NASA Discovers Alien Planets

Kepler is one of NASA’s many spacecraft telescopes that has recently discovered several planets that may contain alien life.  According to reports, Kepler has spotted 503 potential alien worlds.  These planets may contain life as we know it!

Some of these planets are small and may reside in the “habitable zone,” of their stars.  Habitable zone defined by NASA as – a Goldilocks-like range of not-too-close, not-too-far distances from the parent star that might allow the planet to host life.  There is still much work that needs to take place in the identifying of the these planet discoveries, says Kepler’s mission manager Roger Hunter.

The addition of these 503 exoplanets, this bring the total tally of Kepler’s exoplanet discoveries to 3,216. Only 132 of these exoplanets has been confirmed by follow-up observations, but mission scientist expect 90% of these discoveries to be “the real deal.”

NASA’s Kepler space telescope, launched in March of 2009, launched with the sole purpose of finding these Earth-size alien planets, that may be capable of containing life as we know it.  The $600 million mission has raised some concern with the loss of its second observatory’s four orientation-maintaining reaction wheels in May 2013.  According to its design, the Kepler space telescope requires at least 3 of its four orientation-maintaining reaction wheels to stay locked onto its 150,0000-plus targeted stars.

Even if the Kepler space telescope can not continue on its mission, it has been a tremendous success, researches say, flagging more than 2,700 potential alien planets thus far.  Let’s travel with NASA through 7 of Kepler’s most spectacular discoveries.

Our first Alien planet is Kepler 10b.  NASA describes this as an “unquestionably rocky” planet, that is scorching hot.  You can see below in the artist’s concept of the planet, the vibrant red’s and yellows flowing over the rocky surface.  NASA marks this sun at approximately 520 light-years away from Earth.

On our next journey with NASA’s Kepler space telescope, we come across the first ever exoplanet to be discovered orbiting two sun’s!  They compare this planet to the famous movie Star Wars, Luke Skywalker’s home planet, Tatooine.  This planet is a gas giant, and one of the first planets discovered, that was spotted in 2011.

Our next alien planet, Kepler 20e, is the first ever alien world discovered that is smaller than Earth. Kepler 20e is about .87 the width of planet Earth and was discovered in December of 2011.

Our next stop is truly exciting, as it is the first possibly habitable planet Kepler has found! We take a quick journey to Kepler-22b, discovered December of 2011.  Kepler-22b is 2.4 times the size of Earth and orbits a sun much like our own!  As you can see in the picture, the planet looks a lot like earth, with the artist conveying water as the symbol of life.

The next potentially habitable planet is Kepler-37b which is slightly larger than Earth’s moon. It orbits its host star in just a mere 13 days and is likely to have a surface temperature of 700 degree’s Fahrenheit, according to NASA’s predictions.

Our last stop holds our most promising candidates that may contain alien life form. Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f, both hold promise of oceans similar to that of Earth’s, which may could contain life as we know it!  Both of these planets, discovered in April 2013, are larger than Earth.

With that concludes our Journey with NASA’s Kepler space telescope. I hope you found this journey as interesting as I did.  The thought that there are other alien planets out there is both exciting and scary.  I hope this research can continue, in hopes that we may find others like these seven alien worlds.

Would you try one of the world's most dangerous tours?

A soldier guards a shipment of 3.9 tons of cocaine seized in a large clandestine laboratory for the production of the drug. Be warned if you are taking a tour of a drug lab in Colombia you could be caught up in a raid. Picture AFP

A Colombian cocaine factory worker shows off a bag of coca paste in a makeshift drug lab. Picture: File

PUT these at the end of your bucket list. If you don't die or get seriously injured you will have a great story to tell.

They're places that are ridiculously popular with tourists simply because of the risk. But many have questioned whether tourists should be allowed to visit these destinations at all. 

From bungee jumping over crocodile infested waters, to mining with dynamite, and cocaine lab tours. These are the holiday experiences you probably shouldn't tell your mum about. 

Have you been on a dangerous tour? Tell us all about it below:

Colombia's cocaine factory tours 

The drug that has plagued Colombia for years has now become a tourist attraction. For as little as $9 a guide will take tourists along the Caribbean coast to La Ciudad Perdida - The Lost City.

On the trail, the guide points out the many coca plants used to make the drug, before stopping off at a cocaine lab. Once at the lab - usually nothing more than just a piece of tarpaulin or a table - travellers are told how the drug is made.

These tours are not legal. Anyone caught with the drug makers could be arrested. 

Mining with dynamite in Bolivia

Does crawling around in mud on your hands and knees carrying a bag of dynamite sound like fun? That's exactly what you can do at the Silver Mines of Potosi, Bolivia. 

Travel blogger Britany Robinson published an article on her experience of touring the mines last week. In it she describes sloshing through flooded tracks leading down a dark tunnel wearing a mask that didn't seem to be doing much to filter out the dusty air. 

Prior to entering the mine, her tour group was taken to the market to purchase gifts for the miners – a selection of coca leaves, alcohol, juice and as an additional option - dynamite. Yes. Dynamite. 

Down in the mine the tour guide passed around 95 per cent alcohol from tourist to tourist and miner to miner before the dynamite show began. 

"Ten seconds and a lifetime later, the tunnel shook with a deep groan. Dirt and bits of rock rained down, just outside our hole", Robinson writes. "Despite a fairly accurate countdown, I let out a yelp and fell against the wall."

Needless to say the tour could be incredibly dangerous. 

Bungee jumping over crocodile infested waters

At the Victoria Falls bridge above the Zambezi River, tourists can leap head first over crocodile infested waters. The Safari Par Excellence website says the bungee experience is "111 metres of pure adrenaline!".

"Based on The Victoria Falls Bridge, the Bungi (sic) jump can certainly be classed as the most scenic in the world. Not for the faint hearted!".

It's not without risks, as 22-year-old Australian Erin Langworthy found out in December last year, when her bungee cord when the cord snapped in two and she fell with her feet tied together into the river. 

Erin Langworthy speaks to Channel Nine after after her bungee cord snapped during a jump over the Zambesi River on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, sending her plunging into the rapids below. Picture: Channel 9

"It felt like I had been slapped all over," she said. After hitting the water she started swimming downstream but her bungee cord became snagged on rocks.

"I actually had to swim down to yank the bungee cord out of what it was caught in," she said.

Bungee terror

Watch

Bungee terror

Channel Nine speaks to the Perth girl who survived plummeting 25m into the Zambezi River after her bungee cord snapped.

Tornado Chasing in the United StatesTravel the Death Road

Bolivia's Death road links La Paz to Coroico. It has been estimated between 200 to 300 travellers die on the 70km road every year.

Travel reporter Jessica Festa wrote about her journey on Death Road for the website Gadling. She says the name should be taken literally. 

"The terrain is rough and the road is narrow, so there isn't very much space to move over. Along the trail you can even see memorials dedicated to lost lives, like an area called "The Balcony," where several politicians were killed. If you climb down the steep valleys - which I don't advise - you can still see some buses that fell over the edge."

Death Road in Bolivia has often been called the most dangerous road in the world.

Since the beginning of the fatal United States storm season, at least 100 thrill seekers have booked a trip with Extreme Tornados – a company that specialises in taking tourists close to tornados. 

That's despite the fact that at least 20 people, including seven children, were killed by a series of tornadoes that swept through the Midwestern US state of Oklahoma at the start of June. 

Extreme Tornados promise an "exhilarating, life-changing" holiday. A week long chase costs $2600 plus meals and airfares.  The tours run from mid-April to July mostly in the southern part of the country as tornados arise.

"Some people just do it for the adrenaline rush and some people are kind of obsessed with weather," Dave Holder, one of the tornado tour guides told NBC. "It's the same kind of people who enjoy skydiving or mountain climbing"

Tube riding in Laos

Riding a tube down a river in Laos may sound harmless enough but combine that with drinking large quantities of unknown alcohol and you have a very dangerous situation. 

Last year Melbourne woman Annika Morris, 19, was pulled unconscious from the side of a river in Vang Vieng. Ms Morris fell ill after taking a shot of locally made whisky before getting in a tractor tube and riding down the river.

She lost her sight, fell unconscious while on the river and later stopped breathing. Her life was saved by a friend who knew how to perform CPR. 

Ms Morris's experience follows the deaths of two other Australian men tube riding in Laos. 

Sydney man Lee Hudswell, 26, died in January 2012, when he landed badly after jumping from a tower into a river while riding an inner tube. The body of Melbourne man Daniel Eimutis, 19, was found in the river the same month, three days after he disappeared while tubing. 

Despite these deaths, tube riding in Laos continues to attract hundreds of visitors every year with the promise of cheap accommodation, beer, sun and a float downstream. Take a look at the video these lads made of their recent trip to Laos. 

Pusher street in Christiania Denmark

It may be one of Denmark's biggest tourist attractions but by their own admission the area is "considered quite rough and dodgy".

Christiania was founded in 1971 when a group of people cut a hole in the fence of the military barracks in Badmandsgade. Soon the area was known as Pusher street - a place where people lived for free and you could buy drugs from stalls in the street. 

"According to Copenhagen police the area around Pusher Street is controlled by organised criminal groups," the Visit Copenhagen website says. "The residents themselves have adopted to a set of rules for security reasons, which they strongly advice visitors to abide by."

That includes no photographs, no running and no talking on the phone. In case you don't remember there are signs around Pusher street that say "Please do not run - it makes us think the police are coming."

Visitors who have violated the rules have been threatened, assaulted or robbed by hash dealers.

Tours of the area. Every day at 3pm throughout the summer (26 June  - 31 August) and every weekend the rest of the year. They cost $7. 

'Bitcoin baby' born after parents pay for fertility treatment in digital currency

THE world's first baby bought entirely with Bitcoins has been born in California.

The baby's parents paid fertility specialist Dr C. Terence Lee for fertility treatments using only Bitcoins after he offered them a 50 per cent discount on his services.

Dr Lee told the Bitcoin 2013 conference it was the first time anyone had paid for fertility treatments entirely in the digital currency.

The obstetrician and gynaecologist is something of a Bitcoin evangelist - he advertised a male fertility evaluation on Reddit last year for 15 Bitcoins, which was about $US5 at the time.

Then Dr Lee was on a mission to find clients who would pay for bigger transactions in Bitcoins.

"In some cases they reacted like I said I wanted to be paid in vials of crack cocaine," he told CNN Money.

Late last year, Dr Lee used a now-defunct Australian exchange service to transfer the money to Bitcoins, and it all went through without a hitch.

Dr Lee told the conference he was continuing to convert clients to the unconventional payment method.

"On the Friday before I came here, we did an ultrasound on a patient who paid with Bitcoin," he said at the conference. "We may also have the world's first Bitcoin twins."

The digital currency rocketed in value in April, before crashing soon after.

Majority of people failing to wash their hands correctly, say Michigan University researchers

IT seems like the simplest of tasks, yet it seems most of us need a hand when it comes to washing one of our most used body parts.
That's right, 95 per cent of us get an epic F for failure when it comes to washing our hands correctly.
University of Michigan researchers say the majority of people aren't only failing to wash our hands thoroughly enough, but that some of us aren't even using soap.
You don't have to be a myths expert to know that means that only five per cent of people actually wash their hands long enough to kill the germs that can cause infections.
What's more, researchers found 33 per cent of people didn't use soap, while the worst offenders didn't even wash their hands at all.
Men faired worse in the hygiene stakes than their female counterparts, with seven per cent of ladies failing to wash their hands compared to 15 per cent for the blokes.
When they did wash their hands, only half of men used soap compared to three quarters of women.
The researchers observed 3749 people washing their hands in public loos and also found people were less likely to soap up if the sink was dirty, but were more likely to do so earlier in the day as opposed to at night as they became more relaxed.
Hand Hygiene Australia director professor Lindsay Grayson said the findings were not completely surprising, particularly when it came to men's habits.
Professor Grayson, who is also the director of infectious diseases at Austin Health in Melbourne, said it seemed some people were not only failing to wash their hands at all, but were also doing so incorrectly.
"People should really wash their hands for a minimum of 15 seconds using soap and water," he said.
"You also need to wash between your fingers and the palms of your hands - in other words the areas which have the greatest contact with surfaces and under nails if they're long or fake".
He said it was ridiculous if people didn't wash their hands at all, particularly in public toilets and before eating when the risk of contamination, particularly from fecal matter, was greatest.
Professor Grayson said some people also mistakenly over used antibacterial soap thinking a quick rinse would cut it, but that a thorough rinse with soap and water was adequate at home.
According to the latest World Health Organisation guidelines, people should spend between 20 and 60 seconds washing their hands to ensure they are thoroughly clean, use soap and water and paper towel to rinse off.
Associate professor of hospitality business and lead investigator on the Michigan University study Carl Borchgrevink said their findings held implications for both consumers and for those who worked in restaurants and hotels.
"Imagine you're a business owner and people come to your establishment and get foodborne illness through the fecal-oral route - because people didn't wash their hands - and then your reputation is on the line," he said. "You could lose your business."
The findings appear in the Journal of Environmental Health.