It’s Official: “2012″ Sucked
Just in case you didn’t know, Roland Emmerich’s 2012 wasn’t the best of movies. Actually, from a science perspective, it sucked. It sucked in so many ways that I can’t be bothered to list why it...
View ArticleThe Day Aliens Invaded… [UPDATE]
UPDATE (Mon. 9:50 a.m. PT): Shocker. NASA refutes Hoover’s claims. Apparently his paper failed peer review for publication in the International Journal of Astrobiology… in 2007! More here: “NASA...
View ArticleOn Gingrich’s Moon Base Plan (and Why It Won’t Happen)
A base on the Moon? That would be awesome! But it can't be done for profit... yet (ESA). For more on this topic, you can listen to me chat with BBC 5live’s Dotun Adebayo (from “Up All Night” on Jan. 28...
View ArticlePut the Weather Balloon Back In The Box
Really? Sushi and beer "in space"? What's next? What the hell is going on with this weather balloon craze? It seems that everything from beer to sushi is being sent “into space” these days. There’s...
View ArticleSpaceX’s Dragon: The Dawn of a New Age for Space Exploration?
SpaceX's Falcon 9 carries the Dragon capsule to orbit (NASA TV) This morning, at 12:44 a.m. PDT, a rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40. It wasn’t the...
View ArticleLife: Not So Grim On The Galactic Rim?
M80 — an old globular cluster in the Milky Way — is full of metal-poor stars. Do they still have exoplanetary potential? (NASA) The galaxy may be brimming with habitable small worlds and many older...
View ArticleAfter Historic Discovery, Higgs Flies Economy
Real superstars: Peter Higgs congratulates ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti after she announced her collaboration’s discovery of a Higgs-like particle. Credit: CERN/ATLAS/Getty I am...
View ArticleMars Rover Curiosity is a Steampunk Creation
The left eye of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the camera on the rover’s arm, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), during the 30th sol of the rover’s mission...
View ArticleIntercontinental Travel Is Impossible…
(Imagine an island long, long ago, in an ocean far, far away…) “Intercontinental travel will never happen. The nearest shore is thousands of miles away. This means that even if we had the ability to...
View ArticleBig AGU Announcements: Curiosity Team May Not, But What About Voyager 1?...
A view from Curiosity’s front hazcam of the sandy Mars soil the rover scooped samples of for analysis by its SAM instrument (NASA/JPL-Caltech) UPDATE 2: So it turns out that Curiosity does have data to...
View ArticleThe White House Approves NASA’s ‘James Bond’ Asteroid Bagging Mission
Screengrab from the NASA “Asteroid Retrieval and Utilization Mission” animation (NASA LaRC/JSC) It’s been a looooong time since I last updated Astroengine.com, so first off, apologies for that. But...
View ArticleIain M. Banks, Science Fiction Genius, Dies at 59
Iain M. Banks It’s always hard when a person who inspired you in life dies. And for me, there are only a handful of people beyond my circles of family and friends who have, in some way, shaped my...
View ArticleRepeating “Fast Radio Bursts” Detected in Another Galaxy — Probably Not...
The Green Bank Radio Telescope (NRAO) A radio astronomy project intended to find signals from intelligent aliens has announced the intriguing detections of “repeating” fast radio bursts (FRBs) from a...
View ArticleCassini’s Legacy: Enigmatic Enceladus Will Inspire Us for Generations to Come
NASA’s Cassini mission captured this view of icy moon Enceladus on March 29, 2017. The crescent is lit by the sun, but the near-side green hue is reflected sunlight bouncing off Saturn’s atmosphere —...
View ArticleMy Struggle With Math, Why It Matters, and Why It Really Doesn’t
“You know what it means? You’re an artist, not a physicist.” Twenty years later, those words still haunt me. I was actually a bit surprised to remember this quote, but after a conversation with...
View ArticleHome Is Where the Mars Rover Is
Now that Opportunity’s mission is complete, many wistfully lament about “bringing our robot home.” There’s just one problem: it’s already home. A rendering of Opportunity on Mars [NASA/JPL-Caltech] I...
View ArticleHumanity Gains Another Foothold in Space
The private spaceflight company SpaceX has done it again, and this latest achievement is an important one. Crew Dragon berthed with the space station at 2:51 a.m. PT [NASA] We space writers are very...
View ArticleTen Years Later: The Cosmos Remembers Brian the Bat
Gather ’round the campfire kids, it’s time to tell the sad story of a brave bat named Brian. On March 15, 2009, we watched in terror as Brian, a Florida free-tailed bat, stubbornly remained attached...
View ArticleTo Explore Space, Earth’s Environment Will Take One for the Team
The space exploration industry is booming, which is an encouraging sign for our future. But some pundits are arguing that rocket launches will exacerbate global warming. A time-lapse photograph of a...
View ArticleWhen a Climate Emergency Turns Into a Human Catastrophe
There’s nothing subtle about this deadly consequence of global warming. [Pexels] While the recent record-breaking temperatures in Europe have grabbed the headlines, it’s worth remembering that such...
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