July 5, 2010 - Crowded House
Crowded House Is the universe a cosmic ghost town, devoid of life except for what’s on Earth, or is it more like a grandmother’s house during the holidays, overflowing with friends, family, and pets? Life on Earth is diverse, tenacious, and adaptive — clinging to rocks, prospering in underwater volcanic vents, procreating in the frozen tundra — so it appears ready to thrive given half a chance. The real question it seems, is how many chances has it been given? Astronomers estimate that this gigantic spiral galaxy, M101, contains at least one trillion stars, about 100 billion of which resemble our Sun. Given the billions of galaxies that exist and the growing number of exoplanets already detected, it looks like there are plenty of crowded houses out there: over the river, through the woods, and across the universe.
Image credit: R. Jay GaBany / www.cosmotography.com
Weekly Calendar
July 5-11, 2010
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 5
Uranus appears stationary
1966: Apollo-Saturn 203 launched
1982: Space Shuttle Challenger arrives at Kennedy Space Center for first time
Tuesday 6
Earth at aphelion
1687: Isaac Newton publishes his Principia
Wednesday 7
1995: Final test flight of DC-X rocket
1998: First satellite launch from a submarine
2003: Mars rover Opportunity launched
Thursday 8
1994: STS-65 Columbia launched
2009: First flight test of Max Launch Abort System
2011: STS-135 Atlantis launched, final shuttle mission
Friday 9
Juno in conjunction with Sun
Venus 1.1° north of Regulus
1945: White Sands Missile Range opens
1979: Voyager 2 flies past Jupiter
Saturday 10
1962: Telstar 1 launched, allowing transatlantic transmission of TV signals
1992: Giotto spacecraft flies past comet Grigg-Skjellerup
Sunday 11
New Moon 3:40 PM ET
1962: NASA selects lunar orbit rendezvous method for lunar landings
1969: X-24A lifting body rolled out for first time
1979: Skylab reenters atmosphere