The universe is stranger than Star Wars

Truth is stranger than fiction.

George Lucas created the Star Wars saga at a time when Americans were less optimistic with all of the events happening around them like the Watergate Scandal. But the more time goes by, it seems that a lot of the exotic worlds Star Wars showed have been found by astronomers in the Universe.

Tatooine-like planets

Luke Skywalker's home planet is Tatooine and in the episode, A New Hope, he looks at the sunset which shows two suns. A lot of physicists and astronomers at the time thought this was a wild depiction, but it turns out that the Universe has this too and these worlds are not rare.

Saturn's moon Mimas: The fictional death star

Mimas has a very big, circular crater that resembles quite extraordinarily the Star Wars' Death Star's "superlaser focus lens."

Neil Armstrong remembered for his contributions to mankind

The astronaut passed away at the age of 82.

Neil Armstrong has inspired generations of Americans with the moon landing. We, as people, are still waiting for a similar feat. The landing of the Mars Rover Curiosity has reignited hopes that humans will set foot on the Red Planet.

The moon landing and the first atomic bomb will go down as the two significant happenings for mankind in the 20th century. Furthermore, it is a ‘giant step for mankind’ and will go down in history like the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. The thing that was significant was that it was not just celebrated as an indicator of American technological superiority, but for the people of planet Earth as a whole.

New discovery in the search for extraterrestrial life

Planets in an alien solar system are arranged in a similar way to our own solar system.

This new discovery by astronomers supports the prevalent planet formation theory that is out there. It is from the star system known as Kepler-30, which is almost 10,000 light years from planet Earth. The planets that orbit the star Kepler-30 are rather big with a couple of them being even bigger than the gas giant Jupiter.

The current technology that mankind has makes it hard for us to observe any planets that are the size of Earth or smaller at the distances of 10,000 light years or so. But NASA agrees that this discovery is still a breakthrough and sheds light into many theories and ideas that have been made regarding planet formation and how our solar system came into being.

Rest in Peace, Sally Ride

Ride’s courage and inspiring presence will be remembered forever.

My best friend in high school and I bonded over Sally Ride in Spanish class. One of the first things I can ever remember asking her was, “So, who is Sally Ride?” You have to remember that we didn’t have Internet back then, kiddies—well, we were just starting to, but my family sure didn’t have it yet. She was always talking about the first female astronaut and how she wanted to be one, and I was immediately attached to her as a kindred soul—and Ride as a trailblazing one.

The search for asteroids steps up

A private telescope is what asteroid hunters want.

Asteroid mining is set to be the future of space exploration because people on this planet have to start realizing that there has to be a valiant effort made at trying to get more access to resources. We don’t want to wait until it is too late and with the rate of population growth, it is pretty important that a conscientious effort will be made.

For now, though, astronomers and people at NASA seem to be focusing on locating asteroids that could possibly harm life on planet Earth. In order to better protect this planet, asteroid hunters are hopeful that they can obtain a private telescope.

Space exploration and presidential politics

As with every other issue that the parties have made a "platform," the politicization of space will only serve to ground us.

If there’s one rule for the politics of the present decade so far, it’s been, “politicized issues go nowhere.” Climate change, energy, federal debt, environmental regulation, tax reform, and the list goes on. As more issues come under the polarized umbrella of our side/their side political posturing, those issues fall prey to the same gridlock that has been epidemic in state capitols and Washington. With the presidential campaign accelerating, one other issue is getting more attention from party leaders and pundits; space.

A recent feature in Wired, “Is Space Getting Too Politicized?” acknowledges this fact. Obama’s controversial closing of the publicly-funded manned-space flight program at NASA opened the door for greater private/public collaboration. However, largely a result of the success of Space X, the private company that recently sent a rocket to the space station and back, manned space flight is back in the news. So is Obama’s handling of it. It’s likely that opponents will be looking at Obama’s track record on space as a possible weakness, especially considering a majority of Americans are in favor of space exploration (though they differ on how it should be done).

Possible oldest galaxy in the universe discovered

A galaxy 12.91 billion light years from this planet has been observed.

Hawaii’s Mauna Kea is home to the Subaru and Keck telescopes that Japanese astronomers have used to discover the possibly oldest galaxy in the universe. The galaxy which is 12.91 billion light years away is not the first one that has reportedly been observed with some claims of galaxies just over 13 billion light years away being detected too.

There are always two sides to any story.

Space exploration is not doomed after all.

Let me repeat, there are always two sides to any story. This is good news for all you space enthusiasts and people who frequent this Space Report blog. It is like what President Obama said in his State of the Union speech: The people who think America is no longer a dominant global player are so wrong. The more I read and talk to people, the more I realize how true this is.

In other words, it is perception and the same can be said for all talk about the demise of NASA and space exploration. The dollars that NASA receives may have dwindled, but we all know that the companies or governments that spend the most money on any venture are not necessarily the ones who stand to profit the most.

The “Billionaire Age” is good for space exploration

Google bigwigs Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and famous movie director James Cameron are big names backing space projects

Man has always been somewhat mesmerized by space and the universe in general. It is the question of who are we and is there anybody else out there? It is something that has puzzled me ever since I read about this stuff in a chemistry textbook back in middle school.

Little did I know then that space exploration was such a big deal and it would gain such wealthy backers. I have already talked about Elon Musk and his SpaceX ship that will launch later this week. One of my favorite billionaires Paul Allen has always been a big backer of space and has funded a lot of projects in relation to it and other science stuff.

Get to Know Elon Musk

The preppy titan with a multifaceted personality

Any space enthusiast should become familiar with Elon Musk who is a 40-year-old, soon-to-be billionaire and the man who runs SpaceX. Elon came to America because he felt that great things were possible in this country and judging by the way he lives he has definitely eaten it all up.

Not to mention going to the best schools like the University of Pennsylvania where he studied physics and business and then a lot of science and physics at what I feel is the best university in the world: Stanford. He seems very pleased to be living in the modern age and why not with the success that he is enjoying. It is very pleasing for a space enthusiast like myself to see that the future of space, space travel and engineering is in the hands of a personality such as his.

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