Yaddith Times

Actually, it's been up since January . . . but if your January was anything like mine, you're probably still thawing out (or digging out) between snowstorms.

At any rate, this very reliable online magazine of speculative fiction, poetry, & reviews
is up here

https://www.abyssapexzine.com/

with a Spenserian sonnet -- "Deep Vision" -- by Yours Truly.

https://www.abyssapexzine.com/2023/01/deep-vision/

Stay warm & read on!

Want to help find Planet 9? (No, it's not Pluto. Nor, alas, Yuggoth.)

According to several sources of space news -- like Smithsonian.com, Space.com, & EarthSky -- NASA and the University of California, Berkeley are looking for a few good citizen scientists to check through images from WISE, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Apparently, there are still things the human eye does better than a computer program -- and noticing moving bright spots is one of them.

The project is called Backyard Worlds: Planet 9. To learn more, or join in the search, check here.

Good luck! I haven't joined yet, but I'm seriously considering it. After all, this is pretty much how Pluto got discovered by Clyde Tombaugh back in 1930.

dark god dwarfed
by human hubris
alas, Pluto

                        
                   -- Ann K. Schwader

The SETI poll to name Pluto's latest-discovered tiny moons is over . . . and "Vulcan" & "Cerberus" are the winners.

Thanks to a late name proposal by William Shatner -- & his efforts on Twitter -- Spock's homeworld may provide a name for P4 or P5.   It wasn't placed on the ballot for its Trekkish connections, however.  It's also the name of the Roman god of fire.

Read all about the voting -- and why this poll doesn't assure these names for Pluto's smallest moons -- here.  This article from Space.com also features images & video of Pluto, with all its moons discovered to date.

See all the voting stats here .  (Me? I'm a Trekker, but I was still going for "Persephone" & "Eurydice.")

Curious about Asteroid 2012 DA14? 

Or totally unaware of our forthcoming -- and very close -- visitation by a 150 ft. diameter rock?

Either way, NASA's got the FAQ to ease your mind while increasing its supply of geeky space information.  Check out all the details, complete with videos, here.

And, as ever, keep watching the skies -- though don't expect to see this one without binoculars, at least.

Looking to get away from it all?  Really away from it all -- permanently? 

Then you'll certainly want to check out Space.com's The Top 5 Potentially Inhabitable Alien Planets list, here.

This might sound like SF, but it's all good current science -- from the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo’s Planetary Habitability Laboratory.  Each listing has its own page, with a handy artist's conception pic if you're thinking of doing some extrasolar house-hunting.

As if we all didn't have enough to worry about, SPACE.com reports that NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a space telescope, found about 4,700 PHAs during its recent asteroid census.

PHAs = Potentially Hazardous Asteroids.  Are you feeling any better yet?

Me neither.

Find all the rather alarming details (including videos, diagrams, & a quiz) here. 

Thank you, science_at_nasa. 

How could I have gotten through my Friday without knowing the fate of Camilla the rubber chicken at the edge of space?

Check here for all the actual scientific details.  With video!

Did not realize until listening to our local NPR station this morning that the Kepler space telescope was being controlled by students at CU Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.

I am not an alumna of CU, but the idea of the planet hunter extraordinaire being guided from a location about half an hour from my home gives me a geeky little thrill.

You can see the Star Trek-like control center & listen to the whole story here.

. . . or a reasonable facsimile.  Yes, at least one planet outside of the Star Wars universe really does orbit two suns -- and NASA's Kepler mission has found it, about two hundred light-years from Earth.

Thanks to science_at_nasa, you can read all about this remarkably cool discovery here.

Or, there's a very interesting animation and other facts about Tatooine Kepler-16b here.