Club Jade

ILM visual effects supervisor John Knoll will be at a NASA press conference on Thursday. The presser is regarding a discovery made by the Kepler misson.

Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the “habitable zone,” the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface of the orbiting planet.

What could it be?

Costume for sale. An original Darth Vader costume – believed to have been from The Empire Strikes Back – will soon be going up for auction at Christie’s in London. It’s being put up for sale by “an American private collector” and is expected to fetch at least $250,000. A percentage of the sale price will go to cancer research.

In spaaaaace. A stable planet orbiting twin stars has been found 49 light-years away. (Alas – it is a gas giant.) Still, researchers have named the planet “Inrakluk,” which sounds pretty Wookiee to me.

Partnerships. Lucas Online has a new partner, Big Spaceship, for some of their digital endeavors. Maybe this means we’ll see a kickass StarWars.com app?

People. USA Weekend interviews Matt Lanter, the actor who angsts enough for two on The Clone Wars and 90210.

Books. Visions is getting some nice press… Check out a profile of contributing artist Robert Bailey, who got to meet George Lucas, from The Edmonton Journal.

Felicia Day gets her saber on. The internet geek superstar (you probably know her from The Guild, and Dr. Horrible) can check another box on her ultimate geek list by appearing in an internet lightsaber fight.

Kristen Bell teams up with hometown 501s. The Fanboys actress helped the the Great Lakes Garrison raise $2,000 for Michigan charities.

Those look familiar. Check out what they’re building on the International Space Station. Go go science fact!

Jedi church looking for a Master. Too easy. Way too easy.

Drink up. Discount code for Skywalker Ranch wine.

George Takei and Mark Hamill are guests on this episode of Irrelevant Astronomy. And how can you say no to a tongue-in-cheek robot talk show produced by NASA anyway?

Here are some of the things I’ve micro-blogged over @clubjade in the last week or so.

Hollywood hyperbole. Sony’s Amy Pascal thinks that James Cameron’s Avatar could be the next Star Wars. I’m just trying to think of an upcoming genre movie I care less about than Avatar and failing miserably.

Duck and cover, Dallas. Will Texas be able to handle the squee produced by an official Twilight convention? We can only hope the lack of Robert Pattinson gives them a fighting chance.

Space blob approaches! Guys. GUYS. Waru is coming! I repent of all my Twilight mocking. Okay, not really.

But the real question is, who did they ship? Wired’s Scott Brown takes a brief look back at Sherlock Holmes fanfic.

Presented without comment. Guess who wants to write a Wonder Woman novel?

It’s Monday and I got nothing. Granted, I just got here, so don’t give up on us yet. But for now, take a look at The Secret Life of Toys. It has stormtroopers, Indiana Jones, and bloodthirsty Muppets. Score!

• How about teddy bears… IN SPAAAAACE! (Sorta.)

• Or if that fails, there’s always edible books. Genre standouts include Lard of the Rings and Sword and the Scone.
• Looking for something less stationary? How about Joss Whedon and Ron Moore playing themselves on the season premiere of Robot Chicken?

A new study has found that binary star systems could have more planets than previously thought possible.

James Doohan (known to many of us as Scotty) will be heading to space on April 27th.

Jimmy, who died in 2005, wanted his remains sent to space; following the lead of friend Gene Roddenberry. Also on Jimmy’s rocket will be remains of astronaut Gordon Cooper.

Blue Origin, the brainchild Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, goes public. Sort of. (Hey Steph, they’re hiring!)

Scaled Composites, the folks who built SpaceShipOne, are recruiting. They say they hire from all sorts of backgrounds, but I know CJ has at least one actual rocket scientist…

In related news, the X Prize Foundation is setting up draft rules for a lunar lander contest.