Category: News
Apocalypse? NO. (Despite What Chevy Says)
So the buzz is buzzing about Chevy’s Super Bowl ad and its tongue-in-cheek portrayal of the aftermath from the 2012 Mayan apocalypse. Of course the message is typical — drive a Chevy truck and survive, drive anything else and perish. Which is cute and of course the production value is high, but the problem is…
No Doom in 2012: Stop the Insanity!
Now that’s we’re officially three days into 2012, the ‘net is already abuzz with talk of impending doom on December 21 of this year. Luckily there are plenty of science sources that are more than happy to offer fact-based consolation that there is no actual evidence that anything cosmically bad is expected to occur on…
Breaking News: Kepler Team Spots First Earth-Sized Exoplanets
The video above sums up the big astro-news of the day: NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed the existence of not one but TWO Earth-sized planets orbiting a Sun-like star 1,000 light-years away. This is a big deal!
Kepler Finds a Real-Life Tatooine
Can’t see the video below? Click here. Kepler, NASA’s exoplanet hunter extraordinaire, has confirmed the existence of the first planet orbiting two suns, not unlike Luke’s homeworld Tatooine from the Star Wars films! Unlike Tatooine, however, the planet –named Kepler-16b – is a cold Saturn-sized gas giant unlikely to harbor life. Still, it showcases the…
Senate Saves the JWST!
The 2012 fiscal year appropriation, marked up today by the Senate, allows for continued funding of the James Webb Space Telescope, enabling its launch in 2018! Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like this bird is going to fly. 🙂 Thanks to everyone who contacted their representatives and expressed their support of the JWST, to all…
Light This Candle
“Why don’t you fix your little problem and light this candle?” – Alan B. Shepard, Jr., to Mission Control after delays during his four-hour sit atop the Mercury-Redstone rocket. May 5, 1961. On this day in 1961, fifty years ago, a 10-story Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket ignited at Cape Canaveral, Florida, successfully launching the first American into…
Is Mercury Hiding Water Ice?
A new image from MESSENGER showing craters amidst smooth plains. Acquired March 29, 2011. A new image from MESSENGER, released today March 30, 2011, shows relatively smooth plains near Mercury’s north pole dotted by some relatively large craters. Seen at an oblique angle, the low angle of sunlight emphasizes the relief of the…
First Image from Mercury Orbit!
It’s been over 11 days since MESSENGER established orbit around the planet Mercury, and we now have THE first image from orbit! The image above was obtained this morning, March 29 at 5:20am EDT as MESSENGER was above Mercury’s south pole – a portion of which has never previously been imaged by spacecraft. Click here…
One Earth. One planet. One hour.
Earth Hour. On Saturday, March 26 at 8:30pm – 9:30pm your local time, join millions of people who will show their support for our world’s environmental future by turning off the lights in your home or business for one hour. That’s it. Lights out. It’s a small reduction in power usage, but a big message…
Success! Mercury has a new satellite named MESSENGER!
During a week of not-so-great news in the world (to understate things by quite a lot) it’s nice to report something good: the MESSENGER spacecraft has successfully established orbit around the planet Mercury, beginning its new 12-month mission of mapping and researching the innermost planet of our solar system! After traveling nearly 5 billion miles…
Dock of the Day
At 2:14pm EST today the space shuttle Discovery successfully docked with the International Space Station, 220 miles above Australia. This will be the last time Discovery will visit the space station, indeed the last time it will fly at all in its long and illustrious career. The image above was pulled from live video feed…
Lights in the Dark 