You can check out the entire launch and recovery of the craft (minus its payload of one Tesla Roadster) here (The actual launch happens a little before the 30 minute mark).
Category Archives: Science
‘Oumuamua back in the news: do aliens approach? And what will NASA be announcing today?
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.
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No Eclipse? No Problem
Can’t get outside or not in a part of the world where you can see the eclipse? Not to worry, PBS is live-streaming the event starting at 12:30p EDT (4:30p GMT).
Does Life on Earth stretch back 3.7 Billion Years?
A paper published yesterday in Nature argues, not without some some controversy, that fossils discovered in Canada push back the origins of life on earth to very early in the planet’s history.
The implications for natural history– and the possibility of life elsewhere, given harsh Terran conditions 3.7 billion years ago– are significant.
SpaceX plans to send private citizens around the moon…. Next year
SpaceX plans to fly two wealthy tourists around the moon next year. NASA has certainly been involved here but, given that the current U.S. president plans to ask for cuts to science spending, it will be increasingly necessary for private visionaries to step up their game.
NASA announces existence of a system with multiple potentially-habitable planets
NASA has announced that a nearby star-system, TRAPPIST-1, contains seven rocky, earth-sized planets, three of which are in the star’s Goldilocks Zone.
Of course, we cannot know what we will find there, but it’s a great place to examine more closely.
Will Elon Musk make it to Mars?
By now, you’ve undoubtedly heard that SpaceX founder Elon Musk hopes to establish a colony on Mars. Eric Mack of Cnet argues that the plan is insane but not impossible, while TheVerge’s Elizabeth Lopatto finds Musk’s plans implausible, but notes that they may lead to other important discoveries.
Assuming the first flights ever get off the ground, they’ll be dangerous one-way trips.
Who wants to sign up?
Or ask additional questions?
Confirmed: A (probably) terrestrial planet lies in Proxima Centauri’s Goldilocks Zone
As reported earlier, a probably earth-like planet does indeed orbit Proxima Centauri at a distance that could sustain life as we know it. That is as close to next-door, in galactic terms, as it gets.
Is anyone home?
Newspace
The big news: Juno is entering orbit around Jupiter, after a five-year journey. NASA’s mission page is here; Tweets are here.
More science-related news and video below.
We’ll give you Con and Cosplay content later this week!
Can Stephen Hawking and some famous investors get us to the Centauri system?
Although Hawking has expressed concern about the consequences of alien contact, he nevertheless has thrown his support behind Starshot. The near-future project wouldn’t take us to Alpha Centauri, but would use laser tech and light-sails to send iPhone-sized ships to our stellar neighbor.
With investments from Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg, among others, we just might send the ships and receive the results within our lifetime.