Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Sweet! Astronomers have detected molecules of sugar in the gas cloud surrounding a young binary star about 400 light years away.
NASA successfully completed another test of the parachute system for the Orion capsule on Tuesday.
An analysis of the survey data produced by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has uncovered literally millions of black hole candidates as well as a thousand of the brightest galaxies yet found.
The journey begins: Curiosity heads east 52 feet on the first leg of its exploration of Gale Crater.
A scale that can measure the weight of a single molecule.
What every home needs: A home-built fire-breathing flying dragon.
Go for it: Brandon Raub, the ex-Marine who was arrested and placed in a psychiatric ward because government officials didn’t like his Facebook postings, has announced he is suing the officials involved.
Planets without end: A solar system with two suns.
Kepler had previously found two planets orbiting two different binary stars. Here, the space telescope has found a binary star which has its own solar system of two planets.
Russian officials today announced that they will hold additional open cosmonaut recruitment drives, similar to the first held earlier this year, but with revisions.
It appears that the first drive was too short, only six weeks long, and did not get them as many applicants as they would have liked.
The competition heats up: Bigelow Aerospace has expanded its workforce as well doubled its factory space in response to the commercial contracts NASA recently awarded.
The company just opened a 185,000-square-foot addition, bringing its North Las Vegas plant up to about 350,000 square feet. It slashed its work force from 150 before the recession to 50 during the downturn; now, it’s looking to jump back up to 90 workers by Christmas. It’s hiring structural, mechanical and electrical engineers, as well as chemists, molecular biologists and workers who craft composite spacecraft parts.
Hat tip to Clark Lindsey at NewSpace Watch.
A special Iowahawk guest commentary by Barack Obama, stargazer-in-chief.
Neil’s passing gives all of us all pause to consider deeper questions. What does it mean for the future of space exploration? How proud would Neil have been to have a famous historic president refer to him by first name? And, most importantly, how did his death inspire that historic president to make ever more gigantic leaps for mankind?
The commentary might be satire written by Dave Burge, but the photo at the link is real, our President’s idea of honoring Neil Armstrong, with a photo of himself.
Not the same kind of photo legacy that Neil Armstrong left us.
The photo legacy of Neil Armstrong.
More here: “The missing man: There are no good pictures of Neil Armstrong on the Moon.”
Russian authorities struggle to contain the spread of African swine fever, a deadly virus that attacks pigs.
Russian authorities have incinerated tens of thousands of pigs and closed roads in the past few weeks, in an attempt to contain an emerging outbreak of African swine fever, a viral disease so lethal to the animals that it has been likened to Ebola. The spread of the disease comes with a heavy economic toll — last year, the Russian Federation lost 300,000 of the country’s 19 million pigs to swine fever, at an estimated cost of about 7.6 billion roubles (US$240 million).
Images from Curiosity have spotted some unexpected geology in Gale Crater.
A mosaic of high-definition images of Mount Sharp, the central peak dominating the landing site at Gale Crater, reveals tilted strata never before seen on Mars. The strata dip downwards at an angle close to that of the slope of the foothills of the 18,000-ft. tall mountain within which they are formed.
“The cool thing is the cameras have discovered something we were unaware of,” says mission chief scientist John Grotzinger. “This thing jumped out at us as being very different to what we expected,” he adds. Lying in the low-lying foothills beyond the dune field between the rover and the base of Mount Sharp, the inclined layers are a “spectacular feature” that could not be seen from orbit.
I think there are two reasons these tilted layers are puzzling scientists.
» Read more
We’ve only just begun: Two more evangelical colleges have joined the lawsuit against the Obama administrations’ contraceptive drug mandate under Obamacare.
Why a New York Times’ science columnist is bad for science.
Leftwing civility: An aide to Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren threatened and pushed a reporter this weekend, knocking his video camera to the ground.
I like the aide’s comment at the end of the video: “You’re messing with the wrong people.” Video below the fold.
» Read more
The competition heats up: Orbital Sciences gets ready for its first cargo mission to ISS.
The article gives details about the status of Cygnus and Antares, including mentioning that the first test of Antares is now set for late October.
Tomorrow, Monday, August 27 at 7:30 pm (Eastern), I will be joining David Livingston of the Space Show and the One Giant Leap Foundataion on the John Batchelor Show to talk about Neil Armstrong and his life and impact on history. If you can’t listen live, the podcast of the show will be available here one hour later.
Romney on Thursday: “My healthcare plan I put in place in my state has everyone insured.” Also, it is an “important accomplishment” that is “working, by and large, pretty well.”
Oy. Romney apparently still does not realize that Romneycare is as politically toxic as Obamacare, which probably explains why he has not been able to pull ahead of Obama in the polls. It also once again explains why Republicans looked long and hard for an alternative before finally settling on Romney.
Nonetheless, Romney has been very clear about his opinion of Obamacare itself. He considers it an improper overreach of the federal government and a bad law. He has also been very clear about what he will do about it once in office: Repeal it. For this reason, voters will eventually choose him, even if the moment they finally make that choice will be in the voting booth on election day.
R.I.P. Neil Armstrong.
One of the longest bridges in northern China collapsed on Friday, just nine months after it opened.
This was the sixth major bridge collapse in China since 2011, raising questions about — wait for it … government corruption!
The launch of two satellites to study the Van Allen radiation belts has been delayed again, this time due to weather.
The Russians are once again pushing for a year long mission on ISS, while NASA once again appears unenthusiastic.
Though from this article it appears that this time NASA officials are at least considering the idea.
The artist who sculpted a secret message in code — in plain view in the courtyard of CIA headquarters and unsolved now for twenty years — has now provided codebreakers a tiny clue to its solution.
The final mystery of Kryptos – it means “hidden” in Greek – is known as the “Everest of codes” among the thousands of cryptographers who are obsessed with deciphering it. … Three passages were unravelled in 1999. But the fourth and toughest remains defiantly obscure, to the surprise of nobody more than Jim Sanborn, the sculptor who created the enduring puzzle.
