Tag Archives: Space

CFBDSIR J1458+1013B, the newest Brown Dwarf

Posted on by
Reply

CC: NASA

“At such temperatures we expect the brown dwarf to have properties that are different from previously known brown dwarfs and much closer to those of giant exoplanets — it could even have water clouds in its atmosphere,”

said Michael Liu of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy. 

 CFBDSIR J1458+1013B is the coldest (100C) and furthest (75 million light years ) brown dwarf to date.

Essentially brown dwarfs are unable to create a nuclear reaction, setting them apart from being stars.

And though CFBDSIR J1458+1013B is 75 million light years away, the idea of water clouds and bearable surface temperatures existing elsewhere only motivates telescopic gazing scientists to continue their search into parts unknown.

For More: MSNBC

Moon "Diviner" finds useful minerals

Posted on by
Reply

Diviner. Illustration: NASA/UCLA

Good news for Moon setters: Scientists seeking mineral wealth on the Moon have struck upon minerals that can be used to make nuke fuel and fertilizer.

Among the mineral wealth detected by NASA’s Moon recon orbiter vessel, Diviner, is the element thorium, which might be used to power nuclear energy plants on the Moon.

More from a recent announcement:

Most impressively, in several locations around the Moon, Diviner has detected the presence of highly silicic minerals such as quartz, potassium-rich, and sodium-rich feldspar – minerals that are only ever found in association with highly evolved lithologies (rocks that have undergone extensive magmatic processing).

via New Types Of Rock Found On Moon By Researchers At Stony Brook University And NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The Secret Sun sees a new symbol in ISS

Posted on by
Reply

Christopher Knowles (The Secret Sun), taking his typically sweeping, epic view of the symbols being hurled at us, notes that the otherwise ugly International Space Station resembles the cross of Lorraine, the alchemical symbol to which some have attributed the religious meaning, “As above, so below.”

From Knowles’ blog:

But it’s all good. Very clever, actually- keep the malcontents busy with celebrity gossip while the real action goes on under our noses – or over our heads. For instance, we all know about ISiS- the International Space Station- but did you know it was shaped like the Cross of Lorraine?

via The Secret Sun.

Space junk? MSM provides "cloaking device" for military space mission

Posted on by
Reply

The US military on July 8 will toss a $500 million satellite into orbit to observe space junk circling Earth.

At least, that’s what the AP is reporting about the July 8 launch of the US Air Force’s new “Space-Based Space Surveillance” (SBSS) satellite.

But the sat will be much more than a space junk surveyor: It will serve at the core of the Air Force’s ongoing space-based missile defense program. If you read the words of the military’s top brass on the subject of SBSS, you will find that the Air Force’s priorities for the program are to track (if not disable) Iran’s and North Korea’s sats.

A snip from the AP story:

Currently, the Air Force relies on a ground-based network of radar and optical telescopes around the globe to monitor about 1,000 active satellites and 20,000 pieces of debris. The telescopes can be used only on clear nights, and not all radar stations are powerful enough to detect satellites in deep space orbit, about 22,000 miles from Earth.

via New US satellite to monitor debris in Earth orbit – USATODAY.com.

China syndrome: Media sanitizes brutal spacecraft return

Posted on by
Reply

Photo: Mike Licht/Flickr CC

In case you’d forgotten how weird and controlling the Chinese government is, and how much of the news in China is the product of stagecraft, there’s this reminder, from The Raw Feed:

According to the official, Yang was subject to enormous G-forces during re-entry, splitting his lip and covering his face with blood. When the hatch was opened and the crew saw his bloody face, they cleaned him up, strapped him back in the seat and did a do-over for the cameras. The sanitized version of the hatch opening was presented to the Chinese viewing public as the live first-opening of the hatch.

via How China staged space capsule opening – The Raw Feed.

Star Trek prophecy fulfilled, centuries early

Posted on by
2

Thanks to the Secret Sun for alerting us to the news that — as anticipated by the interesting, if boring, Star Trek: The Motion Picture — Voyager 2 is still speaking.

Only this time, the craft is speaking to us Terrans, and in a strange language, which the craft acquired “out there.”

“Alien expert Hartwig Hausdorf said:’It seems almost as if someone had reprogrammed or hijacked the probe – thus perhaps we do not yet know the whole truth.’”

via Have aliens hijacked Voyager 2 spacecraft | The Daily Telegraph.

Hubble records Saturn Aurorae

Posted on by
Reply

Video (below) is accompanied by “approaching planet” music, which sounds as if its from the soundtrack to Star Trek V.

In January and March 2009, researchers using Hubble took advantage of a rare opportunity to record Saturn when its rings are edge-on, resulting in a unique look featuring both of the giant planet’s poles. And Saturn cooperated by providing an incredible double light show with Saturn’s own northern and southern lights.

via Hubble Captures Double Aurorae Light Show on Saturn | Universe Today.

What's up with the Moon?

Posted on by
Reply

The

There’s a definite synchromystical, Moon “thing” going on, at the moment…

President Obama might not let us go to the Moon, but in Düsseldorf, you can see the largest sculpture of Earth’s sole satellite, as part of a new solar system exhibit (from a pres release I received today):

Düsseldorf, Germany – The inside of a 380-foot tall obsolete gas holder, the Gasometer in Oberhausen, is the space for a new exhibit called “Out Of This World – Wonders of The Solar System.” It includes the largest moon sculpture in the world — an 82-foot wide replica of the moon hanging in a cathedral-like space under the holder’s 328-foot roof, as well as replicas of the sun and its planets in a space 223 feet wide. The exhibit explores scientific, cultural and artistic perspectives on the creation and death of our solar system in the vast dimensions of the cosmos.

I’d be the first to say, of the Moon, “been there, done that.” But that was before a team led by Brown University professor Carle Pieters confirmed the presence of H20 up there.

And then there is Richard C. Hoagland’s idea of combing the Moon for ancient ruins.

Source: Sternstunden: RUHR.2010.


ETs not part of futurists' vision

Posted on by
Reply

Not in Futurismic's future. (Image: Marcin Wichary/Flickr CC)

Futurismic pays for fiction — $200 for a short story.

But writers with an ET bent (think Romulans, greys, reptilians, and the like) need not apply :

We’re interested in what we can see and develop and control, what’s in front of us and what we need to react to.

The site’s fiction editor doubts we’ve got much to worry about, from beyond the troposhere, or inside our hollow Earth.

via Why we reject stories | Fiction | Futurismic.

The Heretic's "10 New England Esotericists to Watch in 2010"

Posted on by
9

New England is home to some of the biggest brains in the businesses of esoterica and mad science.

But you knew that already.

Here then, is my list of the busiest folks we know in the worlds of offbeat science publishing, UFOlogy, cryptozoology and the occult — even comics. Ghost-hunting? That is sooo last decade. But keep these peeps on your radar in 2010. They make for an eclectic mix, alright, but I think the list somehow works:

Marc Abrahams announcing "The Penguin Prize" at the annual Ig Nobel Prizes ceremony, at Harvard U. (Photo: Courtesy of the Ig Nobel Prizes.)

1. Marc Abrahams. Few can match the wit, charm and energy of this singular Cambridge, Mass. personality. Abrahams is the publisher of the uproarious Annals of Improbable Research, and organizer of the annual Ig Nobel Prizes awards ceremony, which honors  “research that makes people laugh and then think.” He also writes a weekly column about wacky science (think bras that double as gas masks, and astrology charts for bacteria), for the UK Guardian.

Tim Binnall. (Photo: Courtesy of BoA)

2. Tim Binnall. Did you know that one of the planet’s fastest-growing podcasters to the “Coast-to-Coast AM” crowd is based right here, in the Hub? The young genius behind the whole thing, Tim Binnall, is relaunching his website, Binnall of America, with another season of podcast interviews with big-name UFOlogists and conspiracy researchers, from Texas to Sweden.

Binnall also organizes a successful paranormal confab in the Hub.

3. Loren Coleman. This legend in the world of cryptozoology (2010 marks his 50th year in the business) will be surprising us again with new insights, and new guests and events at his Portland, Maine-based International Museum of Cryptozoology.

A regular contributor to Coast to Coast AM, Boing Boing, and The Anomalist, Coleman is also the keeper of the world’s most popular cryptozoology blog, Cryptomundo.

Loren Coleman and friend. Photo: Loren Coleman (via Thomas Roche/Flickr CC

Coleman this year will be speaking at Bigfoot and “big cats” conferences — both at home and across the pond, in Glasgow, Scotland. This spring, he will also be lending his expertise to the ongoing search for the Loch Ness Monster.

In addition to his ongoing consulting work for History’s “MonsterQuest,” and Animal Planet’s “Lost Tapes,” Coleman will also be working on (we kid you not) five new books.

4. Stanton Friedman. I met Stanton Friedman at a UFO conference in Washington, D.C. a few years ago, and I’ve been trying to keep up his research ever since. But I only learned (after listening to Mr. Binnall’s interviews with this UFO luminary) that Friedman resides in the Northeast. Friedman jokes in his BoA interviews that he is one of the few surviving members of UFOlogy’s “old guard.” But I expect he’ll have a lot more to say at his conferences appearances this year.

5. Greg Kaminsky. If you like your occult podcasts served-up hot, and packaged with vintage Black Sabbath tracks, Beverly, Mass.-based Greg Kaminsky is your guy. Kaminsky is the host of the fantastic website and podcast, “Occult of Personality,” which — like BOA — is poised for big changes (including a subscriber section, with extended interviews) and breakout success in 2010. Kaminsky has landed interviews with leading occult scholars on both sides of the Atlantic since making his quiet start, just a couple of years ago. To taste some of that OoP magic I am talking about, check out this fascinating interview with Penguin’s occult books editor, Mitch Horowitz.

John Rozum and son, at the International Museum of Cryptozoology, in Portland, Maine. (Photo: Loren Coleman)

6. John Rozum. Scooby-Doo. The X-Files comics. The supernaturally-talented writer may be in the business of inventing things that go bump in the night, be he is also said to be living quietly on Cape Cod. One of Rozum’s latest creations, The Hangman, is fighting human trafficking in DC Comics’ just-released The Web #4.

7. Joe Moore. Commended to this list by OoP’s Kaminsky, Moore is a New Hampshire-based podcaster, a breathwork facilitator, and onetime Evolver spore group leader. (Click the links if you are as mystified by these terms as I was.) Not sure if magic is for you? Try the “Mr. Spock” ritual that Moore discusses in his latest podcast with chaos magic expert Andrieh Vitimus. (Skip to the 17-minute mark, if you can’t wait.) Next: Moore and Kaminsky in 2010 are collaborating on a documentary film.

8. Joseph Citro is sick of ghosts. Yeah, that’s right. Ghost-busting, the bane of Binnall and other esotericists — driven half-mad by hacks seeking quick paranormal fame — is tired. Citro made his break from the past last fall, with one of his latest titles, The Vermont Monster Guide, a roundup of the land, air and sea creatures haunting the North.

9. The guys behind NE FOR (the New England UFO Research Organization). When Tim Binnall hints at the political infighting within the New England UFO community, he might be referring in part to the guys who last year formed this New England MUFON splinter group. But more UFO researchers might mean more eyes on the sky, and more thorough documentation of sightings

10. Mr. Crowley. Just be sure you pronounce the first syllable of his name correctly, like the bird, while in Salem, Mass. (Not the way Ozzy Osbourne does in his classic song about the Beast.)

And yeah, I know the guy’s dead. But when the Heretic placed its call for nominees last weekend, a bunch of folks, from Salem and beyond, tapped their peers in magical orders that derive their inspiration from Crowley. Crowley-inspired authors and booksellers, too, all got a good talking-up.

So, stay tuned on this one, because I’m going to need a week-or-two to share with the rest of you, what our magician friends have been sharing with me.