Showing posts with label Space. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Space. Show all posts

Thursday, January 10, 2008

I find your lack of faith disturbing

Space Daily reports the discovery of a "death star galaxy" that is ripping up another galaxy nearby with a powerful jet of gamma rays and X-rays. More details along with a picture of the jet in action are contained in the report.

According to the article, the "...death star galaxy was discovered through the combined efforts of both space and ground-based telescopes. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope were part of the effort. The Very Large Array telescope, Socorro, N.M., and the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) telescopes in the United Kingdom also were needed for the finding."

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

The great Instapundit offers a story about the promise of another type of heavenly light that may bring hope to mankind:

In September, American entrepreneur Kevin Reed proposed at the 58th International Astronautical Congress in Hyderabad, India, that Palau's uninhabited Helen Island would be an ideal spot for a small demonstration project, a 260-foot-diameter "rectifying antenna," or rectenna, to take in 1 megawatt of power transmitted earthward by a satellite orbiting 300 miles above Earth.

That's enough electricity to power 1,000 homes, but on that empty island the project would "be intended to show its safety for everywhere else," Reed said in a telephone interview from California.

"The climate change implications are pretty clear. You can get basically unlimited carbon-free power from this," said Mark Hopkins, senior vice president of the National Space Society in Washington. . . . Some seem to hear the call. The European Space Agency has scheduled a conference on space-based solar power for next Feb. 29. Space Island Group, another entrepreneurial U.S. endeavor, reports "very positive" discussions with a European utility and the Indian government about buying future power from satellite systems.


I'm sure that Jerry Pournelle will be pleased. He's been an advocate of solar power from stationary satellites for years.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Global Warming: it's worse than we thought--even other planets are affected.

H/T: Jerry Pournelle