World may end on March 16, 2880, but 99.988 per cent chance it won't

The Rock is due to fly past Earth today

The asteroid most likely, the 1.3km wide Asteroid 29075, is likely to pass close to Earth on March 16, 2880. Barring miraculous advances in medical science, none of us are likely to be around, but even so, we'd like to feel the Earth can survive the close encounter.

Feel secure then, as it is estimated that only the probability of impact is one chance in 8300, or 99.988 per cent chance the asteroid will miss.

Asteroid talk has come to the fore again, following the announcement that The Rock  - also known as Asteroid 2014 JO25 will pass with the distance of four moon orbits of Earth (or about 1.8 million kilometres away) later today (Thursday, 20 April 2017)

However, it is not seen as much of a threat, even less than 29075.

In any case, the Planetary Defence Council (sounds like something from The Three Body Problem) is running a simulation in May to prepare us for defending against a catastrophic asteroid collision.

Let's hope they do better than Liu Cixin's characters manage!

Tassie tricked by the light

When a beautiful Hobart sunrise added an orange light to a jetliner's contrail, some Tasmanians thought an alien invasion was on the way.

Many believed the "fireball" was an alien spacecraft falling to Earth. Cynics are lining up with jokes as to why aliens would invade Tasmania. Others believed it was a giant meteor.



However, flight tracker data shows Emirates flight EK448 passing over Hobart at that time, and the government said it was just the plane's contrail, caught in the light.

Nonetheless, panic spread amongst some Taswegians with some noting on YouTube that it was a conspiracy with Prep Aussie saying: Folks it shore as hell "IS NOT" a plane. I have tested it and it comes back positive as 100% a meteor!! God Bless.PREP

Hopefully the Emirates plane won't be bringing Armageddon anytime soon.

Seven Sisters offer best chance to find alien life

Three of the seven planets have suitable conditions for life. Credit: NASA

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found a system of seven Earth-size planets around a single cool dwarf star.

As many as three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water. In fact, all seven might have water - they key to potential alien life.

NASA says this is the largest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside the one we all know and love - Sol.

The ultra-cool dwarf star is called Trappist-1 and in contrast to our sun, it classified as an ultra-cool dwarf – is so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our solar system. All seven of the planetary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our sun.

The planets also are very close to each other. If a person was standing on one of the planet’s surface, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighboring worlds, which would sometimes appear larger than the moon in Earth's sky.

The planets may also be tidally locked to their star, which means the same side of the planet is always facing the star, therefore each side is either perpetual day or night. This could mean they have weather patterns totally unlike those on Earth, such as strong winds blowing from the day side to the night side, and extreme temperature changes.

Super pollution in ocean trenches: what may evolve below?

One trope of science fiction is that pollution can cause mutations in animals and fish that result in gigantic, terrifying monsters.

These monsters have a propensity to swim up to the surface and wreak havoc on unsuspecting coastal dwellers, often on the Japanese archipelago or the Pacific Rim.

Korea has also been "host" to some gruesome examples. Just have a look at the video below.




What then the news that deep ocean trenches have 50 times more industrial toxins than the infamously polluted Chinese river systems.

Analysis of tiny crustaceans has proven this in a recent Nature (Ecology and Evolution) journal. The evolution part of the title is worrying.

What evil might rise from the deeply polluted deep?

Europa exploration more likely following NASA report

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA has is now talking openly about a trip to Europa, the icy moon of Jupiter, following the recent release of a report on a future mission.

In 20013, the Hubble telescope observed water vapour fuming from the surface, making it an exciting exploratory target. Scientific findings from other sources also pointed to the existence of an ocean located under Europa's icy crust.

In early 2016, in response to a congressional directive, NASA’s Planetary Science Division (SDT) began study to assess the science value and engineering design of a future Europa lander mission.

In June 2016, NASA convened a 21-member team of scientists for the SDT. Since then, the team has deliberated to define a workable and worthy set of science objectives and measurements for the mission concept, submitting a report to NASA on February 7.

The report lists three science goals for the mission.

The primary goal is to search for evidence of life on Europa. The other goals are to assess the habitability of Europa by directly analysing material from the surface, and to characterize the surface and subsurface to support future robotic exploration of Europa and its ocean. The report also describes some of the notional instruments that could be expected to perform measurements in support of these goals.

Scientists agree that the evidence is quite strong that Europa, which is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon, has a global saltwater ocean beneath its icy crust. This ocean has at least twice as much water as Earth’s oceans. While recent discoveries have shown that many bodies in the solar system either have subsurface oceans now, or may have in the past, Europa is one of only two places where the ocean is understood to be in contact with a rocky seafloor (the other being Saturn's moon Enceladus).

This rare circumstance makes Europa one of the highest priority targets in the search for present-day life beyond Earth.

The concept lander is separate from the solar-powered Europa multiple flyby mission, now in development for launch in the early 2020s. The spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter after a multi-year journey, orbiting the gas giant every two weeks for a series of 45 close flybys of Europa. The multiple flyby mission will investigate Europa’s habitability by mapping its composition, determining the characteristics of the ocean and ice shell, and increasing our understanding of its geology. The mission also will lay the foundation for a future landing by performing detailed reconnaissance using its powerful cameras.

See below for a video on NASA's plans to explore the under-ice ocean of Europa.

Life - but certainly not as we know it

Watch the new trailer for Life, the alien horror thriller directed by Daniel Espinosa and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada and Ariyon Bakare (pictured above). It is due to be released next month.

CSIRO makes Plasteel from soybeans

Study co-author Dr Dong Han Seo with the new graphene film Credit: CSIRO

The CSIRO has developed a new form of graphene 200 times stronger than steel and more conductive than copper.

And it has made it from soybean oil.

This development may lead to large scale commercial development of a super strong building material (such as the idea of Plasteel from Dune, which was later borrowed by Star Wars). Graphene is made of a layer of tightly-packed carbon and as well as being super strong, it is extremely light.

This method using cheap, easily available ingredients and a simple lab-based method means the material is likely to become more freely available, opening its use up for many new applications.

Space travel seems a certain starter, as weight is a crucial consideration in getting space vehicles into orbit.

It is also likely to be used in electronics, energy storage devices, supercapacitors, solar cells and medicine.

The team of Australian scientists, led by study co-author Dr Zhao Jun Han of the CSIRO, have published the results of the research in the journal Nature Communications.

Earth's cousin found circling red dwarf

Artist’s impression of GJ 1132b as it circles a red dwarf star. Image credit: Dana Berry.

The Astrophysical Journal has published an article for review that suggests a planet with some Earth like qualities has been found a mere 39 light years away.

New observations of red dwarf Wolf~1061, known to host three super-Earths, have shown it has radius, temperature and luminosity, in the range that may support planets similar to Earth. One such planet under observation is GJ-1132-b.

“We have shown that an Earth-mass planet is capable of sustaining a thick atmosphere,” says John Southworth, lecturer in astrophysics at Keele University in England and lead author on the discovery paper, in a Scientific American article.

“This is one step towards investigating whether a planet could host life.”

The researchers believe GJ-1132-b could include methane and water, and say bigger telescopes will be able to capture higher resolution images of the light passing through the planet’s atmosphere, enabling it to detect more of its components.

Tricky hatch blamed for three Apollo 1 astronaut deaths

The astronauts practise exiting the capsule. Unfortunately, during the fire, the hatch was too tricky to open in time. Credit: NASA

A fatal design flaw in Apollo 1 led to the deaths 50 years ago of three pioneering astronauts: veteran Gus Grissom, the first American spacewalker Ed White, and rookie Roger Chaffee.

They never made it off the launch pad when fire started in the capsule during a pre-launch test.

The crew couldn't open the capsule's three-part hatch and emergency rescue teams were too late to save them from smoke inhalation.

The problem hatch is now on display for visitors to at Kennedy Space Centre as part of a memorial and to serve as a reminder of the risks of spaceflight.

Former Gemini and Apollo astronaut Tom Stafford spoke at the memorial ceremony, saying that if the accident had occurred in space, they would never have known exactly what happened.

The deaths of these "three great heroes ... helped save at least one other in flight, maybe two," he added.

Investigators discovered several problems with the Apollo capsule design that led to the fire, including an electrical wiring issue, a pure-oxygen environment and flammable materials throughout the crew cabin.

The subsequent investigation led to major design and engineering changes, making the later Apollo trips safer, eventually resulting in the moon landing in 1969.

NASA has uploaded a video and online memorial to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the event.

The new hatch devised after the accident, which could be opened from the inside with a couple of simple actions. Credit: NASA

What will happen to Fisher's role as General Organa

The sad passing of Carrie Fisher this week left much sadness in the world of scifi and literature, but also left some questions about her role in the Star Wars series.

In Rogue One she was seen as a twenty year old, thanks to CGI effects.

Although the use of CGI was criticised, it would be hard to understand how else the producers could have got around the important link of Princess Leia from Rogue One to the original Star Wars: A New Hope.

It would have been very unsatisfying not to see her face and would have been absurd to use a different actress since Carrie Fisher played the part both before and after the Rogue One timeline. So CGI it was, and was as mercifully brief as possible - just long enough to make the connection.

The continuing Star Wars series is a different question as there is reportedly a much larger role for her character - now a General - in Star Wars VIII which has now wrapped principal photography.

However, it is not understood if the producers will rewrite the movie to include her death, continue with her through CGI or have her die off camera.

But whatever path they take, many may grieve for Carrie Fisher, but many others will also grieve for Leia Organa.

There have also been suggestions that her daughter Billie Lourd will play a larger part in future movies.

In a further sad development, her mother Debbie Reynolds passed away a day after Fisher.

Atmospheric Blade Runner 2049 trailer shows Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling crossing paths

Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard is alive but in hiding from what we can gather from the first trailer for the Blade Runner reboot, which features Ryan Gosling's K searching through a dystopian wilderness.

A synopsis leak has given us more clues about the action, while the trailer provides the atmosphere, with a mix of Mad Maxian desert and original steamy Blade Runner LA.

Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.

Blade Runner 2049 is being directed by Denis Villeneuve, and following the positive reception of his Arrival, hopes are high.

The script was written by original Blade Runner co-writer Hampton Fancher with Michael Green, who was behind the emotion-charged Wolverine movie Logan as well as Alien: Covenant (which recently wrapped in Sydney).

The first movie was based on Philip K Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, although it famously deviates from the novel. It will be interesting to see where the new story goes.

Original director Ridley Scott is in charge as executive producer.

Skyfall and No Country for Old Men cinematographer Roger Deakins will be creating the look. The cast also includes Jared Leto, Dave Bautista, Robin Wright, Ana de Armas, Mackenzie Davis, Carla Juri and Barkhad Abdi.

It's due to land in October 2017.

Enjoy the trailer below.

Chiang’s circles of life shine in Arrival

Circles are key in Arrival, a thought-provoking movie based on Ted Chiang’s short piece, The Story of Your Life.

Chiang has been described as a literary science fiction writer; and Arrival as intelligent sci-fi. So what I expected to see was something that values science over fiction. But this is intelligent in a different way: ideas are the strength, but it has a strong backbone of beautifully realised story.

And while science is there, it is mainly the “science” of linguistics.

In an early scene the protagonist, eminent linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams), squares off with number obsessed mathematician Ian Donelly (Jeremy Renner). To me, this suggested a conflict reminiscent of an Ian McEwan novel (Atonement, Saturday spring to mind) where two characters take up the mantle of either Science or the Arts, and fight a battle of left hand versus right ensues.

But with Arrival the conflict of ideas is a little fuzzier, and is more about the power of language, reminding me in some ways of two books about words creating their own realities, one by Iain Pears and the other by Marcel Theroux.

For me, the most engaging aspect of the movie and the script is its circularity, both a key theme and a beautiful story-telling device. The aliens (called heptapods due to their seven limbs) write in a non-linear, circular manner that resembles a tablecloth after a Sambuca party. The written language has no beginning or end, but must be read as a whole; and as Louise begins to understand this, her perception of time changes too.

This is based on a concept called linguistic relativity or the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in which it is proposed that language actually determines thought, instead of how your average Joe would accept it, which is the other way around.

The execution of translating Chiang’s ideas to screen was superbly handled by Canadian Denis Villeneuve. He is due to direct the upcoming Blade Runner reboot, and based on this it will definitely be worth a look.

But first off, I’m going to dig out some more Chiang, started perhaps with his take on AI in The Life Cycle of Software Objects, or his exploration of fundamentalist religious beliefs in Hell Is the Absence of God.

If you’ve seen the movie or read Chiang’s stories let me know what you think on my Facebook page.

Who forgot to put the cover on the Death Star exhaust port?

Recently departed space pioneer John Glenn has many famous quotes.

The best perhaps was "I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of two million parts - all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract."

The orbits had to be cut short after a malfunction.

It made me wonder who tended for the Death Star? A higher bidder would probably have forked out a few more galactic credits for an exhaust port cover.

Below is a diagram of the Mercury craft. You see more on that mission here.

This is also fun:

Space pioneer John Glenn passes away aged 95

Vale John Glenn, aged 95, (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016), space flight pioneer and the first American to orbit the Earth.

He restored US pride after first Yuri Gagarin and then Gherman Titov had successfully put Russia ahead in the space race. And at the age of 77, after a career in politics he did it all over again, becoming the oldest person ever to travel into orbit.

Below is a short doco on his famous flight in 1962, flying the Mercury spacecraft Friendship 7 for a space journey that would last more than four hours. During the trip Perth citizens flashed their lights so he could see the city as he passed over, for which he thanked them. He also saw weird flashing lights, like fireflies in space, but NASA seemed uninterested in his observations.

A malfunction occurred, so they forced an early splashdown after three orbits into the Atlantic.

He became so popular the president, John F Kennedy, allegedly refused to allow him to return to space the following year, lest he become a presidential contender. Instead, he became a senator in his home state of Ohio.

Did we literally come from comet dust?

The existence of life outside Earth appears much more likely following the discovery of key organic compounds on a comet studied by the European Space Agency (ESA).

The ESA's Rosetta spacecraft made several detections of the amino acid glycine, used by living organisms to make proteins, in the cloud of gas and dust surrounding the comet.

Extrapolating the find, the argument goes that these and necessary building blocks may have been instrumental in life forming on our planet if brought here by a similar comet. (Glycine was actually found on a comet in Utah in 2006, but there were questions about contamination of the samples.)

As other planets would also be peppered by these amino acids, including planets suitable for establishing life, then the possibility of life in other parts of the universe is seen as much more likely.

The picture shows the comet in question  (Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko) taken from Rosetta spacecraft.

Read more about it here.

Sexy scifi coming to TV with adaptation of Stranger in a Strange Land

Following the news that Robert A Heinlein's Starship Troopers is going to be rebooted, comes the news that his most famous book, Stranger in a Strange Land, will be made into a series for cable channel Syfy.

While Starship Troopers dealt with issues of military defence and citizenship, Stranger in a Strange Land looks at religion, free love and empathy. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians.

In 2012, the US Library of Congress named it one of 88 Books that Shaped America.

Elon Musk's 4400 satellites could provide worldwide wifi

An immense network of satellites capable of providing global wireless internet access is the latest plan of Elon Musk's SpaceX.

The Washington Post reports that an application was filed with the US Federal Communications Commission, proposing a fleet of what will eventually include more than 4400 satellites, covering the entire globe. SpaceX needs regulatory approval from the FCC to use the wireless airwaves that would power the network.

Orbiting more than 1100 km in the exosphere, the satellites could provide speeds as fast as 1 gigabit per second per user according to a technical attachment to the filing. SpaceX plans to start by launching 800 satellites.

Clever Cleverman writer picks up $10k John Hinde Science Fiction Award

Cleverman co-writer Michael Miller has won the Australian Writers Guild (AWG) 2016 John Hinde Award for Science Fiction.

The awards, funded by a bequest from the late Australian film critic John Hinde, offers $10,000 for the best produced script and professional support for the best unproduced script submitted each year.

The award was established to encourage, reward and foster creativity in the development and showcasing of science fiction writing for feature film, short film, television, radio and interactive media. It also provides an avenue for unproduced works to enter.

Miller won for the one for his produced script, while Graeme Burfoot for his unproduced screenplay, Red to Blue.

The AWG judges said Cleverman won the award for its intelligent and meticulous worldbuilding, fearless foregrounding of science-fictional elements and its creative exploration of current social issues.

Miller, who won for episode five of the Cleverman’s first season A Man of Vision, told IF magazine he believes sci-fi is a form that allows a writer to convey things not always so easily said in traditional formats.

“That was definitely part of the logic behind setting Cleverman in the future. It's exciting to think that Cleverman is one of several sci-fi-inspired shows on television at present,” he said.

“Science-fiction is clearly alive and well at the moment and awards like this help to keep the  dream alive. So again thanks to John Hinde for his vision in supporting and celebrating sci-fi in this country.”

Vote for your favourite scifi book of 2016

You still have a short time to vote for your favourite science fiction book of 2016 at Goodreads. The finalists are:

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch 
“Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by...

Morning Star (Red Rising, #3) by Pierce Brown 
Golden Son changed the game and took the story of Darrow to the next level...

A Murder in Time (Kendra Donovan, #1) by Julie McElwain
Beautiful and brilliant, Kendra Donovan is a rising star at the FBI. Yet her path to professional success hits a speed bump during a disastrous raid where half her team is murdered...

The Long Cosmos (The Long Earth, #5) by Terry Pratchett
Nearly six decades after Step Day and in the Long Earth, the new Next post-human society continues to evolve. For Joshua Valienté, now in his late sixties, it is time to take one last solo

Sleeping Giants (Themis Files, #1) by Sylvain Neuvel 
A page-turning debut in the tradition of Michael Crichton, World War Z, and The Martian, Sleeping Giants is a thriller fueled by an earthshaking mystery—and a fight to control a gargantuan power...

Crosstalk by Connie Willis
Science fiction icon Connie Willis brilliantly mixes a speculative plot, the wit of Nora Ephron, and the comedic flair of P. G. Wodehouse in Crosstalk a genre-bending novel that pushes social media...

Underground Airlines 
It is the present-day, and the world is as we know it: smartphones, social networking and Happy Meals. Save for one thing: the Civil War never occurred...

Bloodline by Claudia Gray
Witness the birth of the Resistance. When the Rebellion defeated the Empire in the skies above Endor, Leia Organa believed it was the beginning to a lasting peace. But after decades of vicious...

The Last One by Alexandra Oliva
Survival is the name of the game as the line blurs between reality TV and reality itself in Alexandra Oliva’s fast-paced novel of suspense. She wanted an adventure. She never imagined...

Lies, Damned Lies, and History (The Chronicles of St Mary's, #7) by Jodi Taylor
'I've done some stupid things in my time. I've been reckless. I've broken a few rules. But never before have I ruined so many lives or left such a trail of destruction behind me.' As Max would be the...

Final Round Voting Nov 15 - 27

Scarlett Johansson leads latest version of manga cyberpunk Ghost in the Shell

Paramount Pictures launched the trailer for Ghost in the Shell in Tokyo, a new take on the manga classic featuring Scarlett Johansson as lethal cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi.

Comparisons have been made with Matrix, due to the uncanny ability of Major to move as though everyone else stands still while sorting out her various adversaries. However, her more serious enemies don't attack with force, but attempt to hack into her system to reach her hybrid brain.

There have been several versions made previously, most recently the 2015 anime Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie.