Satellite Shooting Practice, Mini-Me Solar System, Love Crater, Lunar Eclipse...

-->

The spy satellite that has been a failure since day one and is now hurdling toward earth with a payload of deadly gas now is skeet for the United States missile defense and anti-satellite weapons system program.  President Bush ordered the satellite, the size of a school bus and weighing over 5000 pounds, to be blown to bits before it crashes into earth.  Unfortunately, David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists, is concerned the 100,000 pieces of debris that the satellite will be blown into will effect space travel for years to come.

Astronomers have discovered a mini-me solar system resembling our own over 5,000 light-years across the galaxy.  The discovery was made by a new method known as "microlensing" which is based on a trick of Einsteinian gravity.  "Microlensing" has only discovered 6 planets but is poised to be a major new method in discovery is overshadowing  "Wobbling" the old search method that has discovered over 250 planets since 1995 and measures the gravitational pull of planets.   No method has been discovered  that can tell us if the mini-me solar system is inhabited or not.

Astronauts Love and Walheim on their  last space walk to finish the final details of attaching the European Lab to the International Space Station, discovered a small dent near the space stations air lock.  Although tiny, the dent could be perilous to astronauts if it had sharp edges that could catch or tear space suits.  The astronauts smoothed the dangerous crater.  The dent was named "Love Crater" by the crew for the name of its discoverer.

The third full lunar eclipse in the last year will occur on February 20th and will be the most spectacular of them all.  The eclipse will be highlighted by the proximity of Saturn and Regulus a bright blue star.   When the moon is eclipsed the light of Saturn and Regulus will create a bronze brilliance in the sky that won't be seen for another millennium.