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"Astronomers have a mind-blowing new theory: that there are 17 billion Earth-sized planets in our galaxy. They don't yet know how many of these worlds are in habitable zones, but the implications of this discovery are amazing. So much that some claim the "quest for a twin Earth is heating up." Simply put: If there are 17 billion Earth-sized worlds in our galaxy, it's clear that the Universe is bubbling with life."

"The Milky Way hosts at least 17 billion Earth-size alien planets, and probably many more, a new study reveals. Astronomers have determined that about 17% of stars in our galaxy harbor a roughly Earth-size exoplanet in a close orbit. Since there are 100 billion or so stars in the Milky Way, that works out to a minimum of 17 billion small, rocky alien worlds, or an Earth-size planet around one of every six stars. And there are probably many more such planets orbiting at greater distances from their stars, some of which may even be "alien Earths" capable of supporting life as we know it."

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Mr Baumgartner, who became the first man to break the sound barrier after leaping from 128,100ft above the Earth almost two weeks ago, urged the US Government to divert the money it spends on Mars toon environmental projects on Earth.
"A lot of guys they are talking about landing on Mars," he said. "Because [they say] it is so important to land on Mars because we would learn a lot more about our planet here, our Earth, by going to Mars which actually makes no sense to me because we know a lot about Earth and we still treat our planet, which is very fragile, in a really bad way.
"So I think we should perhaps spend all the money [which is] going to Mars to learn about Earth. I mean, you cannot send people there because it is just too far away. That little knowledge we get from Mars I don't think it does make sense."

"The Earth Moon Sun System. The orbit of the moon around the earth, the orbit of the earth around the sun, and a discussion of the relative sizes and distances. From the Physical Science course by Derek Owens."

"In science fact, though, there's greater concern that Earth-dwellers-specifically bacteria and microorganisms-could arrive at extraterrestrial destinations. As NASA sends rovers to Mars, plans a trip to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, and looks for an ocean on Saturn's moon Enceladus, the hope is to find life-forms on those interstellar bodies. To ensure that doesn't include forms that originated on Earth-and that the new environment isn't compromised the way Earth ecosystems can be by invasive species or infectious diseases-NASA is now thoroughly cleaning its space-bound vessels."

Astronauts often refer to "the overview effect," the moment, when looking down at Earth from space, they realize our smallness, our fragility and improbable existence, and the need for humanity to protect our one and only home. In Daily Overview, Benjamin Grant seeks to create this cognitive shift for the majority of people who will never travel to space. A Wired article describes his method, he begins by scrolling through Google Earth and selecting the most visually stunning and thought provoking images of both nature and man- "congested metropolises, stunning empty wilderness, and monstrous mining operations." Then he uses color correction sparingly to emphasize the image, much like a photojournalist would edit a RAW file from their camera.

This got us thinking: What happens when smaller (and bigger) objects fly into our atmosphere? We used Purdue University's "Impact: Earth!" simulator to find our answers. Our own Bob Al-Greene illustrated the results, as seen in the gallery above.

Some highlights: Rocks the size of basketballs enter our planet about once a month; most burn apart in the atmosphere before they reach the surface. Objects as long as standard school buses (roughly 12 meters around) only sneak into the Earth every 20 years or so - but, as seen in Chelyabinsk, the damage can be much greater.

All results assume the object is traveling at a 45-degree angle, with a density level of 3000 kg/m^3 and a velocity of 11 km/s. Everything is assumed to be seen from 100 kilometers away from the direct impact zone.

Click "Show As List" on the bottom-left of the gallery to view larger images. And check out our Google Hangout with asteroid experts to learn more about what's being done to fend off space rocks, from basketball-sized to London-sized.

"There could be many billions of planets not much bigger than Earth circling faint stars in our galaxy, says an international team of astronomers. The estimate for the number of "super-Earths" is based on detections already made and then extrapolated to include the Milky Way's population of so-called red dwarf stars."

I like to point out that the space program technology transfer is two-way. Many NASA engineers give their expertise and spare time to apply space program technology to problems facing the developing world. In doing so, they learn valuable lessons that will allow us to push space exploration beyond low-earth orbit. The highly efficient engineering approaches that are required in the developing world - robust solutions that do not require a lot of maintenance, resupply or training - are the same approaches we need to employ if we are going to break out of the bounds of low-earth orbit.

The groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. Produced in extensive consultation with NASA scientists, NOVA takes data from earth-observing satellites and transforms it into dazzling visual sequences, each one exposing the intricate and surprising web of forces that sustains life on earth.

As you probably know, astronomers use the distance that light travels in a year as a standard measuring stick for calculating the largest distances in the Universe. The nearest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri, measures 4.22 light-years from Earth. The center of the Milky Way Galaxy is 26,000 light-years away. The nearest large galaxy, Andromeda, is 2.5 million light-years away.

While comets were historically thought to be ill omens of war and famine, recent science has revealed that these celestial wonders actually contain amino acids, the building blocks of life on Earth. Justin Dowd explores the implications of this magnificent discovery.

"Solar System debris rains down on Earth in vast quantities - more than a hundred tons of it a day. Most of it vaporizes in our atmosphere, leaving stunning trails of light we call shooting stars. More hazardous are the billions, likely trillions, of leftover rocks - comets and asteroids - that wander interplanetary space in search of targets. Most asteroids are made of rock. The rest are metal, mostly iron. Some are rubble piles - gravitationally bound collections of bits and pieces. Most live between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and will never come near Earth. But some do. Some will. More than a thousand known asteroids are classed as "potentially hazardous," based on size and trajectory. Currently, it looks doable to develop an early-warning and defense system that could protect the human species from impactors larger than a kilometer wide. Smaller ones, which reflect much less light and are therefore much harder to detect at great distances, carry enough energy to incinerate entire nations, but they don't put the human species at risk of extinction."

"Enter the planetary defenders, a group of astronomers, physicists and aerospace engineers who have since the early 1990s been locating flying space rocks, painstakingly plotting their orbits, and thinking of ingenious schemes to drag them off course or blow them up should they be on a trajectory toward us. Finally, they have been imagining how the fractious family of man might come together with a contingency plan to literally save the planet, like Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck in Hollywood's Armageddon. NASA has identified 94% of the huge, potentially civilization-ending asteroids nearby (none of which is on an earth-trajectory for now). But only about 1 percent of the 500,000 Near Earth Objects around the size of 2012 DA14 orbiting near earth's orbit have been tracked. The space agency's global Spaceguard program connects professional and amateur telescopes looking for smaller NEOs. A telescope in Spain picked 2012 DA14 when it was 2.7 million miles away, and reported it to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge. Later,scientists calculated its trajectory, based on a few plot points of its movement."

"Alright people, let's move on. Nothing to see here. You know that asteroid of death that whizzed by Earth today at an altitude that's actually below some of our satellites? You know that meteor that exploded in the skies over Russia today, injuring nearly 1,000 people? And you know all that speculation that they're somehow connected-that the Earth has stumbled into some kind of storm-front of space rocks, any one of which will annihilate us eventually? Forget it. The two incidents have absolutely nothing to do with each other, and neither one should cause us all that much worry. Yet."

"National Geographic Entertainment's Wildest Weather in the Solar System is now playing in digital fulldome theaters and planetariums. This spectacular show will take you on a journey to witness weather extremes in our solar system like never before. These education resources, created to complement the Wildest Weather in the Solar System film, will help you bring content about the Earth-sun connection and extreme weather on Earth and other planets in our solar system to your classroom. Explore this collection to find hands-on multimedia activities, worksheets, lessons, interactives, and interactive whiteboard content."

"An extraordinary timelapse video created with pictures from the International Space Station shows Earth as it has never been seen before. The video, called Further Up Yonder, was made by Italian film student Giacomo Sardelli using Nasa stills. Sardelli calls the film a message from the ISS to all humankind "

The distance from the surface of the Earth to its center is 3,959 miles. The thickness of the ocean lithosphere or the relatively solid skin of the earth under oceans is only 41 miles, which in relative terms is much thinner than the skin of an apple.

Venus may have once possessed strange oceans of carbon dioxide fluid that helped shape the planet's surface, researchers say.

PLAY VIDEO
60 Billion Planets Could Harbor Life
For years, we've believed that around 2 billion planets in the galaxy are able to support alien life. But what if we were wrong? Anthony discusses how new knowledge of the 'Goldilocks Zone' could mean life on up to 60 billion planets.
Venus is often described as Earth's twin planet because it is the world closest to Earth in size, mass, distance and chemical makeup. However, whereas Earth is a haven for life, Venusis typically described as hellish, with a crushing atmosphere and clouds of corrosive sulfuric acid floating over a rocky desert surface hot enough to melt lead.

The hypnotic video-recorded through the crew module's windows-was among the first data removed from the unmanned Orion capsule after its Dec. 5 test flight that lifted off from Cape Canaveral, FL and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 4.5 hours later after traveling 3,600 miles above Earth. It was the farthest journey of a human-spaceflight vehicle since 1972, when the last of NASA's Apollo missions flew to the moon.

Unlike its real-time airing on NASA TV, this video shows all of the re-entry footage, beginning 10 minutes before splashdown, and including parts missed during the original downlink's blackout, when atmospheric friction caused peak temperatures of 4,000 ºF temperatures. As the capsule hurtles through the atmosphere at 20,000 mph, the resulting trail of plasma changes color from white to yellow to lavender to magenta as temperatures increase. The camera also captures the elaborate parachute deployment that slowed Orion's fall to a gingerly 20 mph for landing.