A Few Interesting Matters From Space.Com (http://www.space.com ).
This site is a gathering point for all things astronomical, cosmological and astronautical. What follows is a few articles that I found interesting in the last few posts. You can sign up for regular updates from this site. Good to explore.
1)Dirty Son-Of-A-Bitch division.
The annual Perseid meteor shower is due to peak tomorrow (August 12th). Best viewing is, of course, as with any meteor shower in the early morning of the 13th because of the angle of rotation. In the early morning hours the meteors are "oncoming" rather than playing "catch-up" But SDC says that a lot of this year's event will be obscured by an almost full moon (actual date August 9th). Posted on SDC on August 4th/2006.
2)Posted on August 7th/2006 the article 'The Universe Might Be Bigger and Older than Expected" discusses that a recent study of the distance to the 'Triangulum Galaxy', one of several "cosmological landmarks" suggests that the Hubble Constant is actually about 15% smaller than the accepted value. These results will be published in an upcoming issue of 'Astronomical Journal'. This would put the age of the universe at about 15.8 billion years rather than the commonly accepted value of 13.7 years. The study depends upon calculations of the 'true luminosities' of binary stars, just as calculations of true luminosity are often made via Cepheid variables. The new findings, of course, have still to be confirmed, though I must admit that the younger age implied by the previous estimates of the Hubble constant have always bothered me.
3)Finally, an article posted on August 8th/2006 entitled 'Organic Molecules Found in Diverse Space Places' (published in a recent edition of 'Astrophysical Journal') spoke about finding 8 organic molecules in as diverse places as nebulae and interstellar voids. The total # of biologically-relevant molecules now found in space is about 141, including even benzene (see the famous story of how the discovery of benzene was related to a dream about the self devouring serpent 'Tiamat'). All of this is connected to the origin of life. Is life indeed the dream of Tiamat ?