Featured Posts
Lights in the Dark
7 Mar 2014, 03:33 UTC
Our solar system is an active place, and that is no better illustrated than with these recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope of asteroid P/2013 R3 breaking apart — and it’s not even disintegrating in Earth’s or any other planet’s atmosphere, but rather as it travels through space 480 million km away from the […] Hubble images of P/2013 R3 acquired from Oct. 2013 to Jan. 2014 Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA). Animation by J. Major. Our solar system is an active place, and that is no better illustrated than with these recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope of asteroid P/2013 R3 breaking apart — and it’s not even disintegrating in Earth’s or any other planet’s atmosphere, but rather as it travels through space 480 million km away from the Sun! Seen over the course of four months, the breakup of the 200,000-ton space rock is thought to not be the result of an impact event but rather the slight but unyielding force of solar illumination on an already compromised cluster of rubble, barely held together by its own gravity. “This is a really bizarre thing to observe — we’ve never seen anything like it before,” says ...
Hubble Watches As an Asteroid Crumbles
7 Mar 2014, 03:33 UTC
Our solar system is an active place, and that is no better illustrated than with these recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope of asteroid P/2013 R3 breaking apart — and it’s not even disintegrating in Earth’s or any other planet’s atmosphere, but rather as it travels through space 480 million km away from the […] Hubble images of P/2013 R3 acquired from Oct. 2013 to Jan. 2014 Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA). Animation by J. Major. Our solar system is an active place, and that is no better illustrated than with these recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope of asteroid P/2013 R3 breaking apart — and it’s not even disintegrating in Earth’s or any other planet’s atmosphere, but rather as it travels through space 480 million km away from the Sun! Seen over the course of four months, the breakup of the 200,000-ton space rock is thought to not be the result of an impact event but rather the slight but unyielding force of solar illumination on an already compromised cluster of rubble, barely held together by its own gravity. “This is a really bizarre thing to observe — we’ve never seen anything like it before,” says ...
Scientific American
6 Mar 2014, 23:33 UTC
Since at least the 1960s, astronauts and satellites have been snapping photos of Planet Earth from on high. While many of these photos possess an intrinsic beauty, others hold important clues about... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
5 Space Photos that Speak to Our Human Existence - The Countdown #43
6 Mar 2014, 23:33 UTC
Since at least the 1960s, astronauts and satellites have been snapping photos of Planet Earth from on high. While many of these photos possess an intrinsic beauty, others hold important clues about... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
Astro Watch
6 Mar 2014, 22:10 UTC
A subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee heard dueling testimony Wednesday from the head of the company that currently provides launch services for major military satellites and another company that wants to enter that market. At the hearing of the appropriations committee's defense subcommittee, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk argued that by allowing SpaceX to compete for launches under the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, it could lower the military's costs to launch major defense satellites. However, Michael Gass, CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA), the Boing-Lockheed Martin joint venture that builds the Atlas and Delta vehicles currently used by the EELV program, warned that competition would not guarantee lower costs, citing the previous unsustainable competition between Boeing and Lockheed prior to the formation of ULA. The Air Force is currently in the process of certifying SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket for EELV-class missions, but changes in the budget may reduce the number of missions SpaceX is eligible to compete for over the next several years."The Air Force and other agencies are simply paying too high a price for launch," Musk told a Senate appropriations subcommittee. "The impacts of relying on a monopoly provider since 2006 are predictable and ...
Senate Committee Debates EELV Competition
6 Mar 2014, 22:10 UTC
A subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee heard dueling testimony Wednesday from the head of the company that currently provides launch services for major military satellites and another company that wants to enter that market. At the hearing of the appropriations committee's defense subcommittee, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk argued that by allowing SpaceX to compete for launches under the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, it could lower the military's costs to launch major defense satellites. However, Michael Gass, CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA), the Boing-Lockheed Martin joint venture that builds the Atlas and Delta vehicles currently used by the EELV program, warned that competition would not guarantee lower costs, citing the previous unsustainable competition between Boeing and Lockheed prior to the formation of ULA. The Air Force is currently in the process of certifying SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket for EELV-class missions, but changes in the budget may reduce the number of missions SpaceX is eligible to compete for over the next several years."The Air Force and other agencies are simply paying too high a price for launch," Musk told a Senate appropriations subcommittee. "The impacts of relying on a monopoly provider since 2006 are predictable and ...
Lunar Networks
6 Mar 2014, 21:23 UTC
The square corner along the north-most rim of Lavoisier A (28.5 km, 36.972°N, 286.74°E), evidence of pre-impact fracturing. LROC NAC observation M112759713L, spacecraft orbit 18324, July 4, 2014; field of view approximately 7 km, resolution 1.41 meters per pixel. LROC Featured Image, released March 6, 2014 [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].Raquel NunoLROC News SystemWhy are most craters circular (even craters found on Earth)? By hurtling objects together at many miles per second in large laboratories, scientists have shown that only the most oblique impacts (less than 10° from the horizon) produce elliptical craters.The kinetic energy of an impactor behaves much like the energy from a nuclear bomb. The energy is transferred to the target material by a shock wave, and shock waves produced by an impact, whether oblique or head-on, propagate hemispherically. This shape means that energy is being delivered equally in all directions; resulting in a hemispherical void and thus circular craters. However, conditions in nature do not always mirror the laboratory. In fact some craters are nearly square! A portion of the rim of Lavoisier A crater tells a story of the geology before impact. Lavoisier A is a squareish crater with a diameter of 28.5 km in the northwestern ...
Squarish Levoisier A of Oceanus Procellarum
6 Mar 2014, 21:23 UTC
The square corner along the north-most rim of Lavoisier A (28.5 km, 36.972°N, 286.74°E), evidence of pre-impact fracturing. LROC NAC observation M112759713L, spacecraft orbit 18324, July 4, 2014; field of view approximately 7 km, resolution 1.41 meters per pixel. LROC Featured Image, released March 6, 2014 [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].Raquel NunoLROC News SystemWhy are most craters circular (even craters found on Earth)? By hurtling objects together at many miles per second in large laboratories, scientists have shown that only the most oblique impacts (less than 10° from the horizon) produce elliptical craters.The kinetic energy of an impactor behaves much like the energy from a nuclear bomb. The energy is transferred to the target material by a shock wave, and shock waves produced by an impact, whether oblique or head-on, propagate hemispherically. This shape means that energy is being delivered equally in all directions; resulting in a hemispherical void and thus circular craters. However, conditions in nature do not always mirror the laboratory. In fact some craters are nearly square! A portion of the rim of Lavoisier A crater tells a story of the geology before impact. Lavoisier A is a squareish crater with a diameter of 28.5 km in the northwestern ...
Starts With a Bang!
6 Mar 2014, 20:57 UTC
“Building one space station for everyone was and is insane: we should have built a dozen.”
Throwback Thursday: Incredible Star Trails
6 Mar 2014, 20:57 UTC
“Building one space station for everyone was and is insane: we should have built a dozen.”
Astro Watch
6 Mar 2014, 19:59 UTC
A new innovative instrument called MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) has been successfully installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. MUSE has observed distant galaxies, bright stars and other test targets during the first period of very successful observations. Following testing and preliminary acceptance in Europe in September 2013, MUSE was shipped to ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. It was reassembled at the base camp before being carefully transported to its new home at the VLT, where it is now installed on Unit Telescope 4. MUSE is the latest of the second generation instruments for the VLT (the first two were X-shooter and KMOS and the next, SPHERE, will follow shortly).The leader of the team and principal investigator for the instrument, Roland Bacon (Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon, France), expressed his feelings: “It has taken a lot of work by many people over many years, but we have done it! It seems strange that this seven-tonne collection of optics, mechanics and electronics is now a fantastic time machine for probing the early Universe. We are very proud of the achievement — MUSE will remain a unique instrument for years to come.”This dramatic ...
Powerful 3D Spectrograph Successfully Installed on Very Large Telescope
6 Mar 2014, 19:59 UTC
A new innovative instrument called MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) has been successfully installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. MUSE has observed distant galaxies, bright stars and other test targets during the first period of very successful observations. Following testing and preliminary acceptance in Europe in September 2013, MUSE was shipped to ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. It was reassembled at the base camp before being carefully transported to its new home at the VLT, where it is now installed on Unit Telescope 4. MUSE is the latest of the second generation instruments for the VLT (the first two were X-shooter and KMOS and the next, SPHERE, will follow shortly).The leader of the team and principal investigator for the instrument, Roland Bacon (Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon, France), expressed his feelings: “It has taken a lot of work by many people over many years, but we have done it! It seems strange that this seven-tonne collection of optics, mechanics and electronics is now a fantastic time machine for probing the early Universe. We are very proud of the achievement — MUSE will remain a unique instrument for years to come.”This dramatic ...
SPACE.com
6 Mar 2014, 19:05 UTC
Harlan Ellison is well-known in science fiction circles — in fact, considered a modern master of science fiction, and one of his most critically acclaimed stories came from the "Star Trek: The Original Series" episode "City on the Edge of Forever."
Famed 'Star Trek' Original Series Teleplay by Harlan Ellison Gets IDW Comics Adaptation
6 Mar 2014, 19:05 UTC
Harlan Ellison is well-known in science fiction circles — in fact, considered a modern master of science fiction, and one of his most critically acclaimed stories came from the "Star Trek: The Original Series" episode "City on the Edge of Forever."
Astro Bob
6 Mar 2014, 18:22 UTC
The Hubble Space Telescope has photographed a never-seen-before breakup of an asteroid. Named P/2013 R3 (Catalina-PanSTARRS), it was discovered last September 15 by the Catalina and Pan-STARRS sky surveys as a faint, slightly fuzzy object. Two weeks later, the giant Keck Telescope in Hawaii took a … Continue reading → he NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope photographed the break-up of P/2013 R3 from Oct. 29, 2013 to Jan. 14, 2014. Although fragile comet nuclei have been seen to fall apart as they approach the Sun, nothing like this breakup, which occurred in the asteroid belt, has ever been observed before. Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA/ESA/D. Jewitt (UCLA) The Hubble Space Telescope has photographed a never-seen-before breakup of an asteroid. Named P/2013 R3 (Catalina-PanSTARRS), it was discovered last September 15 by the Catalina and Pan-STARRS sky surveys as a faint, slightly fuzzy object. Two weeks later, the giant Keck Telescope in Hawaii took a closer look and saw not one but three separate objects cruising convoy-style in a dust cloud of their own making. Animation showing the break up of P/2013 R3 By December it had crumbled into ten pieces, the four largest of which measure about 650 feet (200 meters) across ...
Touched by the sun, oddball asteroid crumbles before our very eyes
6 Mar 2014, 18:22 UTC
The Hubble Space Telescope has photographed a never-seen-before breakup of an asteroid. Named P/2013 R3 (Catalina-PanSTARRS), it was discovered last September 15 by the Catalina and Pan-STARRS sky surveys as a faint, slightly fuzzy object. Two weeks later, the giant Keck Telescope in Hawaii took a … Continue reading → he NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope photographed the break-up of P/2013 R3 from Oct. 29, 2013 to Jan. 14, 2014. Although fragile comet nuclei have been seen to fall apart as they approach the Sun, nothing like this breakup, which occurred in the asteroid belt, has ever been observed before. Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA/ESA/D. Jewitt (UCLA) The Hubble Space Telescope has photographed a never-seen-before breakup of an asteroid. Named P/2013 R3 (Catalina-PanSTARRS), it was discovered last September 15 by the Catalina and Pan-STARRS sky surveys as a faint, slightly fuzzy object. Two weeks later, the giant Keck Telescope in Hawaii took a closer look and saw not one but three separate objects cruising convoy-style in a dust cloud of their own making. Animation showing the break up of P/2013 R3 By December it had crumbled into ten pieces, the four largest of which measure about 650 feet (200 meters) across ...
NASA Astrobiology
6 Mar 2014, 17:16 UTC
Amino acids are fundamental to life as the building blocks with which cells construct proteins according to genetic instructions. However, the 20 amino acids of the standard genetic code represent a tiny fraction of the number of amino acid chemical structures that could plausibly play such a role, both from the perspective of natural processes by which life emerged and evolved, and from the perspective of human-engineered genetically coded proteins. Until now, efforts to describe the structures comprising this broader set, or even estimate their number, have been hampered by the complex properties of organic molecules. In a new study astrobiologists used computer software based on graph theory and constructive combinatorics to search for the chemical structures implied by two careful and precise definitions of the amino acids relevant to biological proteins. Their results include two virtual libraries of amino acid structures corresponding to these different approaches, and suggest a simple approach to exploring much larger libraries of interest. Source: [Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling]
