Last year we blogged about injury-detecting football helmets, but that’s not the only place where engineering and football collide. This Sunday, the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts will face off in Florida for the 44th Superbowl. In honor of that, we turn your attention to a couple of stand-out college athletes who also happen to be engineers.
Ever experienced a really awkward situation during which you thought, “gee, I wish I could just fly away/sink into the ground?” Now the former might actually be possible, thanks to NASA.
Earlier we blogged about Earth’s hot twin, an extrasolar planet that bears striking similarities to our home sweet home. Whether they are scorching gas giants or frozen ice queens, these alien Earths appear to be the next hot focus for cosmological research. That’s where NASA’s newest space telescope comes in. Launched last March, the Kepler Mission has already detected five Earth-like exoplanets (one of which apparently has the same density as Styrofoam!).
If there were any night to live up to the expression “once in a blue moon“, it should be tonight. Not only will December 31, 2009 be the final day of the final year of a decade, but it will also be a night when a blue moon appears.
A blue moon is the term for the second full moon in a month, which occurs about once every 2.7 years. The last blue moon to appear on New Year’s Eve was in 1990, and the next won’t happen until 2028!
Watch out, Earth – looks like you’re not unique anymore: Astronomers have discovered the most Earth-like planet ever identified outside of our solar system.
Its name is GJ 1214b, and it is about six times bigger than Earth. The planet is composed mostly of water and has an atmosphere, so the existing conditions could support life. Although scientists believe the prospect of life is highly unlikely, due to the planet’s scorching temperature of 370 degrees Fahrenheit.
