Lifeboat Foundation

Now that some time has passed since the release of Avengers: Infinity War, we should probably talk about Thanos, the nigh-omnipotent “Mad Titan” at the heart of Marvel’s latest blockbuster, and how he perfectly embodies one of the most pervasive societal misconceptions circling the topic of life extension. This might, therefore, be the first post here on LEAF that necessitates a spoiler warning, so here it is!

SPOILER ALERT — IF YOU CARE ABOUT HAVING INFINITY WAR, WHICH IS AN EXCELLENT MOVIE THAT YOU SHOULD SEE, SPOILED, PLEASE ABANDON SHIP AND HEREUPON RETURN AFTER WATCHING

Continue reading “Thanos, Overpopulation, and How to Save the Universe” »

LOS ANGELES – Deep thinkers have been saying for generations that we have to get off this rock and head for the stars, but the idea takes on a little more weight when the world’s richest person says it.

“We will have to leave this planet, and we’re going to leave it, and it’s going to make this planet better,” Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon retailing giant and the Blue Origin space venture, told me here on Friday night during a fireside chat at the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference.

Ever wonder what travel to a planet outside our solar system would be like?

Though most exoplanets aren’t fit for human habitation, researches at NASA have added a new feature to its Exoplanet Exploration website that allows users to explore them.

Watch Earth change over the past 20 years, thanks to a compilation of NASA satellite footage.

Throughout history, astronomers have used both optical and radio telescopes to see and hear the universe. Now, a new project will combine both kinds of telescopes to combine the two senses so that scientists can get a more complete look at the universe in real-time.

MeerLICHT — which is Dutch for “more light” — is a new, fully robotic telescope that uses a 65-centimeter main mirror and a 100-megapixel camera that was unveiled Friday near Sutherland, South Africa, which is a few hours northeast of Cape Town. What makes this telescope different is that it will be connected to MeerKAT, a radio telescope that consists of 64 dishes and located 125 miles away. Both telescopes will scan the Southern Sky in matching fields of view. The project will be the first of its kind and size to listen as well as see into space.

Saturn has ravioli-shaped moons, but they’re not as delicious as real ravioli. (via Seeker Universe)

The three-body problem, which determines how objects orbit each other in space, is notoriously difficult to solve. Now there are 231 new valid orbits.

Scientists in South Africa on Friday launched the world’s first optical telescope linked to a radio telescope, combining “eyes and ears” to try to unravel the secrets of the universe.

The device forms part of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project in the remote Karoo desert, which will be the world’s most powerful radio telescope system.

The latest move combines the new optical telescope MeerLITCH — Dutch for ‘more light’ — with the recently-completed 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope, located 200 kilometres (125 miles) away.

Continue reading “In S.Africa, a unique telescope link-up scans deep space” »