A flash on Jupiter

By dfunzy on 8/24/10 12:40am
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A giant meteor strikes Jupiter; footage on the net for the world to see.

The Internet brings the world to us. The whole world that is known to humans. If one should miss something., whether it is a major news event or a significant natural phenomenon, he often has an opportunity to see a recording of it later

Mr.Tachikawa, an amateur astronomer, was at his home in Kumamoto City, southern Japan, using a video telescope, when he saw and recorded a large flash, that lasted for two seconds, on the planet Jupiter. NASA has concluded that this flash was caused by a giant meteor as it plunged into the atmosphere surrounding Jupiter.

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Space Animals - Real and Ficticious

By colormejosh on 8/19/10 10:31pm
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I was reading this lovely story on the Newsweek website about animals that have been in space (Animals in Orbit) and it got me thinking about all of the furry little friends that have blasted off into the great unknown - including, of course, Sigourney Weaver. I don't mean to say that she is some sort of freakish, big toothed animal, but... she is a freakish big toothed animal (for the film Alien at least... oh she wasn't the alien? Whatever, I stand by it).

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Community Meteor Watching

By dfunzy on 8/13/10 4:15am
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If one needs proof of the existence of Heaven, one only needs to look to the Internet. If the gods did not invent the net, then who did? I am talking of the web and all that comes with it: Chat and video file sharing, email and of course Twitter. Does one need specifics? Well -- last night (Aug 12th), the annual Perseid meteor shower, which as the AP video shows lit up the sky and Twitter.

"Meteor watchers logged on to tweet as the annual Perseid meteor shower reached its peak," sharing the communal experience. NASA astronomers calculated that at least 80 meteors per hour were visible during the peak display. Twitter had what? 80 zillion meteor watchers tweets?!

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Will world's collide?

By dfunzy on 8/13/10 3:54am
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Kevin Yates of Britain is watching for asteroids. Maybe for a wandering planet too? If one unfortunately comes along?

65 million years ago, earth got smacked by a large piece of an asteroid and among other things the dinosaurs were obliterated. Scientists are saying, theorizing, that every one hundred million years such a planet disrupting asteroid comes this way, and thus another isn't due for thirty five millions years. Of course, the scientists could be wrong, couldn't they? One could be due next week, huh? Or one could drop in on us unexpectedly tomorrow morning, right?

I hope not. See the video.

Earth gets feather punched by pieces of asteroids called meteors almost all the time. Mr. Yates spends his days monitoring and tracking asteroids, and predicting when one may come this way. He has counterparts in this country and I'm sure in others.

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Churchill Covered Up UFOs

By dfunzy on 8/4/10 6:22pm
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Something's Really Out There Says UFO expert.

The British government has released a new batch of its once secret UFO files. Among the revelations revealed today is that Winston Churchill covered up reports of UFO sightings, so not to cause mass public panic.

So all those recent "Dr. Who" episodes with the late Sir Winston paling around with the good doctor may have been inspired by a little more than the muse of fiction.

Most of the reported UFO sightings, the Brit government files say, were misidentified objects, normal terrestrial and / or pedestrian things like aircraft lights or meteors, and yes, as always, a small proportion of the sighting could not be explained.

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Solar Tsunami Is Heading Our Way

By dfunzy on 8/3/10 9:55am
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Scotty, raise the shields.

A huge solar storm is expected to strike tonight and to put on a light show in the Northern sky, visible tor those in the Northern part of the Northern Hemisphere --- "from Maine to Michigan and anywhere farther north around the globe --- may see unusual northern lights.". Too bad for me, I'm too further South, will have to settle for Internet pictures. of the event.

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NASA Unveils New Plan to Keep Manned Space Flight Going

By Niki Fears on 7/22/10 8:15pm
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After taking a big hit from the imploded economy and several technical problems with the planned shuttle follow up, NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was all but certain to see the end of the shuttle program and manned space flight; however, officials have been hard at work trying to come up with a plan to save the space program and to keep the shuttle out of retirement.

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UFOs Over China

By dfunzy on 7/16/10 1:25pm
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What is it with the UFOs? It seems like they are popping up everywhere. Two UFOs have popped up in China: The first seven days ago over Xiaoshan Airport. This sighting shut the air port down. A second one, yesterday,  in Chongqing in eastern China. The second is reported to really have folks in China worried, and expressing their anxiety. These UFOs were photographed and allegedly captured on radar. Allegedly, because the Chinese government isn't releasing any information about them.

Witnesses to the second sighting told Shanghai Daily they saw "four lantern-like objects forming a diamond shape that hovered over the city's Shaping Park for over an hour."

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Voyager 2: Talking Back

By lisala on 6/16/10 12:19am
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Voyager 2 was launched by NASA and JPL in 1977. Its mission then was to study Saturn, and to engage flybys of the outer gas planets (Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune) along the way. The planets were aligned in a fashion that only happens in a 176 year cycle. Voyager 2 accomplished its mission flawlessly, sending back data and thousands of images. It then continued merrily on its way, headed out past the solar system, going where, well, no one we know has ever been before.

Now, 33 years later, Voyager 2 is still headed out, about to leave the solar system. It's about 8.6 billion miles away now, and passing through the heliosphere, the magnetic bubble generated by the sun that surrounds our solar system. But in May, Voyager 2 inexplicably stopped talking.

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NASA Eye Candy

By dfunzy on 5/16/10 10:54am
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One of the things of the many  that NASA does well, and perhaps it is one of the most important things that NASA does,  is to provide us earthbound land lubbers beautiful pictures, images and video of outer space, of  the sights around our world, and of the sights around worlds and stars beyond ours.  The pictures are better than science fiction, because they are real, and often times they are much better than what we can imagine.

This morning , Sunday, May 16th, the Space shuttle Atlantis, on its final voyage, arrived and  docked, at the International Space Station.  NASA provided the video feed. See the video. These images  are just the latest eye candy from our space uncles and aunts at NASA. The Atlantis and its crew of six are expected to stay at the station for a week long visit, and feed us more of this wonderful eye candy.

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