Space news and the latest on the high-speed Internet disaster
Space News 1 - Apophis: Only You Can Save The Earth
On April 13, 2029 an asteroid called 99942 Apophis will pass the Earth at a distance of about 20,000 miles - that's a little closer than our TV satellites and close enough that it'll be naked-eye visible from Europe, Africa and western parts of Asia.
The close approach to Earth will change Apophis' orbit, and nobody can be certain how it'll be affected. Seven years later - on April 13, 2036 - there is a slight but nevertheless very real chance that it will hit the Earth.
Apophis is about 1,000 feet across and estimated to weigh around 50 million tons. That's nothing like the size of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs - that one was about six miles across - but it's still estimated that if it hits, the blast will be equivalent to 65,500 Hiroshimas.
The chance it'll hit may be very slim but the danger it poses if it does hit is enough that some serious scientists, such as Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, are urging that we need a plan to deal with it. I agree with this.
At this point in time the priority is to "tag" Apophis so that we can track its position precisely - that'll provide the data needed to get a much better idea of whether or not it'll hit in 2036 (or later - there are other close approaches in 2037 and 2054). If we find out that Apophis is going to hit, tagging will also provide vital position data that can be used in any attempts to deflect or even destroy it.
The Planetary Society just announced a $50,000 competition that anyone can enter. All you have to do is come up with an idea for how to tag Apophis. It's not as easy as it may sound; Apophis could be a big ball of gravel or small rocks, rather like Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, in which case fixing something to the surface won't work. We need ideas, hence the competition. The competition details aren't up on the web page yet but keep watching.
Space News 2 - We May Have More Planets Tomorrow
Tomorrow - August 24 - the International Astronomical Union will be voting on a new proposed definition of the word Planet. Depending on how it goes, the number of planets in our solar system may officially increase from nine to twelve sometime in the next thirty-six hours.
The way the definition stood a few days ago, the three new members of the planet family would be Ceres (currently considered an asteroid), Charon (Pluto's largest moon) and 2003 UB313 - a trans-Neptunian object larger than Pluto, the discovery of which was the main factor in deciding that we needed a proper definition of what a Planet is.
More news on this tomorrow when the result of the vote is out. However it goes, it's a fair bet that The Nine Planets website will need to be renamed.
Update: the proposal is still being reworked as discussions continue. At this time it looks like we may actually have less planets after tomorrow, as Pluto and Ceres may be reclassified as "dwarf planets". More tomorrow.
Space News 3 - The Moon Landing Tapes: they're not lost, we just don't know where they are
We've all seen the really poor quality video of Neil Armstrong stepping down onto the Moon's surface in 1969, and some of us have always wondered why the quality was so bad. It turns out that the original recordings were far better, and what we saw on TV was the way it was because it had to be filtered and converted to TV format on the fly.
So, what happened to the original high-quality recordings? It turns out they're sort-of missing. You see, with all that was going on in the space program at that time, the recordings were packed up and sent to Goddard Flight Center. Later they were sent to the National Archives, then in the 1970s they went back to Goddard. And that, presumably, is where they still are - except that the guys there have been looking for them for over a year without any success. NASA is fairly sure that the tapes are still there, and they're still looking, but time is running out because Goddard is closing down in a few weeks - and they have the only remaining equipment that can read the original tape format.
Let's hope the tapes are found and they're still readable. I for one look forward to seeing that video digitized, cleaned up and made available on DVD.
The high-speed Internet story - Latest
The Cable Dude came to the house last night and figured out the problem, which is that the signal goes through no less than three splitters between the point where it enters the house and the connection on the back of the modem, suffering a loss of about 11dB on the way.
To fix it, the cable company will be installing a dedicated line for the modem early next week. We'll just have to make do as-is until then, but thinking about it I don't have a problem with that - after all, even with these dropouts it's still better than the old 56k modem.
On April 13, 2029 an asteroid called 99942 Apophis will pass the Earth at a distance of about 20,000 miles - that's a little closer than our TV satellites and close enough that it'll be naked-eye visible from Europe, Africa and western parts of Asia.
The close approach to Earth will change Apophis' orbit, and nobody can be certain how it'll be affected. Seven years later - on April 13, 2036 - there is a slight but nevertheless very real chance that it will hit the Earth.
Apophis is about 1,000 feet across and estimated to weigh around 50 million tons. That's nothing like the size of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs - that one was about six miles across - but it's still estimated that if it hits, the blast will be equivalent to 65,500 Hiroshimas.
The chance it'll hit may be very slim but the danger it poses if it does hit is enough that some serious scientists, such as Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, are urging that we need a plan to deal with it. I agree with this.
At this point in time the priority is to "tag" Apophis so that we can track its position precisely - that'll provide the data needed to get a much better idea of whether or not it'll hit in 2036 (or later - there are other close approaches in 2037 and 2054). If we find out that Apophis is going to hit, tagging will also provide vital position data that can be used in any attempts to deflect or even destroy it.
The Planetary Society just announced a $50,000 competition that anyone can enter. All you have to do is come up with an idea for how to tag Apophis. It's not as easy as it may sound; Apophis could be a big ball of gravel or small rocks, rather like Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, in which case fixing something to the surface won't work. We need ideas, hence the competition. The competition details aren't up on the web page yet but keep watching.
Space News 2 - We May Have More Planets Tomorrow
Tomorrow - August 24 - the International Astronomical Union will be voting on a new proposed definition of the word Planet. Depending on how it goes, the number of planets in our solar system may officially increase from nine to twelve sometime in the next thirty-six hours.
The way the definition stood a few days ago, the three new members of the planet family would be Ceres (currently considered an asteroid), Charon (Pluto's largest moon) and 2003 UB313 - a trans-Neptunian object larger than Pluto, the discovery of which was the main factor in deciding that we needed a proper definition of what a Planet is.
More news on this tomorrow when the result of the vote is out. However it goes, it's a fair bet that The Nine Planets website will need to be renamed.
Update: the proposal is still being reworked as discussions continue. At this time it looks like we may actually have less planets after tomorrow, as Pluto and Ceres may be reclassified as "dwarf planets". More tomorrow.
Space News 3 - The Moon Landing Tapes: they're not lost, we just don't know where they are
We've all seen the really poor quality video of Neil Armstrong stepping down onto the Moon's surface in 1969, and some of us have always wondered why the quality was so bad. It turns out that the original recordings were far better, and what we saw on TV was the way it was because it had to be filtered and converted to TV format on the fly.
So, what happened to the original high-quality recordings? It turns out they're sort-of missing. You see, with all that was going on in the space program at that time, the recordings were packed up and sent to Goddard Flight Center. Later they were sent to the National Archives, then in the 1970s they went back to Goddard. And that, presumably, is where they still are - except that the guys there have been looking for them for over a year without any success. NASA is fairly sure that the tapes are still there, and they're still looking, but time is running out because Goddard is closing down in a few weeks - and they have the only remaining equipment that can read the original tape format.
Let's hope the tapes are found and they're still readable. I for one look forward to seeing that video digitized, cleaned up and made available on DVD.
The high-speed Internet story - Latest
The Cable Dude came to the house last night and figured out the problem, which is that the signal goes through no less than three splitters between the point where it enters the house and the connection on the back of the modem, suffering a loss of about 11dB on the way.
To fix it, the cable company will be installing a dedicated line for the modem early next week. We'll just have to make do as-is until then, but thinking about it I don't have a problem with that - after all, even with these dropouts it's still better than the old 56k modem.
posted by Pete Ford at
12:28 PM
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