A planet about 20 light years away in the constellation Libra was discovered. The planet is approximated 5 times more massive than Earth and it orbits a red star known as Gliese 581.
The distance of the planet from Gliese 581 is within the right distance to make temperatures similar to Earth. There is no proof that water exists yet.
Other contenders for the purchase include Microsoft, AOL, and Google. DoubleClick is a digital media company that owns the affiliate marketing company, Performics. Google just seems to have a desire to seriously enter the affiliate marketing industry. They have already begun something similar to an ad network that uses a pay-per-action model.
Space debris is a serious problem. It happens from the collision debris with other space objects which leads to, you guessed it, more debris. Space cleanup is needed.
Interesting fact - a piece of space debris the size of a small marble, traveling at 22,000 miles per hour, has the kinetic energy of a 400 pound safe dropped from about 100 feet. Imagine the damage that would result if a marble-sized object were to collide with a space craft.
So then why are people wasting time and money and needlessly fueling the fire. Apparently, a group of people are sending part of James Doohan’s ashes to space. James Doohan is better known as Scotty, the engineer of television’s Starship Enterprise. This article talks about it, but it does not talk about what happens after the rocket gets to space (does it disintegrate, crash back to earth, or contribute space debris?).