The Latest and Greatest in Space and Astronomy by Stephen Tremp

Space Bling: From Diamond Planets to Crystal Oceans to Precious Moon Jewels. All that glitters in the night sky could be, well, diamonds and rubies and emeralds, as space probes uncover a variety of precious minerals in the universe. The discovery of a new planet made largely of diamond, known as “55 Cancri e,” has many itching to add a piece of cosmic jewelry to their collection. Unfortunately, the planet is 40 light years from Earth, but the universe is also home to some other fabulous space gems. From green-crystal rain to ruby-like moon rocks, here is some other bling that’s out of this world. Reference

House-Size Asteroid Comes Closer to Earth Than the Moon Friday: A newfound asteroid the size of a house will fly closer to Earth than the moon on Friday (Oct. 12), but poses no danger of impacting our planet, NASA says. And I thought that five dollar bill I found in my laundry was exciting. Reference

Speaking of Asteroids: Private Asteroid-Hunting Space Telescope to Launch in 2017. A private space telescope mission that aims to discover 500,000 near-Earth asteroids is technically sound and on track for a 2017 launch, a review panel says. The B612 Foundation plans to launch Sentinel in 2017, placing the instrument near the orbit of Venus.

Sentinel will look outward from there, scanning Earth's neighborhood without having to fight the sun's overwhelming glare — a serious impediment to asteroid-hunting instruments on or near our planet. The telescope's infrared eyes should spot about 500,000 near-Earth asteroids in less than six years of operation, B612 officials say. That would be quite a feat, considering that researchers have discovered just 10,000 or so such space rocks to date. Reference

Speaking of Private Funding: Space Funding Startup Uwingu to Unveil 1st Product. The first project Uwingu will fund is SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The firm pledged to donate half of any money raised beyond the $75,000 goal in the IndieGoGo campaign to the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a set of 42 radio dishes in Northern California that are searching for signs of civilizations in the universe. Reference

Speaking of Telescopes: World-Class Telescope For Sale. The impending closure of the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope might be averted if the observatory’s owners can find a buyer. Got $1.24 million in your pocket? That’s how much it’ll cost per year to operate a productive, world-class observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Reference

Speaking of Dark Matter: Giant Strand of Elusive Dark Matter Seen in 3D. Astronomers have taken their first 3D look at a gigantic filament of dark matter, an invisible cosmic structure that can only be detected by its gravitational effects it has on its surroundings. The universe is thought to be structured like a tangled web, with long strings of mostly dark matter intersecting at giant galaxy clusters. Since dark matter cannot be seen directly, these filaments are difficult to observe. But using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have managed to probe one of the elusive cosmic strands in 3D. Reference

Question: So what do you think of our amazing universe in just this past week?

Stephen Tremp posts at Breakthrough Blogs and is the author of the Breakthrough trilogy.