Astronomy
esiegel | August 27, 2010"The most incomprehensible thing about the Universe is that it is comprehensible." -Albert Einstein
The observable Universe is huge. Incredibly, mind-bogglingly huge. When we look out, in any direction, we see galaxies upon galaxies upon galaxies, stretching for billions and billion of light years.
This one picture, taken of a region of sky just one-tenth the size of the Moon, contains more than 10,000 unique galaxies. And there are maybe close to a hundred billion galaxies similar to ours in the Universe; each one contains billions and billions of stars and planets, along with huge molecular…
drorzel | August 20, 2010It's nearly time for classes to resume, which means it's time for a zillion stories about Beloit College's annual Kids These Days List, listing off a bunch of things that this year's entering college class, who were mostly born in 1992, have always taken for granted. A sample:
1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.
2. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.
3. "Go West, Young College Grad" has always implied "and don't stop until you get to Asia...and learn Chinese along the way."
4. Al Gore has always been animated.
5. Los Angelenos have always been trying…
esiegel | August 19, 2010"Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune."
-Noam Chomsky
You might remember when the Solar System had nine planets, but as unbelievable as it sounds, for a very long time we only had six.
Why? Because only the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are visible from Earth with the naked eye. Even though the telescope was invented in the early 1600s,
it wasn't until 1781 that a planet out beyond Saturn was found! When William Herschel finally discovered Uranus, it was absolutely…
elerner | August 18, 2010The science song is a strange beast; people have surely converted information to rhythms or rhymes as a mnemonic device for millennia, though the idea of "educational music" as a genre has only recently crystallized. Its target audience has oscillated since then; while Tom Lehrer was playing for adults in the 50s and 60s, a renaissance of children's television in the 70s, from Sesame Street to Schoolhouse Rock!, marked the style as child's play. Those children are now grown up and making music of their own. Frank Swain of SciencePunk provides two video examples: Amoeba to Zebra's "Shake your…
esiegel | August 17, 2010Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen. -Baz Luhrmann
Our Sun gives us practically all of the light and energy our planet receives, and it does it, at its core, by fusing light elements into heavier ones.
And even though this nuclear fushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_rayion releases a tremendous amount of very high energy photons (known as gamma…
esiegel | August 13, 2010"A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window, the latch rises. Ghosts were created when the first man awoke in the night." -J. M. Barrie
But off in space, a whopping 320 million light years away, lies the great Coma Cluster, the closest huge cluster of galaxies to us.
Whereas our local group just has two large galaxies in it (our Milky Way and Andromeda), the Coma Cluster has over 1,000. In fact, the two large galaxies at the center of the Coma Cluster are each over one hundred…
krandall | August 12, 2010Every summer, the SETI Institute hosts 15-20 college students from around the country as part of its Astrobiology Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) internship program. The program, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and the NASA Astrobiology Institute, pairs each student with a research mentor at the SETI Institute. At the end of the 10-week internship, each student presents a talk and written report on their research project, and many students go on to present their work at professional conferences during the following academic year.
This year, our 19 REU interns…
elerner | August 12, 2010Every August, the Earth passes through a patch of space that's a tad grittier than usual; the planet's orbit intersects with that of the comet Swift-Tuttle, the latter being filled with the cast-off from the slowly melting ice-ball. When this detritus hits Earth's atmospheres, the massive energy of the collision is enough to produce a light-show we colloqually call "shooting stars." While this explanation of the Perseid Meteor Shower's origin might be enough for some; Ethan Siegel stays true to his blog's name and Starts with a Bang!. Tracing the comet's origin to the Kuiper Belt, the Kuiper…
esiegel | August 11, 2010"Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone." -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Once a year, in mid-August, the Perseid Meteor Shower comes to town. If you're going to see just one meteor shower a year, make it this one.
Image credit: Tom King.
Some years, there's a bright Moon in the night sky to contend with, like there was last year. But this year, we're all in luck. The Moon is as close to new as we could hope for; just a tiny sliver of a crescent, which will set before the night sky even achieves total darkness.
Image…
esiegel | August 6, 2010"Anyone who sits on top of the largest hydrogen-oxygen fueled system in the world; knowing they're going to light the bottom--and doesn't get a little worried--does not fully understand the situation."
-John Young, after being asked if he was worried about making the first Space Shuttle flight (STS-1).
It may be hard to believe, but the United States has been flying Space Shuttles since 1981: for 29 years. But what does it take to get a shuttle ready for launch?
In real life, the Space Shuttles come down from a mission and get towed around the campus at Kennedy Space Center. Where do you…
esiegel | August 4, 2010Skinner: Well, that was wonderful. A good time was had by all. I'm pooped.
Chalmers: Yes, I should be goooo-(notices kitchen on fire)-od lord, what is happening in there?
Skinner: Aurora Borealis?
Chalmers: Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Skinner: Yes.
Chalmers: May I see it?
Skinner: No.
Agnes: Seymour, the house is on fire!
Skinner: No, Mother, it's just the Northern Lights.
-The Simpsons, episode 22 Short Films about Springfield
Something rare and exciting happened just three days ago in our…
krandall | August 3, 2010Don Backer, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley who discovered the first millisecond pulsar, died on July 25. He was director of Berkeley's Radio Astronomy Laboratory and the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in Hat Creek, California - a collection of 42 dishes that recently began scanning the sky and searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.
"Memories of a special moment with Don Backer"
By Jill Tarter
Don and I had only a few glancing interactions from the time we were engineering physics students at Cornell until one memorable day in 1982. On that day I pulled my…
krandall | July 30, 2010By Dr. Franck Marchis
Planetary Astronomer at the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute
I mentioned in my previous post that we observed several known multiple asteroid systems during our last observing run with the W.M. Keck Observatory and its Adaptive Optics Systems. If you have been following my personal blogs and/or the scientific articles of our group (you are courageous...) you know this is the scientific topic which is taking most of my time recently. Today, as you can see if you explore our VOBAD database, we know 192 companions of asteroids. What I…
krandall | July 30, 2010By Dr. Franck Marchis
Planetary Astronomer at the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute
I'd like to share the first of two blogs on observations of Io that we did using the Keck telescope and its Adaptive Optics (AO) system.
Similar to last year, my summer is busy with the REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) students of the SETI Institute. I will write a specific post on two students who are working with me and their project in a few days.
I obtained telescope time at the end of June 2010 with the W.M. Keck II telescope and its Adaptive Optics system…
esiegel | July 28, 2010"Don't blame yourself. The apocalypse wasn't your fault. Actually, it was just as much your fault as it was anyone else's. Come to think of it, if you're an American, it was probably about 80-90 percent more your fault than the average human. But don't let that get you down. It wasn't exclusively your fault. Unless you're the president. Then it might be your fault. But you'll have plenty of interns to tell you that it wasn't, so you'll be fine." -Meghann Marco
Nothing gets a scientist in the press quite like telling everyone that we're all gonna die. Remember when there was talk of creating…
krandall | July 23, 2010By Dr. Mark R. Showalter
Planetary Astronomer at the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute
In 1609, Galileo introduced to the world his new invention, the astronomical telescope. It opened up new opportunities to explore a territory that all prior generations had regarded as familiar--the night sky. In short order, he was making major discoveries. But the sky is very big and Galileo's telescope was very small. He had to choose his targets carefully.
In that context, Saturn was nothing special, the least of the known planets, just a bright point in a black…
esiegel | July 22, 2010"The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy. Look at you: you're the Prodigal Son; you're quite a prize!" -Tyrell, from Blade Runner
Look up at the night sky. On a clear, dark night with normal vision, you can literally see thousands of stars.
Some of them are barely visible, others shine so brightly that they come out when the sky's still blue! Why do some appear brighter than others? Two reasons. Some stars are simply closer to us, but others, intrinsically, shine spectacularly bright. Let's take a look at a small section…
grrlscientist | July 19, 2010tags: A Rocket of His Own, TIME magazine, astronomy, AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, space travel, Saturn V rocket, The Seven Wonders of America, Marshall Space Flight Center, Neil deGrasse Tyson, streaming video
TIME magazine recently went to interview astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson and noticed a huge crate had been delivered to his office at the American Museum of Natural History. He was kind enough to open it on-camera. The back story of this gift is that Neil was adamant that ABC News include the Saturn V Rocket on its list of The 7 Wonders of America. The folks at the Marshall…
esiegel | July 16, 2010"If you only look at a person through one lens, or only believe what you're told, you can often miss the truth that is staring you in the face." -Kevin Spacey
One of the most powerful ideas from Einstein's theory of Gravity -- General Relativity -- is that any massive object in the Universe not only causes a gravitational force on other masses, but also bends light!
Image credit: Dave Jarvis of http://davidjarvis.ca/dave/gallery/.
(Link to David Jarvis' gallery.) This was confirmed in 1919 by observing the positions of stars during a total solar eclipse; the stars closest to the Sun had…
krandall | July 14, 2010By Dr. Cynthia Phillips
Planetary geologist at the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute
Jupiter's moon Europa could be the best place beyond the Earth to search for life. This small moon, about the size of Earth's Moon, is one of the Galilean moons first discovered 400 years ago by Galileo. The Galilean moons were the first objects observed to orbit another planet, and they revolutionized the way our solar system was understood.
Today, the moons of Jupiter are known to be a scientifically rich part of our solar system, and they are yielding a new revolution…