Space Update

I’ve been watching the live coverage on NASA TV as they try to bring the space shuttle Discovery home. It *should* be landing tomorrow.

In the meantime I’ve been reading up on a comet that unexpectedly flared to a brightness where it’s now visible to the naked eye. I’m going to see if there’s an opportunity to view it where I live, since this is what they’re describing as a once-in-a-lifetime kind of event.

This comet, called Holmes (makes me wonder where Dr. Watson and Moriarity are!), is believed to be exploding, which is what’s causing the noticable brightening. Apparently it did this once before, in 1892, which is what led to its discovery by a fellow named Edwin Holmes (so that explains the name, lol). Cool, huh? You can read more about it here, if you’re interested.

I’ve also been reading up on a solar system they’ve found with 5 confirmed planets - one within the habitable zone, where water can exist in liquid form. There’s a good article on it on Space.com. While the planet they’ve recently confirmed is probably a gas giant, there’s some speculation that a rocky moon orbiting this big planet could possibly have water and therefore, the building blocks for life as we know it.