The New Frontier

We're looking hard, but the numbers aren't stacking up. Is life on other planets really that hard to find? Does it even exist? We have not discovered so much as a signal, so maybe we really are alone in our neck of the galaxy!

The evidence to prove some of Einstein's theories had long been elusive, beyond the capabilities of technology, until now. It appears that Einstein is once again triumphant as we discover the latest in deep space observations.

Cubesats are miniature satellites that have been used exclusively in low Earth orbit for 15 years. Now, these tiny satellites are growing in mainstream popularity and are being used for interplanetary missions as well. They have even been sent to Mars with the Insight Mission, in hopes of better understanding the red planet, our solar system, and beyond.

This is the latest in Martian exploration, not just from orbit but also from rovers on the ground. New sources of water and planetary dust storms are a few of the stories unfolding on the Red Planet.

The night sky is a time machine. The further we look out into the universe, the further back in time we reach. What we see in the night sky is only a small percentage of the contents of the Universe, most is dark matter and dark energy. We know it exists; however, its nature eludes us for the moment.

As scientists and astronomers peer closer at nearby stars with ever more fidelity they are discovering planets; exo planets, worlds outside our own solar system. With technological advances and improved techniques scientists are discovering more and more worlds every day. With confidence, scientists now calculated there could be as many as 40 billion Earth like planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone.

It powers the machinery of nature; our weather, encourages and sustains life on land and at sea. When it sets in the West it reveals to us its many billions of sibling stars populating the night sky. We study our Sun closely, and like a Rosetta stone it can reveal the secrets of all the other stars above.

These are the Moons of the gas giants. Each a unique and mysterious world of its own. Some have oceans of water, geysers of Sulphur or atmospheres of plastic. Some are just now being seen at the outer rim of our solar system, all are worthy of much more scrutiny.