catdynamics | July 18, 2011You better watch out
You better beware
Albert said that E=mc2
Landscape: From the Tea Rooms of Mars to the Hell-holes of Uranus
Lest we forget...
catdynamics | July 14, 2011Mystery flashflood reveals new hydrothermal system and probable small subglacial eruption this week, or two, or three...
Who the f#@k named a volcano Loki anyway...
The other night there were some gentle rumblings on the west side of Vatnajökull
Literally: small earthquakes and low frequency tremors characteristic of large volume fluid flows.
Fögrufjöll (click to embiggen)
From geographic.org
This was right under "Hamarinn" - aka Loki - Fögrufjöll
Hamarinn (click to embiggen)
From vedur.is
These are part of the complex of volcanic bumps and bits on Bárðarbunga, which is a ginormous…
catdynamics | July 14, 2011House appropriations committee reported out the Science etc bill.
JWST remains deleted; armchair quantum wires are in...
Here we go.
Next step.
House appropriations committee approved the report of the subcommittee on Science etc for 2012 appropriations.
Bill was essentially unchanged, with minor amendments.
0.1% was shaved off everyone and given to NOAA.
JWST remains CUT CUT CUT!
And McCollum (D) put in two amendments prohibiting funding for corps convicted of felonies or owing taxes - that could have interesting consequences, wonder who that is aimed at.
Anyway, Sen. Mikulski put out…
catdynamics | July 12, 2011back to the science subcommittee appropriations
In case I haven't gone on about it enough, I think the James Webb Space Telescope has been tossed under the bus.
It is deleted, after being isolated and hung out to dry.
It is possible that funding will be restored in the Senate or in conference, but I think the deal has been made, implicitly, that Goddard gets to keep the (equally or worse mismanaged) big weather and environmental science programs, and JWST is sacrificed as a token high profile budget cut.
The money does not go back to astrophysics, which then has a permanent large cut in…
catdynamics | July 12, 2011House subcommittee on Science etc has reported out and full committee is scheduled to vote on the 13th.
JWST cut is formally in as are various other interesting snippets.
The subcommittee report (pdf large) - ie the appropriations by agency recommended to the full committee
Summary Table (pdf) - handy dandy difference between 2012 actual appropriations vs 2011 actual and 2012 requested, respectively.
Remember: this is the subcommittee recommendation to the committee, that gets voted on, then sent to House, then Senate does its thing, then it goes to conference to reconcile.
Change can…
catdynamics | July 9, 2011Cratering of ice sheet and possible small eruption under ice.
click to embiggen
Crater in ice over one of sites of the 1918 eruption - four of these formed overnight.
Lot of shallow quakes still in a line across the caldera - some might be ice-surface cracking, others are several km deep. Could be magma pushing into a fissure, angle is consistent with the general orientation of the mid-atlantic rift through there.
Or not.
Be quite spectacular if that whole line ruptures though.
click to embiggen
Nice picture gallery at visir.is
Video of flood here (ruv 32 bit wmv) - can't get it to…
catdynamics | July 8, 2011A jökulhlaup has started in Múlakvísl, the glacial river that comes off Mýrdalsjökull, that is the glacier that Katla is under.
No eruption at this point though.
RUV has a webcam on it (32 bit wmv) - not much to see at midnight EST
Lots of
small earthquakes in a line across the caldera though.
Some have a depth of less than a km, and are, most likely, just the ice shifting,
but there is steady activity down to 10-15 km depth, suggesting some magma movement.
Police are warning of strong H2S odour on the sands, and possibly lethal concentrations of the gas in low lying areas nearby.…
catdynamics | July 8, 2011Friday. Raining.
Interesting week.
So, what does the mighty iPod One have to say about our clouded future?
Whence hence and what changes may we expect?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Woosh!
The Covering: Identify the Beat - Marc Smith vs Safe n' Sound
The Crossing: Mrs McGrath - Bruce Springsteen
The Crown: Parachutes - Pearl Jam
The Root: Engill í Rólu - Bubbi Morthens
The Past: My Father's House - Ben Harper
The Future: Love on a Farm Boy's Wages - XTC
The Questioner: Oliver's Army - Elvis Costello
The House: Roadhouse Blues - Doors
The Inside: Holiday (live)
- Green Day
The Outcome:…
catdynamics | July 7, 2011Name a concrete, new international facility class science project that the US is going to be leading in near future.
Seriously: and you can either keep it to Astronomy, or any natural science.
Used to be that you could rattle off several upcoming major science projects which were US initiatives, international in scope and clearly great things to do.
Heck, you could do that just in astronomy.
There are still some US projects, mostly though put in place a long time ago and just now peaking.
There are still major international scientific projects, but mostly without US leadership. Either…
catdynamics | July 6, 2011As everybody knows, there is one thing you must never do before launch, and that is name it.
Total jinx.
Not of course that we are superstitious, that'd be silly.
Some of us just cringed when the Next Generation Space Telescope was given a proper name by an over keen administrator while still in pre-pre phase A.
Still, we muddle along, and so it goes.
Then came the delays, and cost overruns, and reviews and reports.
Not all of it was NASA's fault - I have clear memories of Congress vacillating for a year or two on authorizing use of a foreign heavy launcher, even though it was clear the…
catdynamics | July 6, 2011Well, it was a good four centuries or so, but after a good run, one of the older watches on the Rhine is coming to an end.
Word came in mid-June that the Dutch government cuts were going to lead to some "consolidation" in astronomy, and that Utrecht would be cut.
We were asked not to kick up a fuzz about it, for local political reasons, but soon enough the story spread:
One Small Step broke the story,
with the e-Astronomer also chiming in.
Official response of the Astronomical Institute is here.
So, Dutch academia is facing "austerity" - 20% cuts in particular for Utrecht University, and,…
catdynamics | July 5, 2011News reports in Iceland of magma movements in Hekla.
Nope, not Katla, this is the prototype Northern European volcano - Hekla
No, that doesn't mean we have given up on Katla, or Hengill, or Askja, or Krýsucík, or any of the other hot spots on the mid-Atlantic ridge that have been rumbling recently.
There is still a steady stream of small earthquakes in a line going 1-10 km under the central caldera at Katla, and the area on Reykjanesskagi near Krýsuvík is both swelling and shaking.
But, Hekla erupts often, and usually with little or no warning. There was one small earthquake there, but GPS…
catdynamics | June 19, 2011So, since I have been, like, actually organizeering black hole stuff over the last couple of weeks, one might wonder what is up with black holes?
Well, I can't really talk about the really cool stuff, yet, but there were some interesting news:
NGC 3758 has two black holes about 10,000 light years apart.
So, recent merger, has some ways to go, seen others like it before, but nice clean convincing result.
With pretty pictures and bonus animation (see link above)
click to embiggen
Koss et al 2011
Swift also saw an interesting series of x-ray flares almost certainly from a tidal disruption…
catdynamics | June 17, 2011It is a damp friday with ominous rumbles on the horizon.
So we go and tremulously ask the Mighty iPod One: will she burst?
Woosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Sally MacLennane- Pogues
The Crossing: The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - Pogues
The Crown: Kick Out the Jams - MC5
The Root: Something is Squeezing my Skull - Morrissey
The Past: Marines Hymn (instrumental)
The Future: Teenage Kicks - Undertones
The Questioner: Happy Birthday - Altered Images
The House: How Soon is Now? - Smiths
The Inside: Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops - Cocteau Twins
The Outcome: Sidewalking - Jesus &…
catdynamics | June 17, 2011Ruh-roh.
Katla is rumbling a bit.
Historically, Katla tends to erupt 1-2 years after any eruption in Eyjafjallajökull.
Katla eruptions are also, historically, very nasty, very dangerous and likely to have wide (continental scale) impacts.
But not always.
Katla is the primary motivator for Iceland's rather excellent Civil Defence System.
From vedur.is
Earthquakes in last 48 hours under Mýrdalsjökull.
Definitely something stirring under there.
Will need to keep an eye on that, could go burp.
Or not.
h/t Lára Hanna
PS: Jón Frímann is local and on it
catdynamics | June 16, 2011I'm at wee bit behind on this here blogging thingie,
but there has been a flurry of physics results which are worth a quick peek:
CoGENT claims CDM result - claim marginal detection of annual modulation, consistent with light CDM particle.
See resonaances for detail
Fermi confirms Pamela - say no more, nudge nudge wink wink
Talking of blind bats: AMS is on
Now for something completely different: Cliff Will explains Gravity Probe B
CMS experiment at the LHC hints unsubtly that they might be seeing stringy quantum black holes - I'll believe it when I see the Earth implode...
Theorists get…
catdynamics | June 6, 2011There has been a lot of effort to try to figure out how to teach physics better, at the university level, in the US.
Of course, we know perfectly well how to do that.
To teach physics well, you provide an intensive, mathematically rigorous in-sequence series of classes.
You need at least two different parallel classes per term, each class a prerequisite for the succeeding class and coordinated syllabii for parallel and successive classes, providing an initial short review of the previous material.
You also need a parallel sequence of coordinated mathematics classes, such that the…
catdynamics | June 5, 2011So LISA is moving ahead with a possible all European mission to look for low frequency gravitational radiation
Next Steps for LISA
..."As announced by ESA in March 2011, due to a modified international cooperation scenario, it is now necessary to study a European-only mission that offers a significant reduction of the cost while maintaining its core science objectives.
...
The goal of this phase is to identify a few mission profiles that can achieve a substantial cost reduction whilst minimizing the impact on the science return
...
The selected mission architecture will maximize the use…