…and Other Items Stuck in Space. Plus: the International Year of Astronomy, Human Consumption in Perspective and MORE.

Space Junk
Since humans began exploring space 50 years ago, all sorts of objects have been left behind — few large enough to cause mishaps should astronauts and spacecrafts collide with them. While some items eventually burned in Earth’s atmosphere, these quirky items are still floating in space:

• Spatula — Left by astronaut Piers Sellers while spreading goo as a test of heat-shield repair materials.
• Tool Bag — While on a spacewalk, astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper lost her grip on a 30-lb. toolbag.
• Gene Roddenberry’s Ashes — A lipstick-sized capsule of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s ashes was orbiting Earth before it eventually disintegrated in the atmosphere. (The rest of Roddenberry’s ashes, along with wife Majel’s, who died in December 2008, will be shipped into space in 2010.)
• Urine — Most of the urine produced by astronauts has been dumped overboard and, once pee hits the cold vacuum of space, it quickly freezes into tiny crystals which then float around as debris.
• Pliers — Astronaut Scott Parazynski lost a set of needle-nose pliers while repairing a damaged solar array.
• Camera — While wrestling with a stuck solar array, astronaut Suni Williams’ camera came untethered and drifted away.

A Picture of Human Consumption
The image below is of 320,000 light bulbs, equal to the number of kilowatt-hours of electricity wasted in the U.S. every minute.

Image via New Scientist

Want to see what 1 million plastic cups, the same amount used on flights in the U.S. every six hours, look like? Photographer Chris Jordan illustrates that and other forms of human consumption in a New Scientist slide show.

Medieval Techniques Build Futuristic Homes
Using a building technique that is 600+ years old, architect Richard Hawkes designed an energy-efficient home that generates more than enough power for the house. So much, in fact, that Hawkes expects to make £2,000 ($2,872) a year from selling excess back to the U.K.’s National Grid and from grants for those who make their own energy.

Image via Building magazine

First used in 1382 in Spain, “timbrel vaulting” uses thin bricks to create lightweight and durable buildings. “The arch uses three layers of overlapping tiles — creating an overall thickness of 100mm — which is then covered with insulation and a waterproofing layer followed by 20 tonnes of gravel and soil,” Building magazine explains.

The heating comes from solar energy and thermal heating. An 11kW biomass boiler has been installed.

2009: International Year of Astronomy
Celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s brilliant idea of improving the telescope and using it to study the heavens, 2009 has been designated as the International Year of Astronomy. Telescopes and astronomy have come a long way since 1609 when Galileo observed the sky using visible light. Today, astronomers are able to view in many wavelengths including infrared and in X-rays.

Here are images of the Messier 101 galaxy in various wavelengths. From left-to-right: visible light view from the Hubble Telescope, infrared view and X-ray view.

Images via NASA, ESA, CXC, SSC and STScI

Toodles!