Slanted Science

Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category

Astronomers are predicting that in 2036, an asteroid known as Apophis will be passing close to the earth. Or, according to some models, smashing right into it.

It seems that the chances of a direct collision are high enough to have the head of Russia’s space agency calling for millions of dollars in funding to create a system with the capability of diverting the dangerous rock. Read the rest of this entry »

It has been 40 years since Neil beat Buzz in a best-of-three game of paper/rock/scissors on board Apollo 11, and earned the right to be the first human ever to get moondust on his shoes.

40 years since he uttered the immortal “One small step for man…” line, while – this isn’t widely known – Aldrin stood at the spacecraft’s porthole window, holding a piece of paper with “You Suck! LOL!!!!” written on it.

Since then, mankind has rarely been back to the moon, and never to anywhere solid beyond it. Scientists are now saying that extended spaceflight, as well as increasing the mutation rates in human DNA and its bacterial counterparts, alters the human immune system in potentially harmful ways. Read the rest of this entry »

Get ready, space fans, for what should be an amazing display early on Friday morning (7.30am, US Eastern Time). NASA – in a bid to answer the old question of whether the moon contains any water – will be piledriving a rocket into the lunar surface. Read the rest of this entry »