Welcome to another installment of The Carnival of Space! Here’s some highlights of space and astronomy news from the past week. We’ve got great stories on Mars, Soyuz, potentially habitable worlds, and more!

First off, Nextbigfuture discusses the latest EMDrive experiment paper (from China) which describes their latest thruster and gives the test result details, showing that with a couple of kilowatts of power they can produce 720 mN (about 72 grams) of thrust. Read more at: http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/02/propellentless-emdrive-research.html

Next up from Tranquility Base is the story of Soyuz 18a’s short, strange, and almost fatal flight. Check it out at: http://tranquilitybaseblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-long-fall-to-earth-and-short-tumble.html

Keep reading for more great highlights from the past week in space and astronomy news!

The Meridiani Journal looks at how Astronomers estimate 4.5 billion ‘Earth-like’ planets in our galaxy. Get the latest scoop on exoplanets at: http://themeridianijournal.com/2013/02/astronomers-estimate-4-5-billion-earth-like-planets-in-our-galaxy/

Interested in tracking comets and asteroids? Ian Musgrave has Celestia data files and complete information at: http://astroblogger.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/viewing-comet-c2011-panstarrs-in.html

Cheap Astronomy appears on the fabulous Science on Top podcast – and eventually gets around to talking about astronomy. Check it out at: http://www.cheapastro.com/podcasts/CA162_ScienceOnTopAgain.mp3

From early civilizations until today man has sought to explore and discover what is beyond our world. From the ancient discovery of the
wandering stars to the thousands of potential new planets found this decade, mankind has sought to make many astronomical advances. However some of these ‘breakthroughs’ that occurred throughout history happened to be more phantom than fact. Learn more at: http://www.armaghplanet.com/blog/8-phantom-moons-and-planets.html

Day Hikes in the Labyrinth of Night: exploring Mars using easily-available data Read the full post at: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/bill-dunford/20130201-noctis.html

Widespread UFO reports from Cape Town, South Africa, turn out to be nothing more exciting than the USAF’s classified X-37b spaceplane. Learn more at: http://www.urban-astronomer.com/articles/2012/ufo-s/x37-b-launch

Next Big Future reports: “We could be in the business of studying the atmospheres of habitable worlds 10 years from now,” says David Charbonneau, also of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. If NASA launches the missions the space telescopes and we get lucky with analysis of Kepler data to confirm exoplanets, then we could be studying the atmospheres by 2017 or 2020 with new space based and new large ground based telescopes. Full article at: http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/02/ground-and-space-based-telescopes.html

Also from Next Big Future: Nextbigfuture – Bigelow Aerospace’s historic first commercial space station will open up extraordinary opportunities for countries across the globe. Learn more at: http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/02/bigelow-aerospace-announces-pricing-for.html

A Near-Earth Asteroid will brush past Eath during a close flyby on Feb. 15 2013. Will you be watching? Links Through Space has more information at: http://linksthroughspace.blogspot.fi/2013/02/near-earth-asteroid-brush-past-earth-in.html

Last but not least, Dr. Andrew Fraknoi Discusses a dramatic new image of the center of active galaxy M106 that has been assembled from Hubble and other images by an amateur astronomer and published by the team at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Read Dr. Fraknoi’s full blog post at: http://fraknoi.blogspot.com/2013/02/an-amazing-picture-of-active-galaxy-by.html

That’s it for this week’s Carnival of Space! Stay tuned for the next weekly showcase of articles written on the topic of space. If you have a science/space blog, joining the carnival is a good way to meet members of the space/science blogging community and help your site reach a wider audience.

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