Astronomers have discovered a planet literally made of diamond.
The new planet is far denser than any other known so far and consists largely of carbon. Because it is so dense, scientists calculate the carbon must be crystalline, so a large part of this strange world will effectively be diamond.
Divers have recovered the telegraph and some of the steering equipment from the Lusitania.
The immediate consequences of the Progress freighter failure:
The longer term consequences? Congress will anguish over the lack of a shuttle. Some will demand more money for the program-formerly-called-Constellation, while others will demand more money for the new commercial companies. In either case, they will ignore the reality of a bankrupt federal government that simply can’t afford either at the moment.
Depending on the survey, from 9 to 30 percent of all businesses are considering dropping their employer-sponsored healthcare plans when Obamacare goes into effect in 2014.
In other words, Obama was lying when he said you could keep your plan under Obamacare.
Note too that poll numbers continue to show a solid majority of the public wants Obamacare repealed.
Want to mine an asteroid? Rather than travel to it with all their mining equipment, three Chinese scientists have proposed a better way. In a paper published today on the Los Alamos astro-ph preprint website, they have calculated the energy required to shift the orbits of the six thousand near-Earth asteroids and place them in Earth orbit for later mining. Of these, they found 46 asteroids that had the potential for such an operation, and two likely candidates for a space mission. One 30-foot-wide asteroid, 2008EA9, will actually be in the right place for this technique in 2049. As they write,
It can be seen that the velocity increment of the 2008EA9 is relatively small (-1.00km/s) and it will very close approach [approximately 645,000 miles] to the Earth in [February] 2049. Moreover the size of the NEO 2008EA9 is very small so that the capturing of it is relatively easy.
The real problem, of course, is adding that small “velocity increment” to the asteroid.
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The alarming significance of culture.
During a recent conversation with a close Jewish friend I asked him what he thought separated Jews from most other ethnic groups. I was expecting him to talk about how a shared history of oppression had strengthened Jews and brought them closer together. But his answer was both surprising and controversial. “Unlike gentiles, especially Christians,” he said, “Jews do not believe in an after life as such. There is no God up there dictating your lot in life. We don’t believe the meek shall inherit the earth. We truly believe in the power of an individual’s free will, guided of course by right principles.” [emphasis mine]
An evening pause:
Freedom of speech alert: Cops confiscate cameras at Ohio Republican congressman’s town hall. With video.
According to the cop on the video, he was following instructions from the Congressman. Either way, the cop should be fired for violating these citizen’s rights.
And it doesn’t matter if a Democrat or Republican does this. It is wrong, it is disgusting, and it is inexcusable. Such politicians should be kicked out of office immediately.
Watching a black hole devour a star, 3.9 billion light years away.
The launch of a Progress freighter to ISS today has failed, with the freighter ending up crashing into Siberia.
This is very bad news for the station. Everyone in the space industry knows that with the shuttle gone, it will be a challenge to maintain supplies to the station’s the six-person crew. Losing just one supply ship will strain the station’s supplies, if not now in the long run for sure.
Worse, this is the first launch failure of the Soyuz rocket that puts both Progress and manned Soyuz capsule into orbit in more than eleven years. The next manned crew is scheduled for launch on September 21. Whether this failure will delay that launch remains unknown.
The geology behind the Virginia earthquake of August 23. And an even better analysis, with maps, can be found here.
