Disinformation » NASA

NASA Shoots Down Triangular UFO Conspiracy Theory

majestic — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:30:13 +0000

The Week highlights NASA’s desire to squelch yet another bit of fun. First here’s the video footage that got certain people all excited:

Following its public debunking of the 2012 Mayan apocalypse myth in 2009, Nasa has once again dignified a conspiracy theory with a response, claiming that a planet-sized triangular UFO is actually an optical illusion.

True believers had seized on video footage from Stereo-B, one of two Nasa probes studying the sun, which appeared to show a colossal triangular-shaped object. The video [above], which was recorded in December 2011, shows the triangle entering the frame from top right, while earth, Venus and the sun are all on the left of the frame.

Nasa has offered its own explanation for what it terms an “image artifact”. On the Stereo website they write: “The answer lies on the exact opposite side of the image. At the same time as this strange-looking feature starts being visible, the very bright planet Venus enters the HI2-B field-of-view from the lower left.

“Notice that Venus and the feature stay in step almost exactly opposite each other across the middle of the detector. This is not a coincidence. The strange looking geometrical ‘object’ is actually an internal reflection of the planet Venus within the telescope optics.” Cuttingly, the Nasa writer adds: “This effect has been seen many times before.”…

[continues at The Week]

A Cloaked UFO Next To Mercury?

JacobSloan — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:52:16 +0000

Many who want to believe are claiming that this footage taken by NASA’s STEREO spacecraft shows a “cloaked” UFO appearing, and then disappearing, near the planet Mercury. Extraterrestrials on vacation?

Who Stole The Moon?

majestic — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:12:16 +0000

Olivine basalt collected by Apollo 15. Photo: Wknight94 (CC)

Dan Vergano writes in USA Today:

NASA hauled back loads of rocks and dust from the moon, but apparently hasn’t kept good track of those samples on Earth. The space agency has lost or misplaced more than 500 pieces of the lunar rocks and other space samples, NASA’s inspector general reported Thursday, making the case for better inventory controls.

Astronauts on the Apollo moon landings from 1969 to 1972 returned 842 pounds of lunar rock and soil to Earth. The space agency now loans samples, along with meteorite and comet dust, to about 377 researchers worldwide.

The space agency now lists 517 moon rock samples as missing or stolen. However, the inspector general audit suggests much more is missing, based on inquiries to a sample of 59 scholars loaned moon rocks, comet dust or meteorites. The audit found 19% could not locate all of their samples.

It isn’t a new problem. NASA Administrator Thomas Paine threatened “waving heavy cudgels” at researchers who lost samples in a 1970 Congressional hearing…

[continues at USA TODAY]

NASA: Solar Flare Can’t Destroy Earth

majestic — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:58:01 +0000

Feeling the heat from 2012 apocalypticists perhaps, NASA feels the need to reassure people that we won’t be fried in 2012. Mike Wall reports on NASA’s Nov. 10, 2011 statement, for Space.com:

If the world ends in 2012, the sun won’t be to blame, NASA officials say.

Contrary to what some doomsayers would have you believe, our star isn’t capable of blasting out a solar flare powerful enough to burn our planet to a crisp, according to the space agency.

“Most importantly, however, there simply isn’t enough energy in the sun to send a killer fireball 93 million miles to destroy Earth,” NASA officials wrote in a Nov. 10 statement.

The end of the world as we know it?

The Mayans’ “long-count” calendar is set to expire on Dec. 21, 2012, marking the end of a 5,126-year epoch. This factoid has inspired some folks to start girding up for the coming apocalypse — and to start predicting what may bring it about…

No Nibiru, either

The candidates to bring about the end times next year keep dwindling.

Comet Elenin, which some observers speculated would align with other heavenly bodies and spur massive earthquakes and tsunamis, broke up recently after zipping close to the sun.

The supposed planet Nibiru has also been heralded as an agent of apocalypse. The rogue body, which is thought to be four times the size of Earth, will smash into our planet next year and kill us all, some predict.

The problem with that theory is that Nibiru, also known as Planet X, doesn’t exist, experts say.

“There’s no evidence whatsoever for Nibiru,” Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a recent NASA video. “There’s no planet Nibiru, there’s no Planet X, and nothing is hurtling toward us.”…

[continues at Space.com]

1970s NASA Space Colony Art

JacobSloan — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:01:51 +0000

This could be your neighborhood. Via the Public Domain Review, think tank concepts for possible off-Earth colonies — a glorious glimpse at what could have been in an alternate reality:

In the 1970s the Princeton physicist Gerard O’Neill, with the help of NASA Ames Research Center and Stanford University, held a series of space colony summer studies which explored the possibilities of humans living in giant orbiting spaceships. Colonies housing about 10,000 people were designed and a number of artistic renderings of the concepts were made.

DARPA’s Project To Send Humans To Another Star

JacobSloan — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:07:37 +0000

The 100-Year Starship Study is collaboration between NASA and DARPA on the possibility and implications of someday sending a human being on a one-way space mission to distant star. The symbolic hope is that this might occur one century from now. They are not taking volunteers. Via Phenomenica:

Humans have sent probes to planets and asteroids throughout our solar system. But we’ve never come close to propelling a manmade object as far as another star.

But if NASA and DARPA – the agency responsible for some of the early innovations that led to the Internet – have their way, in the next 100 years, a spaceship would stand ready to visit another star.

The two agencies have teamed up on a 1 million-dollar project called the 100-Year Starship Study to begin contemplating technologies and organizational strategies to make the mission happen.

alled the 100-Year Starship Symposium, the public event will run Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 in Orlando, Fla.

For three days, scientists from universities, NASA centers and private institutions will discuss the merits of fusion versus nuclear thermal propulsion, as well as the social and psychological implications of sending humans on a one-way mission to the stars.

Religious and philosophical aspects of interstellar travel will also be discussed.

“The 100-Year Starship is about more than building a spacecraft or any one specific technology,” Fox News quoted DARPA officials as writing in a statement.

“Through this effort, DARPA seeks to inspire several generations to commit to the research and development of breakthrough technologies and cross-cutting innovations across myriad disciplines,” they added.

But a note to would-be space travellers: It’s too soon to sign up for the trip.

“Neither DARPA nor NASA are actually building a 100-Year Starship,” DARPA officials wrote.

“We are planting seeds for an organization. Consequently we are not taking starship crew applications at the present time.”

Former NASA Employee Claims Alien Moon Cities Exist

phunkychic666 — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 00:09:52 +0000

Via Before It’s News:

Former National Aeronautics and Space Administration Data and Photo Control Department manager, Ken Johnston, who worked for the space agency’s Lunar Receiving Laboratory during the Apollo missions has been fired for telling the truth.

Johnston asserts NASA knows astronauts discovered ancient alien cities and the remains of amazingly advanced machinery on the Moon. Some of the technology can manipulate gravity. He says the agency ordered a cover-up and forced him to participate in it. Over the past 40 years other scientists, engineers and technicians have accused NASA of cover-ups and obscuring data.

The growing number of accusers’ allegations range from hiding information about anomalous space objects and lying about the discovery of artifacts on the surface of the Moon and Mars, to denying the evidence of life reported back by the Viking lander during the mid-1970s.

You Have A 1-in-3,200 Chance of Being Hit By A Falling Climate-Change Study Satellite This Month

HAL9000 — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 04:56:22 +0000

And I thought all this space junk would just crash into itself up there. If you are struck, you can blame global warming! Andrew Hough writes in the Telegraph:

The $750 million (£468 million) Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) satellite, launched 20 years ago to study climate change, is set to breach the atmosphere within weeks.

In a new alert issued this week, officials warned pieces could land in densely populated areas on six continents including parts of Britain, Europe, North and South America and Asia.

Nasa claimed the risk to public safety from the “dead” satellite — which is orbiting just over 155 miles above the earth with an inclination of 57 degrees — was “extremely small”.

But senior space agency officials admitted they were “concerned” about the risk to billions of people when it starts falling uncontrolled out of orbit at any stage from later this month.

NASA admitted more than half a tonne of metal from the satellite, which ran out of fuel in 2005, will survive as the majority of it will burn up after entering Earth’s atmosphere.

Moon to Have No-Fly Zones

phunkychic666 — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 17:47:14 +0000

R. Prasad writes in the Hindu:

No-fly zones will come into effect on the moon for the very first time by the end of this month! Why, even buffer zones that spacecraft may have to avoid will come into existence. The reason: avoiding any spraying of rocket exhaust or dust onto certain historical sites and artifacts on the moon.

The historical sites are of course the Apollo landing sites and artifacts present on the moon. And the “recommendations” are for preserving and protecting these historical sites. There are currently more than three dozen historical sites that preserve the more than four-decade-old remains.

“Apollo 11 and 17 sites [will] remain off-limits, with ground-travel buffers of 75 meters and 225 meters from each respective lunar lander,” states the July 20 guidelines of NASA. Science journal had obtained the guidelines.

According to Science, by the end of this month NASA is expected to come up with a set of “recommendations” for spacecraft and astronauts visiting the “U.S. government property on the moon.” Of course, these recommendations will not be legally binding as the 1967 Outer Space Treaty makes it clear that the lunar surface has no owner.

Despite the lack of ownership, NASA is hopeful that other countries will respect the U.S. sentiments. Incidentally, the restriction list contains more than the historical sites. For instance, the list includes studying discarded food and abandoned astronaut feces.

Lunar Orbiter Find Footprints On The Moon

Pelliciari — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:41:58 +0000

Some people were in awe as they watched to first men walk on the moon in 1969. Others still remain in skepticism of the lunar landing. Taken by NASA’s lunar orbiter, new photographs have been released of landing sites, including footprints left on the surface. Via Reuters:

We Have to Clean Up Outer Space Now in Order to Safely Launch New Spacecraft

HAL9000 — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:49:08 +0000

Via the BBC:

Scientists in the US have warned NASA that the amount of so-called space junk orbiting Earth is at tipping point. A report by the National Research Council says the debris could cause fatal leaks in spaceships or destroy valuable satellites.

It calls for international regulations to limit the junk and more research into the possible use of launching large magnetic nets or giant umbrellas. The debris includes clouds of minuscule fragments, old boosters and satellites.

Some computer models show the amount of orbital rubbish “has reached a tipping point, with enough currently in orbit to continually collide and create even more debris, raising the risk of spacecraft failures,” the research council said in a statement on Thursday.

The Apollo 18 Moon Conspiracy

majestic — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 13:21:13 +0000

It’s probably just hype around the release of the “documentary” Apollo 18 that just opened in theaters across America, but Space.com is reporting on a purported conspiracy about the astronauts finding signs of alien life and that being the reason we never again sent humans to the moon:

Apologies to anyone whose bubble will burst, but “Apollo 18,” the film opening Friday (Sept. 2), is fictional.

The film, purporting to be produced from footage kept secret by NASA and leaked to the media, chronicles a NASA mission to the moon that went awry when astronauts encountered signs of alien life there.

Whether because the studio actually believes anyone will be fooled or simply because it makes for a fun marketing angle, the Weinstein Co., which produced the picture, is calling it a “documentary.”

“Decades-old found footage from NASA’s abandoned Apollo 18 mission, where two American astronauts were sent on a secret expedition, reveals the reason the U.S. has never returned to the moon,” reads the movie’s official tagline.

The premise does begin in fact. NASA originally planned an Apollo 18 mission to the moon (along with Apollo 19 and 20), but those flights were canceled in 1970 due to budgetary constraints. The last NASA mission to the moon was Apollo 17, in December 1972.

The studio has been pushing the “reality” aspect of the film, going so far as to offer up a “famous scientist and researcher of UFO phenomena,” Stanton Friedman, for interviews.

“People ask why was there no Apollo 18 mission,” Friedman said in press materials. “I ask, what happened to Apollo 18 and Apollo 19? They were both paid for and astronauts were trained. What happened to these missions?”

Friedman hasn’t been allowed to view the film yet, according to the Los Angeles Times, but said he’s open to the possibility that the Apollo 18 mission did occur and that NASA’s been covering it up.

“One of the things the secret keepers take advantage of is ego,” Friedman told the L.A. Times. “I’m not saying that this footage exists. I’m saying it’s possible that there’s a whole classified side to this and that it would make sense. I allow for that possibility.”…

[continues at Space.com]

Astronaut Suicides

JacobSloan — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:39:34 +0000

This summer’s final NASA space shuttle mission marks the end of the 30-year era of the United States’ sending live explorers into outer space. Photographers Sara Phillips and Neil DaCosta created Astronaut Suicides, a series depicting the logical conclusion of the decision to render the astronaut an obsolete relic.

Global Warming ‘Could Trigger Alien Attack’

majestic — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:09:18 +0000

Emma Woolcott for TG Daily:

Maybe NASA believes that the little green men really are green – one of its scientists has collaborated on a report suggesting that the Earth’s rising levels of greenhouse gases could provoke an alien attack.

Using spectrometry, extraterrestrials could detect changes in Earth’s atmosphere and deduce that we’re out of control, the report suggests. It’s one of a number of scenarios discussed in the paper, written by Shawn Domagal-Goldman of Nasa’s Planetary Science Division and Pennsylvania State University academics.

“These scenarios give us reason to limit our growth and reduce our impact on global ecosystems. It would be particularly important for us to limit our emissions of greenhouse gases, since atmospheric composition can be observed from other planets,” the authors write.

“A preemptive strike would be particularly likely in the early phases of our expansion because a civilization may become increasingly difficult to destroy as it continues to expand.”

In some places the authors get really carried away – one wonders how many of them are frustrated would-be Hollywood screen-writers.

If we did get attacked by aliens, they suggest, it’s possible that another bunch might fly in to save us…

[continues at TG Daily]

Neil deGrasse Tyson: Why Did We Stop Dreaming About Outer Space? (Video)

ralph — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 00:50:34 +0000

Astrophysicist and NOVA host Neil deGrasse Tyson laments the United States’ failure of imagination with its space program, from a recent episode of Real Time with Bill Maher:

The Space Colony That Should Have Been

JacobSloan — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:44:25 +0000

As we close the book on the final U.S. space shuttle mission ever, it’s heartbreaking to watch NASA videos from the groovy 1970s, a time of incredible optimism regarding the final frontier in the aftermath of humankind’s first walk on the moon. Preliminary plans and concepts were being outlined for self-sustaining space colonies where people could live and work. A space station called Taurus would be home to 10,000 people, with dairy farms, manufacturing, vegetation, solar power stations… and then somewhere along the way we became sidetracked.

Volcanoes On The Moon

majestic — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:08:55 +0000

You knew there was more on the far side of the Moon than we were told. First up: volcanoes. From International Business Times:

Among mysteries lying on the far side of the Moon, which cannot be seen from Earth, are volcanoes as well, new photos from a NASA orbiter have revealed.

The volcanoes that litter the Moon’s ‘other side’ are of the rare silicate types, not the basaltic volcanoes seen on the visible side of the moon.

According to researchers, the new findings reveal that the Moon is home to more complex geological activity than initially thought. The findings also reveal that the Moon has not stopped throwing surprises after all!

A team led by Bradley L. Jolliff, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, has reported the latest findings in the journal Nature Geoscience.

According to Jolliff, the primary author of the report, most of the volcanic activity on the moon has been found to be basaltic in nature. He told space.com that the new findings show the complexities of the Moon’s geological activities. “Finding other volcanic types is interesting as it shows the geologic complexity and range of processes that operate on the moon, and how the moon’s volcanism changed with time.”

According to researchers, the region where rare volcanic activity has been found is thought to have a concentration of radioactive element thorium.

“We’ve known for awhile that the Compton-Belkovich had an unusually high thorium content … Now we can positively say that that thorium is related to these silicic volcano materials,” said study co-author Timothy Glotch of Stony Brook University, according to space.com…

[continues at International Business Times]

Goodbye Space Shuttle

James Curcio — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 03:56:53 +0000

Via Modern Mythology:

Many of you know by now that the US space program, though not ended in its entirety, has been demonstrably downgraded, and now faces an uncertain privatized future.

This isn’t new, the dismantling of the shuttle program is just the external proof of something that has long been in the works: the continued ideology of privatization at work.

I was saddened by this news, but not so much because of the mothballing of a program that is admittedly mired in many ways in an abandoned past.

No. It further shows that our government either doesn’t understand the nature of the scientific endeavor, or more likely, simply doesn’t care. Short term profit has completely overtaken American mythology in the past few decades, and it is leading us into a death spiral from which there may be no escape until we reach the other side of the vortex.

I’ll admit my bias in this upfront: I have a lot of shall we say misgivings about the idea that everything does better when privatized. Certain systems become inherently unhealthy for the people within them when privatized, while other systems perform better based on a profit motive …

Asteroid Travels Close To Earth Today

Pelliciari — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:30:38 +0000

Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sometimes asteroids come very close to home, about every six years. The latest asteroid to come closer to Earth than our own satellites appears today. Via Space.com:

An asteroid the size of a tour bus will fly past Earth today (June 27) so closely it will be beneath some of the planet’s satellites.

The rock, named asteroid 2011 MD will zoom by just 7,500 miles (12,000 km) above the planet, making a sharp turn forced by Earth’s gravity before winging off into space again. The flyby will occur at about 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT).

There is no risk of an impact, NASA scientists said. The space rock, estimated to be between 29 to 98 feet (9 to 30 meters) wide, is likely too small to survive a plunge through our atmosphere anyway. An asteroid this size, if it were mostly stony, would break apart and burn up before hitting the surface. Iron-heavy space rocks are better at surviving the fiery entry, however.

Either way, calculations show that asteroid 2011 MD will make a dogleg shift in its trajectory and scoot on by.

[Continues at Space.com]

‘Magnetic Bubbles’ Found Around Solar System Edge

Pelliciari — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:37:34 +0000

A digital image of the newly theorized 'foam zone'.

Is our solar system a ‘cosmic jacuzzi filled with magnetic bubbles’? The outer shield of our solar system was thought to be smooth, like soda gone flat, but new theory believes it may foam-like filled with “bubbles.” From National Geographic:

The edge of the solar system may be a frothy sea of giant magnetic “bubbles,” a new NASA study says.

The new findings may mean that our system’s magnetic barrier—once thought to be a smooth shield—may be letting in more harmful cosmic rays and energetic particles than previously thought.

The new “foam zone” theory is based on a computer model created using data from NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft, both launched in 1977 and currently about 10 billion miles (16 billion kilometers) from Earth.

In 2007 Voyager 1 recorded dramatic dips and rises in the amount of electrons it encountered as the craft traveled through the heliosphere—the “force field” that surrounds the entire solar system and is created by the sun’s magnetic field. Voyager 2 made similar observations of these charged particles in 2008.

A NASA computer model suggests the electron readings make sense if it’s assumed the spacecraft were entering and exiting magnetic bubbles lining the edges of the heliosphere.

[Continues at The National Geographic]

Woman Selling Million-Dollar ‘Moon Rock’ Arrested

JacobSloan — Tue, 24 May 2011 14:10:17 +0000

The wackiest part of this chain of events? That NASA has undercover agents who orchestrate stings to crack down on space crimes. Via the Guardian:

A woman who tried to sell what she said was a rare piece of moon rock for $1.7 million was detained when her would-be buyer turned out to be an undercover NASA agent, officials said Friday.

The gray rocks, which are considered national treasures and are illegal to sell, were given to each U.S. state and 136 countries by then-President Richard Nixon after U.S. moon missions and can sell for millions of dollars on the black market.

NASA investigators and Riverside County sheriff’s deputies detained the woman after she met Thursday with an undercover NASA investigator at a restaurant in Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles, the sheriff’s office said. The investigation was conducted over several months.

NASA planned to conduct tests to determine whether the rock came from the moon as the woman claimed. “We don’t know if it’s lunar material,” said Gail Robinson, deputy inspector general at the space agency.

NASA: There Is A Space-Time Vortex Around Earth

ralph — Thu, 05 May 2011 19:57:53 +0000

Ah, now we know why the Doctor visits our planet so often. Via NASA’s website:

Einstein was right again. There is a space-time vortex around Earth, and its shape precisely matches the predictions of Einstein’s theory of gravity.

Researchers confirmed these points at a press conference today at NASA headquarters where they announced the long-awaited results of Gravity Probe B (GP-B).

“The space-time around Earth appears to be distorted just as general relativity predicts,” says Stanford University physicist Francis Everitt, principal investigator of the Gravity Probe B mission.

“This is an epic result,” adds Clifford Will of Washington University in St. Louis. An expert in Einstein’s theories, Will chairs an independent panel of the National Research Council set up by NASA in 1998 to monitor and review the results of Gravity Probe B. “One day,” he predicts, “this will be written up in textbooks as one of the classic experiments in the history of physics.”

Time and space, according to Einstein’s theories of relativity, are woven together, forming a four-dimensional fabric called “space-time.” The mass of Earth dimples this fabric, much like a heavy person sitting in the middle of a trampoline. Gravity, says Einstein, is simply the motion of objects following the curvaceous lines of the dimple.

Silicon Valley Start-Up To Mine The Moon

JacobSloan — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:15:14 +0000

A new lunar gold rush? Via Phenomenonica:

A Silicon Valley start-up, founded by an Indian-American entrepreneur, plans to mine the moon and is in the process of building robotic rovers that will search the lunar surface for precious metals and rare metallic elements.

Moon Express Inc or MoonEx, co-founded by Naveen Jain, is building the robotic rovers alongside scientists at NASA’s Ames Research Centre near San Jose, a report in the Los Angeles Times said. “MoonEx should be ready to land on the lunar surface by 2013,” Jain said.

While there is no guarantee that the moon is “flush” with these materials, MoonEx thinks it “may be a gold mine of so-called rare earth elements.”

“From an entrepreneur’s perspective, the moon has never truly been explored,” the report quoted Jain, chairman and company co-founder, as saying. “We think it could hold resources that benefit Earth and all humanity.”

MoonEx’s machines are designed to look for materials that are scarce on Earth but found in everything from a Toyota Prius car battery to guidance systems on cruise missiles, the report added.

Alien Life Found on Meteorite, Claims NASA Scientist

ralph — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 00:51:02 +0000

Seems like NASA scientists have lately been making huge announcements (recall the claim a new form of Earth-bound life in December. While the potential of alien bacterial life may seem unglamorous to many, it may put Stephen Hawking’s mind at ease. CBS News:

In what’s sure to rekindle the debate over the question of life beyond Earth, a scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center says he has fossil evidence of bacterial life inside of a rare class of meteorites.

Writing in the March edition of the Journal of Cosmology, Richard B. Hoover argues that an examination of a collection of 9 meteorites — called CI1 carbonaceous meteorites mdash; contain “indigenous fossils” of bacterial life.

“The complex filaments found embedded in the CI1 carbonaceous meteorites represent the remains of indigenous microfossils of cyanobacteria, ” according to Hoover. That matter-of-fact sentence also underscores the shout-out-loud implication that the detection of fossils of cyanobacteria in the CI1 meteorites raises the possibility of life on comets. And Hoover does not shy away from offering that very conclusion.

Skeptics will doubtless weigh in soon with questions. Still, Hoover’s proposition may have stirred more controversy several years ago. More recently, though, some scientists have suggested that meteors and comets slamming into the Earth brought with them the very integuments of life, including water and a host of complex organic chemicals. If he’s right, Hoover may have evidence to support that theory. He argues that the complex filaments he found embedded in the meteors are micro-fossils of extraterrestrial life forms that existed on the meteorites a long time ago prior to the meteorites’ entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

NASA Completes 52-Year Mission To Find And Kill God (Video)

vulcan — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 05:37:13 +0000

I have one question: Was James T. Kirk involved with this mission? Via the Onion:

After more than five decades of tireless work, brave exploration, and technological innovation aimed at a single objective, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced Wednesday that it had finally completed its mission to find and kill God.

“I am ecstatic to tell you all today that we have beheld the awesome visage of the supreme architect of the cosmos, and we have murdered Him,” jubilant administrator Charles Bolden said after being drenched with champagne by other celebrating NASA employees. “There have been innumerable setbacks, missteps, and hardships over the past 50 years, but we always stayed true to our ultimate goal and we never gave up.”

“We finally got the son of a bitch!” Bolden continued. “He’s dead! God is dead!”

Astronomers Discover 6 Planets Orbiting The Same Star

Pelliciari — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 23:16:42 +0000

eScience News reports:

A NASA team including three University of Florida astronomers has found six new planets in a distant solar system that in some ways resembles our own. The NASA team, including UF associate professor Eric Ford, postdoctoral associate Althea Moorhead and graduate student Robert Morehead, will announce its findings in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.

“This is the new prototype for a system of rocky planets beyond our own,” Ford said. “It changes our understanding of the frequency of solar systems like our own in deep space.”

The planets orbit Kepler-11, a sun-like star about 2,000 light years away. With temperatures hotter than Venus – likely more than 400 to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit – the planets range in size from twice to 4½ times Earth’s diameter. The five confirmed planets are larger in mass but less dense than Earth, and closely packed, taking from 10 to 47 days to orbit the star. There is almost certainly a sixth planet orbiting nearly twice as far away, but its distance from the star makes its confirmation more difficult, Ford said.

[Continues at eScience News]

Space Oddities: Strange NASA Items Go Up For Auction

JacobSloan — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:24:11 +0000

If you have a few thousand dollars to blow, now is your shot at owning some of the least-inspiring artifacts from the history of space exploration — from decades-old “space roast” to pornography snuck aboard the Apollo 12 mission. Via AFP:

A freeze-dried beef pot roast, the business card of the first man to walk on the moon, and a Playboy calendar that rode to space in 1969 are among a mishmash of old space items on US auction this week.

While space enthusiasts will not find the highly coveted items that NASA keeps under lock and key, like spacesuits, many of the offers have a connection to the space program that shows an unusual side of the collectors’ passion.

For instance, the muddy brown block of space roast, complete with plastic bag and nozzle for injecting hot water.

There is also a cube of strawberry cereal marked “Space Food” for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, the first three to bring humans into space orbit and eventually, with Apollo 11, to the moon.

Starting bids for the food specimens were 100 dollars. Bidding was already up to over 600 dollars early Friday for moonwalker astronaut Neil Armstrong’s business card.

And the Playboy calendar photo of a topless blonde holding a pool cue that was snuck aboard the Apollo 12 mission and bears the date of November 1969 swiftly shot up to more than 3,100 dollars, triple its opening bid.

NASA Reveals That Moon Has Liquid Core

majestic — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 14:08:21 +0000

Could it really be that sensors placed on the Moon by Apollo astronauts in 1971 only just revealed this information about the structure of the Moon, or has NASA been holding information back? The Daily Mail reports:

It’s an unlikely marriage between state-of-the-art and 40-year-old technology that has yielded extraordinary results.

Signals from seismic sensors left on the lunar surface by Apollo astronauts in 1971 have revealed that the Moon has a liquid core similar to Earth’s.

Scientists at Nasa applied contemporary seismological techniques to the data being emitted from sensors placed by their colleagues during the U.S. space program’s heyday.

The new research suggests the Moon possesses a solid, iron-rich inner core with a radius of nearly 150 miles and a fluid, primarily liquid-iron outer core with a radius of roughly 205 miles.

Where it differs from Earth is a partially molten boundary layer around the core estimated to have a radius of nearly 300 miles…

[continues in the Daily Mail]

NASA Names ‘2012′ As The Most Absurd Science Fiction Film of All Time

ralph — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:15:42 +0000

I have faith that Hollywood can produce an even more ridiculous film in our new decade. (And remember kids, movies are a great way to learn about science : ) Reports Metro UK:

Roland Emmerich’s disaster movie proved to be a smash hit, taking more than £490 million [~$760 million] at the box office — but it was less popular at the US space agency. A panel of NASA experts concluded 2012 was the most scientifically flawed blockbuster ever made.

The film, which stars John Cusack, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor, includes scenes in which a physicist claims to have discovered that neutrino particles carried to earth on solar flares had caused a series of catastrophic natural disasters.

Many film fans were so worried about what they saw that NASA was inundated with questions about whether the world could end in the way suggested in the movie, prompting the organisation to put up a special website explaining that the scientific theories in 2012 were myths. Donald Yeomans, head of NASA’s Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission, said 2012 was an ‘exceptional and extraordinary case’ of bad science on the big screen.

‘The film makers took advantage of public worries about the so-called end of the world as apparently predicted by the Mayans of Central America, whose calendar ends on December 21st, 2012,’ he added. A committee of NASA experts also criticised Armageddon, The 6th Day, Volcano and Chain Reaction for their inaccurate scientific content.

However, they concluded it was possible for science fiction blockbusters to be both entertaining and rooted in fact, citing Blade Runner and Gattaca as good examples.

Voyager Near Solar System’s Edge

ralph — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 21:10:37 +0000

Well done NASA. Looking forward to seeing this intrepid vehicle again when it returns to us as V’Ger. Jonathan Amos writes on BBC News:

Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, has reached a new milestone in its quest to leave the Solar System.

Now 17.4bn km (10.8bn miles) from home, the veteran probe has detected a distinct change in the flow of particles that surround it. These particles, which emanate from the Sun, are no longer travelling outwards but are moving sideways.

It means Voyager must be very close to making the jump to interstellar space — the space between the stars.

Edward Stone, the Voyager project scientist, lauded the explorer and the fascinating science it continues to return 33 years after launch. “When Voyager was launched, the space age itself was only 20 years old, so there was no basis to know that spacecraft could last so long,” he told BBC News. “We had no idea how far we would have to travel to get outside the Solar System. We now know that in roughly five years, we should be outside for the first time.”