HackingTheUniverse

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On Sunday, August 1, 2010, the side of the Sun facing the Earth erupted with a “coronal mass ejection” and a lot of other activity. This is a when a huge bubble of gas throws a large blob of plasma out into space and in this case it’s streaming toward Earth at a very high [...]

If our Solar System and planet Earth are typical of the universe, then considering how many galaxies and how many stars there are, the place should be teeming with intelligent life. (see the link to the Drake Equation below that discusses this) The Fermi Paradox is that in spite of this logical reasoning that there [...]

There are some problems with a mission to “land” on an asteroid: Space shuttle not available – the space shuttle is due for retirement and even if it could be pulled out of mothballs, it is unlikely that it would be capable of making an asteroid rendezvous. The shuttle was designed for orbital missions and [...]

In what may be the most serious test of solar sail technology to date, Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will launch IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) on May 18, 2010. IKAROS will use a rotational maneuver to unfurl and deploy the sail, which is 20 meters across, 0.0075 mm thick and [...]

Building Planets – [nasa.gov] A beautiful artistic illustration of an asteroid belt (link above) shows a common misconception of asteroid spacing that is prevalent in both science fiction and the public mind. We love to watch Hans Solo or some other pilot skilfully guide a spaceship through the clutter of an asteroid field. But in [...]

Astronomers have detected the spectrum signature of ice on an asteroid called 24 Themis in the main belt. They believe the thin coating of frost on the 200 kilometer wide rock is constantly being evaporated by the Sun and then replenished from an interior supply deep inside the rock. Astronomers Find Water On Asteroid’s Surface [...]

Welcome to The Physics of Superheroes By James Kakalios! – [physicsofsuperheroes.com] In The Physics of Superheroes: Spectacular Second Edition, Professor James Kakalios explains in a fun and accessible manner a broad range of physics, from Isaac Newton to the transistor — but there’s not an inclined plane or pulley in sight! Rather, all of the [...]

Dawn is a space probe that was launched in Sept of 2007 and has been thrusting it’s way toward the asteroid belt since then. It reached the edge of the main belt last November and now is poised to do some close up investigating of some of the larger asteroids. Dawn Sailing Smoothly Through The [...]

New Spacecraft Discovers Dozens of Asteroids … Every Day – [space.com] Dozens of asteroids that have been lurking undetected in our solar system are being discovered every day by NASA’s newest space telescope, scientists say. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope was designed to search for “dark” objects in space, such as brown dwarf [...]

It is possible that one of the largest asteroid impacts in the history of the Earth has been located in Antarctica. A land mass concentration detected by satellite mapping of the gravitational field suggests a crater that is around 500 km in diameter (300 miles) and was probably created about 250 million years ago. It [...]