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You'll have heard that on October 19, 2014 Martians will be treated to a rare spectacle. A recently discovered comet named C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) will pass the red planet at a very close distance (at most some hundreds of thousands of kilometers; though the latest orbit determination leads to a distance of around 70,000 km). The comet might also hit Mars, and if it does, it will create quite a bang. The diameter of the comet's nucleus can be up to 50... Read more
You'll all have heard of Dennis Tito's idea about sending a manned mission to Mars that would take 500 days (well, 501, actually). Launched in January 2018, a small manned spacecraft would fly to Mars, skim past the red planet and use its gravity to send it on an Earth return trajectory. ... Read more
Tonight at 19:25 UTC the 50 meter asteroid 2012 DA14 will scrape past the Earth at less than 28,000 km distance. This morning, a smaller object entered the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, where it exploded at an altitude of some tens of km. The shock wave of its sonic boom and explosion caused damage and injuries, and it is likely that some debris also reached the surface. The fact that both events occur on the same day has led to speculation that they... Read more
A recent paper presented at the 63. International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Naples levels grave allegations against the European Space Agency (ESA). The paper claims that ESA acted with negligence, or even gross negligence, when continuing to operate its large Earth observation satellite Envisat beyond the year 2010. Envisat turned defunct in April 2012. The paper further alleges that this negligence could expose ESA to liability claims in case Envisat should cause any damage to other satellites. ... Read more
Well, almost. The Moon was full today, August 31, but the sky is cloudy, so I'm using a photograph I took yesterday night. ... Read more
This year's Campus Party, the world's largest electronic entertainment event is taking place in the terminal of the now-defunct Tempelhof Airport in Berlin. Ten thousand mostly young visitors from all over the world directly interact with numerous presenters, some famous and illustrious, like the writer Paolo Coelho, some distinctly less so, such as Yours Truly. ... Read more
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