Forgive my absence gentle readers, I was on a well deserved R & R after the preceding, and life changing, two months (I had some evergreen content timed to go, I thought. But, well, for whatever reason Microsoft won again …). After which I was deemed healthy enough to return to work full time. So, last …
Category Archive: NASA
Feb 24 2013
Mars flyby and other links
This was supposed to be a secret until this coming Wednesday, and it was secret, right up until someone spilled the beans almost a week early: Buzz is building about a planned 2018 private mission to Mars, which may launch the first humans toward the Red Planet. A nonprofit organization called the Inspiration Mars Foundation …
Feb 12 2013
Name that dwarf planet moonlet!
The debate about Pluto’s planetary status has simmered down, although I was always partial to the way Alan Stern, the Director of New Horizons mission to Pluto, explained it to me: it’s just a dwarf planet. We don’t call a small dog a different species just because they’re small, we just call it a miniature, …
Jan 11 2013
The inflatable space module coming of age
Spacecraft are cramped. But a new hab under development by a NASA subcontractor may change that. The company is building inflatable modules useful for man or machine that would allow astronauts room to stretch their legs. Make it big enough and a person could fly through it like a dream:
Jan 09 2013
Fomalhaut B, the Zombie Planet, roams around its star once
Space.com — The latest observations of the odd planetary system revealed that the dusty debris disk surrounding the star Fomalhaut is much wider than previously thought. The debris belt spans a vast region of space between 14 billion and 20 billion miles (22.5 billion to 32.1 billion kilometers) around the star. Stranger still: The planet …
Dec 30 2012
2013 could be the year of the comet
If you’re as old as I am you have reason to be skeptical about comets. Comet Kohoutek in 1973 and the much anticipated return of Comet Halley in 1986 both failed to live up to their potential. But ISON may yet redeem the genre and prove spectacular:
Dec 24 2012
Nearby star is loaded with planets
A nearby star that’s been a staple of sci-fi and sci-fact for years may be loaded with planets, including at least one that may be able to support liquid water on the surface:
Dec 20 2012
Showboat Saturn does more showboating
Oh Saturn, you are such a showboat. This is the second glorious image Cassini has snapped of the solar system’s celebrity planet backlit by the distant sun. Which do you like best? More below ..
Dec 13 2012
The stars have aligned for a great meteor show tonight
If the weather where you are is anything like it is in Texas, tonight and tomorrow could be fantastic for your inner stargazer. The moon is new, the sky over much of the US clear, and the dust and gravel remains from comet 3200 Phaethon, AKA the Geminid meteor shower, will streak across the night sky in …
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