The Coolest Thing Ever

v1I think this is one of the coolest things humanity has done or ever and maybe ever will do. I think these four spacecraft, (two Voyagers and two Pioneers), may very well exist longer than the human race itself.

Voyager 1 Probe May Have Left Solar System

Earth’s most distant spacecraft detected a sharp change in the intensity of fast-moving charged particles called cosmic rays, suggesting it had left the outermost reaches of the heliosphere marking the edge of the solar system. “Within just a few days, the heliospheric intensity of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went up as you would expect if it exited the heliosphere,” said Bill Webber, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University

The scientists still don’t know for sure, however, whether the probe has entered interstellar space or if it remains in a mysterious in-between region Voyager team members first discovered a few months ago.

“It’s outside the normal heliosphere, I would say that,” said Professor Webber.

Article From HERE.

One of my favorite websites where I have been monitoring the Voyagers and the Pioneers is HERE. This website is also the best for getting info on viewing satellites in Earth orbit that you can see with the naked eye EVERY NIGHT! It’s called Heavens Above

Asteroid Flyby

This big rock flying through space is going to buzz the Earth the day after Valentines Day. It will pass closer than our man made satellites for GPS. Kind of like a car flying off the highway into your yard, passing between the house and the swingset but (hopefully) missing everything.

Just FYI.

4179 Toutatis ASStroid asteroid-flyby

Science I Don’t Believe. A Loada Hooie!

Martian black_beauty_fullScientists have determined a meteorite discovered in the Sahara Desert in 2011 is about 2.1 billion years old and could be the first meteorite to come from the surface of Mars.

Article from HERE.

Sorry, I don’t buy it. No way does a rock from one planet leave that planet, float through space, then land on another. I just don’t buy it. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I don’t believe happened and I don’t think there is sufficient proof.

So here’s the theory: A meteor hits another planet, Mars for example. The big explosion throws some Mars rocks out into space. In my uneducated opinion, a meteor striking a planet with enough force to throw rock into space would have to be powerful enough to almost destroy the whole planet. Or a volcano shoots some rocks all the way into outer space (my feeble, uneducated brain doesn’t think this is possible at all).

These rocks then attain escape velocity (for the planet Mars), float to Earth, survive burning through Earths atmosphere, and land on the ground. I don’t buy it because first of all, I don’t think a meteor impact or volcano would eject rock into space. Mars has pretty decent gravity and atmosphere (the escape velocity for Earth, if my grade school science memory serves me correctly, is something like 28,000 miles per hour, I’m sure it’s less on Mars, but still up there).

Secondly, any Mars rocks small and light enough to be ejected into space would not be large enough to survive falling through Earths atmosphere.

Thirdly, even if it did happen, there’s no way  to know that it is from Mars..If you could prove that it’s from another planet, which you can’t, because this rock doesn’t seem very unique, you couldn’t prove it was from Mars. It might be from Ork, where Mork is from. Even then, maybe he brought it with him, and it didn’t magically fly from planet to planet.

Mork N Mindy_400I don’t believe it. If you want to prove to me that the above rock came from Mars, then show me on Mars the exact spot that rock came from. Show me the hole in a Mars rock that the above rock fits into perfectly, like a piece from a puzzle. Then I’d believe it.

Oh yeah, and lastly. Even if it happened all the time, and Mars rocks were just raining down on Earth, why would scientists claim that this could be the FIRST Mars rock to land on Earth, where did this idea come from. “Could be” is right, “could be” is most pertinent words in the article. A loada hooie, I tellya!

 

Cranky Don’t Care

I’ve been reading the news, trying to come up with something to post.

Ernest Borgnine died. That’s a bummer.I didn’t know he was still alive. We need to know who’s still alive, not who’s dead.

My Grandfather was 22 when Ernest Borgnine was born. I enjoyed every minute he was on camera. Ernest was in the US Navy-twice.

Image

NASA released a panorama image (or video?) from the Mars Rover. Very disappointing because although the news articles tell you about it, none of them seem to actually show the video/image whatever it is. There is a little crappy video with most articles, crappy video not worth an article.

Last night I woke up every 15 minutes or so all night, with deep sleep in between. Like I wake up thinking it’s morning and it’s still 11:45, then 12:02, then 12:20, all night long.

I guess I’m in a crappy mood, judging from this post. Oh well. Don’t Care!

When They Got Back from the Moon, Apollo 11 Astronauts Went through Customs

NASA has confirmed that Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins went through customs upon their return to Earth and the United States. They filled out the above form, declaring their travel itinerary and that they had brought back moon rocks, dust, and samples through the US border. They did not mention the whiskey smuggled inside Aldrin’s suitcase.
From Neat-O-Rama

25 Years Ago, the Space Shuttle Exploded

It was 25 years ago the space shuttle Challenger blew up. I remember the day. I was working at the US Naval Observatory. We came back from lunch a little late and the guys who stay and watch TV in the kitchen were still watching TV, which was weird, usually the TV is on at 12 sharp, off at 1 sharp. We asked what was going on and were told the space shuttle blew up. At first I thought the guy was making a bad joke, but there it was, on TV, again and again.
One of my first thoughts was about the first teacher going up on the shuttle. Christa McAuliffe. Her death made it twice as bad, I think. She was a civilian. I can imagine her as one of my grade school teachers and feel like I kind of knew her.
Christa McAuliffe

In the back row from left to right: Ellison S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, and Judy Resnik. In the front row from left to right: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, and Ron McNair

Below is a video from YouTube.

25 years ago… I was almost exactly half the age I am now. It doesn’t seem like 25 years, it doesn’t seem like too much time at all.