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Beth Schmillen

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Science and Our Universe
3/6/2009 1:06:52 PM

Kepler Telescope to Launch Tonight


 
Illustration of Kepler Telescope
On the Lookout | Discovery News Video
 

March 6, 2009 -- NASA is preparing to launch the Kepler space telescope Friday to help answer a question that has boggled the minds of astronomers for centuries: is Earth the only habitable planet in the galaxy?

"This mission attempts to answer a question that is as old as time itself -- are other planets like ours out there?" said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

"It's not just a science mission, it's an historical mission."

Kepler will stare at the same spot in space for three and a half years, taking in about 100,000 stars around the Cygnus and Lyra constellations of the Milky Way.

Read More: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/03/06/kepler-mission-launch.html



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Beth Schmillen

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Re: Science and Our Universe
3/8/2009 1:12:51 AM

UFO debunked

((youtube id="rrrx9izp0Lc"))((/youtube))
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Beth Schmillen

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Re: Science and Our Universe
3/8/2009 1:16:38 AM

The UFO Skeptic's Page

Robert Sheaffer




UFO made from banana-split dish
My photo of a UFO made from a banana-split dish and modelling clay (from UFO Sightings)

I have been interested in UFOs since I was a child in the 1960s. Reading the widely-published misinformation of authors such as Donald E. Keyhoe and Frank Edwards, I was persuaded that 'there must be something to it.' Of course, UFOlogy in those days was much less wild than it is today. Even Keyhoe disbelieved most if not all claims of UFO "contact", and the early "abduction" cases. As I noted in The UFO Verdict (chapter 3),

the willingness to believe on the part of the UFO movement has steadily grown with each passing year
Those words were written over 15 years ago, and subsequent events have proved them to be absolutely true. Since they were written, the credulity of the UFO Movement has expanded to take in:
- The supposed "UFO Crash" at Roswell, New Mexico, now with

- a supposed "Alien Autopsy" film.

UFO made
from
2 aluminum plates - A veritable Epidemic of supposed "UFO Abductions", including

- Supposed "UFO Abductions" that take place right in your own bedroom, and "beam you up" right through the ceiling, just like in Star Trek. No longer do you need to go out to deserted roads late at night to run into aliens. Since Budd Hopkins' books were published in the early 1980s, the aliens now come right into your bedroom to get you.

My photo of a UFO made from two aluminum plates

When I became older and a little wiser, I read other, more skeptical, UFO authors such as Dr. Donald H. Menzel. I realized that the UFO proponents were not .... cont. here: http://www.debunker.com/ufo.html


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Beth Schmillen

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Re: Science and Our Universe
3/8/2009 1:21:49 AM

ufo debunking with a grain of salt

25 02 2009

UFOs. We know them, we love them, we made them an enduring part of pop culture over the last 60 years. Unfortunately, it seems like that’s all UFOs are. A pop culture phenomenon with seemingly countless reasonable explanations which range from mistaken identity, to black aircraft to natural phenomena that casts unusual lights. However, a recent explanation offered for the phenomena doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. Space.com says that sprites, electrical discharges in the upper atmosphere, may be the culprit of some unusual, high altitude UFO reports.

giant ufos

Sprites and their relatives, blue jets, are short lived atmospheric bursts of plasma which tend to be associated with an unusual form of lightning. Some 95% of all lightning bolts during a storm have a negative charge in which the electrons run from the ground to the air. In the other 5% of lightning strikes, the charge runs the opposite way to create positive lightning. And that’s not ..... cont. here http://worldofweirdthings.com/2009/02/25/ufo-debunking-with-a-grain-of-salt/
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Beth Schmillen

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Re: Science and Our Universe
3/8/2009 1:23:00 AM

getting ready for orbital chaos

24 02 2009

When the first sub-orbital and orbital planes take to the air, managing them will be a fairly easy task. There will be few of them, they’ll have plenty of time to prepare, plan and coordinate their flights. But looking into the future in which flights to the Karman line and above are common, we may be facing a whole lot of problems in managing space traffic unless we start thinking about an orbital infrastructure soon. Nobody wants to see a casual flight into space end in a disaster worthy of a sci-fi movie’s opening sequence.

space plane

In several interviews about his work with Virgin Galactic, designer Burt Rutan made a big point to mention his number one concern in spacecraft design. Safety. Obviously, if you’ve worked around planes or in the aviation industry, safety is not just a mantra for the boardroom. When a plane goes down, you immediately rush to see if it was a plane operated by your company. A perfect or near-perfect safety record is essential to keeping your company in business so any lapse in safety inspections is punished harshly by both the managers and the FAA. But Rutan’s speech wasn’t just to reassure future customers. His point was that ....
 cont. Here  http://worldofweirdthings.com/2009/02/24/getting-ready-for-orbital-chaos/


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