Hasta La Gadget!

Between the recent meteorite strike and our close call with 2012 DA14, we’ve all been thinking an awful lot about potential impact hazards from the heavens. Thankfully, however, during our visit to NASA Ames last week, much of our fear was put to rest by astrobiologist Dr. David Morrison, the scientist who coined the word “cosmophobia” to describe the fear of external impacts on Earth. Morrison, who recently served as one of the go to sources for science fact (and common sense) in stories about the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse speculation, spoke to us about the likelihood of major asteroid impact on Earth — and what we can do to stop it. Hang around after the break to check out our full interview with the good space doctor.

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The European Meteosat-10 satellite captured the precise moment as the meteor entered Russian airspace over Chelyabinsk at 33,000mph. Here you can clearly see its vapor trail. [Meteosat] More »

A meteorite shower has crash landed across Russia’s Ural region, injuring over 250 900 people and damaging buildings in six cities. Residents in Chelyabinsk reported shaking ground, windows shattering and car alarms going off as the rocks fell to Earth. Officials in the country say that the shower began after a larger meteor disintegrated in the lower atmosphere, causing the fragments to wreak the (currently) non-lethal havoc. If you’d like to compare how wrong (or right) Michael Bay got it in Armageddon, head on past the break for some footage.

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Via: BBC News

Source: Russia Today

Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days.

It’s not like we’re trying to out-weird ourselves, it just, somehow, keeps happening. At least one of this week’s offerings (we’ll leave it to you to figure out which) will possibly be the creepiest thing we post all year. As for the rest, well it’s slightly more palatable. We’ll get uncharacteristically pumped about cycling, meet some extra-terrestrial quasicrystals and enjoy some art with X-men credentials. This is alt-week.

Continue reading Alt-week 8.11.12: Robo-billies, quasicrystals and radioactive art

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Science

Alt-week 8.11.12: Robo-billies, quasicrystals and radioactive art originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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