These are the top stories from the Digg Space category for the week ending Saturday 31st of May 2008:

• 1 Image of the Purported Alien
• 2 Saturn”s Titan yields tantalizing clues of life beyond Earth
• 3 Descent of the Phoenix! [Astronomy Photo of the Day]
• 4 A huge collection of Space shuttle Atlantis photos
• 5 CSI:…

Here is a great astronomy website for some fun this weekend called Down2Earth. You input some parameters and then simulate an asteroid impact on Earth. You can select the asteroid’s size, speed, density and target material. Try it out! (Screenshots inside).

Wired does great, little articles very well. This one concerns a solar eclipse in Asia Minor that ended a battle and how astronomy has helped to date the events. read more | digg story

Over the past two and a half years, NASA astronomers have observed the Moon flashing at them not just once but one hundred times. This great NASA site shows you some great images. read more | digg story

The Google Lunar X Prize competition is open to all, but to take your best shot at the pot, you’ll need a good game plan. Popular Mechanics can help. read more | digg story

It is Carnival time again and this week’s host is the Lifeboat Foundation. I submitted two links to this week’s carnival but neither have made the cut. One was the debate on the compatibility of science and religion and the other was the website for the .Astronomy Conference. Thus, I have included…

Here is my response to the Compatibility of Science and Religion debate.

I am running a conference in September and I’m inviting astronomers and astronomy bloggers from anywhere! If you’re interested in how astronomy and the internet can combine to produce new and interesting tools for research and communication then this conference is for you.

Plantetary landers are far from my speciality, so I’ll not dwell on Phoenix too long. Last night’s landing was well-covered by the blogosphere and in particular (took the BBC ages to catch up in fact), I was following the MarsPhoenix Twitter feed and The Planetary Society. The University of Arizona has an excellent…

A British artist, Paul St. George, has create a ‘telectroscope’ connecting New York and London. The two portals allow people to stare at each other, in real-time, across the atlantic. People have been holding up messages and waving at eachother since the victorianesque device opens this week. How doe sit…

These are the top stories from the Digg Space category for the week ending Saturday 24th of May 2008:

• 1 Hubble: New Red Spot Appears on Jupiter
• 2 Gallery: Inside NASA”s Mars Mission
• 3 How can you NOT know Titan”s atmosphere is mostly nitrogen?
• 4 Birth cry of a supernova
• 5 Pipsqueak Star Unleashes Monster Flare…

Debate topic: “Science and religion are ultimately incompatible world views”. To join in, post on your blog and then comment with a link, or just comment here.

There are now three red spots on Jupiter! Star Stryder has the details.

This week’s Carnival of Space is being hosted by a website called Catholic Sensibility, who’s subtitle “faith in God, life on Earth, inspiration for the pilgrimage … the important things” seems somewhat out of place amongst the space postings. Looking back over the blog’s previous posts I see the author is…

Phoenix will soon land on Mars to read the water meter (amongst other things). You can keep up to date via The Planetary Society and interestingly via Twitter.

What is the Timecube? Well obviously it is the fact that we think we have 24 hour days, but actually we have four sides of a 96 hour timecube. Duh! This incredible crazy-person website is well worth a trawl.

These are the top stories from the Digg Space category for the week ending Saturday 17th of May 2008:

• 1 Key Molecule Discovered in Venus”s Atmosphere
• 2 Astronomers measure temperature - 11 billion years ago
• 3 How to Escape From a Black Hole
• 4 “Nail-biting” 7 minute descent to Mars - BBC NEWS
• 5 Astronomy…

May 22nd and 23rd will be providing some excellent opportunities for seeing the International Space Station from Europe and North America. The details of each sighting vary from place to place, but it is safe to say that the two days and nights will be offering some of the best sightings for a long time!

I am often asked how gravity works. I usually answer and then they say ‘yes, but HOW does it work?’. Well here is another stab at answering a fairly complicated question via the internet (never a good idea).

Stephen Colbert interviewed International Space Station resident and Wriststrong supporter, Garret Reisman during his May 8th edition.

I keep forgetting to plug the Carnival of Space. Well number 54 is out and is full of loads of stuff. I haven’t read it all myself yet, but figured I’d post now lest I forget.

The BBC is running a video of Yves Rossy, a Swiss man who jumped from a plane and then flew using his homemade jet-propelled glider. The image above shows a previous version of the glider, which only has two jet engines. The model flown this week used four. Mr. Rossy,…

From Gizmodo: If all goes well (or very wrong) Earth may receive a message from aliens from the Altair solar system as early as 2015. The message could be a reply to a message sent by two drunk astronomers in 1983. This is a funny article and it makes me…

Microsoft has released its highly anticipated Worldwide Telescope software, which can be used by astronomers and non-astronomers alike to explore the heavens with a desktop client akin to Google Earth. read more | digg story

Using the microwave oven in your kitchen, you can measure a fundamental property of the universe: the speed of light. All you need are some tasty marshmallows and a ruler.

Planets move relative to the stars always moving from west to east in the sky. Well almost always. Every once in a while, a planet will slow down in its apparent slide across the constellations each night. For a few nights it may even appear to have stopped. Then it…

A lovely little lowdown from the Gravity Probe B project on the nature of spacetime, the interestingness of the number 3 and some fairly advanced stuff about frame-dragging. Enjoy it, if you dare!read more | digg story

From New Scientist: The ancient catastrophe that gave birth to the Moon may have produced additional satellites that lingered in Earth’s skies for tens of millions of years.read more | digg story

A great post from the Bad Astronomer.

read more | digg story

These are the top stories from the Digg Space category for the week ending Saturday 10th of May 2008:

• 1 Canada Hunts for Killer Asteroids
• 2 NASA”s Manned Mission to Asteroid 2000 SG344
• 3 APOD: Moon Meets Mercury
• 4 Interactive Timeline of Every Single Space Launch……Ever!
• 5 How Scuba Tanks and Bungee Cords Could Save NASA…

What number or method should be used when trying to signal our presence to alien races?