Featured Posts
Photon
16 May 2013, 20:19 UTC
Sometimes, my PhD carries me to galaxies far, far away. The CARS fields were processed in PixInsight and below you can see only a few small cuts from only one of these fields. Full resolution versions of the complete four fields will come soon! ;) The images are made from the i g r band transposed into R B V channels, amounting to about 50h total exposure time on a 4m class telescope, with a median seeing of..... only 0.55"!! But I should allow the Universe speak it's own beauty:
CFHTLS Ultra Deep Fields
16 May 2013, 20:19 UTC
Sometimes, my PhD carries me to galaxies far, far away. The CARS fields were processed in PixInsight and below you can see only a few small cuts from only one of these fields. Full resolution versions of the complete four fields will come soon! ;) The images are made from the i g r band transposed into R B V channels, amounting to about 50h total exposure time on a 4m class telescope, with a median seeing of..... only 0.55"!! But I should allow the Universe speak it's own beauty:
Discovery News - Space News
16 May 2013, 18:51 UTC
In side-by-side comparisons of observations of the same Mars region years apart, the active Martian atmosphere acts like an Etch A Sketch, rubbing out dust devils' tracks only for them to re-form years later.
Dust Devils Rip Up Mars' 'Etch A Sketch' Surface
16 May 2013, 18:51 UTC
In side-by-side comparisons of observations of the same Mars region years apart, the active Martian atmosphere acts like an Etch A Sketch, rubbing out dust devils' tracks only for them to re-form years later.
Astro Bob
16 May 2013, 17:52 UTC
Solar winds snapped off Comet Lemmon’s ponytail this week and sent it reeling into space. Not to worry. Comets possess the remarkable ability, shared by many species of lizards, to grow new ones. A lizard loses its tail to distract and … Continue reading → Comet C/2012 F6 Lemmon photographed on May 15 showing its bluish, ion tail (bottom) beginning to peel away from the comet. The dust tail sticks out to the left. A wispy, new gas tail is already growing above the departing one. Credit: Damian Peach Solar winds snapped off Comet Lemmon’s ponytail this week and sent it reeling into space. Not to worry. Comets possess the remarkable ability, shared by many species of lizards, to grow new ones. A lizard loses its tail to distract and escape a predator; a comet because its charged atoms – called ions – interact with the breezy blasts of charged particles from the sun called the solar wind. Magnetic fields in the solar wind tore off Comet Lulin’s tail on Feb. 4, 2007. You can clearly see it falling away in the bottom frame. Credit: Joseph Brimacombe One day Comet Lemmon was minding its own business and then on Wednesday ...
Lizard Lemmon Comet loses tail, grows a new one
16 May 2013, 17:52 UTC
Solar winds snapped off Comet Lemmon’s ponytail this week and sent it reeling into space. Not to worry. Comets possess the remarkable ability, shared by many species of lizards, to grow new ones. A lizard loses its tail to distract and … Continue reading → Comet C/2012 F6 Lemmon photographed on May 15 showing its bluish, ion tail (bottom) beginning to peel away from the comet. The dust tail sticks out to the left. A wispy, new gas tail is already growing above the departing one. Credit: Damian Peach Solar winds snapped off Comet Lemmon’s ponytail this week and sent it reeling into space. Not to worry. Comets possess the remarkable ability, shared by many species of lizards, to grow new ones. A lizard loses its tail to distract and escape a predator; a comet because its charged atoms – called ions – interact with the breezy blasts of charged particles from the sun called the solar wind. Magnetic fields in the solar wind tore off Comet Lulin’s tail on Feb. 4, 2007. You can clearly see it falling away in the bottom frame. Credit: Joseph Brimacombe One day Comet Lemmon was minding its own business and then on Wednesday ...
Tom's Astronomy Blog
16 May 2013, 16:48 UTC
Sorry to see this the last targeted flyby of Rhea. Like it hints at the end. Not going there yet. This is a remarkable image don’t you think? NASA’s info on the image: On its fourth and final targeted flyby … Continue reading → A nice look at the surface of Rhea, the second largest moon of Saturn. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Sorry to see this the last targeted flyby of Rhea. Like it hints at the end. Not going there yet. This is a remarkable image don’t you think? NASA’s info on the image: On its fourth and final targeted flyby of Rhea, the Cassini spacecraft provided this stunning view of the ancient and heavily cratered surface. Billions of years of impacts have sculpted Rhea’s surface into the form we see today. With a diameter of 949 miles (1,528 kilometers) Rhea is Saturn’s second-largest moon. This view is centered on terrain at 33 degrees north latitude, 358 degrees west longitude. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 9, 2013. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2,280 miles (3,670 kilometers) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle ...
Goodbye Rhea?
16 May 2013, 16:48 UTC
Sorry to see this the last targeted flyby of Rhea. Like it hints at the end. Not going there yet. This is a remarkable image don’t you think? NASA’s info on the image: On its fourth and final targeted flyby … Continue reading → A nice look at the surface of Rhea, the second largest moon of Saturn. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Sorry to see this the last targeted flyby of Rhea. Like it hints at the end. Not going there yet. This is a remarkable image don’t you think? NASA’s info on the image: On its fourth and final targeted flyby of Rhea, the Cassini spacecraft provided this stunning view of the ancient and heavily cratered surface. Billions of years of impacts have sculpted Rhea’s surface into the form we see today. With a diameter of 949 miles (1,528 kilometers) Rhea is Saturn’s second-largest moon. This view is centered on terrain at 33 degrees north latitude, 358 degrees west longitude. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 9, 2013. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2,280 miles (3,670 kilometers) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle ...
Discovery News - Space News
16 May 2013, 16:22 UTC
Venus might not be somewhere you'd expect to find life, but there's a chance that its sulfrous clouds could be hiding something. Continue reading →
Does Alien Life Thrive in Venus' Mysterious Clouds?
16 May 2013, 16:22 UTC
Venus might not be somewhere you'd expect to find life, but there's a chance that its sulfrous clouds could be hiding something. Continue reading →
StarStruck
16 May 2013, 15:43 UTC
After returning to terra firma after five months aboard the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) with great fanfare, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield says he feels the drag of gravity and like he has aged quite a bit. “It really feels like the day after I played a hard game of rugby or hockey…I am… Astronaut Chris Hadfield poses with the Canadian flag in the Cupola module of the International Space Station (ISS). (Credit: NASA) After returning to terra firma after five months aboard the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) with great fanfare, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield says he feels the drag of gravity and like he has aged quite a bit. “It really feels like the day after I played a hard game of rugby or hockey…I am still tying to stand up straight,” said Hadfield at a news conference held at NASA’s Johnson Space Center today. “When I got out of the capsule, I could actually feel the weight of my lips, and I didn’t realize that while in orbit I had learned how to speak with a weightless tongue.” Hitching a ride on a Russian Soyuz capsule only a few days ago with his American and Russian crewmates, ...
‘Pop Astronaut’ Hadfield Adjusting To Terra Firma
16 May 2013, 15:43 UTC
After returning to terra firma after five months aboard the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) with great fanfare, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield says he feels the drag of gravity and like he has aged quite a bit. “It really feels like the day after I played a hard game of rugby or hockey…I am… Astronaut Chris Hadfield poses with the Canadian flag in the Cupola module of the International Space Station (ISS). (Credit: NASA) After returning to terra firma after five months aboard the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) with great fanfare, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield says he feels the drag of gravity and like he has aged quite a bit. “It really feels like the day after I played a hard game of rugby or hockey…I am still tying to stand up straight,” said Hadfield at a news conference held at NASA’s Johnson Space Center today. “When I got out of the capsule, I could actually feel the weight of my lips, and I didn’t realize that while in orbit I had learned how to speak with a weightless tongue.” Hitching a ride on a Russian Soyuz capsule only a few days ago with his American and Russian crewmates, ...
Universe Today
16 May 2013, 15:26 UTC
The future of NASA’s Kepler space telescope mission is in doubt, NASA announced yesterday, as it suffered a failure of a second reaction wheel, losing its ability to precisely point to look for planets orbiting other stars. Reaction wheels enable the spacecraft to aim in different directions without firing thrusters, and the spacecraft needs at [...] Artst concept of the Kepler telescope in orbit. Credit: NASA The future of NASA’s Kepler space telescope mission is in doubt, NASA announced yesterday, as it suffered a failure of a second reaction wheel, losing its ability to precisely point to look for planets orbiting other stars. Reaction wheels enable the spacecraft to aim in different directions without firing thrusters, and the spacecraft needs at least three of the four wheels working to provide the ability to point precisely enough to continue the mission. But, as we pointed out in our article yesterday, the Kepler team said there are still possibilities of keeping the spacecraft in working order, or perhaps even finding other opportunities for different science for Kepler, something that doesn’t require such precise pointing abilities. (...)Read the rest of More Insight on How NASA Might Revive the Kepler Space Telescope (744 words) ...
More Insight on How NASA Might Revive the Kepler Space Telescope
16 May 2013, 15:26 UTC
The future of NASA’s Kepler space telescope mission is in doubt, NASA announced yesterday, as it suffered a failure of a second reaction wheel, losing its ability to precisely point to look for planets orbiting other stars. Reaction wheels enable the spacecraft to aim in different directions without firing thrusters, and the spacecraft needs at [...] Artst concept of the Kepler telescope in orbit. Credit: NASA The future of NASA’s Kepler space telescope mission is in doubt, NASA announced yesterday, as it suffered a failure of a second reaction wheel, losing its ability to precisely point to look for planets orbiting other stars. Reaction wheels enable the spacecraft to aim in different directions without firing thrusters, and the spacecraft needs at least three of the four wheels working to provide the ability to point precisely enough to continue the mission. But, as we pointed out in our article yesterday, the Kepler team said there are still possibilities of keeping the spacecraft in working order, or perhaps even finding other opportunities for different science for Kepler, something that doesn’t require such precise pointing abilities. (...)Read the rest of More Insight on How NASA Might Revive the Kepler Space Telescope (744 words) ...
Universe Today
16 May 2013, 14:03 UTC
If you’re a fan of the rebooted 2009 Star Trek film, we think you’ll love the second edition. You’ll find similar whip-cracking dialog, inside jokes and action-filled storyline in the sequel, Star Trek: Into Darkness, which opens in theaters in the United States and several other countries today. While the first movie introduced us to the characters, this [...] Spock (Zachary Quinto) and James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) as portrayed in Star Trek: Into Darkness. Credit: StarTrekMovie.com If you’re a fan of the rebooted 2009 Star Trek film, we think you’ll love the second edition. You’ll find similar whip-cracking dialog, inside jokes and action-filled storyline in the sequel, Star Trek: Into Darkness, which opens in theaters in the United States and several other countries today. While the first movie introduced us to the characters, this movie is all about choices… moral choices, and when it is best to help somebody, as opposed to letting things be. That’s where things can get uncomfortable, though. (...)Read the rest of Our Spoiler-Free Review of Star Trek: Into Darkness (311 words) © Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: chris pine, film, movies, Review, Star Trek, star ...
Our Spoiler-Free Review of Star Trek: Into Darkness
16 May 2013, 14:03 UTC
If you’re a fan of the rebooted 2009 Star Trek film, we think you’ll love the second edition. You’ll find similar whip-cracking dialog, inside jokes and action-filled storyline in the sequel, Star Trek: Into Darkness, which opens in theaters in the United States and several other countries today. While the first movie introduced us to the characters, this [...] Spock (Zachary Quinto) and James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) as portrayed in Star Trek: Into Darkness. Credit: StarTrekMovie.com If you’re a fan of the rebooted 2009 Star Trek film, we think you’ll love the second edition. You’ll find similar whip-cracking dialog, inside jokes and action-filled storyline in the sequel, Star Trek: Into Darkness, which opens in theaters in the United States and several other countries today. While the first movie introduced us to the characters, this movie is all about choices… moral choices, and when it is best to help somebody, as opposed to letting things be. That’s where things can get uncomfortable, though. (...)Read the rest of Our Spoiler-Free Review of Star Trek: Into Darkness (311 words) © Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: chris pine, film, movies, Review, Star Trek, star ...
Centauri Dreams
16 May 2013, 13:08 UTC
Yesterday I remarked on how many more tools for exoplanet discovery we have today than were available to Harry Stine when he wrote “A Program for Star Flight” in 1973. That same day came the disheartening news that the Kepler mission has been stopped in its tracks by an equipment malfunction. But take heart — a vast amount of data already gathered by Kepler remains to be studied, meaning we’ll be getting Kepler discoveries for some time to come. The Kepler news also sharpens our focus on TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), which will build our catalog of nearby stars hosting exoplanets, with launch now scheduled for 2017. For more on Kepler, see Dennis Overbye’s Breakdown Imperils NASA’s Hunt for Other Earths. But back to Stine, who in 1973 was hunting not only for target exoplanets but also for a propulsion system that would get a human crew to them. He was evidently familiar with Eugen Sänger’s papers on photon rockets, in which the German designer proposed deflecting the gamma rays produced by the annihilation of matter with antimatter to produce thrust. But Sänger’s ideas depended on tuning the gamma ray photons into a directed beam, something that no one ...
The Enzmann Solution
16 May 2013, 13:08 UTC
Yesterday I remarked on how many more tools for exoplanet discovery we have today than were available to Harry Stine when he wrote “A Program for Star Flight” in 1973. That same day came the disheartening news that the Kepler mission has been stopped in its tracks by an equipment malfunction. But take heart — a vast amount of data already gathered by Kepler remains to be studied, meaning we’ll be getting Kepler discoveries for some time to come. The Kepler news also sharpens our focus on TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), which will build our catalog of nearby stars hosting exoplanets, with launch now scheduled for 2017. For more on Kepler, see Dennis Overbye’s Breakdown Imperils NASA’s Hunt for Other Earths. But back to Stine, who in 1973 was hunting not only for target exoplanets but also for a propulsion system that would get a human crew to them. He was evidently familiar with Eugen Sänger’s papers on photon rockets, in which the German designer proposed deflecting the gamma rays produced by the annihilation of matter with antimatter to produce thrust. But Sänger’s ideas depended on tuning the gamma ray photons into a directed beam, something that no one ...
