Not astronomy-related news, but just as important: A interesting article on how we could save the honey bees from dying out. With mushrooms. Read the full article here on Wired.

Why I always find the most interesting stuff online at 2 in the morning I`ll never know.

A paper released in Astrobiology studies the possibilities of life perhaps gaining a foothold on the early Moon, billions of years ago. Or at least conditions that may have been conducive to Earth-like life (carbon-based, H₂O solvent etc). Another paper presents a theory based on the volcanic activity of the lunar past, which could have generated large enough amounts of gasses like CO, H₂O and S to imitate the atmosphere present during the early stages of the Earth's geological development. This may have been critical for the spawning of abiogenesis.  


Images of the creation of lunar mare, or lava plain, flows on the moon at 500-million-year time increments. Red areas illustrate the most recent lava activity at each point. Mapping the timing and volume of the volcanic eruptions helped scientists calculate the amount of gaseous material available for an ancient lunar atmosphere.

The website Inverse has a good write-up about it and the media hype around it that may have bewildered some readers.

FIRST EXOMOON FOUND?! Astronomers MAY HAVE discovered the first exomoon! And by "first" I mean the first one that we have found, EVER! … Don't believe me? Well then, take a look for yourself.
https://www.accuweather.com/en/outdoor-articles/astronomy/first-exomoon-found-neptune-sized-world-possibly-spotted-orbiting-alien-planet/70006260
Of course, it's a big maybe.

We've had a thread about this discovery for over a year.

http://forum.spaceengine.org/viewtopic. ... 887#p10711

We've had a thread about this discovery for over a year.viewtopic.php?f=3&t=287&p=23887#p10711

Dang, my whether/news website gets things really late then.

Well, I guess on the upside it spread the news to people who might have otherwise missed it.  Late is better than never.

It went through the press last month as a 'new' discovery.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... years-away
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45707309
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/03/worl ... index.html
and so on.

No idea why.

Not actually surprising really, the official news hubs are always behind on stuff like this for some reason. It's a shame, because that was a pretty amazing discovery.

What's news is that there has been a new study published with an updated analysis of the data on the exomoon, with the results further corroborating its existence.  But the headlines are making it seem like it was only just discovered, when really it was detected and announced quite a while ago. 

That's news outlets for ya...

What do you think about this?: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scie ... ets-space/

New planet discovered around Barnard's Star, 233 day orbit & msini = 3.2 Earth Masses
This might end up as a better choice than Proxima Centauri for us to visit in a few years!

Icy 'Super-Earth' Exoplanet Spotted Around Nearby Barnard's Star

Yes, I heard of a private project to send a cellphone sized space probe to Proxima using a laser powered sail that would accelerate the probe to 20% the speed of light and get it there in 20-25 years.  It would then take pictures and transmit them here which would take another 5 years.  I wonder how much longer it would take for it to get to Barnard's Star.

That's pretty cool but why wait that long?

get it there in 20-25 years

I need to book my seat now!

At the moment we have about a 1% chance of detection with Gaia. A 10% chance if they put some HST time to it. If HST does not detect it, then an upper mass of 8 Earth-masses can be obtained. WFIRST (Wide Field Infrared Space Telescope) may have a ~99% chance of detecting it. That should be online by 2030. Why go buy milk when you can let the cow walk over to you?
Prospects for detecting the astrometric signature of Barnard's Star b
Hopefully we can also directly image it by then as well. Determine surface temperatures, seasons, weather even.

That's pretty cool but why wait that long?

get it there in 20-25 years

I need to book my seat now!

At the moment we have about a 1% chance of detection with Gaia. A 10% chance if they put some HST time to it. If HST does not detect it, then an upper mass of 8 Earth-masses can be obtained. WFIRST (Wide Field Infrared Space Telescope) may have a ~99% chance of detecting it. That should be online by 2030. Why go buy milk when you can let the cow walk over to you?
Prospects for detecting the astrometric signature of Barnard's Star b
Hopefully we can also directly image it by then as well. Determine surface temperatures, seasons, weather even.

No I think they said the mission is about a decade away but it takes 20-25 years to get there moving at 20% at the speed of light and there is no booking of seats lol this probe is tiny and only large enough to fit a cellphone sized computer.
I would like to be able to determine atmospheric composition as well as detect large bodies of water.  If we see seasonal changes that might even be a sign of vegetation!

So ummm... How do we communicate with said probe once it gets there?