Random Tusks

Breaking: WISE mission misleads public with confusing comet stats

In my day work I am no stranger to government bureaucracies and “programs” manipulating information about their activities until it suits them to do otherwise.  The WISE mission is no different. In March of this year David Shiga wrote an obviously informed article revealing early results of the WISE mission (below).  Six weeks into WISE’s work, someone revealed to Shiga (I…
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Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Random Tusks

NASA continues opaque and clumsy treatment of dark comets and dark asteroids found by WISE

NASA put out another one of those creepy home made news articles today regarding the WISE mission finding dark objects.  This one is even more condescending than usual, with the inane lede, “Imagine you are a Brontosaurus….” Well, I am not a “Brontosaurus.”  But I am keenly interested in what the hell WISE is finding up there and it is mighty hard to tell given the…
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Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Random Tusks

NASA: Comet launching companion star to sun "Not crazy"

Richard Muller and a Serpent The Nemesis theory — that a dark, comet launching, orbital companion to our sun lurks between our star and others — seems to be gaining traction among those who matter. [Astropbiology Magazine Exclusive: Getting WISE about Nemesis] As the Cosmic Tusk has revealed in earlier posts, NASA appears to be in an exceptionally enlightened mood since the the WISE…
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Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Random Tusks

New WISE space telescope finds nine dark comets -- and one black comet -- in six weeks

This is not breaking news, but rather a brief breakdown of information gleaned from David Shiga’s great New Scientist article last week regarding the findings of the recently launched WISE infrared space telescope.   The information from the article, though unattributed, is presumably from the mission scientists themselves: In its first six weeks of observations, it has discovered 16…
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Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Random Tusks

The February 11 JPL Press Release on dark, dead comets and the WISE mission

Here’s the full press release about WISE mission finding dark comets. WISE spies a Comet With its Powerful Infrared Eye, NASAJet Propulsion Laboratory, Feb 11, 2010 NASAJPL–NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has discovered its first comet, one of many the mission is expected to find among millions of other objects during its ongoing survey of the whole sky in…
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Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question

Random Tusks

New Scientist: WISE mission finding yet more dark, dead comets predicted by Napier

Now visible comet from WISE in infrared In an earlier post I noted that last month NASA had mentioned WISE finding dark and dead comets for the first time (at least as recorded on the Internet).  I thought it kind of odd that well into a mission the agency begins speaking of a dangerous phenomena that had not been previously and specifically identified as quarry for the Infrared Telescope.  Mind…
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Charles Appleton Day

2021 Tall el-Hammam study makes final Jeopardy! question