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December 19, 2020 Archives
Saturday, December 19, 2020
THE HAPPENING WORLD: Chateau Egout Grand Cru 2020
Illegal winery busted at Alabama town's sewage plant https://t.co/90ir8XOXwm
— MontanaMama🐻 (@406mama) December 19, 2020
TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Chang'e 5 Samples Removed from Return Capsule
The Chang'e-5 lunar samples container has been removed from the reentry capsule and found to have a mass of 1,731 grams (just under the ~2 kg planned). Images from China Space News. https://t.co/nZh43pyRD4 pic.twitter.com/tToxOvHUuB
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) December 19, 2020
CONTEXT: Alien Hunters Discover Mysterious Signal from Proxima Centauri
Did Breakthrough Listen find aliens? https://t.co/xhkHfHfscL@worden ?
— creon levit (@creon) December 19, 2020
As usual, Scientific Enquirer goes for clicks over accuracy. “[F]rom Proxima Centauri” overstates the precision: a single radio telescope, and the Parkes dish in particular, is sensitive to “side lobes” coming from directions other than where the telescope is aimed. This makes them vulnerable to picking up signals from terrestrial sources or those in Earth or solar orbit, and any SETI candidate signal requires confirmation by at least two independent observatories in different locations. That hasn't happened here, nor has the narrowband, unmodulated signal repeated.
THE HAPPENING WORLD: “Guardians”…of the Galaxy!
Today, after a yearlong process that produced hundreds of submissions and research involving space professionals and members of the general public, we can finally share with you the name by which we will be known: Guardians. pic.twitter.com/Tmlff4LKW6
— United States Space Force (@SpaceForceDoD) December 18, 2020
CONTINUITY: SpaceX/NROL-108 Launch, Second Attempt
This morning’s Falcon 9 launch window opens in two hours at 9am EST (1400 UTC) and runs until 12pm EST (1700 UTC).
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 19, 2020
A top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office is awaiting launch on the Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.https://t.co/6EVsocdJ32 pic.twitter.com/yzY26Y4xkv
Weather is predicted as 90% favourable for launch.