interstellar object" to be system without the unseen world. television coverage and observed and confirmed by The hypothetical planet is believed communications capabilities to North astronomers. to be about 10 times more massive America, Hawaii, Mexico and the This unusual object ­ for now than Earth and located in the dark, Caribbean. designated A/2017 U1 ­ is less than a outer reaches of the solar system, It is a "dual­mission" satellite for the quarter­mile (400 meters) in diameter approximately 20 times farther from US­based operator EchoStar and and is moving remarkably fast. the sun than Neptune is. While the Luxembourg­based operator SES. Astronomers are urgently working to mysterious world still has yet to be About 10 minutes after launch, the point telescopes around the world and found, astronomers have discovered a tall portion of the rocket, known as in space at this notable object. Once number of strange features of our the first stage, returned to Earth for a these data are obtained and analyzed, solar system that are best explained controlled, upright landing on a astronomers may know more about by the presence of a ninth planet, droneship called "Of Course I Still the origin and possibly the according to the NASA statement. Love You," stationed in the Atlantic. composition of the object. (http://www.livescience.com) (http://phys.org) (http://www.spacedaily.com)

Sun­Like Star May Have Dwarf Planet Ceres Once Had Scientists Answer to Mystery of Devoured 15 Alien Planets an Ocean? What Formed Martian Landscapes' A distant sun­like star may have In March of 2015, NASA’s Dawn devoured a dozen or more of its own mission arrived around Ceres, a Earth­size planets, new research protoplanet that is the largest object in shows. the Asteroid Belt. Along with Vesta, Researchers named the star Kronos, the Dawn mission seeks to after the Titan of Greek mythology characterize the conditions and who ate his own children out of fears processes of the early Solar System they'd dethrone him, according to a by studying some of its oldest objects. statement from Princeton University. One thing Dawn has determined since Working over a ten year period at Kronos belongs to a binary star its arrival is that water­bearing the Plataforma Solar de Almeria system, or double­star system, located minerals are widespread on Ceres, an (CIEMAT) Denk has designed and 350 light­years from Earth. indication that the protoplanet once built a device to make enough oxygen Astronomers discovered the star's had a global ocean. and water for 6 to 8 astronauts, ravenous habits while comparing its powered by a thermal solar reactor. In chemical composition to that of its 2017 it completed a six­month test stellar twin, named Krios — the run. Greek Titan god of the constellations The idea is not new; just the and Kronos' older brother. The results implementation. showed that Kronos had an unusually Denk's simple solar reactor could high level of rock­forming minerals, chemically split water from lunar soil, suggesting it feasted on roughly 15 and electrolysis could then split the Earth masses' worth of rocky planets Naturally, this has raised many H2O into oxygen and hydrogen. But in its lifetime, according to the study. questions, such as what happened to few other attempts used solar (https://www.space.com) this ocean, and could Ceres still have reactors, and ones that did had flawed water today? Towards this end, the designs, due to undersizing the solar Dawn mission team recently concentrator to heat the reactor ­ and conducted two studies that shed some none exceeded bench scale. light on these questions. (http://www.spacedaily.com) (http://www.universetoday.com) SSCCHHOOOOLLSS IINN AACCTTIIOONN We made a great start to our educational programs with all of our participating schools and all the mysteries of Mission Patches have been revealed! These students needed no help from professionals when it came to designing a Mission Patch. Great details and awesome placement of objects on all the patches we saw so far. Thank you for sharing your imagination and creativity with us! Well done!

Bahçeşehir College, Antalya Erkan Ulu, Istanbul Final School, Samsun

Rota College, Izmir Fen Bilimleri, Kırklareli ISTEK Atanur Oğuz, Istanbul

FMV Nişantaşı, Istanbul ISTEK Mavişehir, Izmir YÖNDER, Istanbul

Explanation: Many Distant galaxies lie beyond a foreground of spiky Milky Way stars in this telescopic field of view. Centered on yellowish star HD 14771, the scene spans about 1 degree on the sky toward the northern constellation Andromeda. At top right is large spiral galaxy NGC 891, 100 thousand light­years across and seen almost exactly edge­on. About 30 million light­years distant, NGC 891 looks a lot like our own Milky Way with a flattened, thin, galactic disk. Its disk and central bulge are cut along the middle by dark, obscuring dust clouds. Scattered toward the lower left are members of galaxy cluster Abell 347. Nearly 240 million light­years away, Abell 347 shows off its own large galaxies in the sharp image. They are similar to NGC NGC 891 vs Abell 347 891 in physical size but located almost 8 times farther away, so Abell 347 galaxies have roughly one eighth the apparent size of NGC 891.