George

ISON Update!

The Hubble Space Telescope snapped new photos of Comet ISON (“The Comet of the Century”) a few days ago. It’s still set to make a big appearance around Thanksgiving. Here’s a photo:

hubble-ison-photo-2

And here’s a nifty animation of Comet ISON’s projected trajectory around the Sun, seen from different angles. Don’t worry, it only looks like the comet is colliding with Mars and the Earth.

Fermi Paradox

Nice short piece on the Fermi Paradox in NYT, here. Named after physicist Enrico Fermi, who in 1950 pointed out that if there are billions of suns in our galaxy, and if even a tiny fraction of those suns have Earth-like planets, and if only a tiny fraction of those planets could develop human-like intelligent life, well, then our galaxy ought to be teeming with life, right? Fermi asks: Where is everybody?

Like, for example, this Orion Slave Girl:

Star_Trek_Orion_Slave_Girl_freecomputerdesktopwallpaper_1680

Mr. Moonlight

And just for fun, and because it may be the worst song The Beatles ever recorded, there’s this:

Galileo’s Moons

Galileo Galilei’s drawings of the Moon, as observed through his telescope. Previously, it was thought that the Moon was a perfectly smooth sphere.

Galileo's Moon Drawings

From Signor Galileo’s 1610 treatise “Sidereus Nuncius” (“Starry Messenger”). Thanks again to Stephan Ellcock on Facebook for the image.

NASA Wants to Lasso an Asteroid, Tow it Home

This news last week, as reported in, among other publications, Florida Today:
Plans are in the works for astronauts to capture an asteroid, tow it into orbit around the Moon, and then visit it for an asteroid-walk.

Here’s an artist’s rendition of the lassoing procedure:

lassoing an asteroid

Which of course puts one (or at least me) in mind of this, from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life:

George Lassos the Moon