Categories
Astronomy Science & Technology

A near miss: the Great 1972 Fireball

Great 1972 FireballIn the broad daylight of mid-afternoon, an asteroid measuring somewhere between 10 and 50 feet in diameter plows through Earth’s atmosphere over North America, creating a long-tailed fireball across the sky. Undetected before its close pass – only 35 miles from Earth’s surface – asteroid US19720810 skips off of the atmosphere and back into space, having lost half of its mass to the frictional heating of plummeting through the atmosphere. The spectacle lasts only a couple of minutes, and US19720810 will make another pass by the Earth in 1997 (though not at such a close distance).

Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast

Categories
Television

Doomwatch: Killer Dolphins

DoomwatchBBC1 airs the 37th episode of Doomwatch. This episode no longer exists in the BBC’s archives. Due to its controversial content, the following episode, Sex And Violence, is never broadcast by the BBC, and production on the series is shut down before the planned 13th and final episode of the season can be filmed, effectively making Killer Doplhins the series’ broadcast swan song.

More about Doomwatch in the LogBook

Categories
Astronomy Science & Technology Uncrewed Spaceflight

Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 3: Copernicus

OAO-3NASA launches the third and final Orbiting Astronomical Observatory satellite, given the nickname “Copernicus” when it successfully enters service near the 500th anniversary of the birth of the famed astronomer of the same name. OAO-3 is a joint venture between NASA and universities in the U.S. and the U.K., again focusing largely on ultraviolet observation of the sky, and it is instrumental in the discovery and study of long-period pulsars. OAO-3 will remain in service through February 1981, its successful nine-year mission lending weight to the ongoing construction and planning of NASA’s Space Telescope project, later to be known as the Hubble Space Telescope.

Categories
Doctor Who Television

Doctor Who in the USA

Doctor WhoThe British science fiction series Doctor Who is broadcast in the United States for the first time on WPHL, an independent commercial TV station in Philadelphia. WPHL is among the first American stations to have purchased a syndication package of Doctor Who episodes, starrring Jon Pertwee as the third Doctor, from BBC Enterprises by way of Time-Life Television. The package includes the series’ first two color seasons, plus the first story from the 1972 season (the relatively recent Day Of The Daleks). The success of Star Trek reruns in syndication may well have indie stations convinced that Doctor Who is the next big thing…