An artist's impression of the LCROSS spacecraft's Centaur stage crashing into the surface of the Moon. The LCROSS spaceraft will observe and record the impact and then it also will crash into the crater - Image Credit: NASA

Immediately after the LRO/LCROSS launch on June 18, science illiterate members of the blog community started a campaign to stop NASA from “Bombing the Moon”; an act, which, according to them, was in a clear violation of the UN resolution 2222 written in the 1499th plenary meeting on December 19, 1966 – Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. I will not support this insanity by providing links here (just google “NASA Moon bombing”).

The arguments on blogs range from the creation of (up to) 8km deep crater, to the bombing constituting a hostile act against known extraterrestrial civilizations and settlements on the Moon allegedly observed by the crew of Apollo 11 (seriously?). Several magazines and newspapers (the likes of Scientific American, the Examiner and the UK Telegraph – no surprise there) jumped on the bandwagon featuring articles with an unfortunate (but I suspect a rather deliberate) word choice – “Moon bombing”.

Bombing can be defined as detonation (on impact) of an explosive devise producing a chemical action which causes a sudden formation of a great volume of expanded gas. In other words, nothing close to the events which are about to occur near the Moon’s south pole.

Let me assure you: the Moon is hit by space junk on regular basis. It has withstood this bombardment for billions of years and it will prevail for many billions to come. The flash in the sequence below was caused by a meteoroid about 25 cm in diameter traveling at 38 km/s. As such, although much smaller than either the (S-S/C) and the Centaur, the energy released in the impact is comparable with tomorrows impacts because this piece of rock was traveling fifteen times faster than LCROSS.

A meteoroid hits the Moon, May 2, 2006; video-recorded by MSFC engineers Heather McNamara and Danielle Moser.

The Centaur upper stage will impact the lunar surface at around 11:31:20 UTC at -84.675, 311.275 E (in selenographical coordinates). NASA estimates the impact velocity of 2.5 km/s which will excavate more than 350 tonnes of lunar material and create a crater 20m in diameter with a depth of about 4m; in other words, nowhere near the sensational 8km (given the crater size, not even the Hubble Space Telescope will be able to see it under ideal conditions).

Using the nominal impact mass of 2,305kg and the velocity of 2.5km/s the kinetic energy of the spacecraft can be easily calculated as

Since a kiloton of TNT is equivalent to , the total energy released in the impact (under ideal conditions) is kiloton of TNT; again, nowhere close to the 2 kiloton of TNT (which equals to 10% of the yield of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima) claimed by some authors. Furthermore, both the S-S/C and Centaur performed a blow-down maneuver to vent any remaining fuel inside the Centaur to help prevent contamination of the impact site and the ejecta material, thus there will be no explosion.

The Shepherding Spacecraft will impact the lunar surface roughly four minutes after the Centaur upper stage, at around 11:35:39 UTC at -84.729, 310.64 E, ejecting about 150 tonnes or material leaving behind a crater 14m wide and 2m deep.

LCROSS Shepherding Spacecraft and Centaur upper stage impact sites - Source: NASA

As for the last argument, if you truly believe in the conspiracy to cover up the presence of an extraterrestrial civilizations on the Moon, reported in witnessed statements by astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, and in witnessed statements to NSA (National Security Agency) photos and documents regarding an extraterrestrial base on the dark side of the Moon (let’s forget for a second that there is NO such thing as the “dark” side of the Moon), I applaud you for reading this far and let’s just leave it at that…

Apart from the primary objectives to prepare a 3D atlas with the resolution of up to 10-5m and chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface, the terrain mapping camera on board the spacecraft has also sent images of the landing site of Apollo 15 and the tracks of land rovers astronauts used to travel on the lunar surface.

Apollo 15 lunar module, Falcon - Image Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

Analysis of data from the onboard Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) and the Hyper Spectral Imager (HySi) revealed disturbances on the the lunar surface show tracks on Lunar Roving Vehicles (LRV) used by astronauts on Apollo 15, 16 and 17.

That’s right, all your Moon landing deniers (read crazy people). Here are photos and data acquired by instruments built by an agency from a different country on board a spacecraft launched into lunar orbit independently of NASA – Chandrayaan 1 also carried NASA instruments but the TMC was built in ISRO’s Space Applications Centre (SAC).

I’m truly curious how Moon hoaxers tackle this one. Meanwhile, the rest of us who live in a real world will no doubt enjoy in awe all other wonders of the universe.

Apollo 11 lunar module, Eagle at the Tranquility Base. Image width: 282 meters - Photo Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

Apollo 14 lunar module, Antares. Image width: 538 meters - Photo Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

Labeled photo of the Apollo 14 landing site - Photo Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

Apollo 15 lunar module, Falcon. Image width: 384 meters - Photo Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

Apollo 16 lunar module, Orion. Image width: 256 meters - Photo Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

Apollo 17 lunar module, Challenger. Image width: 359 meters - Photo Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

First of all, let me make clear that I’m not naive to believe that (yet another) piece of irrefutable evidence will change the mind of conspiracy theorists. Those who still believe that NASA pulled of the biggest lie in history matched only by that of organized religion, despite having every single piece of their fantasy debunked innumerous times, are not gonna be stopped by some silly thing called evidence. As Phil Plait has put it in one of his posts:

You could fly a conspiracy theorist to the Moon and show them the equipment lying on the desolate surface, and they’d accuse you of drugging them.

Despite thousands of pictures and hours of video footage made by astronauts themselves and an unconquerable mountain of evidence refuting every single one of their claims, the Moon landing deniers will continue to spread their non-sense with religious zealotry. Similarly, antivaxxers will insist that vaccines cause autism. Creationists will obstinate that the Earth is 6,000 years old, even in a speech about mining Uranium, which, ironically enough, is used in the Uranium-lead scheme of radiometric dating to determine the age of Earth (4.5 billion years). These people live in a fantasy world rivaling that of magic schools boys and a gay headmaster in a fight against an evil soulless orphan supremacist. Their “reality” has nothing in common with an evidence-based world.

To say the truth, these people are not deserving of any respect whatsoever as they have none for the thousands they would call liars, frauds and cowards. They have the audacity to dismiss the heroism of those 24 brave astronauts who flew to the Moon and thus ventured further from the Earth than any man in the history. They would blatantly shrug off the achievement of the 12 extraordinary men, who had the privilege to touch and walk on another world, standing on shoulders of every single man and woman who dedicated their lives to the human space flight. That includes every single cosmonaut who has ever passed beyond the barrier of space, every worker in every mission control center around the world, every scientist who devised an experiment to be conducted in vacuum under zero gravity, every technician and engineer who tirelessly built every component, connected every wire and tested and retested every spacecraft zillion times until they could no longer talk, think or dream of anything else, and most importantly, the crew of Apollo 1, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roget Chaffee, together with Edward Givens (support crew Apollo 7) and Clifton Willians (backup LMP Apollo 9) who were among the 32 astronauts who made the ultimate sacrifice in the effort to push the boundaries of what is possible.

To discard this wondrous accomplishment of humanity based on nothing but paranoia, inferiority complex and/or in an attempt to sell a few extra copies of a book or a movie, is against the very nature of being human, i.e. our curiosity to explore the unknown, our perseverance and unwillingness to give up despite odds or doubt and the determination to reach the stars. Fortunately, the view of these (few) individuals is irrelevant because:

Truth needs no defense. Nobody, nobody… can ever take those footsteps I made on the surface of the Moon away from me.

- Eugene A. Cernan (Gemini 9A, Apollo 10, Apollo 17)

This graphic shows the approximate locations of the Apollo moon landing sites - Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

SIPT @ Penderel's Oak

SIPT @ Penderel's Oak

The title of the talk was Trick or Treatment? : Alternative Medicine on Trial. The speaker, Edzard Ernst, offered, besides a good amount of jokes, four topics. The “most intriguing research trial” won the contest by a overwhelming majority of votes even before the other topics were presented.

I talked to a few people who were quite disappointed and angry. The disappointment was caused by missing the opportunity to buy a ticket for TAM London in fall. The anger 100% directed at themselves was for the assumption that tickets would be available for a few days despite no evidence to suggest it; something that shouldn’t never happen to a true skeptic, but well … we’re just human, aren’t we.

I can’t help myself but to conclude this post by two quotes from Professor Ernst:

Nobody ever dies in homeopathic hospitals because no one is really sick!

… I’ll put my homeopathic hat on but you can’t see  it because it’s too diluted …

What according to some appears to be a skull with eye sockets and a nose - Source: BARCROFT/NASA

I, personally, am more inclined towards a bowling ball, which would definitely indicate the presence of intelligent life on Mars, unlike here, on Earth.

The "famous" Face on Mars - part of the Cydonia region, taken by the Viking 1 orbiter and released by NASA/JPL on July 25, 1976. - Source: NASA/JPL

A photo of what appears to be a "female" figure taken on the red planet by the Spirit rover. - Source: NASA

It seems to me that our good old Jesus has forgotten what happened to him the first he tried to get into people’s heads. I guess he just can’t help himself. But now seriously, is appearing on toasts, on trees, in clouds, etc. all he’s got? I’d personally expect at least a walk on water (I mean, even Tiget Woods can pull that off), although another resurrection would certainly earn him a few extra points for style.

Pareidolic crocodile

Just came across this image on Digg. While most people will probably recognize the shape of a deadly predator, it really is nothing else than a common cumulus cloud. For not completely understood reasons, humans tend to see  patterns and connections in meaningless data. Usually, there is no harm done. Majority of these images are just for a good laugh. Once in while, however, someone does something as insane as buying a toast with the Virgin Mary’s face for $28,000 on eBay. I’m not sure if it’s just wishful thinking, or the need to believe in something borderline ridiculous, but if there, by some crazy cosmic coincidence, is Virgin Mary, and you really believe that one day she gets so frakking bored out of her mind and decides to appear on a toast, you truly deserve to be scammed out of $28,000 to purchase it.

Artist impression of the surface of Pluto. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

On August 24, 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefined the term “planet”, effectively demoting Pluto to just a dwarf  planet. The least qualified people chronically afraid of advancements of our understanding of cosmos, immediately flooded the blogosphere and social media with a wave of protests. One can truly judge the “severity” of an issue by the involvement of proponents of pseudo-sciences such as  astrology. Nevertheless, the resistance faded as many realized that Pluto’s classification had no impact on their lives; with the exception of those who, as Sheldon Cooper brilliantly put, “participate in the mass cultural delusion that the Sun’s apparent position relative to arbitrarily defined constellations at the time of your birth somehow affects your personality“.

Unfortunately, some, to this day, have not forgotten about the unlawful demontion of their beloved so-called planet, which, by the way, exerts less gravitational influence on you that the computer you are using to read this article. The goverment of the state of Illinois decided to take the matter into their own hands by declaring Pluto a fully-pledged planet. Obviously, their motives have nothing to do with that fact the Clyde W. Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930, is a native of Illinois?! – The entire matter is just borderline ridiculous. Once again, politicians who have no education in the matter, make a decision just to appease their own anxieties. What truly surprises me is that this is not coming from an enlightened state such as Oklahoma (although they are trying really hard to keep up), but the very home of Barack Obama, who above all, values rational thought.