Chad’s News

The US space shuttles have self-destruct systems that can be activated from the ground during the first two minutes of flight. I guess this makes sense—if the shuttle were to unexpectedly divert its course and crash in a heavily populated area, mass death and destruction would ensue. Better to destroy the shuttle and its crew. The linked article has a picture of the actual self-destruct console.

Link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/…
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In an update to this Chad’s News post, here is the video of the astronaut throwing the boomerang while inside the international space station.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/…
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In an update to this Chad’s News article, it turns out that, yes, a boomerang does work in zero gravity. Although the boomerang he used is not your standard bent piece of wood.

Link #1: http://www.news.com.au/…

Link #2: http://www.newscientist.com/…

This is an interesting week for space events. On Wednesday night there will be a total Lunar eclipse. And the US military is planning to shoot down a defective spy satellite, possibly as early as Wednesday.

Update: The missile strike was successful.

This March an astronaut will test a boomerang inside the international space station, to see if it will work in zero gravity. What an interesting experiment—it’s almost as good as the hammer and feather drop on the moon.

Link: http://www.abc.net.au/…

The folks at Astronomy Picture of the Day have selected their top 10 pictures for the year of 2007.

Link: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/…
(via Neatorama)

China has announced they will launch a moon probe later this year. In addition, they plan to send a manned mission to the moon within the next 15 years. I’m glad the rest of the world is taking an interest in space.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…

I’ve always wondered just how accurate Hollywood is in its depiction of people exposed to the vacuum of space. The short answer is that you have about 10 seconds of lucid thought/action, and you can survive if pressurized oxygen is restored within about two minutes. And, no, you don’t explode.

Link: http://www.damninteresting.com/…

Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin hit a golf ball from the International Space Station. The whole spacewalk was plagued with problems, including his shot, which sliced to the right.

Link: http://www.physorg.com/…

This video shows astronauts experimenting with a sphere of freestanding water.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/…
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The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has formally defined what is and what is not a planet, and Pluto lost out. We now have 8 planets and 4 “dwarf planets” (of which Pluto is one). But only a small number of the IAU’s members actually voted, and there is a backlash in the works.

http://arstechnica.com/…

Scale models showing the relative sizes of the planets and the sun. It’s eye-opening when seen this way.

http://www.comagz.com/…