Space

Protecting Mars- And Earth- From What- And Why Bother? Our Inheritance Of Unopened Astrobiological Treasure Chests

This is a debate hosted by the SETI institute between Robert Zubrin, founder and head of the Mars Society, and one of NASA’s former planetary protection officers, John Rummel. They debate the requirements of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 to protect both ...

Article - Robert Walker - May 29 2018 - 6:08pm

NASA’s Building Blocks of Life on Mars: Keep Calm and Carry On.

Building blocks of life are not life or even really close, but they are hopeful signs.  N ASA has announced that the Curiosity rover has found signs of the building blocks of life, as we know it, on Mars.    These building blocks are common throughout the ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Jun 7 2018 - 2:11pm

On The Residual Brightness Of Eclipsed Jovian Moons

While preparing for another evening of observation of Jupiter's atmosphere with my faithful 16" dobsonian scope, I found out that the satellite Io will disappear behind the Jovian shadow tonight. This is a quite common phenomenon and not a very s ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Jun 23 2018 - 4:16am

Why Everyone Should LOVE a Space Force. Air Force Space Command Promoted?

S pace contains a wealth of mineral resources so abundant that it would make money as we now think of it obsolete.  We rely on space borne assets for  very ordinary every day things and will come to rely on them even more. The common sense of this, unlike ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Jun 18 2018 - 1:42pm

Space Force, A Service Of Warrior Geeks. An Opinion On Uniforms and Insignia with Practical Justifications.

E very Branch of the service has ranks and uniforms which reflect their  history, mission, and culture. A potential space force would not be any different in this regard.  Consider the lineage it would have being mainly influenced by the US Air Force, the ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Jun 21 2018 - 10:19pm

Alien Life Vs Earthly Assumptions: The Fermi Paradox Stands Firm.

A ssuming that alien life has to be like life on Earth is the safest way to scientifically search for evidence of it.  A recent paper on the arXiv by a research team from Oxford is likely to cause headaches for SETI.  In short it shouldn't since the ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Jun 27 2018 - 2:08am

RCW 38 Captured By The Very Large Telescope

By using infrared wavelengths, the HAWK-I infrared imager mounted on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile was able to capture this image of the star cluster RCW 38. RCW 38 is over 5,00 light years away (look toward the constellation Vela) and is ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 12 2018 - 8:55am

Milky Way Galaxy 1- 0 Sausage Galaxy

A cosmic crash 8 billion to 10 billion years ago was a defining event in the early history of the Milky Way and reshaped the structure of our galaxy. The Sausage Galaxy lost and the Milky Way won, fashioning both its inner bulge and its outer halo. The wre ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 12 2018 - 2:05pm

Maybe The Oumuamua Asteroid Is Really A Comet

The asteroid Oumuamua ("scout from the distant past" in Hawaiian) was discovered on October 19, 2017 by astronomers at thr Pan-STARRS1 survey when it came close to Earth's orbit, within the orbit of Mercury, about a month after its closest a ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 14 2018 - 9:21am

Jupiter’s New Moons? Not Really. Moons A Common Sense Definition.

W ith the discovery of a dozen new tiny moons  of Jupiter that planet now has upwards of 79 moons. Are all-natural satellites of a planet moons?  Not really, not unless they are similar to our Moon in objective physical properties.   Many of these moons a ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Jul 18 2018 - 6:33am