Rumor Mill Churns With NASA's Upcoming Announcement

By Nancy Atkinson - May 9, 2008 at 8:14 AM UTC | Site News
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This past Wednesday, NASA announced they have scheduled a press conference for next Wednesday, May 14, at 1 p.m. EDT, to reveal the discovery of an object in our galaxy that astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years. This gives everyone an entire week to speculate, ruminate and in some cases go off the deep end about what the announcement will entail. On the internet the conjecture goes from logical (intermediate or supermassive black holes) to wacko (aliens, Planet X, or something to do with the Mayan calendar) to hilarious (the Death Star or socks lost in the dryer.)

NASA says the finding was made by combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with ground-based observations, so some of those are obviously wrong (are socks visible in X-ray?).

We're an impatient species, always wanting to know a secret and know it now, so NASA may have erred in giving us so much time to wonder. And surely, the news will leak out before the 14th because we're also a species that likes to spill the beans.

To pass the time until the 14th, if you'd like to take a stab at what the announcement might be, post a comment. Intelligent and non-conspiracy theory guesses only, please.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com