This week in space: special post

in

Earth Has a Second Moon, Astronomers Say

In a research paper called "The population of natural Earth satellites", astronomers say that Earth has a second moon at any given time. While these moons are small, the scientific implications of this discovery are phenomenal.

Think about it: instead of having to send crews to asteroids, now we know that they come to us—they orbit Earth and we can intercept them to learn more about the origins of our solar system. All with a small price tag.

 

Interesting, however how do they know it wasn't an ET craft?

Read more HERE

Mother ship detected near Mercury after a solar flare revealed it.

 

 

"A gigantic object the size of a planet has appeared on astronomers screens lurking near Mercury, with UFO hunters around the world wondering whether it’s an alien ship.

The object appears from nowhere in a sequence of images of a coronal ejection from the Sun, taken by a Nasa telescope.

As the flare races past Mercury, a huge round object appears next to it – but Nasa scientists insist that the object is merely a result of the way the images are processed."

 

The image from the telescope was analysed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory, with engineer Nathan Rich explaining that the ‘object’ is actually the image of Mercury from the previous day.

To make sure that the solar flare stood out, researchers compare the image with one taken the day before and subtract anything that appears twice – because that means it’s interfering background light.

Stars are easily eliminated, but moving objects, like planets, are more difficult to remove.

Rich told Space.com: ‘When [this averaging process] is done between the previous day and the current day and there is a feature like a planet, this introduces dark artifacts in the background where the planet was on the previous day, which then show up as bright areas in the enhanced image.’

Astronomer Dr Heather Couper also agrees that it’s not a huge death star.

 

AWESOME. Absolutely AWESOME.

 

Read more about it HERE, HERE and HERE

 

 

 

An impressive girl spins some words

To geek or not to geek--there is no question:
Whether 'tis Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock
on the Enterprise's five year mission to boldly go
Or to take arms against the Galactic Empire
and by Rebelling, end them. To beam, to warp--
And more--and with a towel to say we end
The panic, and the infinite improbability drive
That The Heart of Gold is heir to. 'Tis a fiction
scientifically to be wished. To beam, to warp--
To warp --perchance in space: ay, there's the Macguffin,
For in that Twilight Zone what twist may come
When we have shuffled off this Outer Limit,
Must give us cause. Where's the Doctor
Who makes calamity of so long life?
For who would bear the daleck battle cry,
Th' Silence oppressor, the weeping angels
The pangs of dimensional love, the loss of Gallifrey,
The insolence of Cybermen, and the sadness
That patient merit of th' too worthy takes,
When he himself must her memory make
A void and forget her purpose? Who would fez's bear,
To wear a bowtie inside a large blue box,
But that the dread of The Boy Who Lived,
The Good Omens, from whose bourn
No Postman returns, puzzles the Apocalypse,
And makes us rather troll those friends we have
Than make memes for those we know not of?
Thus minecraft does make junkies of us all,
And thus the native Bat of vigilance
Is watching o'er Gotham as laughing echoes die,
And Aquarians of great pitch and moment
In this regard their currents turn to geek
And take up searching for the Higgs. -- Soft you now,
and blame Canada.

I did not write this, "Someone Different" is the author. I had to share it.

If you wrote this, contact me

Dearest Romeo:
How are thou? Mine heart dust jump for joy, for we have found eac other at last! I thank thee for chatting with me. I hope we shall be friends for eternity. By thine way, I love whenst thow talks this way it suits thee very well. I shall await for thow's next letter, fair-thee-well mine dearest Romeo.
With love eternaly, Juliet

p.s. Happy thanksgiving

 

This letter was sent right around thanksgiving 1996, from 45858 Picadilly St, Lancaster CA 93534.

 

I have no clue the name, but I have a list of potentials, kind of hoping one of these people googles themself and finds this post.

 

Pamela Lynn Mowat

Hazel Annah Decker

Elizabeth J Decker

Jere Christine Lavitt

Heidi A Lavitt

Kerry M Stevens

Christy Dawn Stevens

Ally S Stevens

Kayci K Nelson

Shirley A Lavitt

Marie Leon

Aileen I So

Brigette Rene Jackson

Patricia Jean Patterson

Jennifer Lynn Reeve

Karis P Patterson

Brittany So

Carol Guyton

Diane S Guyton

jacqueline Rae Fox

Lynda J Decker

If you wrote this, or know who might have in 1996, shoot me a comment, or use the contact form to the right to email me.

She may have gone to  Paraclete High School

 

This week in space

NASA Planning for Possible Landings on Europa

"All these worlds are yours except Europa, Attempt no landing there, Use them together use them in peace" That's the first thing I thought, apparently the author of the article too... dare we tempt the monolith?

Despite that famous cryptic warning in the film 2010: The Year We Make Contact, NASA is planning for a possible attempted landing on Jupiter’s moon Europa. This is a mission that many people have been hoping for, since Europa is believed to have a liquid water ocean beneath the icy surface (as well as lakes within the surface crust itself), making it a prime location in the search for life elsewhere in the solar system. Two landers are being proposed which would launch in 2020 and land about six years later.

Read more HERE

 

New operating system for space: High-tech tycoons

Awesome, this is what I've been saying all along, space needs to be handed over to the public and private industry, if the government has exclusive control then it will take us many many times longer to achieve anything worthwhile.

The tycoons of cyberspace are looking to bankroll America's resurgence in outer space, reviving "Star Trek" dreams that first interested them in science. The tycoons of cyberspace are looking to bankroll America's resurgence in outer space, reviving "Star Trek" dreams that first interested them in science.


Read more HERE

 

NASA's RXTE detect 'heartbeat' of smallest black hole candidate

Just go watch the video in the article. Awesome.

An international team of astronomers has identified a candidate for the smallest-known black hole using data from NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). The evidence comes from a specific type of X-ray pattern, nicknamed a "heartbeat" because of its resemblance to an electrocardiogram. The pattern until now has been recorded in only one other black hole system.

Read more HERE

 

Hubble serves up a holiday snow angel

Just my beautiful photo I usually try to include in each this week in space.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope presents a festive holiday greeting that’s out of this world. The bipolar star-forming region, called Sharpless 2-106, looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel. The outstretched “wings” of the nebula record the contrasting imprint of heat and motion against the backdrop of a colder medium.

Read more HERE

 

Russia space agency 'bans foreign travel'

I wonder what the Russians have discovered...

They may be working to reach the final frontier, but employees of Russian space agency Roscosmos face going no further than Russia for their holidays.

Read more HERE