The DART mission successfully changed the motion of an asteroid Prior to impact, it took Dimorphos 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit its larger parent asteroid Didymos. Astronomers used ground-based telescopes to measure how Dimorphos’ orbit changed after impact.Now, it takes Dimorphos 11 hours and 23 minutes to circle Didymos. The DART spacecraft changed…
This happens in both the UK and the USA (and elsewhere): people with some sort of cause decide that they way to get their point across is to block traffic. This isn’t merely an inconvenience; this can cost people jobs and, in the case below, doctors appointments, and quite possibly worse.. In the US, it…
Study links in utero ‘forever chemical’ exposure to low sperm count and mobility The Danish study shows a link between PFAS chemicals, often used in plastic products including food packaging, and now found in *rain,* and drastically reduced sperm counts. This is a possible explanation for why the developed world’s sperm counts have crashed while…
A model built by or for Raytheon depicting their concept of a “Space Defense Platform.” Shown in early 1962 (possibly late 1961), this is a very early concept for a space-based weapon system meant to destroy other space vehicles. Scale is unknown, but if it is 1/1 scale, it seems fairly small. It is surrounded…
Found in ridiculously low resolution online, this chart purports to provide data on a number of early-2000’s unmanned air vehicles. If it’s accurate, it provides good dimensional data for the Northrop and Lockheed UCAR programs, data I’ve not seen elsewhere. But I can’t confirm the accuracy of this. it appears to have been scanned from…
General Dynamics is showing off their next-generation main battle tank. And, shockingly, it’s an actual piece of hardware rather than a computer generated bit of flim-flam. If this gets put into production, it will differ from the current Abrams by: an autoloader and a three-man crew rather than four a hybrid engine system, with supposedly…
Putin accuses Ukraine of ‘terrorist act’ in Kerch Bridge blast Somebody needs to explain to Putin that a bridge being used to transport materiel vital to a war effort is a valid target in a war zone, in war time. Unlike, say, slaughtering the civilians in a village.
My late cat Raedthinn also knew how to open doors. He figured it out when I briefly lived in an apartment with door *handles*; he watched me use them, figured out what was going on and would reach up and pull the handle down to open the door. When we got back to door *knobs*…
The ad below was published in magazines in 1982, showing a cutaway illustration of the then-fancy new B-1B bomber, recently rescued by the Reagan Administration. The background is here depicted as a rather dull gray, but the physical ad has a shiny metallic coating, which must have cost a small fortune at the time. …
