Carnival Of The Space Geeks (Sweet 16)

Brian Wang of Advanced Nanotechnology hosted last weeks Carnival of Space, which this author was (unfortunately) unable to participate in.

Nevertheless, there were several interesting posts featured, with a few controversial posts entering this space geek roundup, such as:

• Louise Riofrio via A Babe in the Universe enlightens everyone Why Dark Energy Is Bad For Astronomy.


• Phil of Phil For Humanity gives his thoughts about terraforming Mars.


• Chris Reed from Bigelow Aerospace informs everyone on the companies plans to launch a human habitable space station.


• Mark Whittington of Curmudgeons Corner discusses the next 50 years of space exploration (a must read!).

But the best post thus far was by Paul Gilster of Centauri Dreams.

(Centauri Dreams) Flight International's story on this study reports that a nuclear interceptor could deflect a Near Earth Object (NEO) in the range of 100 to 500 meters if launched two years before impact. Larger NEOs might be deflected with a five year lead time. The idea here isn't to blast the asteroid into rubble, much of which would doubtless fall to Earth in any case, but to deflect it by a 'stand-off' detonation near the object. This could be handled in various ways depending on the sequence and the number of available warheads, and running the numbers shows it might just work.

A stand off blast toward an incoming asteroid could enable the human species to survive not only on Earth, but on both the Moon and Mars as well, as raining space rocks are fairly frequent upon those worlds, respectively.

If humanity can figure out more ways to deter these planetary killers from ever threatening our future home worlds, then colonizing our solar system will become a little less dangerous (at least for future generations).

Was Jesus Born In August, July Or December?

With the holidays around the corner (or just ending if you are Jewish) there seems to be a reflection of when Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem.

Despite tradition placing his birth in late December, some astronomers think Christ may have been born in the summer time--based on the star hailing his entrance into the world.

(MSNBC) The show started on the morning of June 12 in 3 B.C., when Venus could be sighted very close to Saturn in the eastern sky. Then there was a spectacular pairing of Venus and Jupiter on Aug. 12 in the constellation Leo, which ancient astrologers associated with the destiny of the Jews.

The crowning touch came on June 17, when Jupiter seemed to approach so close to Venus that, without binoculars, they would have looked like a single star.

Their is a brief mention of a star in the scriptures, which many see as a prophetic hint towards the coming Messiah.

Although his birth and life are often the cause of debate on our planet (as one can notice by glimpsing over at Cosmic Log's comment section) no one can deny that this man has probably influenced the world more than any other person (as our economy can at least tell you that).

Whether you are a theist, atheist, IDist or agnostic, I wish you all a Merry Christmas (or Happy Hanukkah, Festivus, etc.).

Note: It's not a space elevator, but it may be the worlds tallest Christmas tree (see this image for a reference).