Bumper Cars!

Whatcha up to Friday morning, sometime around 4:30AM? Probably sleeping, sure, but I just found out about a much cooler thing to do: watch as NASA rams two spacecraft, one after the other, into the moon's south pole. Why NASA wants to do a crash dummy test on the moon--other than the fact that our space administration is largely staffed by boy-men with gigantic IQs--has to do with uncovering evidence of water on the surface of the moon. The vehicles doing the smashing will be the LCROSS probe and its Centaur rocket booster, the latter performing the first drop kick on the moon, followed by the mothership using spectrometers to analyze an estimated ten kilometer-tall plume before it too becomes street pizza.

Don't worry if you're lacking a high-powered telescope. I know two cases of beer and the Red Dwarf complete DVD boxed set was more important. NASA saves you the trouble by broadcasting the entire spectacle live on NASA TV, which I think is available here online. However, if you do have the telescope option available to you maybe it'd be better to see it with your own eyes simply by focusing on the moon's south pole. I think it'll be pretty obvious when a huge billowing tower of lunar matter gets ejected into space. Just a guess.

I'm seriously thinking about taking a trip up to the Chabot Space and Science Center at 3:30 or so to see the fireworks. Anybody game?

*****************

For all you science lovers, geeks, atheists/agnostics and anybody else who doesn't accept the general worldview as delivered by corporate news there's a podcast for you too. The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe is a weekly podcast that comes courtesy of a panel of professional and amateur skeptics who've taken it upon themselves to challenge not only the grievous falsities making their rounds, but the subtle ones as well, plus anything in between. I've been listening for only two weeks now and already am impressed by their intelligence, wit and dedication to setting records straight. Great stuff.

--Matt