Extraterrestrial Resources and Humans – Can Space Resources Save Our Civilization?

Abstract Current global resource utilization depends on a closely-knit economy, society and environment. However, effective limits exist on the biosphere’s capability to absorb pollutants while providing resources and services (Adams). This paper describes why in the light of issues in sustainability of Earth’s resources and growing human population it is imperative to expand utilization to …

The Higgs Boson – Why bother?

It is often one of the questions raised in both scientific and religious sectors. Why bother about the Higgs Boson or in common language, the God particle? Is it worth all the money and technology spent to find a particle that may or may not exist? It was a few years ago, that an American …

Future of NASA and American Space Exploration – An evaluation of Obama’s 2010 Space Policy and Kugler’s Article on Avoiding the end of NASA

New guidelines for NASA have been proposed by the United States government considering the exploration, scientific and technological projects for the next few decades. This paper evaluates the key aspects of President Obama’s Space Policy of 2010 and Justin Kugler’s article on how the end of the Space Shuttle Era is not the end of NASA (Kugler 8 Aug 2011) with conclusion on the future of NASA considering the current economic and political scenario.

Elenin and Levy – More Warnings from Nature?

Recent activities in the sky have sparked interests in the NEA Research world as news on three potentially hazardous objects viz asteroid 2005 YU55 and the comets ElEnin and Levy hit the headlines in the past few months. Discoveries like these usually cause panic and often incredible and funny speculations and assumptions. Many are already …

Apophis! – Earth’s death knell?

Image of Apophis as a snake in Egyptian Mythology Egyptian mythology has a character called Apophis which was an ancient spirit of evil and destruction, a demon determined to plunge our world into eternal darkness. Astronomers reason that the name befits a menace that is currently hurling towards Earth from outer space. Scientists for the …

New planet discovered in trinary system – Another milestone in exoplanet research!

Most exoplanets are Hot Jupiters Though the number of extrasolar planets continued to grow over the years, exoplanet researchers were sceptical about existence of planets around multiple star systems since it was suspected that if the stars are not sufficiently farther apart, the constantly varying gravitational force would eventually tug the planet out of orbit. …

Astronomers celebrate Neptune’s Birthday!

Image of Neptune showing the Great Dark Spot – Courtesy NASA Neptune turned “one year” old yesterday when it completed its first revolution around the sun since its discovery 165 years ago. Astronomy world celebrated this event as Neptune completed its one year which is 164.79 earth years yesterday. Named after the Roman Sea God, …

Spacecraft captures sungrazing comet’s demise – A historical event!

  Sungrazing Comet’s Demise Captured by SDO and SOHO – Courtesy NASA Scientists witnessed an extraordinary event for the first time in history when NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory stationed in outer space captured a “sun-grazing comet” descending into its demise by melting under the solar heat while grazing the star, reported MSNBC. The high definition …

2005 YU55 to arrive on November 8, 2011

Discovered by Robert McMillan of the Spacewatch Program near Tucson, Arizona on December 28, 2005, the third near-earth asteroid of 2011, named 2005 YU55 will pass between the Moon and the Earth on November 8. The dark, near spherical rock of 400 meters diameter will move as close as 0.85 lunar distances from earth, confirmed …

2011 MD leaves warning to Earthlings

2011 MD Trajectory The Asteroid 2011 MD, discovered on 22nd at the LINEAR near-Earth object survey in Socorro, New Mexico by the amateur Australian Astronomer, Peter Lake flew by the Earth on 27th at a close proximity of 7600 miles which is closer than most satellites. The approach did startle scientists but the prospect of the asteroid …