dewline | Entries tagged with space news

This was an unlocked article at the Scientific American website, excerpted from the April 2020 issue. As a fan of astronomy and of the space opera branch of science fiction and fantasy, there was no way I wasn't going to distract myself from my troubles for at least a few minutes to look this one over.

I keep saying: the Star Trek people are going to need to update their maps too. This is one more part of why.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-new-map-of-the-milky-way/

Current Mood: nerdy

"So now we must demonstrate what we are really made of. Are we really worthy of the glory of Gagarin?"

They can be worthy. But I worry that Putinism will be an obstacle to that here.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/with-dragon-russian-critic-says-roscosmos-acting-left-behind/

Current Mood: contemplative

I didn't know that they've been involved in this! Mind you, the doctor involved has had to travel to Germany to do some of the work...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/artificial-gravity-1.5216905

Current Mood: surprised

Dr. Saint-Jacques returned to Earth last night.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/david-saint-jacques-1.5187999

Current Mood: Busy-Excited

It's about 12.5 lightyears away, located in Aries, and we've only known of this star for about 15 years. And already, we have two exoplanets orbiting it...and they might be livable.

https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2019/06/18/carmenes-two-habitable-zone-planets-around-a-nearby-red-dwarf/

http://phl.upr.edu/press-releases/teegarden

Interesting...and I think we'd have found out about this one after Star Trek: Star Charts was published, right?

Current Mood: curious

Three of them so far, but I expect there to be many more. How many confirmed orbiting Sol so far, after all?

The article cites the distance from Sol as 63 light-years, but Bailer-Jones/GAIA DR2 puts it as 65. I look forward to more precise interstellar distance data, of course.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190522120525.htm

Sidebar: exoplanet.eu's current count as of 23 May 2019: 4071 exoplanets.

Apparently, the first-known-to-humans-of-Earth has been found...

https://twitter.com/esascience/status/1064835998406692865

Current Mood: surprised

So mainland China's apparently going to demolish a space station by doing nothing at all. Which seems to be the standing procedure for all nations from Skylab and Salyut onward, sadly...

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/space-station-falling-earth-here-s-where-it-could-land-ncna838481

Current Mood: disappointed

Thanks to

beamjockey for this info.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/pluto/2016/07/01/from-canada-to-pluto-and-beyond/

Current Mood: pleased

You remember this posting?

Well, I've got some disappointing news linkage for you.

To be honest, I'd prefer that the fund-raising go ahead for real. As I said earlier, better to cure that petro-dependency now than later.

But it's not up to me, right?

Current Mood: sad

Finally got around to viewing this footage, and got another dose of appreciation for the workload being handled on a daily basis "upstairs".

Current Mood: impressed

Wanted to embed this one, but apparently NASATelevision has an issue with that.

Anyway, here's the video.

Current Mood: excited

Penn State's space sciences people just web-published something of interest to planet-hunters:

http://news.psu.edu/story/268138/2013/03/12/research/earth-sized-planets-habitable-zones-are-more-common-previously

Current Mood: curious

Thanks to

centauri_dreams for the info that this is a real thing now.

Worth taking a look at, yes?

Current Mood: pleased

I wanted to stay awake for it, but I ran out of stamina about midnight local time. Ninety minutes...

Congratulations to the JPL team anyway!

Current Mood: excited

Did anyone else notice that the exoplanet.eu database just blew past the 700 confirmed exoplanets mark this month?

Also, three of humanity's explorers in the deep black just got home today:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/11/22/science-soyuz-astronauts-return.html

That first comment about space travel being "routine" now...strikes me as Not Quite True Yet.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: CBC Radio One: Jian Ghomeshi interviewing Kate Bush

I was listening to Q on Radio One this morning. Jian Ghomeshi was speaking in reaction to an opinion piece put forth by The Economist this week on the end of the US space shuttle operation after thirty years.

Allegedly, this marks the end of the Space Age as well. At least by their lights. (And it seems they're of a mind to say "Good riddance!" by the looks of it.)

Mine, as you might expect from a hardcore TV and comic-book space opera fan? Not so much. I'm one of those people whom The Economist would rather have you consider as having non-existent, irrelevant and ignorable opinions on this subject.

So you won't be at all surprised to see me call - pardon my using the best word for it, please? - bullshit on them for that.

Also, not interested in seeing an end to exploring Big Ideas. Too many left to chase down, you know?

I have no doubt that pursuing space exploration and its spin-offs won't solve all or even most of our problems. I don't expect that. More importantly, I shouldn't have to expect it either. The questions that space exploration poses are interesting enough to pursue as they are.

We're not done with this. NASA may indeed be done with the shuttles, but humanity's nowhere near done with space. Nor it with us.

More as time goes by...