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A beautiful pinwheel in space might one day blast Earth with death rays, scientists now report. Unlike the moon-sized Death Star from Star Wars, which has to get close to a planet to blast it, this blazing spiral has the potential to burn worlds from thousands of light-years away. "I used to appreciate this spiral just for its beautiful form, but now I can't help a twinge of feeling that it is uncannily like looking down a rifle barrel," said researcher Peter Tuthill, an astronomer at the University of Sydney. The fiery pinwheel in space in question has at its...

Earth could be in for a neighborhood dispute with a death star, according to an Australian astronomer. A spectacular rotating pinwheel system just down the astronomical road from Earth — 8,000 light years away — includes an unstable Wolf-Rayet star that could explode. Eight years ago, WR104 was discovered in the constellation Sagittarius by Sydney University astronomer Peter Tuthill. A Wolf-Rayet star is the last step on the way to a supernova — the explosion of a star at the end of its life. Images from the Mauna Kea in Hawaii telescope show that every eight months the two stars...

We’ve all heard the “official conspiracy theory” of the Death Star attack. We all know about Luke Skywalker and his ragtag bunch of rebels, how they mounted a foolhardy attack on the most powerful, well-defended battle station ever built. And we’ve all seen the video over, and over, and over, of the one-in-a-million shot that resulted in a massive chain reaction that not just damaged, but completely obliterated that massive technological wonder.

'Star Wars' Memories: A long time ago, in a Fourplex far far away ... http://www.parade.com/features/touchstones/070514-star-wars-memories.html http://tinyurl.com/yo8ocn TOUCHSTONES By Jim Gorant Published: May 14, 2007 It was a blazing day in June 1977 when my aunt and cousin came to visit. I was 10, my brother 8, our cousin 6, an awkward playgroup to start with, and to make it worse, our house in northern New Jersey was not air-conditioned. The adults encouraged us to play outside. We made a humid and soggy attempt at wiffleball, but it was no use. We were hot. They didn’t care. We were bored. They...

What really happened after the Deathstar blew up

Many are claiming that the destruction of the Death Star was not a result of the Rebel Attack and its valiant fighter pilots (especially the hero of the Resistance, young Luke Skywalker), but instead was the result of internal sabotage. That's right - the demise of the Death Star was an inside job. Like many Americans, I was fed this story when I was growing up. But as I watched the video, I began to realize that all was not as it seemed. And the more I questioned the official story, the deeper into the rabbit hole I went. Presented...

The new measurements pinpoint the location of a disk of warm dust that surrounds Zeta Leporis. The dust lies about the same distance from the star as the solar system's asteroid belt lies from the sun, Margaret M. Moerchen and Charles M. Telesco of the University of Florida in Gainesville and their colleagues report in an upcoming Astrophysical Journal Letters... The close-in dust around Zeta Leporis probably arose when several asteroids bumped into each other, grinding rock into a fine spray of particles, or when a large asteroid, perhaps 100 kilometers in diameter, suffered a cataclysmic wallop, Moerchen and Telesco...

This is LONDON 18/02/05 - Showbiz! section Star Wars III to open Cannes By Baz Bamigboye, Daily Mail The Cannes Film Festival is going to the dark side. After months of negotiations between George Lucas and festival officials, Star Wars: Episode III - The Revenge Of The Sith will open the festival in the South of France in May. It's hoped that Ewan McGregor, who plays the young Obi-Wan Kenobi, will attend, although he'll be about to open in Michael Grandage's new London stage version of Guys And Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre. It could be a star-packed Cannes this...

Saturn's moon is the double of Star Wars space station David Adam, science correspondent Tuesday February 15, 2005 Guardian That's no moon, it's a space station. Actually it's Saturn's satellite Mimas, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Death Star - the planet-destroying space station in the film Star Wars. Scientists at Nasa's jet propulsion laboratory in California have released a new image of Mimas, which was snapped by the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around the ringed planet. Mimas is one of the innermost moons of Saturn. Its most prominent feature is a giant crater some 6 miles deep and...

General says he'll come up with $150 million if scientists produce mobile device within 18 months.A two-star Army general threw down a challenge last week to Lawrence Livermore scientists: He will beat the bushes for more than $150 million if scientists can build the world's first mobile battle laser for test firing in 18 months. Livermore laser engineer Bob Yamamoto had been begging for this chance. But Livermore, specializing in nuclear explosives, never has built a full-up, firing weapons system for the battlefield. "Eighteen months is very aggressive, and I'm saying that very politely," said Yamamoto. On Tuesday, Major Gen....

Israeli, US astronauts die in shuttle blast over ‘Palestine’ By Barbara Ferguson, Arab News StaffWASHINGTON, 2 February 2003 — All seven crew of the American space shuttle Columbia, including the first ever Israeli astronaut, were killed yesterday when the craft disintegrated in flames just minutes before it was scheduled to land. In a tragic irony, the Columbia exploded with its Israeli astronaut on board over a city named Palestine in the state of Texas. The cause of the disaster was not immediately clear, but residents in north Texas heard a loud boom as Columbia passed overhead. “I could see two...