When astronauts (or cosmonauts for that matter) from a different country get into a fight, which country’s law does apply? (via Slashdot) According to a 1967 treaty (Outer Space Treaty), states have legal jurisdiction within spacecraft registered (‘owned’) by them, which more or less compares with current maritime treaties. Imagine keelhauling with the CanadArm! Pirates of The Void. Yeeargh.
Earlier this week, researchers discovered a fifth planet around star 55 Cancri. The star itself is 41 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Cancer. This brought me to a couple of sites that track down ‘extra solar planets’. The first one is the Extrasolar Planet Encyclopedia, which truly reads like a 1995 website (Good memories). The second one is JPL’s ‘PlanetQuest’, which sounds like the title of a typical 80s adventure movie. That aside, both websites have excellent explanations how astronomers can detect planets around stars (PDF file!).
I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this before, but there’s going to be a remake of the 50s classic ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’, which will star Keanu (“Klaatu”) Reeves and Jennifer Connelly (@wikipedia). The last time I saw this movie was when I was way smaller and when everybody still had black and white TVs in their livingrooms.