A Day in Astronomy: Birth of Steven Spielberg

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Scene from the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. (Universal Studios)

On this day in 1946, Steven Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. The American film director is best known for his many science fiction films, such as Jaws as well as the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park series. However, he has a special place in the hearts of space fans for his other films, including:

  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977);
  • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982); and
  • War of the Worlds (2005).

You may wonder what he plans to work on next. So does he. In a Deadline interview earlier this year, Mr. Spielberg stated this when asked about his next project:

It’s kind of a nice feeling. And it’s also a horrible feeling. It’s nice that I can actually have control of my life again and makes my own choices in my real life. But I need to work and I love to work and that’s the biggest question I’m going to have with the rest of the year trying to figure this out.

Let’s hope he considers something space-related again.

Gift Ideas: Astronomy Items that are Fun for the Whole Family

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Late for the Sky

If you are still looking around for holiday gifts, Popular Mechanics provided a nice gift guide for 2023. This includes the board game Space-opoly (above), the red Mars dust globe (below), and the Play Tent Galaxy Dome (also below).

Some other sources for helpful gift lists include:

Don’t worry. You still have time.

Credit: Humango Toys
Credit: Space World

Space Quote: $5 Million for A Probe of Drug Use at SpaceX

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Mr. Musk smoking during an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience show in September 2018. (Joe Rogan Experience/YouTube)

“It is essential for the integrity of the United States space program to ensure that the development and production of the space systems that will transport astronauts is conducted in a manner that prioritizes safety…The Safety and Health provision in the contract requires SpaceX to comply with standard industry practices, applicable laws, and other relevant provisions of the contract, such as the requirement to maintain a drug-free workplace.”

-Statement by NASA’s Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier in a letter to SpaceX back in September 2018, as noted in a recent article in Business Insider. The reporter was not able the results of this expensive audit, but noted that Mr. Gerstenmaier later left NASA and joined SpaceX. Nothing to see here, folks.

Pic of the Week: Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University), T. Temim (Princeton University), I. De Looze (University of Gent))

This week’s image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope is both violent yet beautiful. It is also NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day for today.

Here are some details about the image from NASA:

Massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy live spectacular lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear furnaces ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After only a few million years for the most massive stars, the enriched material is blasted back into interstellar space where star formation can begin anew. The expanding debris cloud known as Cassiopeia A is an example of this final phase of the stellar life cycle. Light from the supernova explosion that created this remnant would have been first seen in planet Earth’s sky about 350 years ago, although it took that light 11,000 years to reach us. This sharp NIRCam image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the still hot filaments and knots in the supernova remnant. The whitish, smoke-like outer shell of the expanding blast wave is about 20 light-years across. Light echoes from the massive star’s cataclysmic explosion are also identified in Webb’s detailed image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A.