Christopher McKitterick

Japan has an orbiter exploring the Moon right now, and they just published the first movie. So cool! Click here to view the movie.

Best,
Chris

Dear Macolytes:

What's the Mac equivalent of Notepad? That is, a program that does not add any formatting to the text and code typed into a file? Is it called Text Edit?

Thanks,
Chris

Astronomers have discovered a fifth planet orbiting the star 55 Cancri, making it the record-holder outside of good ol' Sol for number of confirmed planets orbiting one star. Interestingly, it's only 41 light-years away in the constellation Cancer, so we might be able to meet its denizens one day *g*

Here's an artist's representation of the newest find:

Click the image to see the story.

MSNBC is reporting the story from the angle that this new planet orbits in the habitable zone or, as they say, "the 'Goldilocks zone' - a place that's not too hot, not too cold, but just right for the existence of liquid water and conceivably life." Unfortunately for life, 55 Cancri (aka Rho Cancri) is a binary system, with a yellow dwarf similar to our Sun and a red dwarf. The two stars are separated by over 1000 AUs, or 1/63^rd of a light-year.

Cool beans! Thanks to scarlettina for the tip.

Best,
Chris