November 9, 2022
Only 1600 light years away!
And it’s a binary system. Very odd.
It’s also “dormant.” Even stranger.
Ten times the size of our Sun, as far away from its companion star as the Earth is from the Sun.
Announced just in time for Halloween…
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/05/science/astronomy-black-hole.html
October 12, 2022
“For the first time ever, humanity has changed the orbit of a planetary body,” said NASA planetary science division director Lori Glaze.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dart-mission-deflected-asteroid-for-planetary-defense
A change of 32 minutes in orbit — but only 4% of the total orbital period. To deflect an asteroid away from Earth, it’d better be done several years in advance. 🌏
Still, it can be done. An amazing first.
September 18, 2022
I should be posting another chapter from Bringer of Light, but I don’t feel like writing that right now, what with a humongoid typhoon slowing churning its way here.
So here’s an article about what Chinese scientists found in Moon dirt.
Also H3. Yay. Let’s make fusion reactors and walk on the Moon together…
August 23, 2022
“We’ve never seen Jupiter like this. It’s all quite incredible,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, of the University of California, Berkeley, who helped lead the observations.
“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” she added in a statement.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/james-webb-space-telescope-shows-jupiters-auroras-tiny-moons
The above is supposed to be in “quote” format, but WP really messed up this feature when they switched to so-called “block” mode (which I can’t stand).
Anyway, the image is fairly spectacular, from the new James Webb Space Telescope which is positioned 1 million miles away from Earth (i.e., in the second LaGrange point, or L2).
August 18, 2022
First of all, stop calling it “the golden asteroid.” That’s confusing people (the headline of the article linked below even uses the phrase “gold mine.” Come on, lazy journalists.)
If 16 Psyche is worth mining, when could such operations proceed? Citigroup thinks that space mining, including from the moon and asteroids, will be a $100 billion-per-year business by 2040. Launch costs will continue to decrease and experience in operating in space will continue to expand until such a business makes economic sense.
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/3597381-nasa-might-cancel-mission-to-massive-gold-mine-asteroid-heres-why-it-shouldnt/
So is asteroid worth it?
Sure.
Is it horribly expensive right now?
Sure.
So why do it?
Well, how heavy do you think the materials to make buildings and ships in outer space are?
If we’re serious about putting people on the Moon and Mars, then it makes much more sense to set up robotic mining factories and assemble everything in space.
All this needs is a little incentive…like a new space race…
August 12, 2022
Our search for alien life is getting serious. With better telescopes and a growing scientific consensus that we’re probably not alone in the universe, we’re beginning to look farther and wider across the vastness of space for evidence of extraterrestrials.
But it’s possible we’re looking for too few signs in too few places. Having evolved on Earth, surrounded by Earth life, we assume alien life would look and behave like terrestrial life.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/alien-hunters-need-to-start-rethinking-the-definition-of-life?
I agree that we are biased, simply based on the basics of what we understand as (carbon-based) life (i.e., ourselves).
And I agree — in principle — that scientists need to keep an open mind when looking for other life forms on exoplanets.
However, they also need to retain a sense of skepticism.
Continue Reading
July 18, 2022
Yeah. So I missed another installment in my series.
Shoot.
Things are just ridiculously spiraling out of control at work. I hope to start posting more regularly again in a week or so.
In the meantime, check out more images from the Webb space telescope compared to Hubble. They’re pretty awe-inspiring.
May 15, 2022
…if you are lucky enough to live Western Europe, parts of northwestern Africa, and some of the Americans…
As for why the Moon appears red…
“You’ll actually be seeing every sunrise and every sunset occurring around the Earth at once. All of that light will be projected on to the Moon.” (Dr Gregory Brown, Royal Observatory
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61423765
And if you happened to be standing on the Moon at the time, you’d see a blood ring encircling the Earth in front of you (ah, assuming you were not on the other side of the Moon).
Come on. Somebody has got to figure out how to get a picture of that.
April 12, 2022
In short, the algae will use sunlight to transform CO2 into sugars that are then enhanced by bio-engineered E.coli into 2,3-butanediol. Interestingly, 2,3-BDO is not entirely conceptual as it currently exists and is mainly used to produce rubber components. It has just never been thought of as fuel before.
https://www.universal-sci.com/article/producing-rocket-fuel-on-mars-using-microbes?utm_campaign=Universal-Sci%20Weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter
Neat. So all the astronauts have to do is bring, uh, how much algae we talking here?
The article doesn’t say, but it does mention a by-product of the process: Oxygen!
That would seem rather helpful. Mars or bust?
March 18, 2022
Or, as I’m sure was unintentionally titled, ”Nasa probing people having sex in space.” 🤦
Ya know, I’m pretty sure we need to figure out “this whole food-air deal” first (to quote comedian Bill Hicks).
“The US space agency confirmed that there were currently no plans for a field or project office to explore the topic in any detail but that could change as we get closer to putting humans on Mars.“
Uh-huh.
Priorities…
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