Featured Posts
Cosmic Variance
1 Nov 2010, 15:22 UTC
No, it’s not. Don’t be alarmed: nobody is claiming that dark matter is supernatural. That’s just the provocative title of a blog post by Chris Schoen, asking whether science can address “supernatural” phenomena. I think it can, all terms properly defined. This is an old question, which has come up again in a discussion that includes Russell Blackford, Jerry Coyne, John Pieret, and Massimo Pigliucci. (There is some actual discussion in between the name-calling.) Part of the impetus for the discussion is this new paper by Maarten Boudry, Stefaan Blancke, Johan Braeckman for Foundations of Science. There are two issues standing in the way of a utopian ideal of universal agreement: what we mean by “supernatural,” and how science works. (Are you surprised?) There is no one perfect definition of “supernatural,” but it’s at least worth trying to define it before passing judgment. Here’s Chris Schoen, commenting on Boudry et. al: Nowhere do the authors of the paper define just what supernaturalism is supposed to mean. The word is commonly used to indicate that which is not subject to “natural” law, that which is intrinsically concealed from our view, which is not orderly and regular, or otherwise not amenable to ...
Is Dark Matter Supernatural?
1 Nov 2010, 15:22 UTC
No, it’s not. Don’t be alarmed: nobody is claiming that dark matter is supernatural. That’s just the provocative title of a blog post by Chris Schoen, asking whether science can address “supernatural” phenomena. I think it can, all terms properly defined. This is an old question, which has come up again in a discussion that includes Russell Blackford, Jerry Coyne, John Pieret, and Massimo Pigliucci. (There is some actual discussion in between the name-calling.) Part of the impetus for the discussion is this new paper by Maarten Boudry, Stefaan Blancke, Johan Braeckman for Foundations of Science. There are two issues standing in the way of a utopian ideal of universal agreement: what we mean by “supernatural,” and how science works. (Are you surprised?) There is no one perfect definition of “supernatural,” but it’s at least worth trying to define it before passing judgment. Here’s Chris Schoen, commenting on Boudry et. al: Nowhere do the authors of the paper define just what supernaturalism is supposed to mean. The word is commonly used to indicate that which is not subject to “natural” law, that which is intrinsically concealed from our view, which is not orderly and regular, or otherwise not amenable to ...
Space Fellowship
1 Nov 2010, 15:16 UTC
Astronomers using data from ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, have made an impressive composite of the nebula Messier 17, also known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula. The painting-like image shows vast clouds of gas and dust illuminated by the intense radiation from young stars. The image shows a central region about 15 light-years across, although the entire nebula is even larger, about 40 light-years in total. Messier 17 is in the constellation [...]
Picture of the Day - The Omega Nebula
1 Nov 2010, 15:16 UTC
Astronomers using data from ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, have made an impressive composite of the nebula Messier 17, also known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula. The painting-like image shows vast clouds of gas and dust illuminated by the intense radiation from young stars. The image shows a central region about 15 light-years across, although the entire nebula is even larger, about 40 light-years in total. Messier 17 is in the constellation [...]
Discovery News - Space News
1 Nov 2010, 12:30 UTC
Sending astronauts to Mars or other destinations without a ride home could cut the cost of space missions.
Journeying to Mars -- on a One-Way Ticket
1 Nov 2010, 12:30 UTC
Sending astronauts to Mars or other destinations without a ride home could cut the cost of space missions.
Space Fellowship
1 Nov 2010, 11:34 UTC
These spectacular pictures are shot by the Expedition 25 crew members aboard the International Space Station flying 220 miles above Earth on Oct. 28. The Expedition 25 astronauts used the ESA-built Cupola observatory module to make these amazing nighttime pictures of planet Earth. From 220 miles above Earth, one of the Expedition 25 crew members on the International Space Station took this night time photo featuring the bright lights of Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt on the Mediterrane [...]
Spectacular Pictures of Earth as Seen from the International Space Station
1 Nov 2010, 11:34 UTC
These spectacular pictures are shot by the Expedition 25 crew members aboard the International Space Station flying 220 miles above Earth on Oct. 28. The Expedition 25 astronauts used the ESA-built Cupola observatory module to make these amazing nighttime pictures of planet Earth. From 220 miles above Earth, one of the Expedition 25 crew members on the International Space Station took this night time photo featuring the bright lights of Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt on the Mediterrane [...]
collectSPACE.com: Space History News
1 Nov 2010, 11:00 UTC
Space shuttle Discovery is ready to launch on its final mission, concluding its nearly 30 years as arguably the most historic among NASA's fleet of orbiters. The first of NASA's three remaining winged shuttles set to retire, Discovery was the third to be built and the one most frequently flown.
A tradition of Discovery: NASA's most-flown space shuttle upholds legacy on final flight
1 Nov 2010, 11:00 UTC
Space shuttle Discovery is ready to launch on its final mission, concluding its nearly 30 years as arguably the most historic among NASA's fleet of orbiters. The first of NASA's three remaining winged shuttles set to retire, Discovery was the third to be built and the one most frequently flown.
Centauri Dreams
1 Nov 2010, 10:13 UTC
It’s staggering how much our view of the Solar System has changed over the past few decades. The system I grew up with seemed a stable place. The planets were in well-defined orbits out to Pluto and, even if it were always possible another might be found, it surely couldn’t pose any great surprise in that great emptiness that was the outer system. But today we routinely track trans-Neptunian objects with diameters over 500 kilometers — about 50 of these have now been found, and some 122 TNOs at least 300 kilometers in diameter. We know about well over a thousand objects in that ring of early system debris called the Kuiper Belt. It’s an increasingly messy place, this outer Solar System, and it has its own terminology. We have centaurs and plutinos, resonance objects, cubewanos, scattered disk objects (SDOs), Neptune trojans, damocloids, apollos and, perhaps, inner Oort cloud objects. Nope, this isn’t the Solar System I grew up with, and every new discovery adds to the enchantment. Its burgeoning population of outer objects tells us much about its history, assuming we can make the right deductions from what we see. Orbital trajectories are a kind of history written in ...
Enchanted with the Outer System
1 Nov 2010, 10:13 UTC
It’s staggering how much our view of the Solar System has changed over the past few decades. The system I grew up with seemed a stable place. The planets were in well-defined orbits out to Pluto and, even if it were always possible another might be found, it surely couldn’t pose any great surprise in that great emptiness that was the outer system. But today we routinely track trans-Neptunian objects with diameters over 500 kilometers — about 50 of these have now been found, and some 122 TNOs at least 300 kilometers in diameter. We know about well over a thousand objects in that ring of early system debris called the Kuiper Belt. It’s an increasingly messy place, this outer Solar System, and it has its own terminology. We have centaurs and plutinos, resonance objects, cubewanos, scattered disk objects (SDOs), Neptune trojans, damocloids, apollos and, perhaps, inner Oort cloud objects. Nope, this isn’t the Solar System I grew up with, and every new discovery adds to the enchantment. Its burgeoning population of outer objects tells us much about its history, assuming we can make the right deductions from what we see. Orbital trajectories are a kind of history written in ...
The Daily Galaxy
1 Nov 2010, 07:08 UTC
In early 2007, scientists using the Spitzer discovered evidence that potentially indicates the famed three Pillars of Creation photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 in the Eagle Nebula were destroyed by a nearby supernova explosion about 6,000 years...
Image of the Day -The "Pillars of Creation": Destroyed by a Supernova Explosion 6,000 Years Ago
1 Nov 2010, 07:08 UTC
In early 2007, scientists using the Spitzer discovered evidence that potentially indicates the famed three Pillars of Creation photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 in the Eagle Nebula were destroyed by a nearby supernova explosion about 6,000 years...
The Daily Galaxy
1 Nov 2010, 01:56 UTC
Astronomers have recorded sightings of two fireballs that may have come from Comet Hartley 2 that made its closest pass by Earth in 24 years this month, prompting speculation on whether the icy cosmic interloper may have a trailing a...
Two Fireballs Sighted from Comet Hartley 2 -Do They Signal a New Meteor Shower Display on Nov 3 and 4?
1 Nov 2010, 01:56 UTC
Astronomers have recorded sightings of two fireballs that may have come from Comet Hartley 2 that made its closest pass by Earth in 24 years this month, prompting speculation on whether the icy cosmic interloper may have a trailing a...
The Daily Galaxy
1 Nov 2010, 01:24 UTC
Exciting new research shows that hydrothermal vents on the deep ocean floor, believed by many to be the cradle for early life, generated electrical currentsthat could have helped generate the complex carbon-based molecules that came together to produce life, as...
Did Life Begin From Electrical Bolts Deep Beneath the Sea?
1 Nov 2010, 01:24 UTC
Exciting new research shows that hydrothermal vents on the deep ocean floor, believed by many to be the cradle for early life, generated electrical currentsthat could have helped generate the complex carbon-based molecules that came together to produce life, as...
NASA Watch
30 Oct 2010, 15:38 UTC
Space Shuttle Discovery now set for Wednesday Launch, SpaceRef "After meeting this morning to discuss the status of repairs to replace both shuttle and ground side couplings, NASA Managers decided to delay the launch another 24 hours to allow engineers to complete testing and to allow for repressurization of helium tanks. "
