European Association for Astronomy Education

Source: NASA-Kepler Press Release

Artist's concept of Kepler-16b. Image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle.

The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now a scientific fact. NASA's Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet - a planet orbiting two stars - 200 light-years from Earth.

Unlike Star Wars' Tatooine, the planet is cold, gaseous and not thought to harbor life, but its discovery demonstrates the diversity of planets in our galaxy. Previous research has hinted at the existence of circumbinary planets, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Kepler detected such a planet, known as Kepler-16b, by observing transits, where the brightness of a parent star dims from the planet crossing in front of it. (read source)

Source: NASA Press Release

The International Space Station with ATV-2 and Endeavour.
Image credits: ESA/NASA.

Three International Space Station crew members safely returned to Earth Friday, Sept. 16, wrapping up a six-month mission of research and exploration.

NASA's Ron Garan, Expedition 28 commander Andrey Borisenko and flight engineer Alexander Samokutyaev, both of the Russian Federal Space Agency, landed their Soyuz spacecraft in Kazakhstan at midnight EDT (10 a.m. in Kazakhstan). The trio, which arrived at the station on April 6, had been scheduled to land on Sept. 8, but that was postponed because of the Aug. 24 loss of the Progress 44 cargo ship.

Before leaving the station, Borisenko handed over command to NASA's Mike Fossum, who leads Expedition 29. He and Flight Engineers Satoshi Furukawa of Japan and Sergei Volkov of Russia are conducting research and maintenance aboard the station. The launch date for the remaining Expedition 29 crew members, NASA's Dan Burbank, and Russia's Anatoly Ivanishin and Anton Shkaplerov, is under review.

Fossum is blogging about his experiences aboard the space station at:

http://blogs.nasa.gov