Top 10Weirdest Things in Space

Cathy sends in a neat list from the Discovery Channel. A list of the truly strange things going on in our universe and even in our own galaxy. From Hyper velocity stars to black holes...this list is a feast for the imagination. Here is the list:

10: Hyper-velocity Stars
9: Black Holes
8: Magnestars
7: Neutrinos
6: Dark Matter
5: Dark Energy
4: Planets
3: Gravity
2: Life
1: The Universe

Of course the list doesn't even start to cover some of the real brain twisting going on here.

Check out the artwork and detailed descriptions here

Go off the grid with a personal nuclear reactor! REALLY!

Toshiba has developed a new class of micro size Nuclear Reactors that is designed to power individual apartment buildings or city blocks. The new reactor is only 20 feet by 6 feet and is designed to supply 200 kw for 5 cents per kh. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The new technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core. The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 40 years. Toshiba expects to install the first reactor in Japan in 2008 and to begin marketing the new system in Europe and America in 2009.

Wow, all I need now is a flux capacitor.......

Who Owns the Moon?

Making a mint out of the Moon - Dennis Hope says he owns the moon and he will sell you some!

From his office in Nevada, entrepreneur Dennis Hope has spawned a multi-million-dollar property business selling plots of lunar real estate at $20 (£10) an acre. Mr Hope exploited a loophole in the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty and he has been claiming ownership of the Earth's Moon - and seven planets and their moons - for more than 20 years. Hope says he has so far sold more than 400 million acres (1.6 million sq km). These are "truly unowned lands", he says. "We're doing exactly what our forefathers did when they came to the New World from the European continent." Buyers include Hollywood stars, large corporations - including the Hilton and Marriot hotel chains - and even former US presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. George W Bush is also said to be a stake holder.

This of course is all in good humor....however it's no mystery that China and Russia are making major pushes to gain a manned foothold on Earth's neighbor. Also one of the biggest is US space contractor Lockheed Martin, which is currently developing technologies that will enable future lunar residents to exploit the lunar surface. In particular, it is working on a process which will convert Moon dust into oxygen and water. It may even be able to turn it into rocket fuel. However one of the biggest paydays might come from what is just laying around on the Moon. Data collected from the Apollo Moon landings have indicated that large deposits of an extremely rare gas called helium 3 are trapped in the lunar soil. Scientists believe that this helium 3 could be used to create a new source of almost inexhaustible, clean, pollution-free energy on Earth. A metric ton of helium 3 would supply about one-sixth of the energy needs today of the British Isles. Plans are already afoot in the US and Russia to strip-mine lunar helium 3 and transport it the 240,000 miles (385,000km) back to Earth. To get an idea of how valuable H3 is, if gold were mined on the moon (there is ample evidence that the mineral is in plentiful supply there) it would be too expensive to transport it to Earth, however Helium Three is worth several billion dollars a ton!