Week #4 If Superman Can Do It...

This week I am taking a step aside from Rhizobium and focusing on a the presentation a group of us attended yesterday given by Dr. Claudia Alexander et al. involving the landing of a satellite on a comet. Before attending the presentation, I looked at her C.V. and a newspaper article Amanda circulated. If awestruck describes how I felt before listening to an individual with a PhD in Physics and Space Plasma, I was moonstruck by the time the presentation was over.

Was this science fiction or science fact? I arrived at about 10:50 and The Hacienda Room was already standing room only. Well, I actually secured a chair but offered it to Matt who in turn gave it to Paul. I wasn't happy with all the late arrivals and the locked doors should have been a blatant sign that admittance was no longer allowed; however, the outsiders insisted, the insiders resisted, but to no avail. 

For those of you who missed it, between the European Space Agency and Nasa, we have managed to land a satellite about the size of a dishwasher on a comet orbiting in deep space (around the depths of Jupiter), at a speed of approximately 84,000 miles per hour and with a gravitational pull around 60,000 times less than earth, put it to sleep for three years to conserve energy, and awake it on January 20th of this year; all in the name of collecting potential extraterrestrial material. 

What? If we can manage that, I have a on-going list of items which I think should be fairly simplistic to accomplish yet still poses a threat to the human race. Awestruck, Moonstruck, and now, simply flabbergasted. Thanks for sharing the invite with us Amanda. It was time well spent.