astro
catdynamics | April 15, 2008It is April 15th, and today the fate of many will be known.
Sean exposes the inner dialogue.
Don't worry, though, whichever choice you make, you can't really go wrong.
Eh?
catdynamics | April 15, 2008After a brief hiatus last year, the annual Astrobiology Science Conference is back, and 650+ assorted scientists of various flavours are gathered in sunny Santa Clara where the SETI Institute is hosting.
The meeting just started, and I'll liveblog random snippets and news, as and when I get the chance.
The opening plenary talk was given by Sir Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, Astronomer Royal, and a very good talk it was too, covering pretty much everything, cheerfully and provocatively.
I will leave you, for now, with a quote from him:
"It is better to read first rate science fiction…
catdynamics | April 14, 2008Holz at Cosmic Variance comments
I only met Wheeler once that I recall.
Interesting man.
Many years ago, I was in Japan and needed some assistance from the US embassy.
The INS officer looked at my papers, looked up and said: "you're a physicist? Do you know John Wheeler?"
Fortunately, I had then met him, that one time...
We had an interesting chat about black holes, bits and careers in relativistic astrophysics, and he then cleared my paperwork and gave me some lasting advice.
Small world.
catdynamics | April 11, 2008"Why should we spend money on space exploration where there are so many problems here on Earth?"
asks Fraser at Universe Today
Because: we look out, and wonder, and explore;
and we do what little we can on the margin of our busy lives to explore the bigger universe, today;
and that is one of the things that makes life worth living,
and gives us hope that the future can be better, for us and for future generations.
catdynamics | March 31, 2008NASA announced this morning that the upgraded USS Enterprise successfully launched from Edwards AFB, mounting a new retrofitted main engine system.
USS Enterprise OV-101b coming in for landing from its surprise morning mission.
The Enterprise has been secretly refurbished with a new main engine system, and Cpt A. Stern, who recently stepped down from NASA's SMD took her for a first test drive - they picked up the New Horizons probe on the way and dropped it off at its intended destination, "I didn't want to have to wait any longer" Cpt Stern cryptically commented.
Hubble images of the…
catdynamics | March 26, 2008space.com interview with Weiler
he is, necessarily, non-committal on policy changes - sounds like the Mars folks have some tension over early sample return vs multiple medium sized flight ops
scary bit is the comment on university R&A - sounds like the individual PI grants are going to take a hit again
New Scientist confirms that Mather also stepped down at the same time as Chief Scientist. But, reading between the lines, sounds like they heard it from the same source I did and I haven't seen a confirmation from NASA on that.
The big known problem on the horizon is the Mars Science Lab…
catdynamics | March 26, 2008Quintessence - Obama
Cosmological Constant - Clinton
We don't need no steenkin' dark energy - McCain
Discuss.
catdynamics | March 26, 2008Stern out as SMD head.
Weiler in.
"NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin issued the following statement Wednesday regarding the announcement that Dr. S. Alan Stern, NASA associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, has decided to leave the agency.
"Alan has rendered invaluable service to NASA as the Principal Investigator for the Pluto/New Horizons mission, as a member of the NASA Advisory Council, and as the associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate. While I deeply regret his decision to leave NASA, I understand his reasons for doing so, and wish him all the…
catdynamics | March 19, 2008Dark Matter is a movie.
It is about a brilliant young physics grad student, life at university, and the interaction between a student, his advisor and the academic hierarchy.
Should we be "concerned"?
The movie stars Meryl Streep, directed by Chen Shi-Zheng. It is based on an article written by
The trailer is interesting, it makes me want to see the movie. Even though I know the ending.
Trailer at ComingSoon.
It does not have a happy ending.
It also won the won the Sloan foundation science-in-film prize for best depiction of a scientist in a movie when it debuted at the 2007 Sundance Film…
catdynamics | March 18, 2008Arthur C. Clarke, engineer, author and visionary has died.
He was good.
Another one gone.
catdynamics | March 17, 2008Science Education and Society has a blog meme: name five women scientists in your field, not at your institution
Too easy.
Vera Rubin
Sandy Faber
Anneila Sargent
Margaret Geller
Neta Bahcall
that is just picking one name from each of five institutions, I could name several more, senior and junior, at each of those institutions, and a lot more by working systematically through the major research universities and institutions, or just my friends and collaborators.
h/t Good Math, Bad Math
catdynamics | March 13, 2008I've lost count, but there is a new Carnival of Space over at Missy's place
catdynamics | March 12, 2008apparently some people are stuck in a broken elevator at the top of the Green Bank Telescope
Up there.
For scale, the diameter of the telescope is almost precisely the length of a regulation football field.
And it moves.
Broken cable, possibly due to winds.
The elevator is apparently being cranked down manually.
Observations are suspended.
PS: apparently they got everybody down in 3 hours, faster than expected
operations are resuming, elevator still broken
catdynamics | March 7, 2008we did it, astronomy has reached carrying capacity
how wrong I was.
I had confidently predicted that with the bright new instruments and refurbishment of old favourites promised, the cycle 17 proposals would hit 2000
as we neared the deadline the excitement was palpable and the comments flew,
as Julianne discovered, the proposal number was increasing exponentially as we neared the deadline, with speculation that we might finally do it.
We were headed for infinite number of proposals by t=t0
but, then we hit carrying capacity and flipped into logistic behaviour with the rate of increase of…
catdynamics | March 7, 2008climate catastrophe, turbidity and academic angst on campus
Did I mention it is the deadline for Hubble cycle 17 observing proposals today.
On these days, the ghost of Major Murphy haunts astronomy departments everywhere.
So.. recently the northeast region of the USA has seen a chain of storms rolling from the Pacific, dipping south to pick up some Gulf moisture, and then dump it somewhere between Michigan and Maine (and allegedly in some strange other country called Canada).
Earlier this week, the precipitation took the form of rain, copious sustained rain, with localised flooding.
The Penn…
catdynamics | March 7, 2008It is friday, but it is not snowing, here, yet.
So, we skip to the mighty iPod and we ask: modulo the vagaries of fickle panelists, how will our Hubble Proposals, cycle 17, fare?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Afmaælisvísur Bangsapabba - Thorbjorn Egner
The Crossing: Gartloney Rats - Pogues
The Crown: I Can't Dance - Genesis
The Root: Scene (Moderato) Nutcracker - Tchaikovsky
The Past: Always the Sun - Stranglers
The Future: White Trash Wedding - Dixie Chicks
The Questioner: Voice Inside My Head - Dixie Chicks
The House: Blóðið er Rautt - Utangarðsmenn
The Inside: Funky…
catdynamics | March 6, 2008If you're a cosmologist, you need to rewrite your proposal. Now.
Well, 13,730 million if you have confidence in ground based data... looking through Apache Point apparently puts 40 million years on the universe.
Ok, WMAP-5 release is out, just in time for pedants on panels to quibble about everybody's cosmology related Hubble proposals using dated information.
Hence, clearly, they must be rejected in favour of observations of the local universe which are not sensitive to these parameters...
There is a stack of new, overlong, papers, which I suppose we must all eventually read and then pick…