Logging The Cyber World » Space and Beyond

Solar Storm to Buffets Earth

Xyber — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:27:21 +0000

The largest solar storm since 2005, which hit Earth over the weekend and caused northern lights called auroras, peaked Tuesday after the Sun released a solar flare of radiation and plasma. As Brian Vastag reported:

Fast on the heels of a solar storm that delivered a glancing blow over the weekend — triggering bright auroras in Canada and Scandinavia — the sun released an even more energetic blast of radiation and charged plasma overnight that could disrupt GPS signals and the electrical grid Tuesday, especially at high latitudes, space weather experts warned Monday.

WashingtonPost

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Russia’s Mars probe plummets to Earth

Xyber — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:50:01 +0000

A huge hunk of Russian space junk is set to crash to Earth in the next few days, but nobody knows exactly when or where it’s going to come down.

The 14.5-ton Mars probe Phobos-Grunt, which got stuck in Earth orbit shortly after its Nov. 8 launch, may re-enter the atmosphere at 11:22 a.m. EST (1622 GMT) on Sunday (Jan. 15), according to the latest estimate published today (Jan. 13) by Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency.

If that projection is accurate, pieces of the failed spacecraft will splash into the Atlantic Ocean about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) south of Buenos Aires.

Collectspace.com

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Aircraft Carrier-Sized Asteroid to Swing by Earth Next Week

Xyber — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:47:00 +0000

The asteroid, dubbed 2005 YU55, will come within 202,000 miles of Earth, closer than the moon, before zipping farther into space. Carbon-colored and dark, the asteroid measures some 1,300 feet wide. It will be the closest visit by a space rock this size in more than three decades.

“This is not a potentially hazardous asteroid, just a good opportunity to study one,” National Science Foundation astronomer Thomas Statler says. NASA and the NSF plan a series of radar telescope and other observations starting Friday, aimed at mapping the asteroid’s surface and chemistry.

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An “extremely small” safety risk to the public from plummeting NASA satellite

Xyber — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:51:04 +0000

NASA’s first major satellite as part of its “Mission to Planet Earth” program is now, ironically, on a much more literal mission back to the planet.

The 6.5-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) will return to Earth in the next several weeks, according to NASA. At least some pieces of the spacecraft, which is 35 feet long and 15 feet wide, are expected to survive the fiery plunge into the atmosphere and reach the ground.

“It is too early to say exactly when UARS will re-enter and what geographic area may be affected,” NASA said in a statement posted on Wednesday (Sept. 7) to its website.

More here

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NASA spacecraft spots evidence for flowing water on Mars

Xyber — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 02:14:08 +0000

Scientists have discovered flowing salt water on Mars which has sparked conversations about potential alien life within the planet’s surface. The images sent from NASA’s orbiter unveiled flowing waters descending down from rocky slopes.

Information from the orbiter have fed new fuel to the discussion on Mar’s capability of supporting alien lifeform. Scientists have sent numerous space missions in obtaining a variety of evidence that may reveal biological microbial life outside of Earth. The latest evidence of flowing water have strengthened support and hope of discovering a live specimen.

“NASA’s Mars Exploration Program keeps bringing us closer to determining whether the Red Planet could harbor life in some form…And it reaffirms Mars as an important future destination for human exploration,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Earth’s Two Moons, Second Moon Attached Itself to First

Xyber — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:31:51 +0000

A new hypothesis claims the Earth may once have had two moons, which eventually crashed together forming our current celestial partner.

This new idea, reported in the journal Nature, could explain a long standing puzzle about the differences between the near and far sides of the lunar surface.

The near side is relatively low and flat with many large dark basalt mare, while the far side is high and mountainous, with thicker crust.

The work, based on computer simulations undertaken by planetary scientists Erik Asphaug and Martin Jutzi from the University of California, Santa Cruz, claims the lunar far side highlands, are the solid remains of a collision with a smaller companion moon.

An Earth-Like Planet Discovered by Astronomers

Xyber — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 16:41:42 +0000

New Earth-Like Goldilocks planet discovered by astronomers in alien solar system. The planet discovered is 20 light years from Earth with basic and essential conditions needed to support extraterrestrial life.

Earth-like exoplanets have been predicted for years by scientists in what is called the “habitable zone” around a star, but the identification and measurement of one has been called the beginning of a new era in the search for life beyond our galaxy.

“This is our first Goldilocks planet — just the right size and the right distance from its sun,” astronomer Paul Butler with the Carnegie Institution of Washington told The Washington Post. “A threshold has been crossed,” he said.

The new exoplanet, called Gliese 581G, is quite close at 20 light years from Earth.

UFO Shuts Down Another Airport in China

Xyber — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 02:30:10 +0000

Here we go again. Just months after an unidentified object temporarily shut down an airport in China, another UFO briefly halted operations at a different Chinese airport.

According to initial sketchy reports in ShanghaiDaily.com and the People’s Daily Online, the UFO forced the Baotou airport in China’s Inner Mongolia province to prevent three planes from landing for almost an hour Saturday night.

Whatever the unknown object was — and mind you, nobody is claiming aliens or interdimensional beings here — it was reported hovering near the airport. As strictly a safety response, officials wouldn’t allow aircraft to land and directed two of them to land at neighboring airports (where, presumably, the UFO had no interest).

God did not create the universe

Xyber — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:34:47 +0000

God did not create the universe and the “Big Bang” was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics, the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking argues in a new book.

In “The Grand Design,” co-authored with U.S. physicist Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking says a new series of theories made a creator of the universe redundant, according to the Times newspaper which published extracts on Thursday.

“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” Hawking writes.

“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”

Astronomer says in 25 years there could be proof of aliens

Xyber — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:32:21 +0000

Proof of extraterrestrial intelligence could come within 25 years, an astronomer who works on the search said Sunday.

“I actually think the chances that we’ll find ET are pretty good,” said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in Mountain View, Calif., here at the SETIcon convention. “Young people in the audience, I think there’s a really good chance you’re going to see this happen.”

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