"Valentine Rose" Nebula Blooms Just in Time for Valentine's Day!

The image released on Feb. 13, of a nebula in deep space looking like some sort of cosmic rose, is actually a collection of gasses of all sorts, giving it distinctive blue and red colors.

It may take some imagination for some to picture a rose when they see the picture, however since most nebula's are named for their shape, nothing fits this one more than a rose.

A nebula is one of the last stages of life most normally sized stars. After the star has collapsed it leaves behind the cloud like gasses. 

Imagine how romantic it would be if you could actually buy that rose nebula and present it to your significant other in the sky. Currently there are way to buy stars, however not entire nebulae  If the day does come however, whoever is the first to pick this one up is going to be one lucky person!

Chris Hadfield to talk to Captain Kirk

Chris Hadfield

Today is going to be a special day for fans of the Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield, as well as fans of William Shatner's character on Star Trek, Captain Kirk. The two are scheduled to talk today at 10:30am.

Hadfield, who is currently the commander of the International Space Station which is orbiting Earth right now, has been talking to Shatner for a while though social media outlets like Twitter, and has decided he wants to talk to the former "Captain of the Enterprise" through the phone.

William Shatner
as Captain Kirk

The conversation will be broadcasted live of course, so that people from all over the Earth (and Galaxy) can listen in on what is shaping up to be a witty, and fun back and fourth.

If you wish to watch, here is the link.
http://tinyurl.com/blkq7ht

2013: Year of the Comets

Comets are typically too far from the earth to be seen by the naked eye, or too far from the sun to develop a long, stunning tail, however in 2013 we may be graced with the chance to see two different comets, if the conditions hold up. They will be the brightest comets we've seen in years, with one having a possibility of being the brightest comet in history (seen by the naked eye). 

The sun's role is the most important when it comes to any comet. The heat radiated from the sun causes the ice on the comet to vaporize, and the solar wind coming from the sun develops this vapor into a tail. The tail will always face away from the sun, no matter what direction the comet is going.

The first of the two comets is called "Comet C/2011 L4", and will be visible at first in the southern hemisphere in early February, before moving closer to the sun and becoming visible to people in the Northern Hemisphere on March 10th, when it will be its brightest. The comet will still be visible well into April afterwards.

The second comet is called Comet C/2012 S1 and has potential to be the brightest comet we've ever seen. In both hemispheres, the comet will become visible to onlookers in November, before becoming a "sun-grazer" (a comet that passes very close to the sun) on November 28th. The comet will actually be passing closer than the orbit of Mercury to the sun, and if it survives its journey, it can become brighter than the full moon at night, and even be visible during the day. The comet should be visible until January 2014 afterwards.
 
Although there is no guarantee that any of this will happen due to the unpredictability of comets, I really do hope this prediction holds true. Aside from a few shooting stars (if they even count), I have never seen a comet before and the fact that it could be the brightest one humans have ever seen intrigues me more. Just being around for an event that may not be duplicated again for as long as humans are around sounds kinda special.

White House Shoots Down Death Star Hopes

Since the White House has pledged to respond to any petition that gets 25,000 signatures in 30 days, they were forced to give a response to one that got over 30,000. A petition to build the iconic battle station the "Death Star" from the movie Star Wars by 2016.

Keeping true to their promise, the White house issued a statement and basically said that they would not have enough money in their budget to even think about this idea. It has been estimated to cost about $850 QUADRILLION US dollars, which is $850,000,000,000,000,000.

In addition to the cost, the fact that the United States is not interested in blowing up planets and the fact that it can be taken out by a single X-Wing fighter ship was brought up.

It was cool to see the White House actually respond to this petition, even if it was ridiculous. Also, the fact that they had fun with it by bringing up how it can be taken out by an X-Wing fighter ship was pretty funny as well, I thought. 

The White House also tried to calm the mind of the Death Star petition signers, by telling them that we already live in the future! With a $100 million (what a deal!) orbiting space station, among other things. But all this story does is make me wonder what other kind of petitions people are going to come up with in the future... the petition to build the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek is already at 5,973 signatures.