Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Black hole eating star, imaginary friends and returning to the Moon

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; Career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Stars - A giant black hole has been caught red-handed dipping into a cosmic cookie jar of stars by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. This is the first time astronomers have seen the whole process of a black hole eating a star, from its first to nearly final bites. See article.
g Intelligence - The imaginary friends a child dreams up, naughty or nice, are good to have around. They have emotional, social, and cognitive benefits, and they help prepare children for real life, scientists say. See http://www.livescience.com/humanbiol
ogy/061204_mm_imaginary_friends.html
.
g Cosmicus - NASA on Monday unveiled the initial elements of the Global Exploration Strategy and a proposed U.S. lunar architecture, two critical tools for achieving the nation's vision of returning humans to the Moon. See http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.phpop=modload
&name=News&file=article&sid=2165mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
.

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