sky and earth

[mellowtigger]

WHILE writing this blog post, I heard multiple gunshots (a dozen or more) a block away or two. I called 911.  That's the 3rd time this month, I think.  They said they had "multiple calls on this". *sigh* EDIT 3 minutes after posting:  Firefighter (no siren or lights) knocked on my front door, asking if the shooting victim was here.  I said no.  He said they think it was 1 block west, but they needed to be sure.  Such is life in my cozy #WarzoneInMinneapolis.  Always something happening here on the the north side. EDIT:  2 people shot.  For a point of reference about those bullet casings, I live near the corner of 26th and Morgan.  Newton is the street west of me.

I apologize for the very short notice yesterday (now deleted) about the DART asteroid impact mission. I knew of it well in advance, but it never occurred to me until Monday afternoon that other people might not know about it. Oops. You can still watch the recording now from the original live broadcast. You can skip to the end for the final 30 seconds of approach with nice images, but it is more suspenseful to watch the whole 70-minutes of it. It's an important moment in human history, the first ever planetary defense maneuver!

For context, the twitterverse was quick to provide helpful information during the live broadcast. (Starting with the ever important beer game.) NASA chose as their target a binary asteroid system. I figure it makes it much easier to measure from a distance the changes in momentum with an orbiting pair of bodies rather than a single mass. The two asteroids were roughly the width of the USA from each other. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fans may appreciate that the target asteroid Dimorphos was about the size of the Defiant spaceship.

At the height of the livestream, the YouTube channel showed 578,000 people watching. It also amuses me that YouTube was showing on my account that Space: 1999 (an old sci-fi television show that I enjoyed, despite the awful science) was my next suggested stream to watch. :)

Back on Earth, the National Weather Service account for our local Twin Cities noted that the annual "fall colors" is arriving late this year. It's been hot this fall.  It seems that we keep having more days over 32C/90F, and fewer days below 21C/70F.  It's affecting our forests.  No more on that topic today, since it's not Moody Monday.  I'm just noting that the beautiful fall foliage will be late this year.