Saturday, January 30, 2021

Ranks

The U. S. Space Force has adopted its system of rank.  It will follow the Air Force system, which flows from the Army model.

Starfleet of fiction and legend, of course, uses the Navy system.

Friday, January 29, 2021

Oh, Those Kids

 Two high school students have helped find four planets orbiting a sunlike star.

They participated in a special science program run by Harvard and MIT.

Thursday, January 28, 2021

DeJong

Paul DeJong, St; Louis Cardinals shortstop, is involved in an effort to put a weather station on the Moon to monitor Earth's temperature.

Advances in technology and a reduction in launch costs are making it possible for individuals to come together and attempt such projects.

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Perspective

 AT&T has announced quarterly revenues of nearly $47 billion.

That's more than twice NASA's annual budget.

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

TOI-178

 Scientists have discovered five planets in tight orbital synchricity around a star designated TOI-178.

A sixth planet, the innermost, is out of step.

Monday, January 25, 2021

SpaceX

 SpaceX launched 143 satellites at once over the weekend.

It was the company's first multiple customer launch.

Saturday, January 23, 2021

Kraken Mare

 Scientists using Cassini data have decided that Kraken Mare, a huge methane sea on Sarurn's moon Titan is at least 1,000 feet deep.

Kraken Mare is larger than all the Great Lakes combined.

Friday, January 22, 2021

Pioneer 10

 Eighteen years ago today, Pioneer 10 beaned its last transsmossion home.

It gave us some of our first close ups of the gas giants.

Thursday, January 21, 2021

Magnetar

 Astronomers think giant flares they've observed in a nearby galaxy were caused by a magnetar.

Magnetars are neutron stats that sport extremely powerful magnetic fields.


Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Ceres Megasatellite

 A new paper proposes building a huge colony-- a megasatellite-- around the dwarf planet Ceres.

It says the project could be completed within 16 years.

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Pluto

 A new study finds Pluto-s blue haze contains organic compounds.

Even that far out sunlight can still power chemical reactions.

Monday, January 18, 2021

VO

Virgin Orbit launched several cubesats into space this weekend on a 70-foor-long, two stage rocket which was itself air-launched from a 747.

The flight makes VO a competitor in the burgeoning small satellite market.

Saturday, January 16, 2021

NoKo

 North Korea has displayed what it says is a submarine-launched ballistic missile.

That could increase the threat to the United States.

Friday, January 15, 2021

Blue Origin

 Blue Origin may fly passengers on a suborbital flight as early as April.

BO may yet beat Virgin Galactic to the punch in that market.

Thursday, January 14, 2021

UFO

 Pursuant to FOIA requests, the CIA has released 2,700  pages of UFO data to The Black Vault website.

The agency says that's all the UFO documents it has.

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Link?

 Scientists have found a world five times as massive as Jupiter about 1300 light years away.

With an orbital period of 218 days, it may begin to link hot Jupiters to the gas giants in our solar system.

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Wobbles

 Researchers have confirmed Mars wobbles on its axis.

So far, the only other world known to do that is Earth.

Monday, January 11, 2021

Rover

 NASA is developing a duel axel rover to use on Mars.

It will be able to navigate rough terrain.

Saturday, January 9, 2021

Oumuamua

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb still contends, in a new book, that the object Oumuamua could have been alien technology.

Oumuamua is the first known object to have entered the Solar System from outside and is now headed back to the stars.

Friday, January 8, 2021

MUFON

 In December. 483 UFO sightings worldwide were reported to MUFON.

Of those, an even 400 were in the U.S.

Thursday, January 7, 2021

India

 India's space agency intends to have reusable rockets yet this decade.

No government space agency has that yet.

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Apollo

 Congress has passed a law that seeks to protect Apollo landing sites on the Moon from disturbance.

The law, however, only restricts NASA and U.S. entities.

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

UFO

A  section of the COVID Relief bill passed recently demands, bizarrely, that the government issue a report laying out what it knows about UFOs  within 180 days.

June might be interesting.

Monday, January 4, 2021

Allstate

 A new commercial for Allstate, of all things, has two astronauts driving across the lunar surface in a buggy.

Presumably, that reflects increasing popular support for space exploration.

Saturday, January 2, 2021

Alien Civilizations

 A new study argues that most civilizations that may have existed in the Milky Way are likely dead now, largely due to self-annihilation.

As we know of zero cases in which a technologically and scientifically advanced civilization annihilated itself, that part of the study's conclusion, at least, seems more driven by a particular political slant than a judgment grounded in data.