Space and Science News

A bit late. Anyway, I was just informed by my nephew that he'll be having a lan party in NJ in late June of this year. More details later in the year. Speaking of lan parties, I am planning on having one also in the summer. Who'd be interesting in coming to NJ/NY?

The story about Israel's role in Columbia's mission.

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In the final 30 minutes before blast off, all the channels chewed over Ramon's role in the destruction of the Iraqi nuclear reactor. Even the Holocaust was dragged into the debate, in the automatic context: an Israeli in space is a show of Israeli and Jewish potency, something of which to be proud, a national holiday. Another context: the attempt to build a public perception of the Israeli Air Force as the Space Force, fighting the nation's enemies outside of the earth's atmosphere, to rouse the cream of the nation's youth, to demonstrate just how tight Israeli-U.S. cooperation really is, to inculcate in the viewers a belief that Ramon's flight improves Israel's strategic position in the world.

Watch out for Jupiter tonight.

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Right now, Jupiter rises well above the horizon, to an altitude of nearly 30 degrees in astronomers' parlance, by around 8:45 p.m. local time. (Your fist held at arm’s length measures roughly 10 degrees. So when we say Jupiter rises to an altitude of 30 degrees, it would appear to be roughly "three fists" above the horizon.) Altitude is good for telescopic viewing because the planet's reflected sunlight passes through less atmosphere above Earth en route to an eyepiece, which means less distortion. Jupiter reaches the 30-degree height as early as 7:45 p.m. by month’s end.

Speed of Gravity WRONG.

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One physicist called the interpretation of the finding "nonsense". Others were more diplomatic, suggesting that the experiment, involving observations of the bending of light from a distant galaxy as the light sped by the planet Jupiter, had instead measured other phenomena.

Computer code for talking to aliens.
[QUOTE]For example, to generate the Fibonnacci series—a mathematical sequence related to many natural phenomena and also to human aesthetic judgments—we start by adding "1 + 1." We then take the result of this addition, "2," and add it to the last number that was used to get this sum (that is, the second "1"). We then repeat this process over and over: "1 + 1 = 2," "1 + 2 = 3," "2 + 3 = 5," "3 + 5 = 8," "5 + 8 = 13," and so on. We can specify these simple rules of addition very clearly in a computer program, and we will always get the same series: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, and so on. In an interstellar message that attempts to communicate the Fibonnacci series, we could provide the recipients with a run of the program that they could use to check their understanding of the program.[/QUOTE:1042858