not the 11th planet
Mark Whittington proposes naming the Kuiper Belt Object 2003EL61 as Persephone. He also calls it a planet, even though it is only 1/3 the mass of Pluto. Too bad it is probably too small to be considered a planet, and also too bad that there is already an asteroid named Persephone.
Update: Mark changed the link in his post; as I suspected, he meant to point to an article about 2003UB313. However, he still wants to call it Persephone.
Technorati Tags: Space
Saturday, July 30, 2005
early retirement?
early retirement?
The Washington Times, the San Antonio News-Express, and the Pasadena Star-News call for the permanent grounding of the shuttle fleet.
The San Fransisco Chronicle questions both the shuttles' future and that of the space station. The Daytona Beach News-Journal says that the shuttle program should not depend on luck. The Lincoln Journal Star says the US space program is out of date, pointing out that very few people would drive a 21 year old car (Discovery first flew in 1984).
These calls are only going to become louder and more persistent as it becomes clear to everyone that the shuttle design is severely flawed. It is time to stop beating a dead horse and ground the shuttle fleet, permanently.
Technorati Tags: NASA, Space Shuttle
The Washington Times, the San Antonio News-Express, and the Pasadena Star-News call for the permanent grounding of the shuttle fleet.
The San Fransisco Chronicle questions both the shuttles' future and that of the space station. The Daytona Beach News-Journal says that the shuttle program should not depend on luck. The Lincoln Journal Star says the US space program is out of date, pointing out that very few people would drive a 21 year old car (Discovery first flew in 1984).
These calls are only going to become louder and more persistent as it becomes clear to everyone that the shuttle design is severely flawed. It is time to stop beating a dead horse and ground the shuttle fleet, permanently.
Technorati Tags: NASA, Space Shuttle
Friday, July 29, 2005
tenth planet
tenth planet
2003UB313, a Kuiper Belt Object about 97AU from the sun, has been determined to be at least as big as Pluto (ie ~2600 km diameter; Pluto is about 2250 km), making it the tenth planet of our sun. This is considerably bigger than Quaoar, which had been the best previous candidate to be the tenth planet until its diameter was determined to be 1250 km, about the same size as Pluto's moon Charon. There are probably a handful of other similarly-sized Kuiper Belt Objects yet to be discovered.
Technorati Tags: Space
2003UB313, a Kuiper Belt Object about 97AU from the sun, has been determined to be at least as big as Pluto (ie ~2600 km diameter; Pluto is about 2250 km), making it the tenth planet of our sun. This is considerably bigger than Quaoar, which had been the best previous candidate to be the tenth planet until its diameter was determined to be 1250 km, about the same size as Pluto's moon Charon. There are probably a handful of other similarly-sized Kuiper Belt Objects yet to be discovered.
Technorati Tags: Space
civic holiday
civic holiday
It's that time of year again: the August Long Weekend. Officially it is called the "civic holiday" - nice generic term that means absolutely nothing. Apparently somebody with no imagination decided that Canadians needed a long weekend in August.
Now, I'm all for long weekends. The August long weekend has (for the last several years) become a tradition for my mom's side of the family; a reunion of sorts in Fairmont BC.
But, somehow "August Long Weekend" is decidedly unpoetic. I know, the Victoria Day weekend is more commonly known as "May long weekend", but the lack of imagination is disturbing... sort of reminds me of the Canadian Football League a decade or so back, with only 9 teams but two of them named "Roughriders" and "Rough Riders".
So, I am hereby proposing that we give the August Long Weekend a better name.
It should be a name that means something, a day to honour some individual who has helped to define Canada as a nation. I propose that the first Monday in August be renamed Terry Fox Day. His Marathon of Hope, besides being a huge inspiration to all Canadians, continues to raise money worldwide for cancer research through the annual Terry Fox Runs.
I don't know how to get this made official though. Maybe if enough Canadian bloggers support this, we can get some MPs on side and get the government to make it official. Let's make it happen.
Technorati Tags: Civic Holiday, Canada
It's that time of year again: the August Long Weekend. Officially it is called the "civic holiday" - nice generic term that means absolutely nothing. Apparently somebody with no imagination decided that Canadians needed a long weekend in August.
Now, I'm all for long weekends. The August long weekend has (for the last several years) become a tradition for my mom's side of the family; a reunion of sorts in Fairmont BC.
But, somehow "August Long Weekend" is decidedly unpoetic. I know, the Victoria Day weekend is more commonly known as "May long weekend", but the lack of imagination is disturbing... sort of reminds me of the Canadian Football League a decade or so back, with only 9 teams but two of them named "Roughriders" and "Rough Riders".
So, I am hereby proposing that we give the August Long Weekend a better name.
It should be a name that means something, a day to honour some individual who has helped to define Canada as a nation. I propose that the first Monday in August be renamed Terry Fox Day. His Marathon of Hope, besides being a huge inspiration to all Canadians, continues to raise money worldwide for cancer research through the annual Terry Fox Runs.
I don't know how to get this made official though. Maybe if enough Canadian bloggers support this, we can get some MPs on side and get the government to make it official. Let's make it happen.
Technorati Tags: Civic Holiday, Canada
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Alberta Blogs
Alberta Blogs
I have a new addition to my sidebar: the Albertan Blogroll. I was born there (in Viking, famous for the Sutter brothers), grew up there, and have lived there for most of my life. It's good to know that there are so many other Albertan bloggers out there. Some of them have already made it onto my main blogroll (hi, Candace); now though I have a few dozen more to read. Geez... I need to turn this blog thing into a regular job. Maybe Pyjamas Media will be up and running soon.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Alberta
I have a new addition to my sidebar: the Albertan Blogroll. I was born there (in Viking, famous for the Sutter brothers), grew up there, and have lived there for most of my life. It's good to know that there are so many other Albertan bloggers out there. Some of them have already made it onto my main blogroll (hi, Candace); now though I have a few dozen more to read. Geez... I need to turn this blog thing into a regular job. Maybe Pyjamas Media will be up and running soon.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Alberta
...or maybe not
...or maybe not
I said yesterday that the next Shuttle launch would be in September. Well, now that we know that large pieces of foam peeled off the external tank about two minutes after launch, Shuttle program manager Bill Parsons has said that the Shuttles will not launch again until the debris issue is understood. How long that will take is anyone's guess.
Technorati Tags: NASA, Space Shuttle
I said yesterday that the next Shuttle launch would be in September. Well, now that we know that large pieces of foam peeled off the external tank about two minutes after launch, Shuttle program manager Bill Parsons has said that the Shuttles will not launch again until the debris issue is understood. How long that will take is anyone's guess.
Technorati Tags: NASA, Space Shuttle
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
and awaaaaay we go
and awaaaaay we go
Well, after fighting with my digital camera for a sufficiently long time, I managed to actually wrestle some pictures out of it.
Because of heavy traffic, we weren't able to make it as close as I would have liked to the shuttle launch. We only got within about 15 miles of the launchpad when it blasted off.
These first 7 pictures were captured from NASA TV:
an astronaut gets the last of his gear on in the "white room" just outside Discovery's hatch
astronauts being strapped in
side view inside the cockpit
And now the launch; the shuttle was out of sight within a minute. We were too far away to hear much engine noise, but it was audible.
The next launch is scheduled for September. We'll get an earlier start next time, and hopefully I'll get some pictures of that launch from Cocoa Beach.
Technorati Tags: NASA, Space Shuttle, Discovery
Well, after fighting with my digital camera for a sufficiently long time, I managed to actually wrestle some pictures out of it.
Because of heavy traffic, we weren't able to make it as close as I would have liked to the shuttle launch. We only got within about 15 miles of the launchpad when it blasted off.
These first 7 pictures were captured from NASA TV:
an astronaut gets the last of his gear on in the "white room" just outside Discovery's hatch
astronauts being strapped in
side view inside the cockpit
And now the launch; the shuttle was out of sight within a minute. We were too far away to hear much engine noise, but it was audible.
The next launch is scheduled for September. We'll get an earlier start next time, and hopefully I'll get some pictures of that launch from Cocoa Beach.
Technorati Tags: NASA, Space Shuttle, Discovery
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