Space

Folks at JPL are not taking the holiday weekend off.   Last night, the Phoenix landed on Mars, near the north pole.

There’s reportedly been no sign of the Martian Santa Claus yet, but I am wondering: if Mars is populated with little green men, wouldn’t that make Martian Santa’s elves more like gnomes?

Seriously, the mission plan as I understand it is:

1.  Find subsurface ice.
2. …
3. Profit!

OK, so I took liberty with that headline…but you’d think that Haliburton and other energy conglomerates would have to be salivating upon reading this NASA press release:

Saturn’s orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to new data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes.[...]

Cassini has mapped about 20 percent of Titan’s surface with radar. Several hundred lakes and seas have been observed, with each of several dozen estimated to contain more hydrocarbon liquid than Earth’s oil and gas reserves. The dark dunes that run along the equator contain a volume of organics several hundred times larger than Earth’s coal reserves.

Proven reserves of natural gas on Earth total 130 billion tons, enough to provide 300 times the amount of energy the entire United States uses annually for residential heating, cooling and lighting. Dozens of Titan’s lakes individually have the equivalent of at least this much energy in the form of methane and ethane.

I’m overcome by an image in my head of Dick Cheney singing, “It’s Rainin’ Oil…”

Seen at CNN:

The U.S. Navy will likely attempt to shoot down a faulty spy satellite Thursday, the day after the space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to land, two officials told CNN Monday.[...]

The Navy plans to fire at the satellite as it enters Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of about 150 miles.

Officials want the missile to hit the edge of the atmosphere to ensure debris re-enters and burns up quickly.

Via Slashdot, one can find a reference to a NOTAM issued for the middle of the Pacific, likely related to the shoot-down attempt.

I thought I saw some speculation that there was some super-secret reason for making the shot during the lunar eclipse that night, but a quick look at the chart and some time-zone conversions suggests (to my unscientific mind, at least) the relationship would be purely coincidental.

At any rate, if you want to get a chance to thumb your nose at the U.S. intelligence operations and look at the not-so-secret satellite for yourself, Heavens Above has information on USA 193’s decaying orbit and forecasted visibility for your location (be sure to set your location under the “Configuration” section first).

Seen in the Courant:

FEMA Warns: The Spy Is Falling!

The article is, of course, about the American spy satellite that is deorbiting out of control, plans by the feds to shoot it down (to cause it to deorbit with extreme prejudice, but hopefully in a more controlled manner)…and word that FEMA is rather energetically offering to help localities in the unlikely event that it falls in their jurisdiction.

Why, you too can snag a copy of what FEMA’s telling first responders to do if the satellite lands in their community.

I also appreciate the cynicism expressed in the Courant article by the South Windsor Chief of Police:

I’ll never hit Powerball, but the damn thing will hit my house.

It looks like we’re officially down to eight planets according to this Washington Post article :

Pluto has been demoted to a class of objects that has not yet been named. They would include celestial bodies orbiting a star that are large enough to pull themselves into a round shape but not large enough to clear their orbital paths of other objects. Pluto’s orbit is largely decided by the much larger Neptune, which is what disqualifies it from being a planet.

The article mentions that they’re looking for a name for this newly defined group of bodies, since the earlier-proposed “plutons” already has meaning in the realm of geology. Personally, I’d suggest “pseudoplanets”, or “zombies”, but somehow I suspect the international Astronomers’ guild will find a snazzier term.

The Guardian ran an article a few days ago on the threat posed to Earth by an asteroid named Apophis:

Scientists are monitoring the progress of a 390-metre wide asteroid discovered last year that is potentially on a collision course with the planet, and are imploring governments to decide on a strategy for dealing with it.[...]

In September, scientists at Strathclyde and Glasgow universities began computer simulations to work out the feasibility of changing the directions of asteroids on a collision course for Earth. In spring next year, there will be another opportunity for radar observations of Apophis that will help astronomers work out possible future orbits of the asteroid more accurately.

If, at that stage, they cannot rule out an impact with Earth in 2036, the next chance to make better observations will not be until 2013. Nasa has argued that a final decision on what to do about Apophis will have to be made at that stage.

Meanwhile, thousands of Sci Fi channel viewers are gearing up the campaign to the probe that goes up against this asteroid (should it be necessary) be named Teal’c.