compiled by Arlene & David Kaplan

-BBC

Google Doodle celebrates scientist Mary Somerville
Mary Fairfax Somerville was a mathematician, geographer and astronomer, who was born in 1780 in Jedburgh but her childhood home was at Burntisland in Fife. Mary carried out detailed and highly-accurate studies of the solar system. Mary was also a huge advocate of women’s rights…
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-BBC

Solar Orbiter: Sun mission blasts off
Europe’s audacious Solar Orbiter probe has lifted off on its quest to study the Sun from close quarters. The spacecraft launched aboard an Atlas rocket, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 04:03 GMT. Researchers hope the knowledge gained from Solar Orbiter (SolO) will improve the models used to forecast the worst of the outbursts…more

-BBC

Astronomers want public funds for intelligent life search
The director of the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville in Virginia said that it was now “time for Seti to come in from the cold and be properly integrated to all other areas of astronomy”. Dr. Anthony Beasley told the BBC that there should be greater government support…more

-BBC

New Horizons spacecraft ‘alters theory of planet formation’
The established view is that material violently crashed together to form ever larger clumps until they became worlds. New results suggest the process was less catastrophic – with matter gently clumping together instead. The study’s lead researcher, Dr Alan Stern, said that…more

-BBC

Open University scientists testing ‘Moon dust’ for water
Ms Sergeant said: “The production of water, either from frozen deposits at the lunar poles or generating water from the rocks themselves, will be the first step to enable such long-term space exploration missions.”…more