Science is Cool: Asteroid to Buzz Earth on Friday

Could the Mayans have been off by a few months? The asteroid that is going to buzz by the Earth on Friday is as long as a football field, and will pass much closer by than the moon does. It could even potentially take out a satellite. Which would be cool. Let's just hope our scientists are very, very accurate with their predictions. "Off by a hair" is a pretty big deal when you're dealing with things of this scale!

Image from source, Space.com

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Asteroid 2012 DA14's Friday Flyby: A Stargazer's Guide

Scientists and amateur observers alike are eagerly awaiting Friday's historic flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14, which will zoom inside Earth's ring of geosynchronous satellites. . .

Read more at: Space.com

Shooting Down Satellite Raises Many Issues

I've acknowledged my suspicions about the whole "shootin' down the satellite" story, with a nod to the "ain't it cool" factor. The Free Republic crowd, of course, was almost unanimous in the "It blowed up real good!" category (literally, I'm not exaggerating).

The aftermath leaves me wondering though; with this event cause a long term problem, maybe one that haunts us past the Bush Administration's allotted time. Do yourself a search on the Google, if you want a hint at what I'm talking about. China ain't happy. Moscow ain't happy. And there is skepticism about the video of the event as well. I think this will be with us for a while.

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Does the satellite shoot-down video really show a hit?



There really is no better source for information on the spy satellite shoot-down than my friend Noah Shachtman's Wired blog Danger Room.

Shachtman has been following the story for weeks, ever since the government determined that a dead imaging spy satellite -- part of one of the biggest Pentagon boondoggles in recent times -- would be crashing into the planet and needed to taken out with a cruise missile. . .

Read more at: Salon

Shooting Down a Satellite

Image from CBS News

I never, ever watch On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. I don't care about Joran Van Der Hoozits. If some sap named Peterson has offed his wife, I really don't need the gory details. But tonight, as I was channel surfing, I caught Greta saying that we were going to shoot down a satellite within the hour!

Now, I've talked about this before. I still have doubts about the whole idea, for a variety of reasons. Given my distrust of the Bush Administration, I'm immediately suspicious no matter what they're talking about. So when they talk about using our missile defense system to shoot down a faltering satellite, all sorts of things run through my head.

I already offered up my tinfoil hat theories, which you can read at the link above. But a wrinkle was added today, when they said we wouldn't be able to shoot it down because of inclement weather. Exsqueeze me? The missile defense system doesn't work in bad weather? Are you kidding me, man? Shhhh. . .nobody tell Kim Jong Il!

But apparently, the gig is back on. I'll update later, if the Hollywood-like event should actually take place. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: According to the Bush Administration FOX "News," the US Military was successful in their attempt to shoot down the satellite. Um, good. I guess.

George Bush to Shoot Down Satellite?

Image from source, CBS News

Wow. This story raises all kinds of emotions. Worry, skepticism, fear. . .and a little. . .um excitement. Sure, there's still that little boy in me that loves rockets and things that go boom. But, just hearing that George W. Bush gave the order to do this? Frankly it gives me a bit of a wiggins. I mean, has he ever done anything right on purpose?

And it does seem a little bit fishy to me. Tinfoil hat time:

Suppose they have a super-secret spy satellite, and it captures some real goodies. And now it's broken, and they can't get their data. If they let the satellite fall--and they say they don't know where it would go--it is conceivable that the secrets and the technology could survive. Now, the government might be concerned that the information would fall into enemy hands. Or, they might be worried that it would fall into anybody's hands, because the technology or the type of information collected is somehow unseemly.

So, what to do? I know, we'll say it's full of toxic, dangerous fuel! And Bush decides to play Superman ("My God, the people!"), and appear to be riding to our rescue, while in fact covering his own backside. Inconceivable? I wonder. . .

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U.S. To Shoot Down Spy Satellite

President Bush has ordered the Pentagon to use a Navy missile to attempt to destroy a broken U.S. spy satellite - and thereby minimize the risk to humans from its toxic fuel - by intercepting it just before it re-enters the atmosphere, officials said Thursday. . .

Read more at: CBS News