Elaine Meinel Supkis
The silly, petty stuff we earthlings do look pathetic from the point of view of Mother Nature who is playing billiards with us again, using large rocks that hurtle past our own particular rock. Just in time for the Hubble Space Telescope going blind! Of course, we need to spend all our money trying to make people on the other side of the planet give up their land or resources to us or else. Fools, we be.
Looks like this cosmic billiard ball is going to miss us, whoopee.
Joe Rao
SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist
SPACE.com Mon Jun 26, 1:00 PM ET
An asteroid possibly as large as a half-mile or more in diameter is rapidly approaching the Earth. There is no need for concern, for no collision is in the offing, but the space rock will make an exceptionally close approach to our planet early on Monday, July 3, passing just beyond the Moon's average distance from Earth.Astronomers will attempt to get a more accurate assessment of the asteroid's size by “pinging” it with radar.
*snip*
The latest calculations show that 2004 XP14 will pass closest to Earth at 04:25 UT on July 3 (12:25 a.m. EDT or 9:25 p.m. PDT on July 2). The asteroid's distance from Earth at that moment will be 268,624-miles (432,308 km), or just 1.1 times the Moon's average distance from Earth.
*snip*
On April 13, 2029, observers in Asia and North Africa will have a chance to see another asteroid, but without needing a telescope. Asteroid 99942 Apophis, about 1,000 feet (300 meters) wide, is expected to be visible to the naked eye as it passes within 20,000 miles (32,000 km). Astronomers say an asteroid that large comes that close about once every 1,500 years.
We should be wondering why so many asteroids are poppiing up in this particular timeframe. It creeps me out, ahem. Well, we live near the bottom of the sun's gravitational pool and so it is no surprise to see various objects that are slowly being devoured by our sun or broken into tiny bits when they hit various objects in our solar system, well, look at our moon!
We don't look like that only because the earth is a living entity and the plants, animals and waters all cover up nearly all traces of celestial collisions. Alas, the process of fixing things again often involves evolving a host of new lifeforms from the few survivors.
I would imagine mere humans would put aside their petty, silly differences and focus on what really matters. And this matters....a lot.
A great time for us to lose our 'eye in the sky', the Hubble Space Telescope!
By Brian Witte
Associated Press
Sunday, June 25, 2006; Page A11BALTIMORE, June 24 -- The main camera on the Hubble Space Telescope, which has revolutionized astronomy with its stunning pictures of the universe, has stopped working, an instrument specialist who works with the camera said Saturday.
This annoys the heck out of me. What on earth is the space shuttle for if not for this? I see the Space News sites are boasting about how we will be using this latest, belated space shuttle flight---studying fruit flies. Oh, like, wow.
Argh. So much for sane uses of our precious, last few space shuttles! They go up, go down and do nearly nothing in between except be a garbage scow? Why bother? On to Mars, everyone!
And things aren't working out so hot at NASA, are they?
By Robert Z. Pearlman
posted: 26 June 2006
05:36 pm ET
Less than a year after his first spaceflight and just one week shy of his helping to lead another from the ground, Charles Camarda has been fired from his position as Director, Engineering at NASA Johnson Space Center.In an e-mail written by Camarda and obtained by collectSPACE, the astronaut praised his colleagues' preparation for STS-121 and offered his regrets that he would "not be there with my team" when Discovery launches July 1.
Camarda did not fully explain what led to his request to be let go, but wrote that he "cannot accept the methods I believe are being used by this Center to select future leaders." In addition to personnel concerns, Camarda wrote that he refused to "abandon" his position on the STS-121 Mission Management Team and asked that if he was not allowed to work the mission, that "I would have to be fired from my position and I was."
Maybe we could hire some fruit flies. They know all about flying. They also have great eyesight, lots of lenses. Probably are smarter than the entire Bush administration. Heck, hand over Homeland Security and FEMA to them! Bzzzzz.
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