NASA “Ask An Expert” Chat

Today, I participated in NASA’s “Ask An Expert” chat with Dr. Bill Cooke, the head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, about the study of asteroids, comets, and meteors. Since I was at school and couldn’t dedicate much time to the chat, I was only able to ask two questions:

Me: Do we know the chemical composition of comet Hartley 2’s jets?
Dr. Bill Cooke: Suspect they’re water vapor, carbon dioxide gas, mixed with dust – but don’t know for sure. We’ll have to wait for science team results.

Me: How many periodical comets (long- or short-period) are we aware of in the solar system?
Dr. Bill Cooke: Our periodic catalog now has well over 200.

If you’d like, you can download a full transcript here [PDF].
Or, you can view the official NASA transcript here.

Science Saved My Soul

This video is not by me but it is simply amazing. My hair seriously stood on-end when he talked about how vast the universe is.

As a warning to those who still believe in one of the various mythologies out there, I’ll be nice and let you know ahead of time that this video is based in scientific facts, presenting an atheistic point of view and outright addressing several flaws within religion.

Having said that, you should still watch it. Maybe you’ll see the light. –:)

Video by YouTube user philhellenes