Meteorites, Mini Monsters and our Moon

Largest meteorite. Hobart, Namibia      60 tonnes.         

A massive 30 ton meteorite has just been excavated in Argentina , becoming the second largest meteorite in the world.
Personally, I loved the casual nature of the video - just one digger and a smattering of applause.

Staying on the subject of large objects from space, apparently the moon was born as the result of a violent collision between Earth and a wandering planet (about the size of Mars) which resulted in a huge cloud of debris five hundred times the size of Earth which eventually coalesced into the moon as we know it.
This expansion of an old theory has been facilitated by new technology allowing for more precise readings of  moon rocks gathered by the Apollo missions.
I don't want to get bogged down with talk of Nibiru and all that, so let's move on...

What may or may not be a dinosaur 'nursery' has been discovered in the Russian Steppes , but speculation is rife as to whether the little fossil dinosaurs (one metre tall ) are infact a new species of miniature raptor.
Personally, I was most impressed by the fact that the site is only accessible by kayak , being so deep in the Steppes - I doff my cap to the intrepid palaentologists involved  - deep exploration worthy of Indiana Jones.

When ' You Are Here' means nothing...

Intrepid explorers have also ventured inside a cave which has apparently been isolated from the outside world for some 5.5 million years, give or take a few hundred thousand...
The atmosphere in Movile cave, Romania,  is toxic, being very sulphurous , and the permanent darkness and harsh conditions have led to a wealth of strange creatures, proving that life can thrive in the most inhospitable environments
Remaining in the realm of intrepid exploration, a recent survey of an extinct underwater volcano off the coast of Hawaii found  a plethora of oddities...

This lends more hope for the future exploration of places like the ice-bound and possibly waterlogged Saturnian ( is that a word ? ) moon Enceladus.

Enceladus from 30km

As we near the end of Rosettas planned mission , commemorative stuff goes into overdrive , heck you can even buy a plush version of Rosetta / Philae .
The final 'resting place' of Rosetta will be on the opposite side of the asteroid to Philae, so no 'reunited' scenario .
I remain impressed by the fact that I am alive at a time when we landed a probe on a comet - even moreso by the fact that we've been photographing and tracking it in such amazing detail for over a year
Now that the Osiris rex mission to Bennu has been launched, we will soon see the next phase, when an explorer takes a sample from a comet and returns with it...
Yay, go, science !

13 -Unlucky for some....

'Astrology is not science' is a phrase NASA had to use recently following an overly keen journalistic spin on their summary of astrology, its history and origins.
In this online world of assumptions based on half truths and third - hand hearsay, it quickly became reported as fact that NASA had added a new sign to the zodiac.

People, please !


Finally, we hear the sad story of Voyager , which collided with the end of the known universe, and received some damage as a result.
Sad to know that it will become space debris in the bottom right hand corner of the universe...