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Explanation: Globular star cluster Omega Centauri, also known as NGC 5139, is some 15,000 light-years away. The cluster is packed with about 10 million stars much older than the Sun within a volume about 150 light-years in diameter. It's the largest and brightest of 200 or so known globular clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though most star clusters consist of stars with the same age and composition, the enigmatic Omega Cen exhibits the presence of different stellar populations with a spread of ages and chemical abundances. In fact, Omega Cen may be the remnant core...

MEMORANDUM FOR THE VICE PRESIDENT THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE THE SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION THE SECRETARY OF ENERGY THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY THE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE THE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION THE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFFSUBJECT: The National Space PolicySection 1. References. This directive supersedes Presidential Policy Directive...

Vice President Mike Pence said that the U.S. has more military satellites than any other country. Verdict: True The U.S. has 166 military satellites, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Russia and China have the next largest constellations at 89 and 84 military satellites, respectively.

Leonard Nimoy, who lived long and prospered, died Friday at his Los Angeles home. The creator of Mr. Spock, television’s most beloved pointy-eared half-Vulcan, was 83 and had suffered for several years from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), which makes it difficult to breathe. “I quit smoking 30 yrs ago,” he tweeted last week. “Not soon enough. I have COPD. Grandpa says, quit now!! LLAP.” “LLAP” was Spock’s best-known catch phrase: Live long and prosper. To many of his fans, Leonard Nimoy was a one-hit wonder. One hit that lasted half a century. Nimoy created the beloved Mr. Spock in...

Outgoing senior Obama adviser John Podesta reflected on his latest White House stint Friday, listing his favorite moments and biggest regrets from the past year. Chief among them: depriving the American people of the truth about UFOs.

Reason‘s Nick Gillespie recently posted a list of the five most anti-libertarian television shows ever, and there’s a serious error. Actually, there are two serious errors. The first, larger error is that Reason put together a list of the five best libertarian TV shows, and they left off “Firefly,” which simply boggles the mind. The smaller error is that Gillespie names “Star Trek” among the anti-libertarian shows. Even worse is the reason he gives: “The Starship Enterprise’s adventures throughout the galaxy are supposedly guided by the Federation’s ‘prime directive,’ which forbids humans from intervening in the domestic affairs of the...

Atlanta, GA -- Newt 2012 National Security Advisor Stephen Yates shared the following statement in response to Senator Rick Santorum's criticism of Newt Gingrich's American space policy: "I am deeply concerned that Senator Santorum so easily relinquishes space development to the Chinese and Russians. "American success in space is not only about being the first to develop a station on the moon. It is just as much about the explosion of math, science, engineering and national security technology that will launch America into a new age of innovation and prosperity. "We owe it to ourselves to set grandiose goals and...

HAMPTON Start with the big numbers - 354 million miles to Mars and a spacecraft weighing 7,000 pounds and traveling at 13,000 mph. Then go to the small numbers - an eight-month journey ending with seven minutes in nail-biting final descent. Put them together and you've got something that NASA Langley's David Way has worked toward for 10 years: the landing on Mars of NASA's newest planetary rover, Curiosity, scheduled to launch Saturday. More than 100 researchers and technicians at NASA Langley Research Center have worked on the mission. "When I started this project, my wife and I had a...

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that NASA administrator Charles Bolden was wrong to claim that reaching out to the Muslim world was a top priority for the U.S. space agency. Bolden raised eyebrows in the space community and outrage among conservative pundits by telling Al-Jazeera television recently President Barack Obama had instructed him to work for better outreach with the Muslim world. He said Obama told him one of his top priorities was to "find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about...

From a Nexis search a few moments ago: Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program in the New York Times: 0. Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program in the Washington Post: 0...

Remember NASA? It once represented to the world the apogee of American scientific and technological achievement. Here is President Obama's vision of NASA's mission, as explained by administrator Charles Bolden: "One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and math and engineering." Apart from the...

Ralph Kramden, bus driver and moon launch specialist, says that reaching the Muslim world is much more important than his plan to send his wife to the moon. "The President was very specific about this," Kramden said. "My first job, my first priority, is to reach out to the Muslim world and to stoke their interest in science." Kramden had planned that one of these days he would send his wife--zam, pow--right to the moon. Priorities have changed in the Obama's more expansive view of space travel. Long-time political ally, Ed Norton, said the move is unexpected.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world. Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel. "When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator -- he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help...

Priorities: NASA's chief says his mission is not to return us to space but to help the Muslim world feel good about its scientific contributions. The moon we should be landing on should not be crescent-shaped. At a time when the only missile programs in the Arab world, namely in Syria and Iran, are aimed at hitting Israel with chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, NASA administrator Charles Bolden goes on Al Jazeera to tell the Muslim world his "foremost" goal was to make them feel good about their achievements in math, science and engineering.

Former NASA Director Says Muslim Outreach Push 'Deeply Flawed' The former head of NASA on Tuesday described as "deeply flawed" the idea that the space exploration agency's priority should be outreach to Muslim countries, after current Administrator Charles Bolden made that assertion in an interview last month. fox news The former head of NASA on Tuesday described as "deeply flawed" the idea that the space exploration agency's priority should be outreach to Muslim countries, after current Administrator Charles Bolden made that assertion in an interview last month. "NASA ... represents the best of America. Its purpose is not to inspire...

In this spoof, NASA has a new plan for reaching out to Muslims and making them feel good about their historic contributions to science. Barack H. Obama 666 Pennsylvania Ave Washington, DC 20006 Dear Sir, I cannot tell you how much we appreciate your budget cuts, your cancellation of the space shuttle and any replacement launch vehicle for it, forcing us to rely on Russian Soyuz ships and their space program, which can't It will take approximately 3000 suicide bombers within the SRB's to provide adequate liftoff thrust for the shuttle launch. All systems go! even seem to dock with...

Nasa administrator Charles Bolden has said that Qatar and the US will work together to develop science, technology and educational programmes in the future. Bolden spoke yesterday at the residence of US Ambassador to Qatar Joseph LeBaron, where he discussed the approach of President Barack Obama’s administration to science and technology, and reaffirmed the commitment the US president made in his Cairo speech one year ago to improving relations with the Muslim world. The former astronaut visited Doha having been to Egypt, and during his brief stay here he met the ministers of education and environment as well as other...

"...he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with predominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering."

WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked him to “find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries” as the White House pushes the space agency to become a tool of international diplomacy. “In addition to the nations that most of you usually hear about when you think about the International Space Station, we now have expanded our efforts to reach out to non-traditional partners,” said Bolden, speaking to a lecture hall of young engineering students. Specifically, he talked about connecting with countries that do not have an established space program and helping...

JSC Today Headlines 1. Joint Leadership Team Web Poll 12. June is LGBT Pride Month 13. Weight Watchers at Work - Note Room Change ________________________________________ 1. Joint Leadership Team Web Poll Nearly 70 percent of respondents last week recognized "Deep Space" as the bogus Mission Directorate. Sounded pretty real though. You clearly believe that the head of BP is having the most difficult time with his public image by far. It may take a long while for that to be fixed. This week the question is about the recent SpaceX launch. Did they perform better than you expected? Just like...