Free Republic

NASA's Kepler mission is unlikely to detect any Earth-like exoplanets before 2011 due to an electronic glitchKepler, NASA's mission to search for planets around other stars, will not be able to spot an Earth-sized planet until 2011, according to the mission's team. The delays are caused by noisy amplifiers in the telescope's electronics. The team is racing to fix the issue by changing the way data from the telescope is processed, but the delay could mean that ground-based observers now have the upper hand in the race to be the first to spot an Earth twin. "We're not going to...

Note: The following text is a quote: Port St. Lucie man sentenced to 60 months on Arms Export Control Act conspiracy WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A 55-year-old Port St. Lucie man was sentenced Friday to sixty months in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release following a joint U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement (OEE) investigation. Joseph Piquet was convicted on March 5, 2009, on seven counts of conspiracy to evade the Arms Export Control Act by a federal jury in Fort Pierce. Court documents show he...