UFO Visits Arizona High School Football Game

Strange lights in the sky appear over a Scottsdale, Arizona high school football game

Friday Night Lights took on an entirely new meaning on Friday, Oct. 28. Apparently, humans are not the only ones interested in football. It seems the aliens are too.

During a conference football game between Scottsdale high school rivals the Horizon Huskies and the Notre Dame Prep Saints, at least four bright lights appeared in the sky southeast of Horizon High School's football field.

China Accused of Cyberattacks on U.S. Enviro Satellites

With new cybersecurity initiative, U.S. may consider cyber attacks as "opening salvo" in a theater of war.

The U.S. government’s new Cybersecurity Initiative, which has included a sea change in the military’s scope, includes cyberspace as a military theater, just like air, land, and sea. What this means is that any cyber attack by another nation is equivalent to an “opening salvo” on a battlefield. A recent development then, in which the U.S. accused China of attempting to hack American environmental monitoring satellites, has potentially serious implications for U.S. – China relations.

The Aurora Borealis Was Seen In 20 States Last Week

"The Aurora Borealis is one of the best shows put on by Mother Nature."

Usually you have to travel to far north places like Alaska, Greenland, and Iceland to experience the razzle-dazzle spectacle of the Aurora Borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights. However, last week an unusually strong electromagnetic storm produced these amazing lights in the skies over 20 southern states. Brilliant swirls of greens, reds, and oranges were seen as far south as northern Alabama. This is a once in a lifetime viewing opportunity for many people who never venture to the far north. It is even rare to find see these lights in the northern states but to see them in Alabama is almost unheard of.

 

The Aurora Borealis is created by a stream of charged particles carried in a stream of solar wind from the sun. As this nears the magnetic field of the Earth, these charged particles are drawn in and interact with the thermosphere in our atmosphere to produce the dazzling dancing lights we see in the sky. Some cultures put special significance in the Northern Lights. For example, the Japanese believe that if conception takes place under the Northern Lights, good luck will follow that child.

The Fermi Paradox

There are interesting theories as to why there has been no evidence or contact with extraterrestrial civilizations.

The Fermi paradox is the seeming inconsistency between the high chances of intelligent life that have been suggested and the lack of evidence for, or communication with, these extraterrestrial beings.

China Takes Up Scepter Of Manned Space Flight

China's space program is blossoming just as Russia's wilts and the Unites States abandons their own.

With today's launch of China's Tiangong 1 ("Heavenly Palace") unmanned spacecraft, China places another arrow in its quiver of global competition. The Chinese government has been aggressively pursuing a number of high-profile national initiatives, including a network of high-speed rail, greatly increased global presence in the solar energy market, and a plan to build their own space station. The Tiangong 1 is the first in a several stage process that will ultimately leave China with a fully functioning, and solely supported space station to rival the now nearly a decade old international space station run jointly by the U.S., Russia, and several other countries. This move comes at a time when the U.S. has closed its publicly funded manned-space travel program with NASA, moving more towards a privatized model. Russia's program, likewise, has seen a number of recent setbacks with equipment failures and glitches. As this second decade progresses, we may see further emergence of China as a leader in space science and technology.

Scientists Go "Mythbusters" On Actual Killer Asteroid

Scientists look at diverting the path of a near-Earth asteroid by smashing stuff into it.

It seems that every 8-10 years there's the imminent threat of another asteroid heading toward the planet, potentially wiping out life on Earth. This decade that asteroid is 99942 Apophis, a near-earth asteroid that is expected to pass very close to Earth in about eighteen years (circa 2029 CE) and, although missing us, it will pass through a strange gravitational "keyhole" that will slingshot the space boulder back around to possibly collide with our planet seven years later (circa 2036 CE). This has prompted scientists in China and the U.S. to propose measures to divert the asteroid away using a tried and true tactic for diverting other earth-bound objects moving at high rates of speed; smashing things into them.

Invading Aliens Will Wipe Out Planet To Punish Humanity for Global Warming

Not really...but it would make a great movie.

    

A recent report released by a handful of scientists was based on a "scenario analysis" of an alien invasion. In this scenario, it looks at the likelihood that aliens would "wipe out" the human race because of our hand in global warming... just as plausible a reason as any other, I suppose. After all, there have been a lot of alien invasion movies where the motive wasn't know, and now we can point to an easy culprit: climate change. In fact, it's the very fact our rapidly expanding populations that would incite the aliens to this carnage. It's remarkable, as Megan McArdle of Atlantic Monthly pointed out, "how often the aliens in science fiction just happen to be preoccupied with the exact same political issues that obsessed intellectuals of the era when the fiction was written."

Dawn Probe: First Look at Distant Bodies

The Dawn probe reaches well into our asteroid belt and surveys Vesta, the second largest asteroid in our solar system.

    

There are two high-profile NASA probes in the big black, and one of them has just made an important stop. Having successfully entered the orbit of the second largest asteroid in our solar system, the Dawn Probe is settling in to begin mapping the asteroid and answering some questions about one of the largest "breeders" of Earth-bound meteorites of which we know. As reported on TIME.com, settling any space vessel into a planetary object's orbit is a tricky maneuver and anything but guaranteed. When the Dawn Probe completed it's entrance and settled into the asteroid's gravity field, scientists celebrated, and then got down to the business of making discoveries.

R.I.P Space Shuttle Program 1981 - 2011

The 30 year-old NASA space shuttle program will end with the return of Atlantis.

    

With the controversial shut-down of NASA's 30-year old space shuttle program it is undoubtedly the end of an era. Some call it indicative of the U.S. "brain-drain"; a process of slowly losing our capacity for technological innovation and a sign that we will be passed by as leaders of progress. Others call it necessary to open the door to more intensified and entrepreneurial innovation by private industry. Whatever your take, there's no doubt the the closing of the space shuttle program will be a hard transition for many that grew up, like myself, watching those magnificent shuttles taking off and talking about the heritage of pioneering that is our national legacy, both in space and on terra firma.

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