This seems to be making the viral rounds, but has since been picked up by the British tabloids The Telegraph and The Sun. A strange, tetrahedral shape (often described as a pyramid, but from what I’ve seen it is more a tetrahedron) seemingly just hovering and rotating in the skies over Moskow. Goa’uld coming for the Stargate, or just God rolling a d4?

“Billionaire Richard Branson’s spaceship was unveiled today. Imagine the delight of Star Trek fans to see that it was named the VSS Enterprise.

Please check out my blog entry on the subject at: http://dailyspace.blogspot.com/2009/12/star-trek-legacy-continues-this.html“ — Yes, this one at least is likely to actually reach space…

This post was submitted by TheThunderChild.

The zany scientists at Cool Cosmos have been making interesting yet educational videos based on information coming from the Spitzer Space Telescope. The latest is a mockumentary about making a show on colliding galaxies – featuring a rather smart Felicia Day having a difficult time with the way the subject is being presented, with a little (VERY little) help from Sean Astin. Read More to watch the video, then head over to IRrelevant astronomy for more of their videos.

(continue reading…)

NASA’s LCROSS mission, a “cheap” $79 million attempt to determine if there is enougt water on the moon for future use, successfully impacted a Centaur rocket into the moon’s surface at Cabeus Crater, and then followed it with the scientific platform to detect particles in the plume and then likewise impact the surface. However, it failed to produce the “spectacular” plume images everyone expected. It remains to be seen what the scientific data shows. More information is available at the LCROSS mission site. Hopefully we did not anger our lunar overlords…

David Martin writes “This is something I came across recently and though I would share it…

Enjoy!”

When the third SpaceX Falcon 1 launch vehicle failed to achieve orbit (due to failure of the second stage to separate from the first) it did so with the ashes of 208 people on board, including actor James Doohan (Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery “Scotty” Scott on Star Trek, as if I need to tell you) and former astronaut Gordon Cooper. I haven’t seen much data to know whether the rocket at least achieved “outer space” before it was (presumably) destroyed. It also had 3 satellites on board. Despite yet another failure (the Falcon 1 is 0-for-3), SpaceX founder Elon Musk vows to continue, with plans for the much bigger Falcon 9 pressing forward.

Better start rewriting those science books. The International Astronomer’s Union (IAU) have kicked Pluto out of the planetary club, in the process making our solar system consist of only eight planets.

I thought I heard that this had already been decided in Pluto’s favor, but tons of new articles abound about the upcoming decision of the IAU regarding what constitutes a planet – and therefore whether Pluto will lose status. Pluto has had questionable status for years when it was learned it was far smaller than believed – and the discovery several years ago of 2003 UB313 “Xena”, further out and slightly larger – is pressing the IAU to decide what really should be called a planet. Most likely Pluto will remain a “planet”, but be lumped into a different class of planet, such as “dwarf planet”. We probably won’t find out until the end of the month – a vote is scheduled on Aug. 24th.

Seems someone thinks a “warp drive” is within the realm of reality. The theory, first proposed by the late Burkhard Heim in the 1950s and would require a change in current physics models, involves a large magnetic field which in turn generates a gravity field that can be used for propulsion – and if large enough, slip the engine into another dimension. It seems to be totally unproven at this point, but the Z Machine at Sandia National Laboratories could possibly produce the magnetic fields to test the theory. Just be sure that when you slip in and out of those extra dimensions you don’t bring something back…

On the science fact side of things, recent research using the Spitzer Space Telescope peered into the Milky Way with an infrared eye, and discovered that our galaxy isn’t a pure spiral after all as long believed (and written in many text books), but rather it is a “barred” spiral, where a “bar” of stars passes through the core, and the arms of the spiral swirl off the bar instead of the traditional “whirlpool” with the core at the center. This isn’t unexpected news – its been suspected for several years.