Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Discovery’s launch is scrubbed again, this time due to another hydrogen leak. Next possible launch date is Monday, which means it is possible the launch will be delayed until early December.
In a paper posted tonight on the Los Alamos astro-ph website, an astronomer is proposing an early warning system for asteroid impact. Key quote from the abstract:
This system, dubbed “Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System” (ATLAS), comprises two observatories separated by about 100km that simultaneously scan the visible sky twice a night, and can be implemented immediately for relatively low cost. The sensitivity of ATLAS permits detection of 140m asteroids (100 Mton impact energy) three weeks before impact, and 50m asteroids a week before arrival. An ATLAS alarm, augmented by other observations, should result in a determination of impact location and time that is accurate to a few kilometers and a few seconds.
From the Huntsville Times: NASA could be in a budget limbo for months as a result of Tuesday’s election.
First close-up photos of Comet Hartley 2 reveal a space peanut.
What will the global warming scientists do? The new chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee calls for “strong oversight . . . in key areas including climate change, scientific integrity”.
Watch the Deep Impact flyby of Hartley 2 this instant (11:06 AM eastern)! The images are incredible. Update: The fly-by is over, but the live stream is still available (as of 11:30 am Eastern), showing some of the images taken. The comet itself is a peanut-shaped object about two miles long, with a jet of water coming out one end.
The first hints of the new space war over NASA: Florida Today calls for the new Congress to continue the NASA budget increases as authorized by the old Congress.
The Baikonur space port: a movie set.
The last launch of the space shuttle Discovery has been scrubbed today, this time because of weather. They will try again on Friday.
“Global climate disruption” takes another hit! Democrats who had voted for the Cap & Trade bill in 2009 were slaughtered in yesterday’s elections.
A do-it-yourself photo of the Sun that looks as good as any taken from space. And it’s art too!
An electrical problem on the space shuttle Discovery could delay tomorrow’s launch. Update: NASA has decided to definitely delay the launch until Thursday, at the earliest.
Democracy marches on! The American astronauts on ISS used a secure email system to vote early from space.
According to the manager of the world’s largest mutual fund, the U.S. dollar could lose 20% of its value in next few years, due to actions of the Federal Reserve.
NASA has completed a significant upgrade of its Deep Space communication system. These unheralded antennas and the engineers who maintain them make it possible for scientists to communicate with the far flung planetary probes in orbit around Venus, Mars, and Saturn, as well as the spacecraft visiting comets or traveling beyond the edge of the solar system.
The superEarth orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581 in its habitable zone does exist, according to a preprint paper published today on the Los Alamos astro-ph website.
A deluge of new regulations by the EPA threatens to reduce the American capacity to produce electricity by over seven percent.
Saving NASA from the Obama science fair. Key quote:
In place of a plan crafted by his predecessor which might have one day carried astronauts to Mars, Mr. Obama has proposed a science fair that literally goes nowhere.
Hasn’t someone already said this, at great length, more than a few times?
Link fixed! Sorry about that.
Feel the hate: Virginia Democrat supporters rip up Repulican signs on private property while screaming curses at conservative demonstrators.
Another Iceland volcano eruption pending? Iceland’s largest glacier, which sits atop the island’s largest volcano, Grimsvotn, began releasing large amounts of melt water on Thursday, October 25, indicating the volcano underneath might be heating up.
Anti-American propaganda from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Key quote:
In my thirty years as a professor in upper education, I have never witnessed nor participated in a more extremist, agenda-driven, revisionist conference, nearly devoid of rhetorical balance and historical context for the arguments presented.
And the Democrats wonder why they are losing this election? Fifty-eight percent of the population favors repeal of Obamacare, with a whopping 70 percent of independents wanting repeal.
The religion of “peace” strikes again! Islamic terrorists seized a Christian church in Baghdad during services. In the violence that followed, 58 people were killed and 78 wounded.
A poll warden, since dismissed, denied the right to vote on Friday to a policeman in full uniform because he refused to surrender his gun.
Gallup poll numbers suggest tomorrow’s Republican victory could be the largest in generations, and could exceed all predictions. Key quote:
It should be noted, however, that this year’s 15-point gap in favor of the Republican candidates among likely voters is unprecedented in Gallup polling and could result in the largest Republican margin in House voting in several generations. This means that seat projections have moved into uncharted territory, in which past relationships between the national two-party vote and the number of seats won may not be maintained. [emphasis mine]
The last launch of the space shuttle Discovery has been moved to Wednesday afternoon in order to give engineers time to test their repairs.
The commercial suborbital industry responds to the recent science paper that said that the soot from their rocket engines might cause to global warming.
The telescope that ate astronomy. My just finished Sky & Telescope article (expected out early next year) covers some of the same ground, describing how the cost overruns on the James Webb Space Telescope has badly damaged much of NASA’s space astronomy budget, for this and possibly the next two decades.
A “man-caused disaster” averted! Two packages from Yemen containing explosives and addressed to Chicago-area synagogues have been intercepted in transit.
