Goodnight Moon.

Like this, but with a telescope (also with guitars)

Somehow I, of all people, have, through some strange twist of fate, never looked at the Moon through a telescope. Until tonight that is. I bought a telescope (a really nice one) from a thrift store today (for really cheap), and I'm pretty sure it has changed my life. I'm still in a daze right now from the thrill of it all. Stay tuned for some homebrew astrophotography once I figure things out and buy the adaptor for my camera.

Sad Sky is Sad

If you missed that large dark object above us called the 'night sky' or failed to see one of 1000 news articles on that large object in front of you called the 'Internets', then you may be surprised to learn that Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon joined forces tonight to let you know what the Universe thinks of us here on Earth. Here is a photo of said phenomena (taken and edited for best effect by yours truly) as well as an article by some rag called 'National Geographic' or some such if you would like to learn more.

ED. NOTE: Click on the image for a larger, and much more visible version of Sad Sky.

Toolstronauts

Who's the tool now, bitches?

NASA just isn't on point like they used to be. Don't get me wrong, we love NASA here at PS, but seriously guys, FIGURE IT OUT! Go back to the Moon or make some more sweet telescopes, but don't keep blowing it! Here is the latest stupid thing that happened in orbit: Some astronauts, while space walking, lost a tool bag which NASA estimated was worth $100,000. And by lost, I mean let float away into the inky void (or more likely into its fiery doom as gravity coerced it back to Earth). The astronauts swear that they will not lose the one remaining tool bag aboard the ISS. Whatever, dudes.

And while we are talking about losing crap in space, here is another dumb thing: they lost a spider. It must be ARACHNOBOT!!!!

In Space, Nobody Can Hear You Puke

Don't... touch me... I'm not... spinning...

There's a reason most of my posts are about Space: because it's fucking awesome. So imagine if you were in Space, on the ISS, or some sort of other equally dilapidated Chinese camper-trailer that they managed to get up there with a bunch of fireworks - what would make it more awesome? This Russian cosmonaut with a badass name - Salizhan Sharipov - has already answered this question for you! After 4 years of contemplation aboard the ISS (lol wut? they let people stay up there for 4 years?) he has come to an ingenious conclusion and has publicly stated that astronauts need booze in space in order to "improve our work, to better cope with the psychological stress". HAHAHA Yeah right dude, nice try, that's what I told the RD of my dorm freshman year. If you want to party in space, just come right out and say it, we were all thinking the same thing anyways. And for the record, Praise Science lends the full weight of its reknowned reputation and expert opinion in favor of this cause.

Ski Season Begins Early... on Mars.

Artist's rendition of me, starting today.

Pheonix, the little lander that could, has detected snow falling on Mars. Is this water-based snow or what? I don't know; who cares; It's snowing on fucking Mars, the home of the biggest mountain in the entire solar system, Olympus Mons!!!!!!!! I know this might disappoint you all, but I'm quitting my job as a full time JetMan to pursue another career: Inter-Planetary Shralping.

'When We Left Earth' Series Debuts

The When We Left Earth series began this week to rave reviews. The series features new High-Definition content from the NASA archives and covers the entire 50 year history of NASA. The next episode is Saturday on the Discovery Channel. I don't have the Discovery Channel, so if anyone wants to buy me the Blue-Ray disk set of the series, and a Blue-Ray player, I would be much obliged.

Kibo Module and the ISS

Astronauts of the Discovery Space Shuttle are currently installing the new Kibo Space Lab onto the International Space Station. The lab is about the size of a bus and the largest lab so far installed on the ISS. If you're interested, this slideshow tracks the construction of the ISS over the last decade.

The New Picture of our Galaxy

A new infrared survey of our galaxy, the Milky Way, has redefined its layout. Instead of the four main arms (Perseus Arm, Cygnus Arm, Scutum-Crux Arm (Get your mind out of the gutter), and the Carina and Sagittarius Arm), scientists now propose that there are actually only two main arms, with multiple smaller arms or 'spurs'. Our Sun and its solar system lie in the Orion Spur.

Currently in a Galaxy that's not very far away

Humans: Space Destroyers

Science Fiction Tales are full of Alien Races coming to destroy humanity. But what if we are in fact the destructive space faring species destroying other worlds. This Article from New Scientist postulates that microbes from Earth may be hitching a ride on our robotic explorers and contaminating alien worlds.

It's the Humans. Run!

Death of a star

Back in January, Astronomers detected a Supernova in the NGC 2770 Galaxy. But, you say, Astronomers know of tons of supernovas, why is this one special? Because Astronomers were actually were to observe this star as it went supernova. There is a great write-up of the event and its importance of at the Bad Astronomy Blog.

Once Upon a Time in Space

Humans have been going into space for almost 50 years now. That is awesome. Popular Mechanics has created a rad interactive timeline detailing the history of humanity's activities beyond Earth. Please view it, and take a moment to consider the great Science that we have deployed to conquer time and distance over the last 50 years. Hopefully the next 50 are equally as inspiring. Science be Praised!

Ask Praise Science, Episode 1: Time Zones on the Moon

Last week, loyal reader Elliot relayed to as an important Science-related question that a drunk homeless man asked him: How many timezones does the Moon have?

Wow. That is a fucking good question. Since Google yielded no useful results (seriously, if someone can find an decent answer to this question on the tubes, we'll give them 100 Science Points) we decided to institute what will hopefully become a regular feature on PS: Ask Praise Science, where you, the readers, ask us important (and hopefully non-Googleable) Science-related questions that we try our best to answer for you. So on that note, here is our best answer to Elliot's question:

How many timezones are on the Moon? Well, that depends on how you look at it. Once upon a time on Earth, Scientific men invented timezones so that uncivilized provincial train station employees would no longer make them miss their trans-continental trains to important Scientific events across the country by relying on primitive instruments and concepts such as sundials and solar time. What this means is basically we have a timezone for each hour of the day, so things like transportation and communications can easily be standardized.

So, the concept of a timezone itself is essentially contrived to satisfy a functional human requirement. Based on this, we have to ask whether or not the Moon actually NEEDS timezones. Near-future moon bases and missions will likely use a standardized Earth time for operational purposes, since the length of the lunar day (or a full lunar cycle) is approximately 655.75 hours long as opposed to Earth's 24 hours (for all you Pink Floyd fans, the dark side of the moon is myth; all parts of the moon are equally exposed to the sun at some point during a full lunar day).

Taking this into consideration, if the traditional notion of timezones is applied to the lunar day (one timezone per hour) that would mean that the Moon would probably have 655 or 656 timezones. If the 24 timezones of Earth were to be projected onto the moon, each time zone would be about 27.3 hours apart, which kind of defeats the purpose of timezones to begin with. Both of these options would most likely be totally counter-productive to any Earth-Moon synchronization efforts. I say just set universal Moon-time to Greenwich-Mean-Time or something like that, and call it good.

Hopefully that wasn't too long and that it satisfies you, Elliot. Readers, if you like "Ask Praise Science", please let us know and request some more topics in the comments section!

Fly My Name to the Moon

Attention Praise Science readers! NASA will send you to the moon for free! And by you, they mean your name.

Readers are like, Requesting Things

Last night, as I lay snuggling in my bed, I was startled awake by a cellular telephone call from none other than Jeff Collamore, aka the patron saint and inventor of Physics. He asked me a question that I should have known the answer to at the time, but alas, my sleepy mind was a jumbled zone. He said: "What is the difference between a meteor and an asteroid?" So here is the official Praise Science Response, and then some:

Meteor - The streak of light associated with space rocks and other interstellar debris as they pass through Earth's atmosphere
Meteoroid - The actual physical rock that creates a 'meteor' streak
Meteorite - Meteoroids that survive the descent through the atmosphere and physically land on the surface of Earth.
Asteroid - a medium-sized rocky object which orbits the Sun, typically smaller than a planet but larger than a meteoroid. Unlike comets, asteroids have no atmosphere. Their size can range from less than a mile to over 600 miles in diameter.
Comet - a celestial body mainly composed of frozen gas and dust which orbits the sun, characterized by an elliptical or parabolic orbit and a visible ion tail which points away from the sun.

These guys already knew all this.

Also, reader Elliot asked me a question this morning about time zones on the Moon. Stay tuned for more on that later...

Europe Messing Around With AI in Space; Someone Should Tell Them "Not Cool, Dude"

Hooray! Another space post! Someone needs to reign me in before this gets out of control.

Anyways, the European Space Agency is using artificial intelligence to assist its Mars Express orbiter as it searches for water and other stuff on Mars. Yes, you heard that right, ARTIFICIAL FUCKING INTELLIGENCE, as in Skynet or the Matrix or that crappy movie by Steven Spielberg. I'm very torn by this news, since I am equally as excited about exploring Mars as I am fucking horrified by the prospect of the inevitable robot apocalypse that this sort of behavior will surely bring about. And since time travel is now officially impossible, we can no longer count on a friendly Terminator coming back in time to protect us.

Please Science, don't let the Robopocalypse turn out like this!!!

Goodbye Titan 4, Hello SpaceX Falcon!

The Titan 4 launch platform in Cape Canaveral was demolished this past Sunday after 15 years of excellent use (the Titan 4 series was decommissioned in 2005, and only exploded 2 out of 38 launches). This was done in order to facilitate the construction of the new launch platform for the arguably cooler-named 'SpaceX Falcon' delivery vehicle. The company behind the Falcon, SpaceX, aims to "improve the cost and reliability of access to space by a factor of ten". Definitely a step in the right direction.

God speed, Titan 4!

Attention All Humans: Hurry to Space!!

Q: Why did the dinosaurs go extinct? A: Because they never went to Mars.

Note: Since today is a slow day on the tubes (it happens), I'm posting one of my favorite Space-related articles that was included in my 'Space: part x' note series on Facebook.

A scientist, with the badass name of J. Richard Gott III, has predicted with 95% SCIENTIFIC ACCURACY that humanity has at least 5,100 years left to exist. Beyond that, all bets are off, unless we get to Mars within the next 46 years. Why is he so sure? I'm not telling. Read the article and find out. It's very interesting, and definitely worth your time to read if you are a Space-oriented individual like myself.

p.s. If NYT asks you to log in, just sign up. It's free, easy, and this article is rad.

Space 2.0

NASA has announced that it has plans to begin building so-called 'tiny satellites' weighing between 11 and 110 pounds. Apparently these things will be able to 'network' with each other to form satellite 'constellations'. Pretty soon satellites will also be sending you event invitations and changing their statuses on a daily basis.

Happy Birthday NASA (almost)

NASA turns 50 on July 29, and although that is still a while off, Stephen Hawking spoke at George Washington University in honor of the occasion. Among the topics he spoke on was his opinion on the status of extraterrestrial life. He also gave some very prescient advice on why we should be wary of seeking out said aliens...

re: gchat fun

"If I knew the future was going to suck so much, I never would have signed up for the Robot Apocalypse"

Although I don't understand why Manuel picked this particular entry for gchat fun, it does bring up two important points: Wall-e DOES look like it will be rad, and that Silent Running is a true science fiction gem. It doesn't fall into the laser-filled space shootout trap that many so called "science fiction" stories inevitably suffer from. Instead it addresses potential issues, consequences, and emotions like loneliness and isolation that the future may bring. Plus it will make you cry harder than the last 10 minutes of Terminator 2. If you don't believe me, just ask Jeff Collamore.