Huh??.... an asteroid just missed us??

Phew! Asteroid's passing was a cosmic near-miss

I guess I have this unrealistic expectation that the night sky is being watched for asteroids. And apparently for the really big ones, like a kilometer or bigger, we are. We would see this coming for several years. What we would do about it is another story, but at least we'd see it coming.

We saw this one coming on Friday. And it was closest to the Earth on Monday. No time to send Bruce Willis to save us in that time. It came within 45,000 miles which sounds like a lot, but that is about twice as high as our satellites. Five times closer than the Moon to Earth. Too close.

And a curious thought comes to mind. Why did we not hear about this?? You would think this would be a great story. Another fear mongering and sensationalistic story that typifies current media.

What damage might this have done?? This is a 20-30 yard hunk of rock. We're probably not talking mass extinction, but we are talking serious aftermath. We could very well have had a catastrophe on our hands, depending on where it hit.

More eyes on the skies please.

Inauguration from Space

We really do look like ants.

Take the time. Let this picture load. It's pretty cool

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/36000/36729/inauguration_ge1_2009020_lrg.jpg

OCO Mishap

Just about 12 hours after posting about the OCO takeoff, it seems the mission has failed. And the rocket is now probably somewhere in Antarctica. Not much help in studying CO2 from that position. Sigh.

"Preliminary indications are that the fairing on the Taurus XL launch vehicle failed to separate. The fairing is a clamshell structure that encapsulates the satellite as it travels through the atmosphere."

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/oco/main/index.html

Orbiting Carbon Observatory

This is set to launch February 24th. Tomorrow morning. And it should give us a better picture of where CO2 is coming from and where it is going. It will also help scientists predict how CO2 affects our atmosphere and how it will affect life on the planet for years and decades to come.

A Rare Earth??

Peter Ward describes some of his thoughts regarding the delicate and perhaps quite rare planet we inhabit: Earth.

The Kepler Mission - NASA

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/overview/index.html

This is one of many new and exciting missions coming up for NASA. The Kepler mission is designed to survey nearly 100,000 stars in our galaxy and identify Earth-like planets in or near what we descibe as "the habitable zone". We have only discovered, to my knowledge, one planet so far that is even close to Earth in any measureable way. Here it is. Interestingly the article states :

"Boss says we could learn a lot more if scientists launched a space telescope that is specially designed to look at faraway planets. NASA has one in development called the Terrestrial Planet Finder, but it has been delayed indefinitely by budget woes.

"Things like Terrestrial Planet Finder are no longer really in the active NASA plan," Boss says. "

Well, now we know that the search for ET continues. This telescope will help astronomers rid themselves of Earth based observation problems. And undoubtedly the answer to an enduring question may ratchet up another level.

And it all starts this year on March 5th. And then the three and a half year fixation on a point in the sky. A small portion of our galaxy , but hopefully worth the look.

The Archeology Channel

A host of informative videos concerning anthropology and archeology are found within this link.
Take a look at some of the past civilizations spread throughout time and space. I'll keep this link handy on the sidebar as well.