Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
An exhumation of the body of Danish astronomy Tycho Brahe has proven he was not murdered as speculated by some.
SpaceX’s Grasshopper rocket has made its highest leap yet, almost 20 feet.
This is only a test vehicle for developing the engineering of a reusable rocket that can land vertically.
The Subaru telescope in Hawaii has taken an image of an exoplanet.
The press release is not clear, but I think this is an image in optical wavelengths, which I also think is a first.
Update: on further research, it turns out the image is in the infrared, not optical. Nonetheless, it is a remarkable image, and will make possible some interesting spectroscopic research.
The Higgs boson has once again been confirmed with new data, and the scientists are disappointed!
Alas, most of the Higgs results being presented this week at the Hadron Collider Physics symposium in Kyoto, Japan, have been well within our standard understanding. Physicists at ATLAS and CMS, the two largest particle detectors at the LHC, have about double the amount of data they did in July; this new data hasn’t dramatically changed the tentative conclusion that the LHC is seeing a plain-old Standard Model Higgs.
In other words, the theories are proving to be just about exactly right. No big surprises, which means no new mysteries to solve.
The Russians have repaired the severed cable that had cut off their communications with ISS and space.
The article notes that this failure was never a critical problem for ISS, pointing out that there was a back up communications route in the U.S., and that the astronauts on board are trained to work independent of the ground. Though both these points are true, what the article doesn’t mention is that much of the American half of ISS has been built to be run from the American mission control. It is not like Mir, which was designed to be as self-sufficient as possible. The result is that though a communications break in Russia is not really critical, a communications break in the U.S. might be.
The uncertainty of science: Scientists have found that the method used by the IPCC to measure droughts has significantly overestimated their number during the the past 60 years.
Although previous studies have suggested that droughts have increased over that 60-year period, the team’s new analysis hints that the increase in drought has been substantially overestimated. For instance, the new assessment technique found that between 1980 and 2008, the global area stricken by drought grew by approximately 0.08% per year—less than one-seventh the increase estimated by the temperature-only [IPCC method].
The IPCC and the global warming activists that run it had claimed that the warming climate was causing more droughts. It turns out that claim was essentially false. The number of droughts has apparently not gone up. Note that this fact is actually not a surprise to those who have read the IPCC reports carefully. Deep down past their simplistic summaries, the reports have consistently pointed out that these conclusions were very uncertain and could be found to be wrong.
Not surprisingly, the article above spends a lot of time trying to rationalize this new data, quoting one scientist who insists there is nothing to see here, move on! The trouble is that there is plenty to see here. Our knowledge of the climate remains very incomplete.
A planet without a star, only 100 light years away.
The accidental cutting of a communications cable has cut off Russia’s mission control from ISS and many of its satellites.
They have rerouted communications to ISS through mission control in Houston, so the station has not been seriously effected by this accident.
Engineers have switched Mars Odyssey to its backup navigation equipment in order to save the failing primary system.
Got money to invest? SpaceOps is looking for funds to build its private spacecraft modeled after the American Gemini capsule.
The idea is a good one, as the Gemini capsule was quite capable. Getting almost $100 million from crowd-sourcing however is going to be very tough.
The orbital debris from the exploded upper stage of the failed Proton launch in August now totals over 100 pieces.
Today I am heading to Atlanta, Georgia to give a lecture to Atlanta section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The subject: How the Russians overtook the United States in space.
Because of travel posting might be lighter than normal, though usually when I am in an airport posting is exactly what I do.
The competition heats up: China in 2013: another manned flight and an unmanned lunar landing.
The images don’t provide much information, and most of the article is empty speculation. Nonetheless, China is building something.
Amen! Obamacare is still vulnerable.
One way or the other, this monstrosity is going to crash. Better that we keep fighting to kill it now rather then wait for it to do endless harm and then fail. And since a majority of state governors are Republican, they shouldn’t back down but keep up the fight. Moreover, despite Romney’s loss the election was still close and Obamacare remains deeply unpopular. There is plenty of support for killing it. The Republicans should not back down.
The new America: The impending shrinkage in the healthcare industry because of Obamacare.
The day of reckoning looms: Harry Reid said Thursday that the Democrats intend to raise the debt limit another $2.4 trillion.
The new America: Wall Street stocks plummeted today for the second day in a row.
I wonder why. What happened two days ago that might have shaken the confidence of the business world?
Worlds without end: Astronomers have found a super-earth exoplanet inside its star’s habitable zone.
The planet is large enough that it might be more like Neptune, but if it should have any earth-sized moons they will definitely be capable of supporting life.
Update: The science paper included a wonderful graphic comparing the solar system of this star with that of our own solar system. I have posted this graphic below the fold. HD40307g is the potentially habitable planet.
» Read more
The new America: The maker of “Innocence of Muslims” has been sentenced to a year in prison for parole violation.
It might have been a crappy film and the filmmaker might have been a bum and a liar who did violate his parole. No matter. That is not really why he was arrested. In the new America he was arrested and sent to prison because he dared make a film that offended Muslims and that the Obama administration did not like.
In the new America don’t offend the government, or they will find a reason to jail you.
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot continues to shrink.
Sea Launch is considering moving its base of operations out of the United States.
Hm. The timing of this story, right after the election, is intriguing, is it not?
Boeing to cut 30 percent of its management ranks.
This could be good news for the company. If they do this right, they will reduce their costs without hurting their ability to produce. That they made this announcement today, the day after the election, and that the cuts mostly involve their defense work also suggests it is linked to sequestration, despite the company’s denial.
Five big stories the media will ‘discover’ after the election.
The day of reckoning looms: The federal government is expected to hit its debt ceiling before the end of the year.
The federal government is bankrupting the country, and it will take hard sacrifices to rein in that federal government. I fear that, regardless of how today’s election ends, neither party will be willing to propose those sacrifices, mostly because they will believe the voters are not willing either.
Big Brother arrives: A federal judge has approved the installation of surveillance cameras by the police — on private property without a warrant.
Let me repeat that: The judge said that the police have the right to enter private property, without a warrant, in order to secretly install surveillance cameras so that they can record whatever happens on that property.
Doesn’t that make you feel safe?
The article is focused on the destruction by the Eritrean dictatorship of the country’s scientific and medical communities. I see this act of barbarism as merely a symptom of that country’s overall descent into tyranny.
Sierra Nevada is moving its mini-shuttle, Dream Chaser, into its own facility.
This article isn’t really as positive as I’d like. For one, they haven’t even signed the lease for the building. Instead, it appears that the company is using this announcement, and the subsequent media coverage, to pressure the local city council to provide them subsidies. For another, the article mentions that drop tests of Dream Chaser will occur next spring, a significant delay from previous announcements. Both points make things appear far more tenuous than they should be.
