May 15, 2009
Rather than a real song this week, I instead point you to an internet classic, inspired by those Wilford Brimley commercials you see during The Price is Right. Yes, I watch The Price is Right when I can, and hence I know all about important products like Fibercon, the Scooter Store, Depends, and,…
May 15, 2009
It is done! The longest-running and most famous camera in the world, Hubble's WFPC2, has been removed and replaced. Scientists will now get to use the Wide-Field Camera 3 (below), and WFPC2 is headed to the Smithsonian.
You've already gotten a chance to taste what WFPC2 has done for our…
May 14, 2009
Yesterday, the Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the Hubble Space Telescope, and now the removal and replacement of WFPC2 has commenced.
As you probably know, I'm going to miss that camera. It's been unveiling the secrets of the Universe for the last 16 years, and in a way that no other camera…
May 13, 2009
Those of you who are astronomy buffs (or Colbert Report fans) may have heard the news this past January that the Milky Way is just as massive as Andromeda. Colbert even did a special on his show about "America's Galaxy."
Could this be wrong? Could we really be just about the same size? Well, an…
May 13, 2009
Welcome to part 3 of our goodbyes to the Hubble Space Telescope's WFPC2 (the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, pronounced WHIFF-pic-too) instrument. For those of you who missed part one or part two, go ahead and check them out. And for those of you who don't remember, this was the camera that --…
May 12, 2009
Yesterday, we started our goodbyes to Hubble's outgoing camera, WFPC2. It was literally 16 years ago that they first installed this workhorse onto the space telescope:
As I write this, the space shuttle Atlantis is up there right now, on a mission to install a new, superior camera. Welcome to part…
May 11, 2009
As I write this, the Space Shuttle Atlantis has just blasted-off a few hours ago, headed for the Hubble Space Telescope. It's hard to believe that Hubble's been up there for more than 19 years now, and has helped revolutionize our understanding of the Universe, from measuring the Hubble constant to…
May 8, 2009
This week's song comes from Merle Haggard, one of the greatest story-song writers alive today. There are many great choices, but my favorite Merle Haggard song is the one that -- I think -- tells the best story: The Silver Ghost, a song about a ghost train as told from the perspective of the…
May 8, 2009
Let's get something out in the open: not all science fiction is scientifically possible. Some of it is possible, but the laws of nature are pretty strict, and they prevent us from doing a number of things that -- in principle -- would be incredible to do. Examples on both sides, please?
You got it…
May 7, 2009
I recently got this comment of incredulity on my article about what wiped out the dinosaurs?
I´m sorry. But i don´t believe this. In my opinion they were wiped out by a climatic changing.
And I think it's worth -- with the help of a little math and physics -- looking at what this asteroid impact…
May 6, 2009
One of the most surprising things about the Universe? As vast as it is, it hasn't been around forever. In fact, if you take our plain little rocky home (Earth), it looks like the Universe is only about 3 times as old as we are. It's surprising, considering how huge, expansive, and full of…
May 5, 2009
In 1862, an under-manned, under-equipped Mexican army defeated the French at the battle of Puebla on May 5th. Cinco de Mayo, started because of this event, has now become a widespread holiday in the US, where awareness and appreciation of Mexico and Mexican culture are of paramount importance.
So…
May 5, 2009
There's a new scientific paper online today about a very special and rare type of star: an ultracompact X-ray binary star. (One of the authors is surnamed Maccarone.) Let's start by explaining what these things are, how they work, talk about this one in particular, and what it all means. You've…
May 4, 2009
The Universe is full of stuff; both normal matter and dark matter are practically everywhere we look. But the Universe looks as interesting as it does because of what gravity does to it. It takes a Universe that starts out with almost the same exact temperature and density everywhere (the initial…
May 4, 2009
Last week, I wrote a little article trying to get people to calm down about the swine flu. Yes, it will get you sick, yes, it's contagious, and yes, if you get it you should seek medical attention. But as of today, the CDC has only three cases of swine flu in my state, and only one swine flu-…
May 1, 2009
First off, the music for this week comes from a duet known as Rodrigo y Gabriela, two amazing guitarists who team up as a duet and just blow my mind. I discovered them when I was in Tucson, and they are amazing live! (Well, as long as you can find a venue where the audience is quiet enough so you…
May 1, 2009
Who is correct here? We don't know, you don't know, it is uncharted territory. Would you bet the entire human history and the existence of our solar system on it?
I wouldn't.
--from a user comment on my old website on the topic of the Large Hadron Collider
Back when all the hype and hoopla…
May 1, 2009
There are plenty of great sites here on Scienceblogs that have talked about the swine flu, including Aetiology, the Scientific Activist, Greg Laden, Ethics and Science, and Effect Measure, among others.
But I've noticed, reading comments here and elsewhere, that people are really, seriously…
May 1, 2009
When you look up at the night sky, what's the first and most obvious thing you see? If you answered anything other than "the Moon" you're in serious need of some new eyes, because -- in terms of size, brightness, and detail -- the Moon dominates everything else.
But the one thing you'll always…
April 29, 2009
Everyone knows the Solar System, right? Sun at the center, followed by the four, rocky inner planets, the asteroid belt, the four outer gas giants with their moons, and then the Kuiper belt.
Sometimes Jupiter sends an asteroid headed our way, and sometimes Neptune sends a Kuiper belt object…
April 28, 2009
Stars are like everything else in the Universe (to quote E.B. White): we're born, we live a little while, we die. The thing that people may not realize is this: stars have been doing this since before the Universe was visible! What do I mean by this? Take a look at this nebula, Barnard 68.
What's…
April 27, 2009
For over 100 million years, dinosaurs, and not mammals, were the dominant form of life on Earth. The pinnacle of evolution at the time, dinosaurs filled the niches of being the largest, most differentiated animals -- herbivores and carnivores both -- on the planet. As you well know from seeing…
April 24, 2009
Do you remember when music videos were brand new things, and ranged from Cartoonish Violence to Eclectic Pleas for Individual Freedom? Well, one of my favorite videos was by the Norwegian band A-Ha, whose surreal, romantic fantasy video for their single Take On Me won me over instantly. I think…
April 24, 2009
As many of you have heard, the Earth has been getting warmer, rapidly, since the industrial revolution. And as many of you have also heard, there is, historically, a link between greenhouse gases and temperature here on the Earth.
So, with Earth Day just behind us, I thought of a little analogy…
April 22, 2009
There are many ways to celebrate Earth Day, from sustainability efforts (and check out our new blog, Guilty Planet) to simply appreciating nature.
And while this is a beautiful shot of Forest Park right here in Portland, it doesn't compare -- in my eyes -- to the perfection of Earth as seen from…
April 21, 2009
In addition to the article I just wrote about the newly discovered planet in the Gliese system, Dynamics of Cats has a great writeup as well.
They also have a picture that I didn't include in my original post, and it's so good that I'm including it here:
Take a look at that. Two of the planets,…
April 21, 2009
One of the holy grails of modern astrophysics is to find a planet orbiting another star that can support life on it. There are all sorts of missions dedicated to searching for habitable worlds.
But with one star system, Gliese 581, we may have hit the jackpot. To look at Gliese 581 in the sky, it…
April 21, 2009
The Sun is doing something interesting, and has been for the last few years. As a solar physicist noted last year, there really haven't been many sunspots lately. Look at 2001 (left) and 2009 (right) for the difference in sunspot activity.
But there's more. In addition to virtually no sunspots,…
April 21, 2009
You've seen it a bunch of times when you're reading the specs on a new car: the number of foot-pounds of torque that it puts out. Well, the 2009 New York Auto Show just happened, and I was reading the synopsis of a new Mercedes that just came out:
369 foot-pounds of torque, it says. (That's 500…
April 20, 2009
Someone at the New York Daily News must have started celebrating April 20th a bit early. Because this beautiful supernova remnant, with a spinning, pulsing neutron star at the center:
is no excuse to run a poll asking readers if this is either the Hand of God or a natural stellar formation.
I…
