Science
Every day during the year NASA posts an Astronomy Picture of the Day on one of its websites. And the "Most Stunning" photographs of 2012 are provided here for your enjoyment.
The reusable SpaceX VTVL rocket called Grasshopper made a giant leap forward on December 17, 2012, with a 131-foot (40-meter) takeoff and landing at its McGregor, Texas facility.
Since we made it through the Mayan doomsday a few days ago, let's celebrate our survival with some Holiday Lights, the conjunction of the planet Jupiter and the Moon on Christmas night.
The observation of the Higgs boson, sometimes also called the God particle, has been given the honor of being the "most important scientific discovery of 2012" by Science magazine, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
But it didn't - the Mayans were right, the charlatans were wrong.
The Legged Squad Support System, or LS3, is a horse-like robot being developed by DARPA with help from the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. The 2 minute, 15 second video shows what it can do, which it quite a bit.
So much for the "Mayan Prophesy!"
The European Space Agency is providing a novel way to send Christmas and Holiday greetings to your family, friends and colleagues. Fifteen "stunning" e-cards are available of various space images.
The late Sally K. Ride, the first U.S. woman in space, has been honored with the naming of the lunar site where twin GRAIL spacecraft impacted on December 17, 2012. Before her death on July 23, 2012, Dr. Ride was a member of the GRAIL mission team.
Many fly-by-night websites are telling you the world will end on December 21, 2012, and not-so-surprisingly they are also trying to sell you worthless survival stuff. However, still other well-known websites are doing their best to calm fears with scientific information showing why the world will not be ending on that date. See my list here on iTWire.com.
