Returning

I am back, but I am considering how to get back into blogging. Please, accept this as my return. I got a job working overnight flow at Target. Not glorious, but it will do temporarily. Future plans include pursuing my Master of Arts in Teacher (MAT) with a science education focus and moving in with my GF. But for the next few months, I feel I will be stable enough to blog fairly regularly.

There have been a fairly large amount of new astronomy stories my last update. There is no possible way to cover them all. I only hope you have been following the news for the past month and a half or so since I have been away.  But I hope to be getting back into providing quality astronomy news and educational articles soon. Plus, hopefully, some more of my own images and videos of the night sky.

I enjoy being able to put my thoughts down and I am grateful to the readers of this blog for being patient in my return. In fact, I do not think I even lost any followers while I was gone. I see this as a real plus in the shifting world of blogging, a supportive motion of my readers to not lose faith. And I haven't lost it in them.

If you haven't been able to tell yet, I am real passionate about science education, with a focus on space science. These topics spur the imagination and fuel the future. The future of mankind is amongst the stars. Sharing and encouraging the pursuit of such knowledge then drives an economic engine towards accomplishing those goals. It creates jobs, it improves education, it solves problems, it is the future.

Right now we are lucky enough to live in what has often been called the golden age astronomy. The first time we are able to study our Universe in such stark detail, by putting telescopes in orbit above the Earth's atmosphere, reducing distortion to see so much more clearly. But even beyond that, we have the Voyager probes pushing through the edge of the solar system, our first true interstellar craft. Happening only about 110 years after the first successful airplane on Earth.


Again, so much more can be said. We are living in a truly revolutionary age in the modern world. At the same time it saddens me to know there are those who don't even know a man landed on the Moon. I don't want this turn to much into a wandering lecture. So I think I'll wrap it up. But know that we have a very bright future, and I intend to keep tabs on it and voice my opinion on it when necessary.

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Posted in Astronomy,Future,Return 9 comments

On Hold

I'm putting this blog on the back burner as I need to focus on getting my life organized. I'll hopefully be back whenever I find a stable form of income. It may not be daily when I get back, but I would like to try to update every other day, there's still so much to write about, literally a whole Universe.

I do enjoy it though, sharing a bit of the Universe with readers. I already do astronomy outreach in my community, and I always felt this was a nice way to reach a larger audience. But, there's only so much someone can do without gainful compensation. I would hope that even if I don't come back, I would hope that my readers continue following our expanding understanding of the cosmos. A good list of informative sites are in the sidebar to the right, under 'Useful Astronomy Links'.

I do plan to come back to this though, maybe in a month or so. Maybe I will be refreshed and holding a legitimate job and ready to blog again. Until then, there's still lots out there to be amazed at. Today I was blown away by the rather legitimate idea that the Earth might have had two moons at one point. Then there have been other stories: LEGO figurines on the NASA spacecraft Juno, which is launching for Jupiter on Friday; Oxygen particles detected in deep space; The ESO has discovered 96 new open star clusters in the Milky Way that were hidden by dust; and my favorite asteroid, Vesta, is being revealed in amazing detail, and a short video of its rotation.

I suggest spending this weekend looking to see if you have a local Vesta Fiesta (my astronomy club is hosting one during our normal open house.) And if not, you should definitely go out and look for shooting stars, the Delta Aquariids and Perseids meteor showers are overlapping this weekend. Since the height of the Perseids will have a full moon, this weekend might be a great chance to go out and take a look.

I'll see you all when I get back.

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Posted in Astronomy,Break,Jupiter,Meteor Shower,personal,Universe,Vesta 20 comments

August 2011 Highlights

August is here and we are moving into late summer in the northern hemisphere. July wasn't a very ambitious month for me because I spent so much time enjoying my summer, we'll see about a new month. The dominant astronomical event for August is the Perseids meteor shower. Although a Full Moon at it's peak will dampen the experience, the rest of the month should still be full of a few bright traces through the night sky. The weather is still warm, and many great constellations are high in the sky. So if you get the chance, go out and look up:


August 5: Juno Launch: Juno is an ambitious mission to understand the origin and evolution of planet Jupiter. You can read more about it on NASA Juno mission page.

August 8: First Quarter Moon: The Moon is halfway through the waxing phase, a great time for observing as the shadows provide wonderful contrast.

August 12-13: Perseids Meteor Shower: (active July 22-August 22) Usually one of the best meteors shower of the year, but this year it will be marred by a Full Moon during its peak. However, up to 60 meteors per hour may be possible in dark locations. The meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus.

August 13: Full Moon: The Moon will be directly opposite the Earth from the Sun and will be fully illuminated as seen from Earth. This moon, in the Native American tradition of naming the full moons throughout the year, is known as the Full Sturgeon Moon. It gets its name from the large sturgeon fish of the Great Lakes and other major lakes were more easily caught at this time of year.

August 16: Venus at Superior Conjunction: Venus swings around the opposite side of the Sun and passes into the evening sky. (It will briefly be directly opposite of the Sun from us, therefore not visible.)

August 21: Last Quarter Moon: Halfway through the Moon's waning phase.

August 22: Neptune at Opposition: The planet will be on its closest approach to Earth and fully illuminated by the Sun. This is the best time to observe Neptune, but even the most powerful telescopes reveal little more than a tiny pale blue dot.

August 29: New Moon: The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth.

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Posted in Astronomy,August,Full Moon,Highlights,Meteor Shower,Planets 13 comments

The Surprising Edge of Our Solar System

A couple of days ago I mentioned that NASA was having a teleconference today (June 9) to discuss conditions at the edge of the Solar System. (You can find it mentioned at the end of this post.) Well, the conference is over, and the press releases are out, along with some new images and a nifty video to explain it all.

I find the video gives the best explanation about what has been learned. It is a bit amazing to know we are still learning so much about our own Solar System, and we recognize that we still have much to learn.

Old and new views of the heliosheath. Red and blue spirals are the gracefully curving magnetic field lines of orthodox models. New data from Voyager add a magnetic froth (inset) to the mix. Credit: NASA

The basic gist of the findings is that a froth of magnetic bubbles make up the barrier between us and interstellar space. This is determined from data gathered by the Voyager probes and computer modelling. These bubbles change the old idea that there was a smooth barrier at the edge of the Solar System.

The froth seems to be generated by twisting in the Sun's magnetic field, causing the bubbles that can be a 100 million miles across. As Merav Opher, an astronomer at Boston University (and formerly George Mason University) puts it:

"The sun's magnetic field extends all the way to the edge of the solar system. Because the sun spins, its magnetic field becomes twisted and wrinkled, a bit like a ballerina's skirt. Far, far away from the sun, where the Voyagers are, the folds of the skirt bunch up."

Another amazing find from the astronomical community. This discovery will also help to build a better understanding about how galactic cosmic rays enter our solar system and help define how the star interacts with the rest of the galaxy. You can read the NASA feature story here.

(I am still working on an Astro-Lesson on Comets, I might just put that off until next week now.)

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Posted in Astronomy,Heliosheath,Solar System,Voyager 34 comments

June 2011 Highlights

As with previous months, I am delivering another summary of the great astronomical events you can expect this upcoming month. It definitely feels like Summer here, the Sun doesn't set until nearly 8:30 pm, and the heat has been sweltering this past Memorial Day weekend. All the more reason to spend more of the day at the pool and go out in the cooler evenings to take a look at the stars.

June 1: New Moon: The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth.

June 1: Partial Eclipse of the Sun: The partial eclipse will be visible in most parts eastern Asia, Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, and other high latitude locations in the northern hemisphere. Begins at 19:25, ends at 23:06 UT. (UT stands for Universal Time, equivalent to Greenwich Mean Time)

June 9: First Quarter Moon: The Moon is halfway through the waxing phase, a great time for observing as the shadows provide wonderful contrast.

June 10: Saturn & Moon Conjunction: In the evening sky, you can expect to find Saturn and the Moon near each other.

June 13: Mercury at Superior Conjunction: Mercury swings around the opposite side of the Sun and passes into the evening sky.

June 15: Full Moon and Total Lunar Eclipse: Begins at 19:22 UT and ends at 21:03 UT. Mid-eclipse at 20:13 UT. Partial phases begin at 18:22 UT and end at 22:02 UT. The Moon will appear red-orange in color during totality (the Earth's shadow). Total eclipse visible from eastern South America, Africa, Europe, central Asia, and western Australia. This moon, in the Native American tradition of naming the full moons throughout the year, is known as the Strawberry Moon, because this is the time of year when strawberries are naturally in season.

June 21: June (Summer) Solstice: Summer is definitely here for the northern hemisphere! In the southern hemisphere, it is Winter. The Summer Solstice occurs when the Sun reaches the point farthest north of the equator (the Tropic of Cancer at 23.44 degrees north latitude) marking the start of summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern hemisphere. It is also the longest day of the year for the north, while the shortest for the south.

June 23: Last Quarter Moon: Halfway through the Moon's waning phase, The next New Moon will be July 1st.

I'm going to be enjoying my long, warm June days. And you guys in the south keep warm, you'll be rubbing it in our faces come December. Have a great month everyone!

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Posted in Astronomy,Eclipse,Full Moon,Highlights,June,Planets,Solstice 20 comments

Space News With Lots of Pictures.

Lots of astronomy stories have been published in the past week, and I've been rather busy trying to keep track of them all. The best things about these stories, and about astronomy in general, are the pictures. They can tell so much and most of them look beautiful. So, I've rounded up a bunch of the amazing pictures published in the past week or so, and will probably give a short paragraph about them:

Lets start with the star that changed the Universe. The Hubble telescope viewed this variable star that actually resides in another galaxy, our neighbor, Andromeda. Before this star was discovered, the fuzzy patches of galaxies were just called nebula, and thought to be just gas inside our own galaxy. Edwin Hubble (the Hubble telescopes namesake) changed all that in 1923, discovering that these nebula were indeed other galaxies, and used this variable star to determine that they were millions of light years away. You can read the historic story here.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

NASA released these amazing raw images taken by Cassini of Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus. These images, haven't been processed or colorized yet, but absolutely blow my mind. A couple of the highlights can be seen here, while the full set is over here.

Image Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA/Andrew Levan

Probably the most distant object ever seen, for now. This is a gamma ray burst, known as GRB 090429B. I made a post about GRBs awhile ago. If you want to know more about the science behind how this sort of stuff is determined, Bad Astronomy has got you covered. And here is the original story with a link to the paper.

WISE, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, was turned off awhile ago, but the work still goes on. NASA released a gallery of nine spiral galaxy images taken by WISE. For more info on each galaxy, check out the NASA release. (There is also a really huge version of the image, which is drool inducing.)

Docked Endeavour at ISS through a fish-eye lens. Image Credit: NASA

Photos from the last space shuttle spacewalk, it also marked the formal completion of the U.S. segment of the International Space Station. You can go through the entire photo set here.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Toledo

This graphic illustrates a stellar fountain of crystal rain, beginning with a Spitzer picture of the star in question, and ending with an artist's concept of what the crystal "rain" might look like. The full article is here.

Of course, there are a couple of stories out there that just really don't have good pictures to go with them. A few of them I suggest checking out are: New arm discovered in outer edge of the Milky Way Galaxy; The Moon is wetter then we thought; For Mars, rapid formation stunted growth; and Info on OSIRIS-REx, NASAs new science mission to asteroid launching in 2016. Have a good Memorial Day weekend to everyone in the U.S. Everyone else, just have a good weekend.

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Posted in Astronomy,Astrophotography,Gamma Ray Bursts,Hubble,Moons,Saturn,Space News,Space Shuttle,Titan,WISE 21 comments

Astro-Lesson: Supernova

This week is going to be about one of the most massive explosions in the Universe: Supernova. Last week, when discussion the star life cycle, I had mentioned supernovae* briefly as an outcome of the death of super massive stars. But that is only one kind of supernova, there happens to be two types which are further subdivided.

 *The plural of supernova is supernovae.

So, get ready to learn a little bit about supernovae and some see some awesome pictures.

The Crab Nebula, the remnant of a supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054. (Credit: NASA)

A supernova is an extremely luminous explosion of a star with a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines the entire galaxy in which the star resides. It can take several weeks or months for a supernova to fade, over this time it can emit as much energy as the Sun over its whole life span. The explosion expels most, if not all, of a star's matter into space, creating a shock wave. The shock wave sweeps up dust and gas from the star an the interstellar medium, creating at supernova remnant. These remnants are usually what you see in images from the Hubble Space Telescope and other telescopes.

Supernova 1994D (the bright 'star' on the bottom left) in Galaxy NGC 4526. (Credit: HST/NASA/ESA)

The word nova means "new" in Latin, referring to what appears to be a bright new star in the night sky. Occasionally these explosions cause what appears to be a new star in the sky. The prefix 'super-' separates a supernova from an ordinary nova, which also involve a star increasing in brightness, though to a lesser extent and through a different mechanism.
 
Types of Supernova: there are two basic types of supernova, and a couple of other distinctions:

Illustration of different ways a supernova is formed. (Source)

Type Ia: These result from some binary star systems in which a white dwarf absorbs matter from a companion. (What kind of companion star is best suited to produce Type Ia supernovae is hotly debated.) The idea is that so much mass piles up on the white dwarf that its core reaches a critical density that results in an uncontrolled fusion of carbon and oxygen, thus detonating the star.

Type Ib and Ic: These ones look similar to Type Ia when looking at their spectrum, but are distinguished because they lack certain different lines of spectra. The lack of spectra means that elements in the core may have been lost due to other means, and in general Type Ib/c may be referred to as stripped core-collapse supernovae. These types of supernova are also incredibly rare, and their sources might also be the progenitors of gamma ray bursts.

The onion like layers of a star's core before going supernova.

Type II: A common supernova type, usually found in the spiral arms of galaxies and not in elliptical galaxies, they are distinguished by the presence of hydrogen in their spectrum. These are known to be caused by the rapid collapse and violent explosion of a massive star. There exists several subcategories of Type II supernova, including II-L, which has a steady, linear decline in light over time; II-P which has a slower decline (a plateau) followed by normal decay; IIn, the "n" denotes narrow, which have narrow hydrogen emission lines in their spectrum (probably caused by blue variable stars); and IIb, which initially resembles a Type II supernova but later has a spectrum resembling Type Ib.

A different image of the Crab Nebula, a composite image of the radiation in the nebula's core region. A pulsar (a type of neutron star) can be seen near the center, pushing out jets of particles. (Credit: NASA/HST/CXC/ASU/J. Hester et al.)

Those are the general types of supernova known to astronomers. After the explosion the cores are left behind and usually create a neutron star or a black hole. Supernova are pretty rare events in a galaxies, the Milky Way experiences one about every 50 years, though the last one seen from Earth was in 1604. This last one was known as Kepler's Star and was easily visible in the night sky, brighter then all the planets except Venus. It was visible during the day for over 3 weeks.

False-color of the remnant of SN 1604 (Kepler's Star). (Credit: HST/NASA/ESA)

There are several large candidates in the Milky Way that might go supernova in the next million years, these stars include VY Canis Majoris, Betelgeuse, and Eta Carinae. Once these stars explode, they will provide a vital part in stellar evolution. Supernova explosions are the source of many heavy elements including uranium and plutonium. All of these elements get shot out into space and form clouds of dust that eventually condense and form new stars, or the shock wave can trigger star formation in an already present cloud. This is likely the cause of formation for our own star. This includes the Earth and us. We owe our existence to these violent explosions, the death of a star. As Carl Sagan would say, "We're made of star stuff."

Thanks for reading! This was my 100th post on this blog. It hardly seems like it, I only started back in February. I really have enjoyed writing these posts for my readers, and I enjoy the feedback. I hope you have learned some new things about astronomy from what I've written, or at least enjoy the pictures. I think supernovae are a good way to celebrate. Thank again for reading and I plan to continue this for as long as I can.

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Posted in Astro-Lesson,Astronomy,Neutron Stars,Stars,Supernova 18 comments

May's Astronomy Day

Tomorrow is Astronomy Day. The first of two throughout the year, the other is on October 1st. Astronomy Day runs on the slogan "Bringing Astronomy to the People." I had mentioned the event in this month's Highlights.

Around the world local astronomical societies, planetariums, museums, and observatories will be sponsoring public viewing sessions, presentations, workshops, and other activities to increase public awareness about astronomy and our wonderful universe. It is a way for the general public and various astronomy enthusiasts, groups and professionals to interact. You can learn more from your local astronomy club or planetarium, or by visiting the Astronomical League's website.

I will be giving my 'Life in the Universe' presentation to a youth group from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which I am pretty excited about. And the astronomical society that I am a member of, the Harford County Astronomical Society, will be hosting it's monthly open house. Which will include a presentation from the Society's President Tom called "The Sun, the Outer Solar System and New Planet Discoveries." These kinds of events are happening all over the world, so if you have an interest in astronomy, I really suggest you check them out. Plus they are FREE.

The Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower also continues this weekend. So if you go out, you might get a chance at seeing a couple of meteors streak across the night sky! 

In addition to that, Mother's Day is also Sunday, so I hope you all treat your mothers nice. Maybe take her to dinner or get her a card or tell her you love her or something. Have a good weekend and word to your mother.

P.S. There might not be any updates this weekend since I'll probably be busy, see ya'll next week.

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Posted in astrobiology,Astronomy,Astronomy Day,FREE,HCAS,Meteor Shower,Mothers Day,Outreach 26 comments

Decrease the Suck, Increase the Awesome

So NASA now has an unofficial new slogan. I kinda like it. It's pretty true of what NASA does and comes from an inventive vlogger Hank Green. The most recent video can be seen below, which NASA helped to make.

It initially started with Green's video "Top 5 Awesome Things About the Webb Telescope" and has been quickly taken up by the community as a great way to describe NASA and reasoning for supporting continued scientific support in the United States. It is especially important Congress is debating the science budget that currently leaves scientists in limbo. The main thing that is clear is that both the House and the Senate are proposing cuts to science funding, with the most massive proposed cuts coming from House Republicans. (See this Nature chart for the numbers) Those cuts also include the EPA, NIST, NSF, Department of Energy, NIH and CDC.

I had also recently mentioned SETI's budget woes, and donated $5 to the cause. But over at μcosmologist they have a great infographic on SETI. Of course, if you need a good reason why you should support SETI, listen to the words of Carl Sagan.

There is also the good news that Osama bin Laden is dead, as I'm sure most of you have heard by now. I don't know that some of the celebrations over the death of a man  are warranted, it is better move for humanity though, decreasing the suck. But, I do have to mention one observation that kinda struck me, a tweet from Neil deGrasse Tyson: Two American goals that took a decade, and more than $100 billion to achieve: 1) Walk on the Moon 2) Find Bin Laden.

From xkcd, another wonderful webcomic.

I try to imagine a world, were after the decade spent going to the Moon, we spent the subsequent decades pushing further out into space, where now we could be exploring the Outer Solar System more then just by sending the occasional probe out there. It could have been an even more amazing time, and we may have avoided a reality with the disasters committed by those who seek only to inspire terror and fear.

I think a befitting line for this is the hover text quote from that comic above: "The Universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space -- each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision."

It's a sobering time, but I'm also optimistic about it. We are in a Golden Age of astronomy, we have learned more about our place in the Universe in the past 20-50 years then in the entirety of human history. It's a great feeling. For the first time we are able to put telescopes into space to peer into its darkest corners and listen to its darkest secrets. We cannot allow those eyes and ears to be shut, eventually we will need to seize upon the stars. The Earth won't be habitable forever, something we are becoming more and more aware of through the study of our home.

But more countries are getting into the space business. With China ramping things up and Iran looking at getting into the fray, as well as SpaceX pioneering corporate space flight, we are on the brink of a new space race that might just kick start a change in U.S. policy. The future is space, there is no doubt about that, its just a matter of making people believe in decreasing the suck and increasing the awesome.

---

On a more positive/humorous note, I thought this film looks kinda awesome based off of the trailer:

From the io9.com description:

Buddy Holly Is Alive And Well on Ganymede
Based on the book by Bradley Denton, John Heder plays Buddy Holly who is still very much alive and working on secret space missions across the universe. Here is the first teaser trailer for the film. Looks extraordinarily sweet.
Here's a synopsis of the novel:

When televisions worldwide begin broadcasting a nonstop, noninterruptible live performance by Buddy Holly purporting to originate somewhere in the vicinity of Jupiter, Oliver Vale—the apparent object of the broadcasts—finds himself drafted for a mission so secret that even he is not sure of its purpose. Denton fills this supremely funny novel with warring space aliens disguised as humans, a robot dog, a psychopathic assassin, an overzealous psychologist and her jealous husband, a motorcycle gang, and a messianic televangelist—all to prove that rock 'n' roll never really died.

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Posted in Astronomy,awesome,Buddy Holly,Earth,James Webb,NASA,News,webcomic 27 comments

May 2011 Highlights

Another month is upon us, and summer is coming fast here in the Northern Hemisphere. By the end of the month, barbeques will be firing up across the U.S. for Memorial Day and thousands of students will be getting out on summer vacation. The weather will also hopefully stabilize and we will get some nice, crisp, late spring nights with great viewing. Here are some of the things you can hope to catch during the month of May:

May 2: Endeavour Launch: The next attempt to launch this shuttle on its final flight will be at 2:33 p.m. EDT. The launch has been further delayed, a week or more. The next launch will be no sooner then May 8. As the shuttle would have to clear the way for an Air Force launch on the 6th. The reason for delay is indications that issues with the APU-1 heating that caused the initial shutdown are symptoms of a deeper problem that will take engineers longer to access and fix.You can find the latest news on NASA's Shuttle site.

May 3: New Moon: The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth.

May 5 & 6: Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower: (active through May 12) A light meteor shower generated from Earth passing through dust released by Halley's Comet. You can see between 10 to 30 meteors per hour during the peak on May 5 & 6. You'll want to look towards the constellation Aquarius to the east after midnight, far from city lights.

May 7: Astronomy Day (Part 1): An event that happens twice a year that aims to bring astronomy to the people, it is a way for the general public and various astronomy enthusiasts, groups and professionals to interact. All around the world stargazing and astronomy clubs and other organizations plan to hold events. You can learn more from your local astronomy club or planetarium, or by visiting the Astronomical League's website. The next astronomy day is October 1.

May 10: First Quarter Moon: The Moon is halfway through the waxing phase, a great time for observing as the shadows provide wonderful contrast.

May 11: Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter: These three planets will be in conjunction, forming a 2-degree vertical line in the early morning sky to the east. Mars will also be visible nearby. 


May 17: Full Moon: The Moon will be directly opposite the Earth from the Sun and will be fully illuminated as seen from Earth. This moon, in the Native American tradition of naming the full moons throughout the year, is known as the Full Flower Moon, because this is the time of year when spring flowers appear in abundance.

May 24: Last Quarter Moon: Halfway through the Moon's waning phase, The next New Moon will be June 1st.


Saturn will dominate the evening night sky for the entire month of May, so if you happen to be out and look up, it will probably be the brightest object in the night sky besides the Moon.


That's about all the exciting observable stuff happening in the month of May. If anything else comes up, I'll be sure to mention it.

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Posted in Astronomy,Full Moon,Highlights,May,Planets 18 comments

Astronomy News Update 4/20/11

There are a couple of astronomy news things this week that I wanted to share. It's all pretty exciting stuff.

But first, let me remind you to vote on the poll in the sidebar. Every Tuesday I give a little lesson in astronomy and I let you, the readers, decide on what I'm gonna write about. There is always room for suggestions, so please make them in any comment thread. A history of previous Astro-Lessons can be found under the Astronomy Topics heading. (Still working on getting that all updated.)

On to the News:

• Endeavour's last flight scheduled for April 29 

NASA announced today that the Space Shuttle Endeavour's last flight will be on Friday, April 29, at 15:47 EST. A number of notable things will happen this flight: the Shuttle will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 to the International Space Station; there will also be the last set of Shuttle astronaut spacewalks (4 in total); and the Commander is Mark Kelly, husband of Congresswoman Giffords, who got shot earlier this year but plans to attend the launch. More at NASA's Shuttle page and watch it live on NASA TV

• Titan might be hiding a liquid water ocean

I already told you that Titan was one of the Top Moons of the Solar System, and that it had an entire hydrological cycle based on methane with a thick atmosphere, but now the moon is getting even more complex! According to the math, the motions of Titan's orbit and rotation indicate that their is a HUGE subsurface ocean.

There is speculation that this ocean could be yet more methane, but the recent modeling supports a water (H2O) ocean, making it the best fitting hypothesis so far. It isn't a final blow yet though, the only way to know for sure is to get there and start digging. Another explanation could be an interaction with a large comet or asteroid.

• Pluto has a large poisonous atmosphere 

Ah, Pluto, even though not a planet anymore, the dwarf is still a favorite for astronomers to study, being the most accessible Kuiper Belt Object. Using the 15-meter James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, a British-based team found a strong signal of poisonous carbon monoxide gas in Pluto's atmosphere. They also discovered that rather than the thought height of 60 miles (~1,000 km), Pluto's atmosphere extends at least 1,860 miles (3,000 km), or a quarter of the way to it's largest moon Charon.

The gas would be extremely cold at about -364 F (-220 C), and the atmosphere is likely generated by solar heating. When Pluto is closer to the Sun, parts of the surface would evaporate into a gaseous atmosphere and freeze again as Pluto moved away. Pluto's last closest pass was in 1989 and it takes 248 years to complete an orbit. More on this discovery can be read on Space.com.

• Hubble is turning 21!

If the Hubble Space Telescope was a human in the U.S., he'd be getting excited about celebrating with a couple cold ones on April 24. Unfortunately, it can't, so I propose having a beer in honor of its long and wonderful service, and wishing it many more great years. A large part of astronomy in today's popular culture is due to this scope, and the name Hubble is known around the world. On April 24, 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery roared the HST into orbit and astronomy hasn't been the same since. In honor of this, NASA has released a new image of interacting galaxies called Arp 273, taken on 17 December 2010, with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). You can read more about the image (and find a higher resolution) at the Hubble website or Bad Astronomy.

Of course there are lots of other good stories out there, these are just a couple of the great ones. Other stories to check out: Sunspots spawn gigantic solar flare (with a cool video); Black forests could exist on a world with two suns; and Electromagnetic currents link Enceladus and Saturn.

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Posted in Astronomy,Hubble,News,Pluto,Space Shuttle,Titan 20 comments

Astro-Lesson: Gamma Ray Bursts.

First: Good to see that I got some votes out of you all and looks like Gamma-Ray Bursts just barely won. I'll have a new poll up tomorrow I suppose for next weeks Astro-Lesson.

Second: I decided to start calling these things Astro-Lessons because they are little lessons in astronomy that are just supposed to help build a pretty basic understanding of the Universe we live in.

Now onto the lesson:

NASA concept art of a gamma-ray burst

Gamma-Ray Bursts, also known as GRBs, are short-lived bursts of gamma ray photons associated with immense explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. These are the most luminous electromagnetic events known. They typically last only seconds, but can be milliseconds quick, or even as slow as several minutes. After the burst, there is typically an "afterglow" in longer wavelength (X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and radio).

Gamma rays, if you're unfamiliar with them, are a form of electromagnetic radiation at high frequency (very short wavelength) produced by subatomic interactions, such as radioactive decay, fusion, and fission. Gamma rays are a health hazard since they are a form of ionizing radiation, which is what makes GRBs scary.

NOT LIKE THAT...

Imagine, if you will, a microwave so powerful that it would cleanse the entire galaxy of life. It would literally fry everything. That would be the power of a gamma-ray burst in our galaxy.

GRBs are caused by a special type of supernovae, hundred of times brighter then typical ones (astronomers can pick out supernovae in distant galaxies) and a million trillion times brighter then the Sun. There aren't a very common event though, GRBs are detected roughly ONCE PER DAY in any random direction of the sky.

Until recently, astronomers knew very little about GRBs. In fact, their discovery was a bit accidental. During the Cold War in the 1960s, U.S. military satellites were watching for Soviet nuclear weapons testing in violation of the test ban treaty. The satellites carried gamma ray detectors since a nuclear explosion produces gamma rays. But they began noticing these huge gamma ray bursts coming from deep space. These bursts remained a mystery up into the early 90s. There were no indications as to how far away the GRBs were, if they originated at the edge of our solar system, or in the Milky Way, or further away.

Hubble catches a GRB in action.

A combination of satellite observations with ground-based follow-up observations and theoretical work began to unveil one of the biggest mysteries in modern astronomy. It turns out that GRBs occur incredibly far away, near the edge of the observable Universe in distant galaxies. (Though one of my favorite explanations was that GRBs were massive nuclear weapons being used in a galactic war.)

As astronomers began to learn more about GRBs, they began to notice differences in individual events. These differences were in the length of the event, in which there were two classifications: long-duration (longer than 2 seconds) and short-duration (less than 2 seconds). The short-duration ones can last for a few milliseconds though, and average about 0.3 seconds (300 milliseconds). Long-duration bursts can last up to several minutes and average around 30 seconds.

Infographic describing theories on both long and short GRBs.

It is believed that entirely different physical properties cause long and short duration GRBs. The long ones are the ones that astronomers feel confident in their knowledge of. The short GRBs are only theoretically described and remain a mystery. So there isn't much else to say about short-duration GRBs, they exist and their are missions to study them, but the data is so fleeting, it is hard to pinpoint how far away they are or what causes them.

For the long-duration GRBs there is a good amount known. In the 1990s is when astronomer's discovered the "afterglow" which allowed the origin of the GRB to be pinpointed. This "afterglow" pointed to galaxies at immense distances, Billions of light years away. Some of these GRBs first occurred before the Earth, being only 4 billion years old, even existed! The most recent likely happened when the Earth was young, perhaps before the first microbes formed.

The faint smudge of a galaxy in the center of this Hubble image is where a GRB exploded in 1997.

In tracing GRBs back to their origin, astronomers began to study the galaxies that were the source of these explosions. Unfortunately there is no definite answer for what causes a GRB, but they are associated with a special sort of supernova seen in these distant galaxies, dubbed hypernova for their immense size and magnitude. The "smoking gun" that linked the two happened in March 2003 when the afterglow from a GRB perfectly matched the optical spectrum of a supernova in that galaxy.

What causes the supernova and the GRB is the mystery though. It would require an incredibly massive amount of energy, either from a incredibly massive star or a black hole or neutron star. Some of the theories suggest neutron star collisions while others suggest the collapse of massive stars.

But even though gamma-ray bursts seem like scary unpredictable events, we got two things going for us. One, these things have all happened very, very far away where they cannot hurt us, although the closest ones have been known to cause satellite interference. And two, there is no indication that these burst are happening in closer, more modern galaxies.

If GRB's were still common in modern galaxies as we know them, they would occur a lot closer and more often. So there is some sort of point where these events must die off. The idea is kind of that star formation hit a certain limit, perhaps the right mixture of elements and the right temperatures are just not available anymore to create the stars responsible for GRBs. So, we are likely safe from any threat of annihilation by these incredibly violent events.

Further Reading: 

Wikipedia entry on gamma-ray bursts

NASA's website on gamma-ray bursts

UC Berkeley's website on gamma-ray bursts 

Addendum: I did some more research (actually I watched the 3rd episode of Phil Plait's Bad Universe on Discovery Channel, which coincidentally happened to premiere yesterday [I watched it after I wrote this post]) and it turns out the safe distance things is a bit iffy. We seem pretty safe from gamma-ray bursts, but there is a very extremely small chance that we might get hit, there is no real good way to know. But there is evidence that an extinction event that happened in the past may have been caused by a GRB. I don't know that it's a definitive theory, but it is a plausible one with reactions of the atmosphere and massive extinction.

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Posted in Astro-Lesson,Astronomy,Galaxies,Gamma Ray Bursts,Supernova,Universe 22 comments

The 2012 'Doomsday' Prophecy

So this weeks topic was suggested a couple of weeks ago by the fantastically hilarious Thundercat832 (a word of warning on her blog, it's not exactly work safe.) She felt I could give a good take on the whole 2012 thing.

So what will happen in 2012? Well, there will be earthquakes, volcanic eruption, hurricanes, typhoons, blizzards, floods, drought, disease, and several tons of space rock will rain down. Sounds like a pretty standard year to me, in fact, all of this stuff happens all of the time. It is tragic, but is the nature of living on an active and dynamic planet. Heck, without these processes, life might not have arisen in the first place and evolved to the point of human intelligence.

Well then, what is all this mumble jumble that people seem to be saying about 2012? Apparently it has to deal with the Mayan Calendar. The basic belief that I think people have is that the world is predicted to end on December 21st, 2012. The Winter Solstice.

This. Is. Bologna.

Just ask my friend Oscar Mayer.

People apparently, wholeheartedly, believe this to be the truth. They are buying doomsday bunkers and food stores and everything else just for some event that most likely won't happen. If it's the end of the world, how do they expect that to help them anyways? As if the entire Earth would stop existing over night because of supposed Mayan Prophesy.

The apparent story behind the Mayans is that their long count calendar ends there, and this is a supposed to be a cause for alarm. But do you freak out every New Years Eve when your yearly calendar ends? No, you end up drunk watching Dick Clark's android countdown to the robot revolution. 

So the mere end of a calendar isn't prophetic of massive doom?

Yes, now you get it. The calendar was put together by a rather advanced civilization with knowledge of astronomy, writing and other skills around 250-900 CE (common era, aka AD). These guys had an empire that stretched from southern Mexico, through Guatemala, Belize, and El Salvador, and into Honduras. Probably aside from this little snafu are most remembered for their pyramids and intricate building style.

This is a society that also valued calendars: with social, agricultural, commercial, and administrative elements, but mostly there was a religious element. Every day had a patron saint for specific use. The Calendar Round was a combination of calendars that lasted 52 years, or approximately one generation. They even had a the "Venus Cycle" incorporated, being keen astronomers, based on it's position in the sky.

This calendar wasn't great for recording history though. So they expanded on to it in what became known as the "Long Count" calendar, which lasts 5126 years. However, this calendar is a bit confusing to read, it relies on the Mayan use of base 13 and base 20 numbers, where our calendar uses base 10. But one way of interpreting is that it starts on the arbitrary date of August 11th 3114 BCE, and ends on December 21st, 2012. The arbitrary start date is because the Mayan's had to account for the history of time before the calendar was made.

So, it is merely the end of a cycle, and the calendar my actually continue on until around 8000 CE. If anything though, the actual Mayan mythologists and archeologists suggest that they predicted an age of enlightenment, not a doomsday. The ideas of catastrophe are most a reflection of our own society reading into the end of something as bringing about the end of civilization. Which just is NOT the case.

So, no. Do not expect Planet X to knock the Earth off axis or Gamma Ray Bursts to cook the planet or a sudden change in the magnetic poles that sends us into a deep ice age. You will be safe. And if anything, you should kick back and celebrate the rich Mayan heritage as an era passes. Another good read on the subject can be found on Universe Today.

 Also, make sure to vote for next weeks topic, you have until Monday!

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Posted in 2012,Astronomy,Debunk,Doomsday 30 comments

St. Patrick's Day and some Green Astronomy

Happy St. Patrick's Day! In the United States, this is the day where we celebrate the rich Irish culture of green things and vast amounts of booze. Although, usually the harder celebration takes place over the weekend. Everybody is Irish for a day! It also works well because this is when spring comes around again and things start getting green again.

With green in mind, lets have some green space science:

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Posted in Astronomy,Green,St. Patrick's Day 17 comments

AstroPiracy

So this time I want to talk a little bit about how I feel about internet and information 'piracy,' and near the end bring in how it's related to astronomy.

Internet 'piracy' is something that seems rampant, and always has been in modern internet history (pre-modern being before services like Napster and Kazaa). And most of it I think is wrong to call piracy, the majority of it is sharing. Piracy would be distributing the rights and works of others for your own profit and without the consent of the content creator. Sharing is someone saying 'here, check this out' and letting you experience something new. People have been sharing for as long as there has been piracy. It is letting your friends experience new music, movies, books, and other forms of artwork. No one complains when you lend your friends your DVDs, CDs, video games, books, or comic books. This is a fair thing to do.

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Posted in Astronomy,Piracy 19 comments

Astronomy Clubs

Previously, when talking about telescopes, I had mentioned the value of checking out your local astronomy club for their knowledge and expertise. But astronomy clubs have a lot more to offer then helping you out with picking a telescope. These people can be extremely knowledgeable about the night sky and astronomy concepts. They are also pretty friendly and know how to put on a good show.

I definitely recommend checking out your local club sometime. If you have one. In my experience, it's fun and people enjoy themselves. It's always a great feeling when some one says 'WOW! I've never seen that before!' or something along those lines. Even when I first joined my astronomy club, I saw things I'd never seen with my own eye before. It's an amazing experience.

The best part, their events are usually free! Great free entertainment is hard to come by, and if you are looking for a date, stargazing is pretty romantic. Most astronomy clubs will host some sort of open house event where people can come out and enjoy what they have to offer. Usual these dates will be advertised on their website or in your local newspaper. A good place to see if you have an astronomy club near you, at least in the US, is the Night Sky Network. Internationally, I would say start with AstronomyClubs.com, but some of those clubs appear to be defunct, so you might have to follow up.

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Posted in Astronomy,Clubs,Night Sky Network 31 comments

March 2011 Highlights

March is one of my favorite months, there is spring break, St. Patrick's day, the beginning of spring, and lots of birthdays (mine included). It also is when things start to warm up and more people can tolerate being outdoors at night, a when more people start coming outside to do observing. It isn't as nice as a warm summer's eve, but its getting there. Although if you are in the southern hemisphere the opposite is probably true. Anyways, I wanted to start a new monthly segment that covers some of the astronomical highlights of the coming month. This includes Saturn brightening every night as it nears opposition (closest to the Earth) in early April, and Venus bright in the dawn sky for the whole month.

So here's what else you can look forward to:

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Posted in Astronomy,Equinox,Highlights,Jupiter,March,Mercury,Moon,Venus 20 comments

Of Kepler and Fermi

Last time I left off talking about the cosmic lottery. We are pretty lucky to be around, and just how widespread that luck is. Estimates say there are roughly 500 million planets in our galaxy residing in habitable zones, 500 million chances for life to arise at any given time. And not all these might seem obvious at first; a few might turn out to moons orbiting giant planets.

The number of planets that will actually have life will turn out to vary from this a bit. There is a great diversity in planets and the right conditions need to be there. In our own solar system, it is accepted that Venus is at one end of our habitable zone and Mars is at the other. If conditions were different on these planets, life might have taken hold, and it might have even been there in the past. In our search of these 500 million candidates, we will find lots of planets like Venus and Mars. Either too small to retain an atmosphere against the solar wind, or to thick of an atmosphere with a runaway greenhouse effect. A lack of a protective magnetic field or plate tectonics. Objects like the Moon and Jupiter that protect against asteroids and comets. And a stable, long living star.

Continues after the page break. >

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Posted in astrobiology,Astronomy,Kepler,Planets 25 comments

Of Kepler and Drake

I have made a few mentions to the Kepler Mission in my previous posts. It really is one of the most amazing and fantastic missions that NASA has going on right now. And recently, they released the data on 155,000 stars. This wasn't even the entire sample taken by Kepler, the rest of the stars were released to the public through stuff like PlanetHunters.org. And Kepler is still running! Which means there will be more observations, and more planets observed. The first set of data was taken over 4 months. So every planet that transits a star in that 4 month period is observed. If we are looking for Earth-sized planets, that is only 1/3 of Earths entire year. So the longer Kepler looks, the more planets will become observable as they transit.

Now, from the 155,000 stars released there included 1,235 candidate planets. Those numbers split as 68 Earth-size, 288 super-Earth-size (about twice the size of Earth), 293 are Neptune-size (about four times the size of Earth), and 165 candidates are the size of Jupiter (11 times the size of Earth). Those numbers themselves, from a relatively tiny patch in the sky, triple the known number of planets.

More after the page break.

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Posted in astrobiology,Astronomy,Kepler,Planets 27 comments

So You Want To Buy A Telescope.

Maybe you have been reading astronomy blogs and visiting various astronomy sites and checking out the latest Hubble pictures and have thought to yourself, 'Man, astronomy is awesome, space is awesome! I want a telescope, I want to see and learn more about the Universe I live in.' Great, and congratulations, the Universe is a very wonderful and beautiful place. A telescope is a wonderful tool for looking at the wonders of space.

That said, the best initial advice is: Do NOT Buy A Telescope!

Not yet at least. First, like all good purchases, you need to do some homework. You shouldn't just walk into your local department store and throw down less then $100 on a crappy refractor. You can, but it will probably just break after a couple uses and have poor visual quality and ultimately leave you with a disappointed experience. You probably want to get the best experience that you can out of your telescope, so you have to determine what you are going to use it for and learn a bit about the night sky. (More after my first attempt at using a jump break.)

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Posted in Astronomy,Telescopes 22 comments