Meteors, Metoroids, and Metorites!

With the recent news of killer asteroids exploding over Russia and slipping inbetween communication satellites, I have heard a lot of people misusing the terms to describe space junk. There are many different classifications of space debris.

A meteoroid is a piece of space debris that could range from the size of a grain of sand to the size of a large boulder. Any type of space debris larger then a meteroid is considered an asteroid. Once a meteroid enters the Earths atmosphere it becomes a meteor, or shooting star. As the rock starts to break off and get hotter and hotter, the dust that breaks off leaves a bright streak of light in the sky. If the meteor becomes bright enough, it will be classified as a fireball, a meteor that has a magnitude of 3 or more. If the meteor survives the extreme temperatures it gains during entry and the impact with the surface, it becomes a meteorite.

Photographs of todays eclipse

Check out this link! I didn't get a chance to view the eclipse myself but it looks like some people caught a ton of awesome pictures!

Solar Eclipse, May 20th 2012

Just to give everyone in Eastern Asia and Western North America a heads up on the up and coming solar eclipse!

 

Wikipedia Article

Unfortunately I love on the Eastern side of the USA and from the looks of the map I will just barely miss it... =(

Why even bother with space travel?

There's a reoccurring question that keeps popping up in pro-space travel videos and blogs. Why waste money on mining asteroids and space exploration when we can't even manage our own resources here on Earth?

Exploration is the root of human nature. Ever since the stone age we have seen the nearest horizon and felt the need to cross it. Whether it was the mountain ridge on the other side of the plains or the urge to see what is on the other side of the great seas, humans have always pushed exploration to the next level.

Could you imagine if Columbus had never braved the edge of the world and found the Americas? It's not a matter of managing the resources we currently have. It's a matter of pushing exploration to the next edge. It's a matter of breaking the bonds of our current technology. It's a matter of pushing the human ingenuity to its limits.

There are many reasons why we should pursue space travel and it's many resources. Resources, real estate, water. These are all things that we will eventually run out of here on earth but are in a near infinite supply in the starry heavens. All we have to do is reach up and take them.

Are we alone in the universe?

The age old question. Are there aliens out there, in the vast nothingness of space? Well apparently that is a very hard question to answer.

Back in 1950, a physicist named Enrico Fermi posed this question. If there are even a handful extraterrestrial civilizations the Milky Way galaxy that are capable of interstellar travel, where are they? Where is the evidence? No spacecrafts. No Space probes. Nothing...

The biggest problem that I see with this paradox is that the Universe is HUGE! Even our on galaxy is over 100,000 light years across. Now a distance that large is very hard to comprehend. Let's say that we send a a message via radio waves that are traveling at the speed of light towards the nearest star to our sun. It would take just over 4 years to get there. So if we shot a signal to the other side of the galaxy it would take over a little over 200,000 years to get there.

I believe that life is out there. Somewhere. Unfortunately, unless we can find a way to travel faster then the speed of light, the chances of us running into one of these civilizations are next to none.

Scale of the Universe

Check this out!

This is AMAZING! I've never felt so small as I did when I was scrolling out to the distant reaches of the universe...

Super Moon

In case you guys missed out on the super moon last night, check out these cool pictures that have been popping up all over the web!

This is the largest full moon of the year because the moon is at it's closest rotation, which only happens once per year!