Feel Good Friday: Science is Fun Afterall!

Now, it's not often that I find myself interested in science or reading the science section of the news, but when I saw Katie Couric reporting this last night, I had to learn more.



Spacecraft snaps close-up images of comet

A spacecraft survived the closest encounter ever with a comet on Thursday, tracking it just 435 miles from the comet's nucleus.

Mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, broadcast live coverage of the event on NASA Television's Media Channel. Controllers broke into applause after hearing of the success.

The agency's EPOXI Deep Impact spacecraft was expected to use two imagers and an infrared instrument to acquire data about a tiny comet named Hartley 2 as it traveled at speeds of more than 27,000 miles per hour.

Scientists are still working to determine whether there was any damage to the spacecraft as the peanut-shaped comet passed by.

They hope to learn to more about comets from five images detailing the close approach.

"Those early images may not be the 'money shot,' but we on the science team will prize them just as well, as they will help us further understand the nature of comets," said EPOXI principal investigator Mike A'Hearn of the University of Maryland, College Park, in a NASA statement. "We certainly have our hands full. The images are full of great cometary data, and that's what we hoped for."

The images are expected to depict the comet nucleus as little more than a point of light with a fuzzy coma, a gaseous cloud, surrounding it.

"It was just incredible," Ed Weiler, associate administrator of the Science Missions Directorate for NASA, said of the encounter.

Five years after NASA launched an 800-pound projectile into a comet in an effort to study its contents, the same spacecraft that launched the missile tracked Hartley 2 on Thursday.

It is the first spacecraft to have visited two comets.

NASA officials expressed hope that such missions will inspire young people to get into the field of space exploration.

Project manager Tim Larson, left, and deputy project manager Don Sweetnam celebrate as the first images from the NASA Deep Impact spacecraft come back

Another Article!!

If that picture doesn't make you smile, then you have no heart to feel good on Fridays!

This whole news story just kinda makes me feel like dancing. There's a whole world out there that is a complete mystery to even the smartest people in the world. I just want to tell them something.

Duh! This world we live in is an ABSOLUTELY confounding place. Weird, strange, and full of beauty. I can't wait to see what other beautiful things lay out there in the stars. Keep up the good work, Mr. Scientist Dudes!

2010 Election!

It's 7:30pm here in Oregon. Only another 30 minutes to place your vote here.

In Oregon, we do not have voter booths. Instead, we have mail in ballots. If you're a procrastinator and you don't get it done in time to mail it, there are boxes you can drop it off at. Very convenient, very quick. Turns out that it bumps your voter attendance up as well.

Now, I've waited this long to post about election day for one reason. I'm not here to tell you to vote.

I'm just here to brag that I did.

Women have only had the right to vote in the United States for 90 years. It was a big deal back in 1920 when the skirts hit the booths. Ever since, huge things have happened for women in America.

I just wanted to take a moment and give some acknowledgment to the women and their supporters who have made sure that my generation and many to come are treated equally and fairly. Thank you!

Feel Good Friday: Chilean Miners Rescue.. and the Power of Music

It's been a fairly uneventful week in my life. Just the usual stress of work and family. Trying to keep a household together. Aside from my own mundane life, this week was actually not that uneventful.

After 70 days of being underground, Chilean miners were finally pulled from the depths of the Earth. Reunited with their families and friends, mostly unscathed. A truly beautiful and heart warming story.

One particular story seemed to reach out to me this week. The man named Edison Pena.



Chilean Miner: Elvis Got Me Through the Ordeal
Posted by Devon Thomas

Rescued Chilean miner and avid Elvis Presley fan Edison Pena has gotten a VIP invitation to Graceland, the music lrgend 's longtime home in Memphis.

Pena, who is 34 and married, was the 12th miner pulled from the collapsed mine at 10:11 a.m. Wednesday.

He told reporters it was Elvis who helped him get through the 70 days in which he was trapped underground.. He even led fellow miners in singing Elvis songs.

When Graceland officials heard about this, they sent along a care package with a boxed set of CDs and picture of " the "king" and asked that it be lowered into the mine for Pena.

Now, Pena has been invited for a special tour of Graceland where fans line up daily to see where Elvis lived for 20 years before he died on Aug. 16, 1977, and to view his gravesite.

Kevin Kern, an Elvis Presley Enterprises spokesman, says the company also sent various gifts to Chile, including a picture, DVDs, CDs and sunglasses.

Pena was reportedly among the most depressed of the trapped men and asked rescuers to send down a photo of the sun. He tried to run every day for exercise.

Kern says he does not expect Pena in Memphis any time soon, saying there are more important things Pena needs to take care of.

It seems to me that most anyone I've ever met or known has a music story. A band or a song that has gotten them through a rough patch. Clearly, Edison's go to music is Elvis. Personally, not my favorite or one that I would go to.. But I can dig it.

This week I've turned to Adele for some sort of solace in my little crazy world. What music do you usually turn to in hopes of raising your spirits?