I am a child of the Space Age, born slightly after the moon landing. There were a lot of space toys and books and games when I was little. Seriously, one of the books we had was "Let's Go to the Moon" which had an accurate description of the workings of a three stage rocket.
Because we lived in the South my brother and I were taken to the Kennedy Space Center (Florida) and the Johnson Space Center (Texas) multiple times. The highlight of the trips was the astronaut ice cream, touching the moon rocks, and in the Kennedy Space Center they let you climb in and out of an actual space capsule, which had more buttons than I had ever seen in one place. (I don't think they let you do that anymore.)
So today I'm excited to hear about the asteroid [Asteroid 2012 DA14] that is going to pass by us today. You can even see it live (Well, sorta. Can you call a lump of frozen rock live? Sorry. I digress.). Slate magazine has a list with links to the observatories showing it here.
The people in Russia are probably not as enthusiastic. A large meteor exploded over the Ural Mountains this morning, creating a sonic boom that has injured approximately a thousand people. Story here.
It's a dangerous universe out there. All the more reason we should find out all we can.
Friday Fun Video
Carl Sagan at his most poetic.
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