More science beyond this page
[twitter-follow screen_name='CNNLightYears']
Dear Light Years followers,
This blog burst onto the scene when the last NASA shuttle launched in July 2011. There were only three people involved in CNN Light Years at that time – myself, former CNNer Sophia Dengo and former CNN.com U.S. editor Audrey Irvine.
The shuttle program was ending, but a new era for science and space coverage on CNN.com had dawned. We quickly figured out what you, our audience, would want to read: The latest discoveries, the coolest research, weird animals, random geekiness. We gave it to you in an accurate and easy-to-understand format. And we'll keep doing that – just not on this blog.
Today we are closing CNN Light Years as a blog, but we will have the same high-caliber science reporting elsewhere on CNN.com. In our U.S., World, Health and Technology sections, we will continue to lead - as we've done in the past - with stories about new planets, climate change, prehistoric marvels and more.
We hope that you will visit CNN.com to learn something new every day, and keep participating in the conversations that we have around this marvelous universe in which we live.
With fondness,
Elizabeth Landau
Writer/Producer, CNN Light Years
@CNNLightYears on Twitter
People in Orbit
Expedition 36 Commander
Expedition 36 Flight Engineer
Expedition 36 Flight Engineer
Contributors
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Elizabeth Landau
Writer/Producer -
Sophia Dengo
Senior Designer
An open letter: to Elizabeth Landau of CNN light years;
Asteroid Mining & putting an asteroid in orbit around the Moon
One Oooooops and Mankind goes the way of the dinosaurs!
I know that this is a new frontier and the future of making space travel
pay for itself and make a huge profit along with starting space hotels and tourist.
And I am all for this and a great deal more space work.
I also know that we [meaning our knowledge] are very good
at putting many hundreds of satellites into low-earth orbit along with a
two hundred + ton space station out there in orbit.
But, all of these are artificial satellites in an artificial orbits based on their
weight & speed / forward motion and the earth’s gravity as the string of what
we know as centrifugal force. They are still artificial orbits!
They are all artificial centrifugal orbits!
Unlike even the two hundred + ton space station these asteroids do have
their own [Type2 solid-state gravity]. This means that billions years back these
asteroids went through a high energy event that converted its mass into a high-
density state and left it there much as a mass that has been put into permanent
magnet state.
Anyone can see for themselves that even our two hundred+ ton Space Station
does not have its own gravity! It can’t even attract a single human hair or a
single drop of water mist.
Not; all gravity is created equal!
Really all that I am saying is that we / our science needs to back up and reassess
our understanding of gravity.
The asteroid belt is closer to Mars than Earth so at least practice on putting one in to an orbit around one of Mars’s Moons first.
To better understand just what that I am trying to say! Please; go to
Edward kerlsYouTube and see the four movies. It will only take about two minuets each.
Thank you for your time.
Edward E. Kerls
edkerls@yahoo.com
Got to make room for more 'nail-biting' Zimmerman murder coverage? Or maybe the 'tech' page will have actual news, not just the 'what's new with apple' page...
This is hilarious/ridiculous. FOX NEWS HAS AN ENTIRE PAGE DEVOTED TO SCIENCE NEWS. Albeit mostly things steering clear of iffy subjects like evolution, at least they have something.
I can not imagine a way in which you could show your blood thirst for ratings more than this. Goodbye CNN.
OK Elizabeth, I have put off tweeting as i saw it completely uninformative. Well now I am tweeting because I want my science updates at one click of the button, not sifting thru all the other stories on CNN. for shame CNN. Not paying attention to your viewing audience and their interests.
Without Lightyears, we will have to sift through smartphone, Tech CEO news, and other consumer goods market announcements to get CNN's updates on space exploration?
CNN, I'm disappointed in you. Please reconsider.
This stinks. Even though it' been a week, I feel the need to post "this stinks."
Sadness.....nothing but sadness......
This blog was one of the main reasons i read CNN online.
Limos are Custom Made.. who built this one and is it the same Company.. if it is they are at Fault. recall all that where made to inspect.
This is a sad day....I really loved this blog. I do not understand the logic in shutting this down....CNN fail...
I am a 6th grade teacher and used this blog several times in the classroom to expose my children to new scientific discoveries going on around the world. I am sad to see this blog end, but I will still be looking for new articles on CNN to use for next year. In the words of my kids, "Lightyears is awesome!" Thanks for being awesome.
That is very heartwarming, Sean, thanks so much for sharing that. Hope you keep using our science stories to educate the kids!
Regards,
Elizabeth Landau
where can we go for science????
....life is a blast when it is the truth.............not some crap coming from the pope and the bible.
Science Daily: Your source for the latest research news and science breakthroughs – updated daily
Origin of Life News
http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/fossils_ruins/origin_of_life/
This is pretty sad. Now how will we find out about science stuff? The Marqee blog doesn't have much of it. Mostly it's about celebrities and isn't too good. We will miss you
Hi Tim, thanks for being a devoted reader. You can find our stories going forward by bookmarking this page:
http://twitter.com/CNNLightYears
Regards,
Elizabeth Landau, CNN
Will that be where to find all the science news that CNN doesn't report?
This is very sad news for me, i was wondering why there were no updates in this section for over a week. A lot of readers approach this section to be informed of new discoveries in space and leaps in science & technology, and there is no specific section in CNN which has all this information. Im living in the middle east and know a lot of people here who like me regularly visit and are aware of this blog. I do have a facebook page which i hardly use, and i do not have a twitter account ( Not much of a social networking person ) . Do people like me have to search and search to find these articles over cnn??? I dont think so....and a lot of people may stop visiting cnn.com for this reason.
Please arrange to have this blog updated somehow as i am sure a lot of people would appreciate this.
I will miss this page and i would like to thank all those who were involved in keeping this section updated, entertaining and very informative.
I am truly sorry to see this blog end. It made it a lot easier to find the articles and stories that interest me. Hopefully some time in the near future there will be a new blog, one dedicated again to space exploration and science. Cheers!
Yes....too bad we no longer have a Space Program to report on. Unless you count YET ANOTHER Mars Lander that will "Search for signs of past water" or how our astronauts are hitching another ride on some Russian spacecraft.
For us, CNN Light Years blog is a cheerful occasion, where so many people were enjoying reading and posting. Yes, we're the audiences. Thank you very much for having seen the great performance! Good luck and Godspeed to the founders and the contributors of CNN Light Years!
Are you dating anyone? Now that this fake spaceman nonsense is over do you wanna go out? I have $4 so you can load up from the McDonald's dollar menu. It's all your's baby.
As you go off into the sunset, please remember how the Feds faked both the Mercury and Apollo Missions. Hopefully one day this will be admitted by the US government.
As you plummet down your interminable pit of stupidity, remember that no matter how many names you post under, everyone knows there is only one person as vehemently ignorant as you.
This is very sad, but I love the way it proves man never went to the moon and the Apollo missions were faked. This blog being cancelled proves it 100 percent. CNN and the fed government are afraid if the truth getting out so they are shutting this blog down. The Apollo missions were faked. This proves it once and for all.
dwarfism of the brain.........sadness........nothing but sadness....
I enjoyed your blog while it lasted and will miss coming here. I do not follow twitter, so I guess I'll move on to other resources.
Thanks again for the cool stuff you have posted over the last couple of years.
wow this is a sad day indeed for me and many other readers, trust me we all completely understand that the same content and stories will be on cnn.com still. but honeslty this is going to cut web traffic to CNN, Light years blog was so easy and convenient and just something to look forward to every single day. twitter will hlep find them but we will still be digging around for them, honeslty most people will not want to make a twitter and will drop CNN.com all together. im not tryng to leave but it seems so, us readers really want a technology, astonomy, space, science, new inventions/planets, innovation all that in one place in the format that cnn light years blog had mastered. please consider updating this blog still or making a science section....we know its all about web traffic to generate revenue for money and cnn does have somewhat of a repuation for that. anyways just consider it please. a spot on cnn.com with everything light years and sorted by dates. same thing as light years blog. for now ill be going to other science and space sites, anyways ill edit soon and list the new top sites well all be going to for our space/science news in one spot.....no offense to cnn
I enjoyed reading... Sorry to see you go...
Thanks Hari!
I just recently discovered and bookmarked this page. It is such a shame that I didn't know about it before this – I guess CNN does not consider it "newsworthy" unless someone is tied in a basement, shot in a shooting spree, or killed by an idiot who thinks he's Dirty Harry. Keep trying CNN – You're getting closer and closer to narrowing the gap between yourselves and the New York Post.
I agree with the above comments. I like this site. Why change it?
Is this a ploy to force us into reading the CNN headlines? Lord knows we all have to stay up to date with the Zimmerman trial.
Thank you all so much for your sentiments. Please keep following our science stories at @CNNLightYears on Twitter!
That is really sad news 🙁 I really liked being able to go to one place to get the news on science and space. I will miss Light Years for sure.
Very disappointing. How is 3/4's of the content in the Hollywood entertainment section considered "valid news" over space exploration?
The content was great and this was the only CNN page I had bookmarked because of that quality.
Jeremy
Ditto. Don't go!
Closing this blog is a terrible shame. I set this to my homepage because I was tired of having to hunt around for science related articles at the rest of CNN. They don't make it easy. There are section for every banality, but nothing for science? Entertainment, Sports, Money, TV sections, everything but a Science section? What gives CNN?
This blog and the stories they were about have been very high quality, Elizabeth. And you mentioned the last flight of 'Atlantis' which was STS-135. I was at the countdown cloak with 1400 other journalists including Internationals – I'm a New Zealander – and I will NEVER forget that amazing mission. But sadly, although 'Light Years' has been a good and useful resource, unfortunately, like many other comments sections and Blog pages on CNN overall; too many lowlife idiots have been posting scatological and hate-speak laden nonsense on them, instead of thoughtful and relevant commentary. Also, I could single out the foolish... er, person who lately keeps posting in EVERY story about Space Exploration nonsense about how he thinks EVERY Space mission is fakery – 'trick photography' and computer-generated imagery!! I mean REALLY?! How do you compete with such stupidity? Just when I though the Internet couldn't get anymore banal and stupid... But nevertheless – I applaud you for this page and the work you've done. Thank you.
This is too bad, I bookmarked this page because I didn't want to have to dig around cnn.com to find my favorite stories. I guess there is always phys org and space com... Thanks for the blog while it was up though. Cheers!
The health and technology sections don't fully cover everything. Why don't you start a Science section that talks about scientific developments across all disciplines? That would actually be worth reading. I read this blog because it was the nearest CNN had to such a section, and unfortunately you are closing down. I will now be forced to look elsewhere to learn about advances in the world, while retaining the front page of CNN to see the retreats.
Hi 3Davideo, we really appreciate your reading this blog. Please know that the same stories that would have been here are now throughout CNN.com, and even on the front page! You can be alerted to them specifically by following the @CNNLightYears Twitter account. Same writers, same quality, just a different place.
Regards,
Elizabeth Landau, CNN
Throughout CNN.com, sure, but not easily found, especially since the old Science heading was declared obsolete years ago. Oh well. I hope to see your byline again soon.
I don't have twitter...