"They go to this planet full ofthe brown Muppets..."

Star Wars, Episode IV-VI, as told by someone who has never seen it before.



(via Bonnie via Boing Boing)

NASA finds mystery booming sound in deep space

There is something extremely loud out there.

"The universe really threw us a curve," Kogut says. "Instead of the faint signal we hoped to find, here was this booming noise six times louder than anyone had predicted." Detailed analysis ruled out an origin from primordial stars or from known radio sources, including gas in the outermost halo of our own galaxy. The source of this cosmic radio background remains a mystery.

Many objects in the universe emit radio waves. In 1931, American physicist Karl Jansky first detected radio static from our own Milky Way galaxy. Similar emission from other galaxies creates a background hiss of radio noise.

The problem, notes team member Dale Fixsen of the University of Maryland at College Park, is that there don't appear to be enough radio galaxies to account for the signal ARCADE detected. "You'd have to pack them into the universe like sardines," he says. "There wouldn't be any space left between one galaxy and the next."

Someone get a broom and bang on the ceiling. Earth is trying to watch American Idol down here.

(via Gizmodo)

"Shopping for pants. Wait. I don't have legs."

The MarsPhoenix has a Twitter feed. In the first person.

Why is it that when I picture MarsPhoenix, I picture WALL•E?

10 Billion Trillion Trillion Carat Diamond.

So the BBC reports that 50 light years away, in the constellation Centaurus, is the compressed heart of an old star. Officially called BPM 37093, but given the nickname "Lucy." And it's core is crystalized carbon. A great big diamond.

That just makes me happy for some reason.