Top Space Stories of the Week! – Space.com

A exoplanet-hunting mission partners with an alien-intelligence search, a plastic-recycling 3D printer will soon head into space and NASA’s Van Allen Probe mission comes to an end. These are just some of the top stories this week from Space.com. A distant exoplanet collision.NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (center) and Christina Koch pose for a photo while preparing for an Oct. 18, 2019 spacewalk.(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)Signs of warm dust in a distant star system may be offering scientists a rare opportunity to study the clashing of planets late in planetary development. This disk of material also shows changes in a short timescale of a few years.Full Story: Bam! Scientists Watch Distant Exoplanet CollisionTESS and Breakthrough Listen team up.(Image credit: Robin Dienel, courtesy of the Carnegie Institution for Science)NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission hunts for planets around other stars, and on Wednesday (Oct. 23) TESS team members and representatives from the $100 Breakthrough Listen project announced their collaboration. Together they will search for signals from intelligent alien life and try to find out if humanity is alone in the universe.Full Story: NASA’s Planet-Hunting Probe Joins the Search for Intelligent AliensJapan may work with India on lunar endeavor.(Image credit: JAXA)On Tuesday (Oct. 22), a representative from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that the nation may partner with India on a lunar mission. Japan has already signed on as a partner for NASA’s Artemis program, aiming to return humans to the moon by 2024.Full Story: Japan Sets Sights on Moon with NASA and IndiaNew leader of NASA human spaceflight announced.(Image credit: NASA)Douglas Loverro will serve as NASA’s new leader of its Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. NASA chief Jim Bridenstine announced the decision last week. Now that Loverro has been named, NASA expects to come up with a new targeted launch date for the first flight of its Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket.Full Story: Meet NASA’s New Leader of Human Spaceflight OperationsAstronaut says contaminant on glove was space grease.(Image credit: NASA)During the historic all-woman spacewalk last week (Oct. 18) a spacesuit glove got contaminated. One of astronaut Christine Koch’s gloves had a contaminant on it, most likely grease from the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm. Full Story: Spacesuit Gloves Contaminated During Friday’s Historic SpacewalkPlastic Recycler soons heads up to space lab.(Image credit: Made In Space)Next Saturday (Nov. 2), the company Made In Space will send its commercial 3D printer called Plastic Recycler up to the International Space Station. The invention was created to complete the plastic sustainability life cycle, allowing astronauts to convert plastic packaging and trash into feedstock to be reused by the printer. Full Story: Plastic Recycler Will Turn Space Station Trash into 3D Printing StockOpen letter protests VP’s appearance at IAC.(Image credit: NASA TV)On Monday (Oct. 21) U.S. Vice President Mike Pence appeared at the 70th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), but before his attendance, more than 200 people signed an open letter calling on conference organizers to disinvite him because of his social and political views. The letter says he “carr[ies] out administration policies that erode or strip members of the space community of their human rights.”Full Story: VP Pence Speech Met by Protests at IAC 2019 Space ConferenceThank you, Van Allen Probes.(Image credit: JHU/APL)After more than seven years studying Earth’s radiation belts, mission scientists sent the final command to the final Van Allen Probe left in the NASA mission. The spacecraft duo launched in August 2012 to study space weather and to help future scientists build better models. Full Story: RIP, Van Allen Probes! NASA Ends 7-Year Mission to Explore Earth’s Radiation BeltsThe fast growth of ancient black holes.(Image credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello)Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile found streams of has rotating in opposite directions around a supermassive black hole located 47 million light-years from Earth. This work provides a glimpse into how black holes grew so quickly in the early universe.Full Story: How Ancient Black Holes May Have Grown So Quickly in the Early UniverseBezos announces lunar lander team.(Image credit: Blue Origin)On Tuesday (Oct. 22), Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos announced that three veteran aerospace companies — Draper, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman — will join Blue Origin’s bid to build a lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis project. Bezos made the announcement at the 70th International Astronautical Congress in Washington D.C.Full Story: Jeff Bezos Unveils Blue Origin’s Dream Team to Land NASA Astronauts on the Moon