I suppose the age of the astronauts – they are all well over 25 so that should be relatively cheap then; the speed of travel – very fast I’d say so are there extra rates for that…?; what area will the spaceship be travelling in…? a long way from earth – so what cost for that? one thing is certain though, there would be no third-party needed because who are they going to bump the spaceship into!

Only one young planet, aged 100 million years, was previously known but the newly-discovered planet is about three times younger. University of Hertfordshire astronomer Dr Maria-Cruz Galvez-Ortiz, who was among the international team which identified the planet, described it as ‘an exciting discovery’. Young stars are usually excluded from planet searches because they have intense magnetic fields that generate a range of phenomena known collectively as stellar activity, including flares and spots. This can make it difficult to disentangle the signals of planets and activity.

The news may come as something of a surprise to the U.S space agency, who down-scaled the threat of the 885ft rock hitting Earth in 2029 from one in 37 to virtually non existent. Nasa predicts the asteroid will peacefully pass us by, coming no nearer than 18,000miles away. There is a tiny possibility that Apophis could hit Earth in 2035 however, although again the odds of this happening have been lowered from 1 in 45,000 to 1 in 250,000.

Scientists have long theorised about asteroid deflection strategies. Some have proposed sending a probe to circle around a dangerous asteroid to gradually change its trajectory. Others suggested sending a spacecraft to collide with the asteroid and alter its momentum, or using nuclear weapons to hit it.

Scientists have created a Star Trek style phaser that can be used to both stun and revive creatures. However so far the weapon, which uses a special form of light, has only been used on tiny worms, not menacing Klingons. Canadian researchers fed pinhead-sized worms with a solution containing the molecule dithienylethene. This changed the molecular structure and colour of the worms when they were exposed to different light wavelengths. When the scientists shone an ultraviolet light on the transparent creatures they turned blue and couldn’t move. A beam of normal light then revived most of the worms although a few did not survive the process.

It is reminiscent of the fictional phaser used in the TV series Star Trek that could stun or kill adversaries using a beam of light. At present doctors use light-sensitive materials and photo-reactions in medicine to treat certain forms of cancer and the study authors hope their research can contribute.

‘This is not a real crater. It is artificial,’ Uldis Nulle, a scientist at the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Center, said after inspecting the site today. Earlier Uldis had said his first impression late last night was that the crater had been caused by a meteorite. He said there was smoke coming out of the hole when he arrived.

Dainis Ozols, a nature conservationist, said he believes someone dug the hole and tried to make it look like a meteorite crater by burning some pyrotechnic compound at the bottom. He added he would analyse some samples taken from the site. Experts outside Latvia said it would be unusual for such a large meteorite to hit the Earth. The planet is constantly bombarded with objects from outer space, but most burn up in the atmosphere and never reach the surface.

For the former – that’s if NASA is correct, and for the latter – that’s if the Mayans have got it right. Whatever you want to believe, this theory of the world coming to a rather nasty end on 21/12/12 would serve a lot of people very right should it be true. I mean, we humans have not exactly been very good tenants during our time on this planet have we…? we have destroyed huge swathes of forest and landscape, killed untold millions of our fellow man (and continue to do so…), wiped out unique species of plants and creatures and rendered our oceans and waterways unsustainable for the life it supported.

So why shouldn’t we be punished for doing so…? we complain about people who care about the environment, we sneer at ‘tree-huggers’ and refuse to ditch the evil plastic bag and carbon fuels because we are too lazy or unbothered to do so. This planet was doing fine until a hundred or so years ago – until industry gave us wealth and progress, which was fine – however at what ultimate cos…?

Dr Jessica Sunshine, one of the researchers who found the water, said: ‘It’s sort of just sticking on the surface. We always think of the Moon as dead, and this is sort of a dynamic process that’s going on.’ Ten years ago, scientists found traces of water lying in the shadowy craters at the Moon’s poles.  The latest announcement comes two weeks before a Nasa probe will be smashed near the Moon’s south pole to see whether it can kick up buried ice.

The discovery, with three studies being published in the journal Science today and a Nasa briefing, could refocus interest in the moon.

The doodles were a UFO and strange crop circles and had the online world abuzz as to what Google were getting at. Each day has seen different drawings but each carried a clue pointing towards the birthdate of Wells – the final being a scene from War of the Worlds. Old Herbert George would be pleased; he would be 143 years old and he fooled people back in 1898 with his stories of mars and martians just as Google flummoxed a more sophisticated audience today.

You look at the set and you think about turning it on…and it switches on! yep, soon we might be able to switch on our tv’s using nothing but telepathy. Now, I wonder if we will be able to change channels that way as well???

No, it is not a Hollywood disaster film, it is a solar superstorm and it could very well plunge our world into complete darkness in a matter of hours.

While this artist’s impression certainly looks stunning I am sure the real event will frighten the life out of most of us – mobile phones will cease to work, the internet will grind to a halt and die.
No television, satellites or radio transmission either. Sounds serious…but what a reason to buy a camcorder!