Carnival of Space 136 -interstellar cyclers and Looking for reflections of lakes and Oceans on Exoplanets

Carnival of Space 136 is up at Simotronomy

This site contributed an article on ultradense deuterium and the T Pyxidis White Dwarf supernova risk

Centauri Dreams looks at the interstellar Cycler configuration proposed by science fiction writer Karl Schroeder.

Here is Karl’s writeup on interstellar Cyclers

To me, the idea that you should expend billions or trillions of dollars to accelerate a starship, only to decelerate it again, is pure lunacy. 90% of the ship’s mass is support structures–either power or life support systems. The key to viable interstellar transport, in my view, is simple: if you’ve got it all in motion, keep it in motion and re-use it. The only thing you want to decelerate at your destination is your cargo.

Phil Plait, at the Bad Astronomy blog writes about a potential way future scientists could detect water on exoplanets by catching glints off the surfaces of lakes or oceans.

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Check out Carnival of Space 136 up at Simotronomy for a lot more