Adventure Ausrama Blog

Well what happened in 2015? Some odd claims were made. In October KIC 8462852, a star doing strange things was observed. Some said that it was created by intelligent life. Actually it is a comet swarm. The barbecue charcoal theory was taken a step further with suggestions that processed meat such as bacon causes cancer. However, the risk is statistically insignificant. Just don't eat too much of it. NASA's mysterious EM Drive was announced which apparently is a microwave "powered" warp drive. Roll on Star trek. Thrust was produced from nothing but at a such a low level as to be unusable. We do not have to worry about global warming because the sun will take care of it. The Maunder Minimum phase will push us into an ice age in the 2030s. Have no fear. Such a drastic 5º C fall will not happen. We have done far too much damage for the Maunder Minimum to have any effect. The little Tardigrade creature picks up genes from the environment by horizontal t...

Let us wish the Japanese well in their bid to explore space. The US has had great success with their missions. It seems odd why Japan would spend money on space exploration when the economy is in such bad shape. Nonetheless, all people in the world benefit from new knowledge, After success with its first attempt to retrieve samples from the Itokowa space rock, the second spacecraft Hayabusa2 will be launched in 2014 and closely examine asteroid 1999 JU3. The rendezvous will take place in 2018. Valuable samples will be brought back to Earth in 2020. Japan is doing the work with assistance from other nations. The probe will be tracked by NASA's Deep Space Network. Like the first project the spacecraft will land in Australia. Powered by ion engines the craft will make a small crater in 1999 JU3. In the past this asteroid may have come into contact with water. A German made lander called MASCOT will move over the rock's surface. Intense examination will hopefully bring...

NASA scientists are now saying that "soil" on Mars could support vegetable life. Without an atmosphere, though, it seems no life is possible. Scientists are specific enough to say that asparagus and turnips will grow in Mars' soil but strawberries will not. Are they joking? Or are they for real? The Phoenix Mars Lander found soil that is very much like that in many Earth backyards. Scientists are shocked that they have found soil. It is alkaline - thus, the claim that it is not good for strawberries. Apparently, the soil is rich in trace minerals. My, how scientists can be wrong. It was thought that Mars "soil" would be salty - with no atmosphere and the sun would bleach it. But they were wrong. At least we know that there is soil and water in the form of ice just beneath the surface. There is evidence that in the past water flowed on the surface because erosion is evident. Rivers, lakes and oceans existed there once. Water reservoirs such as these indicate ...

It isn't ours says the US, Russia and Germany. A mysterious metal ball, two hemispheres welded together, has fallen to earth in Namibia. The "ball" is 35 centimeters wide and cut a groove in the ground on impact 33 centimeters deep and 3.8 meters wide. The hollow sphere is not dangerous - it isn't an explosive devise. There were two recent orbital crises with satellites crashing to the ground: NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite and Germany's Roentgen Satellite. The mystery object is not part of any of these. The Phobos-Grunt Mars Probe made in Russia will also soon come down. There is the possibility that it could be from a satellite much older, something that has been orbiting for a long time. If this is the case, ownership of the space debris may never be known because no country wants it known that satellite parts can fall at random from the sky. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http:...

We now know that dark matter exists. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has also identified blue straggler stars in the Milky Way. These stars don't show their age. Their color hides their true age. This is the first time they have been found in the core of the Milky Way. Not much is known about blue stragglers. Accepted theory is that they develop from binary pairs. The larger of the pair strips material from the smaller one. Hydrogen is activated which causes the larger star to undergo nuclear fission thus making the star blue. Blue stragglers are rare in the Milky Way because the central bulge of the system stopped making new stars billions of years ago. Aging stars and cool red dwarfs exist in the Milky Way now. Giant blue stars were thought to have exploded into supernovae in the distant past. The presence of blue stragglers throws a spanner into the works of current models of star formation. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspo...