An artist's depiction of a hot Jupiter, click image for more info at wikipedia
If alien solar systems have giant planets that migrate in close to their star, there won’t be any earthlike planets farther out. At least that’s what a new survey of exosolar systems suggests: [Read more…]
Black-holes have a bad rep, but it’s deserved! They devour anything that comes too close and they aren’t satisified with merely tearing debris into quarks and blasting out burps of gamma radiation, they digest the remains in a bottomless pit. One blackhole, not too far away using the comsological standard, was caught doing exactly that: [Read more…]
Cold hearted orb that rules the night, removes the colours from our sight; red is gray and yellow white, but we decide which is right — Moody Blues
Weekend skies will feature the biggest full moon of the year. It’ll be hanging up there, beautiful and gorgeous, officially starting this Saturday evening: [Read more…]
Today a shuttle that barely flew draws the faithful like believers to a shrine. The shuttle Enterprise is making low altitude passes from DC to New York City on the way to JFK airport and its retirement on the deck of the USS Interpid. The nation’s love affair with the adventure of space travel is on full display on malls in our capital and the streets of the Big Apple. I share that, like so many of you, having imprinted on NASA’s astonishing endeavors from earliest memory as surely as a baby duck on its mother. Sadly, we find ourselves without ground to orbit capability even as the sleek Enterprise wows onlookers one last time. Hopefully, that’s not permanent. And in that spirit of optimism, a little more info on Planetary Resources, the asteroid miners featured here last week, came out: [Read more…]
A mosaic of Cassini images of Saturn and rings. The halo effect is due to the sun in eclipse behind the 6th planet. Click for more info on the rings. Image credit NASA/JPL
It’s not often we get a fortuitous example of how the UFO-conspiracy crowd manufactures their BS. … OK, maybe it happens all the time! But an absolutely must see time elapsed video put together by the Cassini-Equinox team provides just such an opportunity. Below is that same video together with some background, culminating in the UFO nonsense. [Read more…]
There’s been little in the way of details from the announcement last week of a new company, Planetary Resources, AKA the asteroid miners. There will be a news conference or some type of event this Tuesday in Seattle where the fledgling firm will unveil some of its plans: [Read more…]
The dwarf planet Ceres, largest object in the main asteroid belt; a lucrative oasis floating in space?
Three zillionaires, an astronaut, and a corp of dreamy engineers walked into a bar and decided to shoot waaaay beyond the moon: [Read more…]
Artist's conception of a Jupiter-size rogue planet with the edge on disk of a spiral galaxy in the background. Image via the Wiki
I’ve posted on rogue planets and nomads and even a few wandering worlds that reach incredible speeds. A new study confirms what common sense would tell us: some of these restless worlds end up in alien solar systems: [Read more…]
The Martian countryside in the Utopian Plain as seen by Viking. New analysis of the Viking data suggests microbes may be living just beneath the surface. Image 1976 NASA/JPL
Because of recently announced budget targets and a potentially exciting new look at old data, NASA is looking for low cost ways to continue exploring Mars and other parts of the solar system. It’s a shame for our nation and species they have to think this way, but that’s the real world in all its raw glory: [Read more…]
Carl Sagan standing next to a model of the Viking Lander. Click image for background on Viking.
The question of whether there is life on other planets took a fresh turn this week as new analysis of old data collected by the Viking Landers in 1976 found signs of extant microbes on Mars. Back in the day one test yielded promising results, but another experiment found no organic compounds consistent with life, so mission scientists assumed the former was a simple oxidizing reaction and not a biological one. That’s where the new analysis comes in: [Read more…]