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Space Fellowship
2 Sep 2010, 13:34 UTC
The explosion of a massive star blazes with the light of 200 million Suns in this Hubble Space Telescope image. The arrow at top right points to the stellar blast, called a supernova. The supernova is so bright in this image that it easily could be mistaken for a foreground star in our Milky Way Galaxy. And yet, this supernova, called SN 2004dj, resides far beyond our galaxy. Its home is in the outskirts of NGC 2403, a galaxy located 11 million light-years from Earth. Although the supernov [...]
Picture of the Day - A Bright Supernova
2 Sep 2010, 13:34 UTC
The explosion of a massive star blazes with the light of 200 million Suns in this Hubble Space Telescope image. The arrow at top right points to the stellar blast, called a supernova. The supernova is so bright in this image that it easily could be mistaken for a foreground star in our Milky Way Galaxy. And yet, this supernova, called SN 2004dj, resides far beyond our galaxy. Its home is in the outskirts of NGC 2403, a galaxy located 11 million light-years from Earth. Although the supernov [...]
Space Fellowship
2 Sep 2010, 09:09 UTC
Pity poor Mercury. The tiny planet endures endless assaults by intense sunlight, powerful solar wind and high-speed miniature meteoroids called micrometeoroids. The planet's flimsy covering, the exosphere, nearly blends in with the vacuum of space, making it too thin to offer protection. Because of this, it's tempting to think of Mercury's exosphere as just the battered remains of ancient atmosphere. Really, though, the exosphere is constantly changing and being renewed with sodium, potas [...]
Seven Things You Didn't Know About Mercury
2 Sep 2010, 09:09 UTC
Pity poor Mercury. The tiny planet endures endless assaults by intense sunlight, powerful solar wind and high-speed miniature meteoroids called micrometeoroids. The planet's flimsy covering, the exosphere, nearly blends in with the vacuum of space, making it too thin to offer protection. Because of this, it's tempting to think of Mercury's exosphere as just the battered remains of ancient atmosphere. Really, though, the exosphere is constantly changing and being renewed with sodium, potas [...]
Beyond Apollo
2 Sep 2010, 05:49 UTC
In December 1983, the National Science Foundation's Division of Policy Research and Analysis enlisted Science Applications Incorporated (SAI) of McLean, Virginia, to compare the science and technology research potential of an Earth-orbiting space station and a base on the moon. In its report, which was completed on January 10, 1984, SAI cautioned that, because its study was performed "in a very short two-week period," it could offer only "a preliminary indication" of the relative merits of a space station in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and a lunar base. Though SAI did not say so, the study had a short turnaround time because its results were meant to be made available to the White House ahead of President Ronald Reagan's planned announcement of a NASA space station program during the January 1984 State of the Union Address. SAI explained that its study had used a four-step approach. First, the study team had judged which science and technology disciplines could best be served by an LEO space station and which by a lunar base. Next, the team had developed a lunar base conceptual design capable of serving the disciplines it identified. It then had developed a transportation system concept for deploying and maintaining ...
Lunar base or space station? (1984)
2 Sep 2010, 05:49 UTC
In December 1983, the National Science Foundation's Division of Policy Research and Analysis enlisted Science Applications Incorporated (SAI) of McLean, Virginia, to compare the science and technology research potential of an Earth-orbiting space station and a base on the moon. In its report, which was completed on January 10, 1984, SAI cautioned that, because its study was performed "in a very short two-week period," it could offer only "a preliminary indication" of the relative merits of a space station in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and a lunar base. Though SAI did not say so, the study had a short turnaround time because its results were meant to be made available to the White House ahead of President Ronald Reagan's planned announcement of a NASA space station program during the January 1984 State of the Union Address. SAI explained that its study had used a four-step approach. First, the study team had judged which science and technology disciplines could best be served by an LEO space station and which by a lunar base. Next, the team had developed a lunar base conceptual design capable of serving the disciplines it identified. It then had developed a transportation system concept for deploying and maintaining ...
The Gish Bar Times
2 Sep 2010, 05:06 UTC
Over the last few days, we have focused on the geology and volcanic history of Tvashtar Paterae, a string of four volcanoes located within Io's high northern latitudes. During the Galileo mission, Tvashtar was the site of several volcanic eruptions between November 1999 and October 2001, including a large, sulfur-rich plume that was seen by Cassini during its brief flyby in late December 2000. Since the end of the Galileo mission in 2003, monitoring of active volcanism on Io was limited to intermittent data taken at ground-based telescopes like the European Southern Observatory in Chile, Keck II, and IRTF in Hawaii. In addition, in late February 2007, the Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft flew by Io from a distance of 2.26 million kilometers (1.4 million miles), allowing the cameras on-board to search for surface changes on the moon since it was last seen five years earlier. Today, we will discuss the volcanic activity seen at Tvashtar since the end of the Galileo mission as what this volcanic history tells us about the variety of eruption styles exhibited by the volcanoes of Tvashtar and how their lavas are fed.Don't forget to check out the previous two parts of our series on Tvashtar ...
Io Volcano of the Week: Tvashtar - Part Three
2 Sep 2010, 05:06 UTC
Over the last few days, we have focused on the geology and volcanic history of Tvashtar Paterae, a string of four volcanoes located within Io's high northern latitudes. During the Galileo mission, Tvashtar was the site of several volcanic eruptions between November 1999 and October 2001, including a large, sulfur-rich plume that was seen by Cassini during its brief flyby in late December 2000. Since the end of the Galileo mission in 2003, monitoring of active volcanism on Io was limited to intermittent data taken at ground-based telescopes like the European Southern Observatory in Chile, Keck II, and IRTF in Hawaii. In addition, in late February 2007, the Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft flew by Io from a distance of 2.26 million kilometers (1.4 million miles), allowing the cameras on-board to search for surface changes on the moon since it was last seen five years earlier. Today, we will discuss the volcanic activity seen at Tvashtar since the end of the Galileo mission as what this volcanic history tells us about the variety of eruption styles exhibited by the volcanoes of Tvashtar and how their lavas are fed.Don't forget to check out the previous two parts of our series on Tvashtar ...
Cosmic Log
2 Sep 2010, 03:19 UTC
British physicist Stephen Hawking's latest book is already making waves with his observation that science can explain the universe's origin without invoking God. Rodger Bosch / AFP - Getty Images filePhysicist Stephen Hawking delivers a lecture in South Africa in 2008. In a new book, he says science doesn't need God to explain the origin of the universe. British physicist Stephen Hawking's latest book is already making waves with his observation that science can explain the universe's origin without invoking God. "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing," Hawking and his co-author, Caltech physicist Leonard Mlodinow, write in "The Grand Design," which is due to be issued next week. "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going." That's the quote that lit the match in The Guardian as well in The Times of London, which published an excerpt from the book in its Thursday edition. But by itself, the quote doesn't have much "there" there. If Hawking is saying merely that something ...
Hawking says God's not needed. So?
2 Sep 2010, 03:19 UTC
British physicist Stephen Hawking's latest book is already making waves with his observation that science can explain the universe's origin without invoking God. Rodger Bosch / AFP - Getty Images filePhysicist Stephen Hawking delivers a lecture in South Africa in 2008. In a new book, he says science doesn't need God to explain the origin of the universe. British physicist Stephen Hawking's latest book is already making waves with his observation that science can explain the universe's origin without invoking God. "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing," Hawking and his co-author, Caltech physicist Leonard Mlodinow, write in "The Grand Design," which is due to be issued next week. "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going." That's the quote that lit the match in The Guardian as well in The Times of London, which published an excerpt from the book in its Thursday edition. But by itself, the quote doesn't have much "there" there. If Hawking is saying merely that something ...
On Orbit
1 Sep 2010, 21:15 UTC
We're in the Second Life rover yard this morning, preparing for a D-RATS mixed reality event from the Arizona Black Rock volcanic field. We'll stream the live, real-world webcast into Second Life's social media 3-D world to create an immersive, participatory experience for the Second Life community. The rover yard in Second Life replicates NASA rover activities so users can share in NASA's compelling story of science and exploration. Mission concepts and technology models are available to everyone in this hands-on, distance-learning environment. Second Life residents are telepresent as they work together and communicate about the design, analysis and performance of space technology and events. This feeling of telepresence creates a collaborative bond that fosters engagement, conversation, feedback and learning. More at NASA Blogs read more
Second Life Desert RATS: A Mixed Reality Meeting in the Desert
1 Sep 2010, 21:15 UTC
We're in the Second Life rover yard this morning, preparing for a D-RATS mixed reality event from the Arizona Black Rock volcanic field. We'll stream the live, real-world webcast into Second Life's social media 3-D world to create an immersive, participatory experience for the Second Life community. The rover yard in Second Life replicates NASA rover activities so users can share in NASA's compelling story of science and exploration. Mission concepts and technology models are available to everyone in this hands-on, distance-learning environment. Second Life residents are telepresent as they work together and communicate about the design, analysis and performance of space technology and events. This feeling of telepresence creates a collaborative bond that fosters engagement, conversation, feedback and learning. More at NASA Blogs read more
Young Astronomers
1 Sep 2010, 20:25 UTC
As I’m sure you know As I’m sure you know Alice, Hannah and myself , love galaxies. We are all part of the Galaxy Zoo Project, and in its honour we have decided to launch Project Galaxy (being truthful Hannah and I pulled Alice … into it willingly of course ) Project Galaxy will detail the various categories and subcategories that exist in galactic morphology (shape and structure). This post is a simple list of some of the main types and gives an example for the main categories. The main project will go into each group and subgroup in much greater detail. Spirals AHZ10003aj Credit; Galaxy Zoo The example I chose for the spirals section is this lovely two armed number. I chose it as it has well formed arms and a very bright (potentially active) nucleus (centre). The galaxy’s spectra as view on AEGIS has a reasonably high peak in H beta. This is hydrogen that has been energized previously but is now losing energy and this process emits radiation in at a very specific wavelength. Whilst a galaxy having a large amount of H beta relative to another variety of hydrogen - H alpha – is very unusual ...
The Galactic Prelude
1 Sep 2010, 20:25 UTC
As I’m sure you know As I’m sure you know Alice, Hannah and myself , love galaxies. We are all part of the Galaxy Zoo Project, and in its honour we have decided to launch Project Galaxy (being truthful Hannah and I pulled Alice … into it willingly of course ) Project Galaxy will detail the various categories and subcategories that exist in galactic morphology (shape and structure). This post is a simple list of some of the main types and gives an example for the main categories. The main project will go into each group and subgroup in much greater detail. Spirals AHZ10003aj Credit; Galaxy Zoo The example I chose for the spirals section is this lovely two armed number. I chose it as it has well formed arms and a very bright (potentially active) nucleus (centre). The galaxy’s spectra as view on AEGIS has a reasonably high peak in H beta. This is hydrogen that has been energized previously but is now losing energy and this process emits radiation in at a very specific wavelength. Whilst a galaxy having a large amount of H beta relative to another variety of hydrogen - H alpha – is very unusual ...
Universe Today
1 Sep 2010, 19:44 UTC
Racing is rarely the term that comes to mind when one considers astronomy. However, many events are a race to reach stability before a system flies apart or implodes. The formation of stars from gigantic interstellar clouds is just such a race in which stars struggle to form before the cloud is dispersed. Although a [...] Image of the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) by Joseph Brimacombe.Racing is rarely the term that comes to mind when one considers astronomy. However, many events are a race to reach stability before a system flies apart or implodes. The formation of stars from gigantic interstellar clouds is just such a race in which stars struggle to form before the cloud is dispersed. Although a rough estimation of the requirements for collapse are discussed in introductory astrophysics classes (See: Jeans Mass Criterion) this formulation leaves out several elements that come into play in the real universe. Unfortunately for astronomers, these effects can be subtle but significant but untangling them is the subject of a recent paper uploaded to the arXiv preprint server.(...)Read the rest of The Race to Stellar Formation (470 words)© jvois for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to ...
The Race to Stellar Formation
1 Sep 2010, 19:44 UTC
Racing is rarely the term that comes to mind when one considers astronomy. However, many events are a race to reach stability before a system flies apart or implodes. The formation of stars from gigantic interstellar clouds is just such a race in which stars struggle to form before the cloud is dispersed. Although a [...] Image of the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) by Joseph Brimacombe.Racing is rarely the term that comes to mind when one considers astronomy. However, many events are a race to reach stability before a system flies apart or implodes. The formation of stars from gigantic interstellar clouds is just such a race in which stars struggle to form before the cloud is dispersed. Although a rough estimation of the requirements for collapse are discussed in introductory astrophysics classes (See: Jeans Mass Criterion) this formulation leaves out several elements that come into play in the real universe. Unfortunately for astronomers, these effects can be subtle but significant but untangling them is the subject of a recent paper uploaded to the arXiv preprint server.(...)Read the rest of The Race to Stellar Formation (470 words)© jvois for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to ...
Universe Today
1 Sep 2010, 18:32 UTC
If you didn’t have the chance to see Brian Cox’s series “Wonders of the Solar System” that played on the BBC earlier this year and the Science Channel in August, we’ve got some good news for you: it comes out on DVD and Blu-ray in the US on September 7. But there’s even better news for readers of Universe Today: We have five – count ‘em – five copies to give away, courtesy of the BBC and Bender Helper Impact marketing agency. “Wonders” is an extraordinary look at our world and solar system, and is rich with breathtaking images beamed back from the fleet of probes, rovers and telescopes currently in space, and is a “must-see” for any space and astronomy enthusiast.To enter the contest, send an email to info@universetoday.com with “Wonders DVD” in the subject line. Deadline for entry is Wednesday, September 8 at 12 pm PDT. Winners will have their choice of “Wonders” on DVD or Blu-ray. (...)Read the rest of Contest: Win "Wonders of the Solar System" DVD (156 words)© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Contests, Giveaways Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Contest: Win "Wonders of the Solar System" DVD
1 Sep 2010, 18:32 UTC
If you didn’t have the chance to see Brian Cox’s series “Wonders of the Solar System” that played on the BBC earlier this year and the Science Channel in August, we’ve got some good news for you: it comes out on DVD and Blu-ray in the US on September 7. But there’s even better news for readers of Universe Today: We have five – count ‘em – five copies to give away, courtesy of the BBC and Bender Helper Impact marketing agency. “Wonders” is an extraordinary look at our world and solar system, and is rich with breathtaking images beamed back from the fleet of probes, rovers and telescopes currently in space, and is a “must-see” for any space and astronomy enthusiast.To enter the contest, send an email to info@universetoday.com with “Wonders DVD” in the subject line. Deadline for entry is Wednesday, September 8 at 12 pm PDT. Winners will have their choice of “Wonders” on DVD or Blu-ray. (...)Read the rest of Contest: Win "Wonders of the Solar System" DVD (156 words)© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Contests, Giveaways Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Bad Astronomy
1 Sep 2010, 17:35 UTC
If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you’ve read about my friend Nicole, aka Noisy Astronomer. She’s a young grad student studying radio astronomy at the University of Virginia (my alma mater!), and she’s very gung ho about astronomy outreach. In a recent post about comets, I mentioned her and a project she and a bunch of other grads are working on: Dark Skies, Bright Kids. This is a terrific project that is doing a lot to bring the joy and wonder of astronomy to third graders in Albemarle County, the home of UVa (if you saw my show "Bad Universe" where I made the comet, I got that recipe from Nicole and DSBK!). One of their efforts is a bilingual book designed to make astronomy fun for the kids — I have a copy, and it’s very cute; as someone who has worked on astronomy education I know kids that age will love it. Nicole and her group have a big goal for the book, too: they’re looking to get a copy of it into the hands of every single third-grader in the county. To do this, they applied for a Pepsi Refresh Grant, which, if ...
