I heard the funniest thing on The Science Channel the other day. During a show about comets, (the Deep Impact mission, mostly) the narrator mentioned a few possible methods of diverting an impending comet strike.
The plan involving a nuclear explosion to bump the comet into a different orbit he labeled “controversial.” Because, "No one knows the harmful effects of radiation in space."
Radiation. In. Space.
Yeah, sure hope that giant thermonuclear ball of fire we call the sun isn’t kicking too much radiation out… It could be harmful, don’t ya know?
Everyone is always screaming about global warming- I'm sorry, I mean GLOBAL WARMING!!!!!!!!- and yet no one has yet addressed the much more serious problem of Dihydrogen Monoxide. An insidious chemical also known as Hydric Acid.
Dihydrogen Monoxide (Or DHMO for short) is a dangerous chemical that our government has repeatedly refused to ban over the years. Even though it is directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in the last century alone.
The list of things that DHMO is responsible for is to great for me to go into right now. I strongly suggest going to DHMO.org and reading up everything you can about this hazardous chemical. And then, once you've learned as much as you can, call your Senator or Congressman and ask them to do something about controlling DHMO in our homes, schools and businesses.
The old Congress is gone, maybe the new one can do something about DHMO.
(This message has been brought to you by the National Consumer Coalition Against DHMO.)
There's a Solar transit of Mercury going on as I type. By that, I mean that the planet Mercury is passing between the Earth and the sun, and appears as a black circle on the face of the sun. Don't go outside and look for it though. It's too small to be seen with the naked eye. Even if the brightness of the sun didn't blind you first anyways.
If you know what you're doing, you can use a good pair of binoculars to project an image of the sun on a flat (preferably white) surface. And I'd have done that myself if not for one, now two things.
The second of the reasons I can't do that is the sun has set here and so would be unable to be viewed. Even without the first of my problems. Namely that IT'S BEEN CLOUDY ALL DAY!
Bummer.
But through the magic of high speed internet, I thought I was saved and would be able to view the transit, remotely. Except that every single website showing a live webcast (that I've been able to find) has been intermittent at best, and completely down at worst.
I'd link them for you if they were working, and I wasn't so lazy. But a couple good places to start (and incidentally, two websites that I visit every single day) are:
and
Oh well. Maybe I'll have better luck with Venus in 2012
First is a cool robotic... dog. Sort of. That I found over at Ace of Spades. (This movie takes a bit to download. Not recommended for dial up.)
Then, if watching the robot doesn't make your brain hurt. This next video over at Curmudgeonly and Skeptical will. Quantum Physics. Gotta love it.
But I warn you. If your brain hurts afterwards. I'm not fixing it.
New Horizons is go!!! Launch was at 2:00 P.M. EST and boy was it moving! There goes the fastest rocket ever launched.
Next stop, Pluto... well ok, Jupiter for a gravity assist slingshot, then Pluto.
So, now we just have to wait 9 years to finally get some good pictures of Pluto. (And I imagine, some nice ones of Jupiter on the way by...)
For more information, check out NASA's site.
The Pluto bound spacecraft is set to launch today at 1:24 P.M. EST form Cape Canaveral.
If you want to watch the begining of this mission, which will be the fastest man-made object ever, check out NASA TV. Live coverage starts at 11:00 A.M.
UPDATE: They've had to postpone the launch for high winds twice. The first time for 15 min or so, the second for a little bit longer. Hopefully, the winds will die down enough for the launch to go at 2:30 EST.
UPDATE 2: They delayed it again, this time to 3:05 P.M. The only problem now is the wind. Hopefully that will clear up soon enough.
UPDATE 3: Drat! Scrubbed for the day. They'll have to try again tomorrow at 1:24.
Stardust returned to Earth this morning, successfully. Now all the scientists get to fight over who gets to look at the tiny little dust particles first...
There's also rumors of a civilian (non-scientist) connection to the analysis of the aero-gel that was used to capture the commetary dust.
Hey, at least the whole thing didn't make a big hole in the ground like the Genesis mission!