We dropped the regular Newspace features awhile back, but I still like the idea of wide-ranging posts on news of interest to Bureau readers, so here goes another attempt:
SciShow Space takes a look at forthcoming space missions:
While, elsewhere, we learn what led the Ariane 5 rocket off-course. I’m not saying it was aliens, but…
Okay, actually, aliens had nothing to do with it.
We have a round-up of video from around the Net, looking at science, cosplay, and Play-Doh superheroes.
In a long-negotiated deal, Disney will acquire Twenty-first Century Fox. This means a few things: Disney now controls even more of the media landscape, and the X-Men and Fantastic Four now belong to Marvel Studios.
Astronomers identified Oumuamua, the cigar-shaped extrasolar object passing through our solar system, back in October. More recently, it has made the news because its unusual qualities make for cool sensationalist headlines. Stephen Hawking, et al have not actually said the thing is an alien craft, and probably aren’t betting it is, but its unusual shape and nature mean that scientists have to check all possibilities.
It’s more likely just an unusually-shaped asteroid from another system.
Or a space whale. It could totally be a space whale, right?
In an unrelated development, NASA will make an announcement later today regarding the Kepler Space Telescope and its ongoing scanning of the galaxy for signs of inhabited planets.
UPDATE: With Google-based “machine intelligence” helping to analyse the Kepler data, NASA confirms an eighth planet in the Kepler-90 system, making it the first to tie our system in the number of known planets.
Continue reading →
If you haven’t already heard, Rian Johnson will be overseeing an entirely new Star Wars trilogy, set in some other corner of a galaxy far, far away. Buzz holds that it might not even shoehorn in connections to every existing character.
Talks have stalled, but Disney and Fox continue to discuss a deal that would bring Marvel properties such as the X-Men and the Fantastic Four back under the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s control.
If this happens, should the mutants and heroes rejoin? Or stay in their own universes? And will we finally get a good FF film?
A wave of allegations of sexual harassment and impropriety sweeps Hollywood, and they now include at least three men related to comix and superhero movies:
After years of harassment and assault allegations, DC has suspended editor Eddie Berganza. Update: Okay, DC has fired Berganza.
Andrew Kreisberg, showrunner for The Flash, who also works on Supergirl, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow, has been suspended over allegations of inappropriate touching and comments.
Gal Gadot has announced she will only continue as Wonder Woman if Warner removes Brett Ratner’s company from the next sequel. Ratner faces some of the more serious allegations of sexual assault and misconduct among those recently accused.
This is my video of the ComiCon local to me, which occurred this weekend. As a bonus, the cosplayer in the introduction turns it into a Countdown to Halloween video as well.
Below: the International Mars Society Convention, some NASA news, and where to watch Star Trek: Discovery
Last-week’s San Diego Comic-con saw a display of a real-life Iron Manesque “jet-powered Exosuit.” Reality falls short of fiction, but it’s still pretty cool.
More on Comic-Con, science, and tech, below:
San Diego Comic-Con starts this week, but it’s not the only thing happening of interest to nerds. Click for news (and signals) from space, an update on the prehistoric Tyrannosaur, and modern tech used to save a turtle’s life.
Julie Payette, a former astronaut who spent more than twenty-five days in space, will be Canada’s next Governor General. The Governor General, viceregal representative of the Crown in Canada, is appointed by the reigning monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister.
This week we lost Adam West, the actor best-known for his deliberately wooden, comic turn as Batman in the 1960s. While many bat-fans find the series an embarrassment, its runaway success helped revitalize the superhero comic, and demonstrated that superheroes could work in mainstream media. Only Superman, really, had achieved that status beforehand, on radio and television.1
The Harry Potter Festival organized for Goderich, Ontario, has had to move to nearby Blyth. Those who booked accommodations in scenic Goderich will receive shuttlebus service. The festival will see the small town transformed into some Harry Potter-verse equivalent over the three-day festival, which has attracted ticket-buyers from around the world.
Japan’s Softbank is buying Boston Dynamics, Google’s robot company:
SpaceX update and a couple of Cons, below: