Starship Asterisk*

I know this is belated, but it's so lovely to see an (English...) scientist being so passionate! :D http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lQxUoXwsiSI As was said in the Huffington Post Her reaction is a priceless example of the importance of the mission to those who worked on it. There is a BBC video interv...

Jim Kaler writes in Skylights The next Skylights will appear Friday, December 19. It's yet another two-weeker and it's jammed full of good stuff... The star of the two weeks is KAPPA PEG (Kappa Pegasi). ... a nifty very close triple that requires interferometry to resolve and study... M

For background about Planck 2014 PLANCK 2014 - The microwave sky in temperature and polarization http://www.cieffeerre.it/Eventi/eventi-in-programmazione-nel-2014/planck-2014-the-microwave-sky-in-temperature-and-polarization/PlanckMoonsV3TektonsitoUnife.jpg/@@images/36885e4a-1cda-4f44-b5e1-482419ac...

There is a very good blog post in the Planetary Society blog on New Horizons here: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/12031700-the-new-horizons-science.html Also, the Planetary Society are hosting a live YouTube event on the 6 December for the waking up of New Horizons. http://www....

http://csirouniverseblog.com/2014/12/03/hayabusa-2-the-sequel/ has more info about the original Hayabusa, for those who, like me, were not aware of the drama at the time. The return to Earth in June 2010 of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa spacecraft over the South Australia...

Hayabusa 2 is about to launch! Posted by Emily Lakdawalla 2014/12/02 16:54 UTC Hayabusa 2's H-IIA rocket has just reached its launchpad! Japan's next asteroid sample return mission was supposed to launch this weekend, but weather has not been good at the Tanegashima launch site and it has been dela...

Rosetta blog:THE QUEST FOR ORGANIC MOLECULES ON THE SURFACE OF 67P/C-G This blog post is contributed by Ian Wright and his colleagues from the Ptolemy team For scientists engaged with large complex projects like Rosetta, there is always a delightful period early on when, unbound by practical realit...

Thanks; and here is today's Pluto Picture Of The Day; I thought it was a great artist's conception! It's great! And I'd never even heard of the Pluto Picture of the Day before. (I've probably not been paying enough attention to this thread. Sorry.) The archive has some splendid and very informative...

In the video of the press conference, M. Jean-Jacques Dordain, the Director-General of the European Space Agency, looked mightily satisfied and spoke of there being €15 billion (~$18.5 billion) committed from member states over the next five years. (I'm assuming that this was meaning 1000 million= o...

Thank you, Orin. I'll post the exact URL here http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspective.php to make it easier to jump to it and then go to read the PI archive!

What happens to all the collected funds if the target is missed? From what I read at the Lunar Mission One fund raising site is that no monies are collected until and unless the monetary target is reached. The site's wording is This project will only be funded if at least £600,000 is pledged by Wed...

I've just come across this organisation and thought it worth knowing about: UNAWE: Inspiring every child with our wonderful cosmos Vision A child's early years are widely regarded to be the most important for children's development and education. The idea behind EU-UNAWE is to educate children aged...

CIOC:Comet Dust in Mars' Atmosphere: How Do the Orbiter Observations Relate to the Siding Spring Dust Models? November 9, 2014 - 00:01 — Tony Farnham NASA held a telecon/press conference on November 7 to announce the results from the MAVEN, Mars Express (MEX) and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) o...

This was posted by the author, a regular commentator, on the most recent Rosetta Blog https://youtube.com/watch?v=B81jrqaNOYs Tribute to Rosetta mission : Philae "Major Tom" 2014 Sylvain Verlaine Published on 19 Nov 2014 ENGLISH : In this great 80's song, replace "Earth" by "...

bystander wrote:Thanks, Margarita. When I posted this last night, the Southampton link wasn't up, so I posted the link to their news feed. It has now been replaced with the page link (not the AlphaGalileo one).

Do delete my post, bystander! Not serving a useful function now.

The self-correction mechanism is still present. The system attempts to improve itself. That is not typical for systems outside of science. That's an important point, Chris. And wouldn't it be good if such a self correcting mechanism were in place for, say, the press or politics? I'm just pondering ...

. Reviewing (good reviewing) takes a lot of time and is uncompensated; it can be hard to find reviewers. Yes, my husband and colleagues have always spoken of reviewing as one of life's onerous duties when one is a research scientist. You may find this amusing. THAT is hilarious! * M * So is this . ...

Margarita, are you familiar with Retraction Watch ? You might like it (in a "horrified-this-goes-on" kind of way!). http://retractionwatch.com/2014/11/25/publisher-discovers-50-papers-accepted-based-on-fake-peer-reviews/ Thanks, owlice. It is new to me and has my innocent little mind gawp...

This is the direct link to the Southampton University news release
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.as ... ureCode=en

I just thought this was interesting to know about, from the current edition of Nature . (Not paywalled) Publishing: The peer-review scam When a handful of authors were caught reviewing their own papers, it exposed weaknesses in modern publishing systems. Editors are trying to plug the holes. M

An editorial in today's Nature Moon on a stick A crowdfunded lunar mission might seem like a long shot — but there is no harm in trying. 26 November 2014 ... The mission itself would cost around US$1 billion. For starters, it needs $1 million by 17 December . As Nature went to press, it has more tha...

I'm puzzled. This part of our galaxy is the most puzzling area, and not just to us amateurs Margarita. There's a great deal of dust, foreground stars, etc. that has to be looked though or past over the 30,000 lys between us and the Milky's Ways core. Astronomers will no doubt be trying to solve thi...

American Geophysical Union 2014 Fall Meeting, San Francisco P41C-3942 Color Variegation on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Thursday, December 18, 2014 08:00 AM - 12:20 PM Moscone South Poster Hall The ESA Rosetta Mission entered active operations around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in early August 201...

The Nature article begins Crowdfunded Moon mission is serious about science Celebrity-backed lander aims to drill the lunar south pole within a decade. Elizabeth Gibney 19 November 2014 With government budgets for space exploration under strain, a UK consortium has embarked on a project to raise mon...

I think that this is a wonderful poster from NASA! Which I've only just found, tho it was published back in September. http://d1jqu7g1y74ds1.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/15333161962_656e582bd0_k-435x580.jpg info from Universe Today Featuring (from left to right): Terry Virts and Anton S...