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05 Dec 2011 23:39

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World: Who’s the newest planet on the universe block?

  • It’s our baby brother! Remember the name “Kepler-22b”. Its surface temperature is a balmy 72 degrees; it orbits a star that is very similar to our sun; its year is even close to ours — 290 days. Don’t worry just yet, though, as scientists haven’t fully discovered what makes up its surface. But “the planet would likely be warm enough to host liquid water on its surface.” The scientists on the study are “getting really close, we are really homing in on the true Earth-sized habitable planets.” source

30 Sep 2010 01:01

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World: Earthlike planet around nearby star? We’re posting from there now

  • Hey, that’s not Earth! In fact, you’re right. It’s what scientists refer to as a “possible Earthlike planet” in the “goldilocks zone” of a nearby star. Which means that when we inevitably destroy this planet by overloading landfills with discarded toxic Hot Pockets sleeves, we’ll have somewhere to go to next. And we’ll screw up that place, too. source

02 Mar 2010 00:29

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World: The massive earthquake in Chile an axis-moving event

  • three
    inches
    the distance the Chile quake moved the earth’s axis, which is further than we moved today
  • just
    barely
    the amount of time (about 1.26 microseconds) the day has been shortened as a result source

09 Aug 2009 10:00

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World: Shakedown in Tokyo: A very scary quake hits Japan

  • 7.1 the quake’s strength; good thing Japan has regular quake drills source

26 Jul 2009 21:26

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World: The phrase “change at a glacial pace” now means “change quickly”

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Global Fiducials Library has a pretty scary selection of glacier photos which show things melting at pretty scary rates. source

12 Jun 2009 14:54

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Offbeat: A meteorite hit some German kid at 30,000 mph. Good for him.

  • He survived, but he has a radical 3-inch scar on his hand. 14-year-old Gerrit Blank, who kinda looks like Carrot Top, had a rare meteorite attack happen to him. “At first I just saw a large ball of light,” Blank explained, “and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand.” The pea-sized piece of space junk left a bite much bigger than its visual bark, leaving a foot-wide hole in the ground and Blank with a crazy hand injury. source

11 Jun 2009 10:33

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Tech: We’re all gonna die! Earth could hit another planet someday

  • The BBC sez that Earth’s orbit could be in danger of running into Mars’ or even Venus’ orbit in a few million years, creating a killer explosion, we’re sure, but also the death of lots and lots of cyborgs. source
 

10 Mar 2009 21:06

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U.S., World: UN climate rep: Obama could face “revolution” over carbon cuts

  • He is not going to say by 2020 I’m going to reduce emissions by 30%. He’ll have a revolution on his hands. He has to do it step by step.
  • Rajendra Pachauri • Head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), on the domestic pressures Barack Obama faces on climate cuts. Obama has called for 80% carbon cuts by 2050, but 2020 might be too soon for pushing through such a policy. • source

24 Feb 2009 10:09

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U.S.: What goes up, then comes down, must cost a lot, eh NASA?

  • $273 million the cost of a new satellite that was put up into orbit today
  • three minutes amount of time it took for the satellite to fall back to Earth source

13 Feb 2009 15:27

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Tech, World: There’s a lot of junk in space right now

Two satellites crashed together, made a big mess and inspired this awesome illustration. source