The space agency has announced that it has chosen three finalists among the eight proposals sent for its next space probe. Depending on which finalist will be ultimately selected by mid-2011, the next space mission will be to Venus, an asteroid, or the Moon.

Here’s an excerpt from the NASA announcement.

NASA will select one proposal for full development after detailed mission concept studies are completed and reviewed. The studies begin during 2010, and the selected mission must be ready for launch no later than Dec. 30, 2018. Mission cost, excluding the launch vehicle, is limited to $650 million.

“These are projects that inspire and excite young scientists, engineers and the public,” said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These three proposals provide the best science value among eight submitted to NASA this year.”

Want more info on NASA’s New Frontiers Program? Check out the site. You can also become a fan of the NASA Discovery & New Frontiers page on Facebook.

Photo courtesy of NASA.

Recognizing this, the Philippine Foundation for Science and Technology, whose flagship program is the Philippine Science Centrum, aims to make science teaching more engaging.

Here’s an excerpt from the BusinessMirror article.

“This teaching program is a way for teachers to recreate [the Philippine] Science Centrum’s [PSC] exhibits through classroom-type experiments in order for the students to be more attentive and receptive to the lesson,” PSC executive director May Pagsinohin told the BusinessMirror in a visit at the PSC.

The teachers’ training consists of brief lectures and extensive discussions, demonstrations and hands-on workshops. The participants, housed at the PSC, are given firsthand experience with the “interactive learning system” using the PSC’s collection of science exhibits.

Here’s hoping that our teachers will be able to instill a passion for science among more students.

Here’s an excerpt:

NASA astronaut Mike Massimino has made history as the first person to tweet from space while in orbit on board the space shuttle Atlantis for the STS-125 mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Massimino, who opened a Twitter account on April 4 to start tweeting updates on the preparations for the launch, has 234,075 followers as of this writing.

Congratulations Mike and all the best to you and your crew!

I’ve been following the tweets of Mike Massimino, one of the seven astronauts who will take part in the Hubble servicing mission. Massimino will be onboard the space shuttle Atlantis, which is set to launch on May 12. Massimino has been using Twitter to keep people updated on his training and the Hubble service mission. Wonder if he’ll be able to tweet from space?

Read the full story.

This after the International Astronomical Union adopted a new definition of what a planet is after a long and sometimes bitter debate. Originally, it looked like the solar system would have 12 planets instead of 9, but now there are only 8 after Pluto was relegated into the new category of dwarf planets. Check out this BBC News FAQ for answers to some of the burning questions you might have on why Pluto’s no longer a planet.

At least the widow of the scientist who discovered Pluto is taking it relatively well. She’s frustrated by the decision, but said that her late husband, being a scientist, would have understood.

Some scientists, however, including Alan Stern, who leads the NASA New Horizons mission that was launched in January to send an unmanned space probe to Pluto and its satellite Charon, have criticized the decision.

Online petitions like this one have also been launched to save Pluto. Meanwhile, enterprising individuals are cashing in on little Pluto’s demotion.

And jeez, what happens to astrology now? Not to mention all our textbooks.

Thank God we live in the age of the Internet. Wikipedia’s already updated. Here’s an excerpt from their Pluto entry as of this writing:

Pluto is a dwarf planet (until 2006 classified as a true planet) in the solar system and the prototype of a yet to be named family of Trans-Neptunian objects.^[1][2] From its discovery in 1930 to 2006, it was considered the ninth and smallest of the planets of the Solar System by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). However, after contemporary observations, recent discoveries and currently available scientific information were evaluated and debated, the IAU decided, on August 24, 2006, to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet, requiring that a planet must “clear the neighbourhood around its orbit.”^[3] It had qualified as a planet under a draft definition^[4] that had been proposed by a committee of the IAU, but which was not accepted by the IAU General Assembly.

Is Neptune next?

Damn, this getting to be like the ultimate reality show. Survivor Solar System, anyone?

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