Ever heard the one about the mysterious face that’s been carved into the Martian surface? Or that the world’s going to end in the year 2012? Or that more crimes occur during full moons than at any other time?

The reality is that astronomy, just like every other subject that influences our lives, has more than its share of myths and urban legends out there. And once a few people start to believe a myth and pass it around, it becomes hard to know what’s true and what isn’t.

It’s a good thing for us that the fine folks at Astronomy magazine have taken the time to debunk some of these tall tales. Here’s the link to a treasure trove of information about what’s true and what’s not — mostly what’s not. For instance: did you know that there IS gravity in space, that the changing of seasons has nothing to do with how far Earth is from the Sun, or that watching Jersey Shore on MTV will make you 25% dumber?

Okay, we made that last one up. But that doesn’t mean it’s not true.

We at Club Galahad have never been big UFO buffs. Some people devote their entire lives to the search for extraterrestrial life in the form of alien beings zipping around in flying saucers, and that’s fine. Who knows… maybe, as they used to say on the hit TV show X-Files, the truth is out there. We probably wouldn’t be shocked either way.

What we can say for certain is that the phenomenon of UFO sightings, which dates back thousands of years, is at least interesting. In some cases, it’s actually pretty educational. As this fun little slideshow from our friends at MSNBC shows us, UFO sightings have even led the U.S. government to information about Russian missile programs and improving our own communications systems.

And let’s not forget: UFOs have changed the way some of us look at mashed potatoes.

There’s a wealth of information out there on UFO sightings, theories, and even hoaxes. Not surprisingly, they range from somewhat credible to downright laughable. If you feel tempted to start falling down that rabbit-hole, it might be wise to start with Wikipedia and go from there. Whatever you do, please go easy on the mashed potatoes.

The morning of Friday, January 15 brought with it a rare treat for millions in the Eastern hemisphere: an annular solar eclipse that lasted more than 11 minutes. It is the longest solar eclipse visible from Earth until the year 3043.

Onlookers from Central Africa to China watched in amazement, many observing cultural traditions or superstitions that date back centuries, while those of us on the other side of the world have to settle for video clips like this one.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon travels directly between Earth and the Sun. Partial solar eclipses (when a sliver of the Sun is obscured by the moon) are not as rare, but the term ‘annular solar eclipse’ refers to the annulus, or ‘ring of fire’, that appears when the shadow cast by the moon is smaller than the visible disc of the sun. Which, as you can imagine, doesn’t happen every day.

Not surprisingly, NASA has a comprehensive solar eclipse web site with all sorts of cool links, charts, data and more.

It used to be true that calling someone a ’slug’ was a real insult. But after a recent discovery regarding this magnificent creature, perhaps we all should start paying slugs just a bit more respect.

After all, can YOU steal genes from algae that allow you to carry out photosynthesis?

Neither can we, but you know who can? The green sea slugs known as Elysia chlorotica, which live in the coastal northeast. Scientists have known about them for years, but one very persistent biologist named Sidney Pierce spent the better part of 20 years studying the Elysia, and his hard work paid off late last year when he made a major discovery: that these sea slugs have the ability to convert sunlight into energy, the same way that plants do.

This is a major find for a couple reasons. The most obvious reason is that no one has ever seen a multicellular animal that can do this, and up until now it seemed improbable (or outright impossible). Beyond that, the implications are fascinating, because these slugs are living proof that DNA from one species can work its way into another species… even if we don’t yet know how they do it. Think of the possibilities if that ability to co-opt some other animal’s DNA is ever harnessed.

We also took note of this story because it reminded us that here on Earth — and for that matter, up among the stars where Triana and the rest of her crew are blazing a trail to a new world — you just never know what new mystery might reveal itself on any given day.

Greetings, Galahad fans. We want to be sure to get 2010 off on the right foot here at Club Galahad headquarters, so we’re cramming two very cool stories into one Space & Science blog post. Let’s dig in!

The first story that got our attention this morning was this gem from Space.com about the rocky planet CoRoT-7b, which orbits a star roughly 480 light years away. CoRoT-7b (catchy name for a planet, right?) is Earth-like in the sense that it is rocky instead of gaseous, but as it turns out, the climate is not so hospitable. Astronomers speculate that temperatures on CoRoT-7b range from 4000 degrees to minus-350 degrees Fahrenheit, and that various volcanoes may be in a state of continuous eruption. Yikes.

Also on our radar today (and also courtesy of our friends at Space.com) is this short video series on black holes. Each of the videos runs about five minutes, and each is jam-packed with good information that makes us simultaneously excited and frightened. Black holes really are amazing.

Thanks for your continued support of Club Galahad. Be sure to bookmark us and to keep coming back for all the great new things we’ll be rolling out as 2010 marches on.

2009 has come and gone, and it was a banner year for all things related to space, science, Club Galahad and The Big Brain Club. As we roll ahead into 2010 — new year, new decade, new opportunities — we thought it would be appropriate to take a look back at the past 12 months and reflect on some of the highlights. What follows is a small sampling of the stories and events that kept us busy this year. As always, YOU played a crucial role in all of this because of your continued support of the Galahad book series, this website and its sister-sites, BigBrainClub.com and DomTesta.com. So thank you… and Happy New Year! Read the rest of this entry »

We at Club Galahad have made linking to MSNBC’s remarkable Month in Space feature a more-or-less regular practice since we stumbled across it this summer. With such a wide-ranging collection of photos both of and from space, it never disappoints. There is always something to make your mouth open slightly and your head tilt gently to one side in wonder.

So you can imagine how excited we were to come across The Year in Space — a collection of the best space photos from 2009. You can judge for yourself, but some of our favorites include the supermassive black hole, Saturn’s moons, and the eruption of a Russian volcano (pictured left).

Here’s hoping that 2010 has just as many great stories and images in store for us…

‘Tis the season for all sorts of silly, fun, holiday-themed news stories. And this humble blog post is no different.

If you haven’t seen it yet, follow this link to check out the picture of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) that resides in the 30 Doradus Nebula. It’s called R136.

There’s a lot to like about R136: it’s the “most detailed view of the largest stellar nursery in our local galactic neighborhood;” this picture of it was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and spans about 100 light years; and, oh yeah, it looks very much like the image of a Christmas tree. See it?

This star cluster is a mere 170,000 light years from Earth, which allows the Hubble to take these incredibly detailed photos. We doubt that we could capture such an image with the 10 megapixel camera we got for Christmas last year — although that remains a lovely and cherished gift.

There’s been no shortage of big news in the world of space science these past few months: water on the moon, the successful completion of the Atlantis STS-129 mission, and the unveiling of the first commercial spacecraft among them.

However, it looks like there are some potentially HUGE developments coming our way in the very new future. Scientists are in the process of discovering thousands of previously unknown planets, and it’s expected that the number of Earth-link planets could easily be in the hundreds.

The official announcements will begin to roll out next month, but based on the comments of those involved, it seems clear that there are some big new discoveries on the horizon. Here’s the quote that got our attention:

“I was not prescient enough to anticipate something that we’re seeing,” David Latham, a mission co-investigator from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told msnbc.com. “There are some good things coming.”

What does that mean? Who knows, but it looks like we’ll be finding out soon. In the meantime, watch this video about the Kepler spacecraft and the COROT satellite and cross your fingers that we’re all about to have our minds blown by whatever it is they’re about to uncover.

In the kind of development that sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, a celebrity British billionaire on Monday unveiled a spaceship designed to take paying customers into space for the low, low price of $200,000. Roughly 300 people have already signed up, and flights are tentatively scheduled to begin in 2011.

The link above will take you to the full story, and this link will take you to a slideshow.

You may know the man behind all this — his name is Richard Branson, and he’s led quite the remarkable life. Branson owns a record label and an airline (among many other businesses) and is known as something of a daredevil. Take, for example, the time in 1987 that he and his cohorts became the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a hot air balloon, reaching speeds of 130 miles per hour.

Since then he’s set his sights even higher, culminating in the unveiling of the first-ever commercial spaceship this week, dubbed ‘VSS Enterprise’ in tribute to the many British and American navy ships that have borne that name, and also to the fictional ‘Star Trek’ spacecraft that has been a staple of American pop culture for over 40 years.

As to the obvious question of the ship’s safety — three people died during an engine-test failure in 2007 — Branson seems confident that any such problems are behind him. H says he plans to go up aboard Enterprise himself, and that he plans to take his mother with him. Godspeed, sir.