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Martian Mother Writes “Atari Anonymous”

It’s a common phenomenon, at least in commercials and sitcoms: Mom stresses out while her family has fun. In this ad from the early 1980s, a Martian family has loads of fun playing the Atari 2600 version of Asteroids—everybody but mom, that is. They won’t eat, they won’t do their chores, they just play that … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Apollo Astronaut Claims Asteroid-Nuking Missile Program Is Front For Weaponizing Space

When you listen to Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart talk about the US government’s current approach to deflecting ELE asteroids away from Earth, you’d be excused for thinking the great minds at NASA had watched Armageddon a few too many times. That’s because NASA’s preferred method, as outlined in a 2007 report, is to blast threatening … Continued

io9

The Asteroid that Killed the Martian Magnetic Field

Click to viewOne of the many mysteries of Mars is how the planet lost its magnetic field 4 billion years ago. Evidence suggests the planet once had a magnetic field just like Earth’s, created by a churning molten dynamo in the planetary core. But what could have caused that core to stop spinning, and stop … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

House of Representatives Passes Bill to Protect Us from Asteroids

Don’t worry, folks: Our trusted representatives in government just saw the movie Armageddon, and they aren’t going to take the threat posed by this mediocre 1998 action movie lying down. They’re going to pass laws to make sure we’re prepared to face any asteroid-related threat without having to send a bunch of oil drillers into … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

German Schoolboy Corrects NASA’s Math – We’re All Doomed

NASA has been forced to check its math after a 13-year-old German boy wrote to tell them their calculations for the probability of an asteroid hitting earth were incorrect. Agency bosses had predicted a one-in-45,000 chance of an interstellar object bringing an end to life as we know it; that was until teen Nico Marquardt … Continued

io9

Early Warning System A Success, If You Don’t Think About It Too Much

Determined to look on the bright side of life, astronomers are claiming that mistaking a Russian spacecraft for an asteroid plummeting towards Earth and sure to cause chaos and destruction is actually proof that their technology works very well, thank you very much. “The system is there to try to accurately assess an object,” says … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

Bustin Rocks with Asteroids Jacket

Relive your days as an Asteroids wizard with this softshell coat from 06.Jackets. It has industrial-strength waterproofing, so you can fend off those thunderstorms just as well as you used to fend off those pesky rocks playing roids back in the day. It’s got plenty of places to store your stuff, with lots of stash … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

Asteroids Watch – But I Want to Play!

Fossil is coming out with a line of watches with arcade game themes. This one, inspired by the ultimate in vector graphics, Asteroids, features the hero—a triangle—fighting off the villain and his minions—the squarish blocky things. Remember Asteroids? I think it came out in 1979 and there was a mod you could download via punchcard, … Continued