Awesome Astronomy

The Discussion: In a month when the European Space Agency succeeded and failed in the first part of their Exomars saga, we go through the glory and the debris of Mars exploration, hanging out with astronauts Tim Peake and Tim Kopra, conducting exoplanet research, provide some advice about studying astrophysics and explain why the effects of dark matter aren’t witnessed in our own solar system. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Exomars, round one Another look at the Viking mission data that may have discovered Martian life Hubble discovers that the universe contains 10 times more galaxies than thought A philosophical discussion about the chances of life existing elsewhere Venus was habitable when life began to flourish on Earth Elon Musk’s plans for colonising the solar system The ethics of colonising other planets An update of NASA’s Juno mission at Jupiter And the latest taikonauts and astronauts. The Hat of Woo: Paul’s Hat of Woo is the repository for all fester