While NASA fades, Europe brings us new pictures of the universe

Well, at least somebody is still exploring space. Thanks to the European Space Agency we now can see what the Universe looked like right after the big bang. Doing the work Obama won’t let Americans do … anymore.”

Hopefully you have already read about the swell new mission for our own NASA, an organization that the Obama Administration has, petty much, eviscerated. But here’s the rest of the story.

Today the European Space Agency released a new picture from the Plank observatory that shows the very beginning of the universe. “The Big Bang” from a European satellite.

A European satellite has beamed home its first map of the entire sky as seen in microwave light, to the delight of astronomers hoping to catch a glimpse at the earliest days of the universe.

The new sky map from the Planck observatory is the most detailed microwave map of the sky and is a record of the oldest light in the universe, so it could have important ramifications for cosmology – including insights into the formation of the universe 13.7 billion years ago.

Here’s Michio Kaku with the significance.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTHWsRgkm3U

Fantastic! This is the kind of breakthrough stuff we used to do. BTW, how much did it cost Europe? If my calculations are correct … a billion dollars, US.

The ESA’s Planck Telescope cost 600 Million Euros, and scientists are relieved that the orbiter’s instruments have proven so precise. David Southwood, director of science and robotic exploration at the ESA says the success of the mission will pay huge dividends for the scientific community.

Huge dividends? Imagine that.

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

10 Comments

  1. winnie888 on July 6, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    Jim!  That is the COOLEST!!!

    The Europeans are just doing the space exploration that Americans don't want to do.  hee hee hee…



  2. Anne-EH on July 6, 2010 at 1:48 pm

    Jim, those pictures ARE AWSOME! :)=^..^=

    But the sad thing is that this is the science Obama's NASA has abandon.



  3. Wind on July 6, 2010 at 5:05 pm

    This is a Billion I don't mind being spent. It brings us closer to why we are here and where we probably have to go when we trash this planet.  Beam me up! :))



  4. sammy22 on July 7, 2010 at 4:20 am

    I can't believe my eyes: the 3 of you + Jim are in favor of space exploration/NASA/spending taxpayer money on this kind of research??



    • Steve McGough on July 7, 2010 at 9:27 am

      Maybe conservatives are in favor of spending money on this research since it – in many people's opinion – falls under the general (a.k.a. nation's) welfare? The federal government handing out $60,000 here and $60,000 there for brick sidewalks in Anytown, USA, is NOT for the nation's welfare,  but for a specific town, rather… a few blocks in a specific town.

      The "general" welfare mention in the US Constitution has been debated for a long time. Up until the New Deal Era, the general welfare was defined as spending money on projects that would support the entire nation, not just one town, state or region.

      The line now is completely washed away … which has been my struggle to rebuild for years. I'm not exactly certain where that line should be drawn, but I think space exploration is a benefit to the entire nation, while brick sidewalks, fire trucks, and education grants are not.



    • PatRiot on July 8, 2010 at 7:52 am

      This is not where any of us commentors want to be – arguing amongst ourselves. Not when there are so many politicians in need of our attention.

      The amount of real civilian jobs generated by the space program cannot be ignored.  Being able to research who and why we are is vital to the human spirit.  And just like art and music, the space program is at risk because of the DC fools and their bad habits.  That means our creative spirits, dreams and ambitions are at risk.  This is a rallying point.   Our basic human needs, God given rights and the Constitution as our focus will see us through.   

       



    • winnie888 on July 10, 2010 at 1:45 am

      It seems to me that, in the past, NASA and their role in space exploration, was an excellent panacea during difficult times in our nation's history….Who is Obama to just waltz in and kill it all?  And he sits there piling on hope & change b.s.?  What he neglected to mention was that the hope & change wasn't for us morons in the U.S. … we have to make the muslims feel "important" and "good" about themselves.  That is NOT the role of the NASA I grew up with and it makes me sick that this hack of a president would MAKE it NASA's role.  Okay…I'm done venting now…



  5. Tim-in-Alabama on July 7, 2010 at 6:57 am

    While these high-falutin' pictures are pretty, they do nothing to improve the self-esteem of the Muslim world. It's pretty clear that the priorities of NASA and European Space Agency can never be reconciled until the Europeans stop spending so much of their space agency resources exploring space.



    • Dimsdale on July 7, 2010 at 5:17 pm

      Maybe those revealing pictures need a burkha….



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