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space

SPACE: Does Alien Life Exist?

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UFO - Pixabay

Last month, The New York Times published an article describing a secret government program investigating reports by military pilots of unidentified flying objects they encountered in the course of their daily duties. The media was awash with stories of flying saucers and extraterrestrial encounters, with scientists downplaying the likelihood of alien visitation and UFO enthusiasts exclaiming their excitement. While I sit very firmly on the side that believes these reports more likely have an unremarkable and terrestrial explanation, whether alien life exists is a very real and credible scientific question. What is the possibility that life — and even intelligent … Read more

SPACE: Pentagon Confirms Secret Search For UFOs

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The Pentagon, at the direction of Congress, a decade ago quietly set up a multi-million dollar program to investigate what are popularly known as unidentified flying objects—UFOs. The “unidentified aerial phenomena” claimed to have been seen by pilots and other military personnel appeared vastly more advanced than those in American or foreign arsenals. In some cases they maneuvered so unusually and so fast that they seemed to defy the laws of physics, according to multiple sources directly involved in or briefed on the effort and a review of unclassified Defense Department and congressional documents. The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, … Read more

Now You Too Can Hear the Golden Record – On Vinyl

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NASA Golden Record

Earthlings can now order their very own vinyl version of the “Voyager Golden Record,” which NASA sent into deep space decades ago in an attempt to reach intelligent life. The soundtrack has been available on SoundCloud and came out as a CD in 1992. Now, Ozma Records is preparing to release it on vinyl as early as January through distributor Light in the Attic, reports The Washington Post. It’s already available for preorder. Two sets of the phonograph album — with images and instructions in symbolic language — were rocketed into space in 1977, one aboard the Voyager 1 and … Read more

This is the First Cat in Space

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Félicette

Everyone knows the names of famous astronauts like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and some may even remember Laika, the first dog in space. However, the first cat in space has been largely forgotten by history. This pioneering pussycat was named ”Félicette,” and she was shot into space 54 years ago this week from a base in the Sahara desert by the Centre National d’études Spatiales (CNES), the French version of NASA. Félicette was picked out of a group of about a dozen cats because she had the best reaction to a series of tests that included a spin in a … Read more

SPACE: NASA Forgets About Lesbians

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Mars - pixabay

NASA apparently floated sending an all-female crew to Mars – and people have pointed out the slight sapphic issue with that plan. Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut to go to space, made the revelation during at an event during the New Scientist Live festival in London. Sharman, who was part of private British space programme Project Juno, said the report highlighted concerns about male and female astronauts having sex during the 18-month trip to Mars. Because of this, NASA allegedly said that all-female crews would be best because women work better as a team. NASA proposed this idea because women were … Read more

TECH: Ride the BFR From New York to Los Angeles in 25 Minutes

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BFR

Elon Musk laid out a set of ambitious plans on Thursday for a vehicle he has dubbed the Big Fucking Rocket (BFR). The massive spaceship will not only ferry people around on Earth in minuscule amounts of time compared to modern jet travel. It will one day in the not too distant future (2024, to be exact) ferry humans to a colony on Mars. Wired reports: In a promotional video, SpaceX says the BFR will be able to fly into the planet’s orbit and travel with a maximum speed of 27,000kmh. It says a flight from Hong Kong to Singapore … Read more

SPACE: Cassini Spacecraft Takes Its Swan Dive

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Cassini

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is shown heading for the gap between Saturn and its rings during one of 22 such dives of the mission’s finale in this illustration. The spacecraft made a final plunge into the planet’s atmosphere today. By Andy Towle – Full Story at Towleroad.com

SPACE: The Sun’s a Little Crazy Right Now

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solar flares - NASA

A series of rapid-fire solar flares is providing the first chance to test a new theory of why the sun releases its biggest outbursts when its activity is ramping down. Migrating bands of magnetism that meet at the sun’s equator may cause the biggest flares, even as the sun is going to sleep. A single complex sunspot called Active Region 2673 emitted seven bright flares — powerful bursts of radiation triggered by magnetic activity — from September 4 to September 10. Four were X-class solar flares, the most intense kind. The strongest, released at 8:02 a.m. EDT on September 6, … Read more

SPACE: Is There Someone Out There?

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signals from space

An initiative set up to find signs of intelligent life in the universe has detected a series of mysterious radio signals from a dwarf galaxy 3 billion light years away. Scientists with Breakthrough Listen say they’ve found 15 fast radio bursts, or FRBs, from a deep space “repeater” called FRB 121102. The numbers indicate when the first signal was discovered, on Nov. 2, 2012. While a few other FRBs have been detected, what makes this one unique is that it was heard again in 2015, and its location pinpointed a year later. See the Full Story at The Huffington Post

SPACE: Large Asteroid To Make Near-Earth Pass On Friday

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Asteroid - pixabay

Hold your breath: A large rock will fly past Earth on Sept. 1, 2017, at a distance of 4.4 million miles (7 million kilometers). Asteroid 3122 Florence, named after modern nursing founder Florence Nightingale, is the largest object to make a close-encounter since NASA began tracking near-Earth objects (NEO) in the 1990s. “While many known asteroids have passed by closer to Earth than Florence will on Sept. 1, all of those were estimated to be smaller,” said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Florence is estimated … Read more