Neil deGrasse Tyson Is Worried That Humans Are Too Stupid For Aliens

Ah! This is a must see: Dr deGrasse Tyson putting our modern technology in perspective - Just for giggles, in his scale, Voyager 1 would be about 280 miles away. Assuming Dr. Tyson sits in his office at the Hayden Planetarium, that is past Boston, MA. I also love the part where he explains why Dr. Stephen Hawking is a bit concerned by aliens landing on earth.







There is also the possibility that the first aliens to visit us will be either microbes or viruses, something small and that will sustain the cold and vacuum of space for a long time without dying.

New Form of Spacecraft Propulsion Proposed For Uranus Mission | MIT Technology Review

Interesting concept: an electric sail for spacecraft and probes - New Form of Spacecraft Propulsion Proposed For Uranus Mission | MIT Technology Review

Panorama From Curiosity Rover Brings Mars to Your Computer Screen

The only word to describe this is "wow." A panorama of Mars.

Enjoy the panorama!

Largest structure challenges Einstein's smooth cosmos

Slowes and his team have discovered a group of quasars that challenges Einstein's Large Scale Homogeneity Principle. This principle is simply the expression that, at large scales, the universe looks homogeneous.

However, going through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, he and his team found a group of quasars that is above the limit generally admitted to be "large scale", meaning that in order to maintain the principle as valid, its lower limit has to be increased dramatically.  Which also means that Astrophysics just got a bit harder ;-)

Here is the link to the article in the New Scientist and the published paper on Arxiv.

California Meteor Broke Speed Record for Atmospheric Entry

That meteor would have got a huge ticket for its high speed upon entry.

Happy Anniversary Mr. Schirra!

50 years ago, Walter M. Schirra lifted into orbit for 6 revolutions.

Neil Armstrong is dead :-(

A very sad news: Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died today. He will be remembered for his famous "A small step for man, a giant's leap for mankind".