Steinn Sigurðsson
Professor of Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Science Editor at Astrophysical Journal. Icelandic. Herder of Cats.
catdynamics
Posts by this author
June 3, 2008
A young, male polar bear was discovered in northern Iceland this morning.
He had, almost certainly, got stuck on an ice floe that broke off the east Greenland pack and drifted to Iceland, where he swam to land.
From Doktor.is
Video of what follows - not for the squeamish
Seriously - if you are a…
June 2, 2008
New planet discovery by Bennett et al, about three Earth masses, adds to the variety of exoplanets.
Prospects for lots of Earth mass planets being out there are improved.
Bennett et al report today the discovery of a 3.3 Earth mass planet at the AAS meeting in St Louis.
Discovery is through…
June 2, 2008
It is very rare at this stage of my life that I find myself unable to put a book down.
Mark Alpert has written a novel.
"Final Theory" - Touchstone Books (Simon & Schuster) ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-7287-9
David is a historian of science, ex-physicist and divorced father.
His former advisor is found…
June 1, 2008
The Roadside Gallery in Carbondale, CO, is doing a Hubble exhibit...!
Just can't get away from the bloomin' thing:
"Stellar images
(CARBONDALE) Roadside Gallery at 320 Main St. is exhibiting "The Hubble Show" with stellar art shot by the Hubble Space Telescope, printed on large-format canvas.…
June 1, 2008
The Phoenix lander on Mars has touched the soil and is getting ready to do some digging
Images from beneath the lander show spots of what appear to be bright consolidated surfaces, possibly sub-surface ice exposed by the lander
view underneath
more on the "Snow Queen" feature
and the arm has…
May 31, 2008
today was a beautiful day.
the sun shone, temperature was mild, the air was clear, the pool was open
I sorted, archived and deleted 2,200 e-mails.
Took me almost all day, though I did get an hour and a bit of walking in.
I had estimated I couldn't do more than a thousand per day, but at this rate…
May 31, 2008
Discovery launched
This is important for two reasons:
they may be able to clear the toilet on ISS; and,
it clears the pad for a GLAST launch at the end of this week, probably...
May 30, 2008
Still friday mountain high, and proposal season is finally over, for now.
So we bounce to the Mighty iPod and ask breezily: will Phoenix dig up evidence for life at last?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Þá líður okkur vel - Hemmi Gunn
The Crossing: Le Glace Au Citron - Henri Des…
May 29, 2008
Sizable earthquake in southwest Iceland this afternoon
Magnitude 6.1-6.3 on Richter scale, by Selfoss, about 50 km from Reykjavik,
no damage reported in Reykjavik, road to Selfoss is cut, probably some damge in the general area. No reports of injuries, though it is early to tell for sure.…
May 28, 2008
The Kavli Prize in astrophysics, for 2008, has been won by Maarten Schmidt of Caltech and Donald Lynden-Bell of Cambridge.
This is the first time the Kavli Prize is awarded, a biannual $1 million prize awarded in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience.
The nanoscience went to Brus and Iijima,…
May 27, 2008
The Howard Hughes Institute just handed out $10 million to a select group of 56 biomed researchers. Each.
Focus is on risky long term research on large scale health and public health issues.
These are junior and early mid-career researchers, with 4-10 year experience as faculty. Appointment is for…
May 26, 2008
Where in that world is Phoenix
JPL Phoenix news site
Animation zooming in on Phoenix landing site starting from Olympus
Large movie showing Phoenix environs - zoom over the strip image to the horizon
Planetary Society blog is your source for all things Martian
May 26, 2008
The Phoenix mission will only last about 90 days.
Starting to feel like they will be very intense 90 days, for some people.
HIRISE camera on MRO capture Phoenix parachute descent through Martian atmosphere
Oblique view - 0.76 m resolution from 310 km
That's kinda cool.
May 25, 2008
In a persons life, there are often formative moments. Turning points, pivotal points, revelations, or times when a stance had to be taken.
Weblogs, by their nature are casual things, where the writer may try to give the audience insight into where they come from; a more dynamic relationship than…
May 25, 2008
The Phoenix Mars Lander landed successfully.
Yay JPL...!
JPL press release
Phoenix mission page
The ground at the landing site...
The polygonal patterns, seen from orbit previously, are suggestive of subsurface water ice that may have melted and refrozen repeatedly.
The lander will dig under the…
May 23, 2008
Friday, sunny friday - and for some a time to party, celebrate, remember, remember, remember...
So, Oh Mighty iPod: we ask you The Question on everyones' mind, that Most Important Question of all right now - how will Fullkomið Líf, Iceland's long awaited Eurovision finalist act, fare in the final…
May 23, 2008
Yo XMM users.
The XMM Project Scientist wants feedback on Senior Review recommendations.
Now.
Here is the XMM proposal to the Senior Review Panel.
Here is a link (pdf) to the full text of the review, now up on nasa.gov
May 23, 2008
Eurovision 2008 this saturday night!
And Iceland made the final...? First time ever?
Well, it is better than American Idol, far as I can tell.
Now we will see if the Scandinavian alliance can pull in some of the other votes to overcome the Balkan block.
Geopolitics at its best.
And, for posterity…
May 21, 2008
Four new objects announced, three transiting planets and something peculiar from CoRoT a "compact brown dwarf" - or is it...
Four new planetary objects were announced this week: XO-5b is a normal "hot Jupiter" in a 4 day orbit around a solar like G star, maybe slightly bloated.;
CoRoT announced two…
May 21, 2008
Chad has one of those lazy blog polls which he is so good at, asking for the "creepiest songs" - the comment thread is an interesting read
So here are some youtube videos of some of my candidates - do not click if you are easily disturbed
The Jam - Down in the Tube Station at Midnight
The last…
May 19, 2008
Not me.
Him! Silly.
Billy Bragg Podcast #13 out and about.
May 19, 2008
When I was a graduate student, my ambition was to redo a full sequence of the physics core courses as a TA.
Really. Truly.
I was sick.
I TA'd freshman physics my first year, sophomore quantum my second year, and had planned to request either Ph 106 (Classical) or Ph 125 (intermediate Quantum) for…
May 19, 2008
The times I've lived in the US I have, partly instinctively, tended to as much of a "European lifestyle" as feasible, given the environment and income.
Krugman goes to Berlin and sees the future
I suspect he is right, and I suspect the transition will involve some significant dislocation for many…
May 17, 2008
Senior Review and rankings for the ten missions under evaluation for NASA Astrophysics in 2008 have been published.
Swift
Chandra
GALEX
Suzaku
(Warm) Spitzer
WMAP
XMM
INTEGRAL
RXTE
Gravity Probe-B
Bottom line here is that NASA funds are too tight, so some operating missions are being reviewed for…
May 17, 2008
" ...I am going to warn you one last chance I am going to ask I want a better than a B-," the e-mail read. "If I see this [grade] I swear to god I am going to fucking put you in a wheelchair when I see you..."
wrote an undergraduate student to one of my colleagues this week
the student was…
May 17, 2008
Since you asked... GLAST is at the Cape and being readied for launch, I gather.
Tentatively schedule for June 3rd, but if the Discovery launch scheduled the week before slips then GLAST gets pushed back. They're good through June 6th, don't know how their launch window is if they slip into the next…
May 16, 2008
NASA astrophysics mission Senior Review (2008) is apparently out
I hear Swift is #1 with Chandra second.
GP-B bottom.
What everyone wants to know is where Spitzer Warm Mission ended up and what funding level they'll get...
My mad skillz have failed to reveal a pdf copy on nasa.gov, so someone…