Well, it looks like the Hubble telescopes new bits are working well as the latest pictures stream out of the fabulous device. Now the folk in charge of controlling the space bourne telescope are busy bring all the systems back on line. So far the new pictures are stunning.

Hubble telescope official site

We recently found out about the Kepler Mission which launched at 0349GMT which is 2249EST on 7 March, from Cape Canaveral.  The really exciting  thing about this mission is that its looking for Rocky planets orbiting their star within what is known as the habitable zone of their Star. In short, these are planets that might be inhabitable.

Hundreds of planets have already been discovered outside the solar system, but they have been very un earth like. They have been Gas giants or Ice giants sometimes whizzing around their star at massive velocities. Its unlikely that life as we know it could easily exist on such planets. Then again who knows. However, when devoting immense resources to finding livable planets or extra terrestrial life, the searchers must concentrate their search on the avenues that offer them the highest probability of success. In essense they must look for planets that are as similar to Earth as possible.

For more definitive information about Kepler , visit  The kepler mission homepage .

For many years, there have been just 9  planets known to mankind, in the Whole Universe. Not because there aren't anymore, but because we could not see them, or accurately deduce their exsistence. All this has now changed dramatically over the past few Years. In this category, we shall be looking at these and other developments in astronomy.