[NEWS] Five space links: China in Argentina, Moon impacts, Alpha Centauri trip, supernova, R Aquarii

[rfmcdonald]

• A Chinese space tracking base in Argentina is proving controversial, among its neighbours and in the wider region. VICE reports.


• Universe Today notes a new project aimed at monitoring the Moon to catch the flash of asteroid impacts, to better gauge (among other things) the risk to Earth.


• Universe Today notes one proposal to send an unmanned probe to Alpha Centauri.


• Universe Today looks at the possibility that a supernova near Earth some 2.6 million years ago might have triggered mass extinctions of ocean life.


• Universe Today looks at R Aquarii, a close binary of a Mira-type red giant feeding a white dwarf a mere 650 light years away.