Blogs / Discoblog

• Are stars secretly zombie cannibals? A new study suggests that “dead” stars may consume their healthy neighbors, thus creating a large and mysterious cloud of antimatter in the center of the galaxy. Look for George Romero’s take, coming soon to a theater near you.

• A Bosnian man claims his home has been targeted by aliens, after the house was hit by meteorites five times. But before you write him off, consider this: Experts at Belgrade University have confirmed that the rocks are genuine. (more…)

You might not have heard this from other Web sites out there, but today has been the biggest science news day in history. Truly, the events that have befallen our planet—and our universe—over the past 17 hours have been remarkable. So we here at DiscoBlog have rounded up the most important headlines from around the Internet. Here they are:

— Fungus with a Sweet Tooth Breathes Nectar of the Gods
— German Doc Prescribes Arsenic for Scare “Down There”
— Physicist’s Creepy Photos Show Wife’s Wedding Ring—and Skeleton!
— Animal-Lover Adopts Gaggle of Geese, Leads Them on Walks and Swims
— Cryptic Poetry Book Reveals Greater Truth About … Nothing
— Biology Lab Invaded by Unidentified Pest; Valuable Bacteria Sample Destroyed
— Physicist’s Cat Is Stuck in a Tree—and Not Stuck in a Tree
— Living Blob Devours Bystanders, Transforms Into New Form of Life
— Cyclist Becomes Possessed by Demons As Furniture Explodes into Colored Fountains
— Bicycle Maker Makes Apparent Suicide Leap on North Carolina Beach; Brother, Friends Bring Him Back to Earth
— Stuff Now Exists! (But What Came Before?)
— Shy Professor Injured by Falling Apple; Says He Knows Why

Hat tip to Overcoming Bias for pointing out the impressive magnitude of what’s going on.

When Google Street View was released less than a year ago, its 360-degree panoramic shots from ground level changed the way people explored new cities (along with providing a Web-based haven for people watching). Now, Google is taking this technology to a higher level (har) with Google Sky, an Internet tool that brings you unlimited online stargazing opportunities. Google Sky lets you traipse amongst the celestial bodies, search for planets and galaxies, and even switch to microwave and infrared views. And if you’re not having luck finding anything cool yourself (there’s a lot of nothing out there), you can head to the image galleries, which take you to some sweet shots from the Hubble, Chandra X-Ray, GALEX UV, and Spitzer infrared scopes.

The tool is a bit slow, so if you’re not the biggest fan of watching images load you can download the Google Earth application for free, which includes Google Sky as an additional feature.

Image: Google

Spaceport America got some rocket-powered action yesterday, December 19, at noon, well over a year before it plans its first space-bound flight. Sadly, the action was wholly unexciting—UP Aerospace sent a rocket 2,500 feet into the air for “research and development”—meeting all technical objectives and reaching an altitude that would make a hang-glider scoff.

I wonder, does all the rocket fuel used for this test count towards Spaceport America’s carbon footprint?

Well, okay, things might just change a little bit between now and then. I’m actually sort of surprised that NASA would even try to pin a month on this event. Based on the number of things that could change or go wrong between now and then (and on the number of space shuttles that have blown up), you might think NASA would just be aiming to get this done anytime in, say, the ’30s.

Saturn’s moon Iapetus is the yin-yang moon. Half of its surface is dark as coal, while the other side is blindingly pale. Astronomers have been perplexed by the moon’s two-faced nature since its discovery 335 years ago. But researchers have just solved the mystery thanks to pictures from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which recently flew closer to the moon than any mission has ever been.

(more…)

Unlike the space tourists who have paid tens of millions of dollars to throw off the surly bonds of gravity, I’ve never had a desire to fly to the moon or beyond. Sure, space is fascinating, but hurtling through it in a cramped capsule just doesn’t sound appealing (overseas flights are bad enough). Now, a new study suggests that along with tipsy astronauts, cramped quarters—and the risk of explosion—there’s one more thing for space travelers to worry about: superbugs.

A research team led by astrobiologist Cheryl Nickerson at Arizona State University found that getting a lift to and through space on the Space Shuttle Atlantis increased the virulence of Salmonella typhimurium, the same bacteria that infects human digestive tracts, to very unpleasant effect. Space travel altered the expression of more than 150 S. typhimurium genes, and the resulting strain kills mice more quickly—and at lower doses—than earthbound S. typhimurium (animals that you might call “ground controls”). The authors believe a protein called Hfq may regulate the bug’s response to the effects of microgravity and other space conditions.

Researchers suspected something strange would happen to bacteria in space, given that they act a bit wonky when grown in NASA-designed space-simulating labs. But it wasn’t until the intrepid bacteria returned home that scientists could measure the real effects of space.

As we aim for more distant targets such as Mars, spaceflights will inevitably get longer, and infectious disease is a real concern; during the notorious Apollo 13 flight, one astronaut suffered from a urinary tract infection. By noodling out the cellular mechanisms of dangerous bacteria with experiments like these, scientists may find new ways to keep nasty critters from infecting us—especially those of us with the guts and gumption to ride rockets into space.

The HiRISE astronomical imaging project has a striking picture of a spot on Mars’ surface that looks like total blackness to their Earth-based camera—it sees no light beyond the background noise level.

The conventional explanation would be that it’s a steep hole.

But until we get some direct evidence I thinkwe shouldn’t rule out the possibility that it’s something much stranger, like a chunk of the black material that makes up the monoliths in 2001.

If you were planning to attend the Hubble space telescope’s fiery funeral in 2010, you might want to put away that sexy black dress. NASA announced today that they’re launching a crew of seven astronauts by May of 2008 to replace Hubble’s old gyros and worn-out batteries, then boost it out of a dangerously low orbit. But they’re not just fixing humanity’s best eye to the cosmos—going up with the crew will be some brand-new toys for astronomers to play with.

When astronauts dock for the fifth time with Hubble, they’ll upgrade the telescope’s imaging power with the Wide Field Camera 3. NASA is working improved digital camera technology into the device for larger, clearer images that astronomers can study and you can use as computer desktop backgrounds (joy).

Another Hubble addition will be the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, a device that can see ultraviolet light invisible to the human eye. Aside from taking the most detailed snapshots of quasars and intergalactic dust, it will help astronomers find young, hot stars (and definitely not the Hollywood type). The repairs and upgrades should keep Hubble trucking well into 2013, until it burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere and is replaced by the James Webb space telescope.