James Webb Telescope FAQs

No caturday today, because of the April Fools post. But, I found a short little video on the James Webb Space Telescope: The video talks about some differences between the JWST and Hubble, what JWST will be looking for, and neat information. Besides, when you think NASA Astrophysicists, you rarely think of someone like Dr. Amber Straughn, who does a great job in this vid...

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Posted in James Webb,NASA,Video 40 comments

Passing 300

Ugh, I wish this had come at a better time. Right in the middle of writing this I learned that my grandmother has only about 2 days to live. She has signed the papers for life support to be cut off. She's been in the hospital the last couple days and had a pacemaker put it, but she just doesn't look like she's gonna make it. So my whole family is heading up there for this. I know you all will understand that all updates and everything are put on hold, and I am going to turn off comment moderation so that way I don't have to constantly check it. Anyways, here is what I had written about passing 300: I passed 300 followers! (A shout out to cool_cicler for being number 300.) It feels pretty awesome to know so many people have an interest in astronomy. I have also enjoyed the comments and support...

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Posted in 300,Future,Grandma 10 comments

April 2011 Highlights

We are firmly into spring, even though it doesn't look much like it here, cold and wet still. But, in the northern hemisphere, April brings the promise of warmer weather! There is still the problem of 'April showers,' which can hassle astronomical observations, but hopefully the weather won't interrupt to many events this month. April has been designated Global Astronomy Month by the Astronomers Without Borders, so your local astronomy club might be up to something fun. This month will see Venus continuing to be bright in the morning sky; and Saturn will rise shortly after sunset, reaching opposition (closest approach to Earth) early in the month, it will be bright. I try to keep this to planets and stuff that you can visually see, so no need for a telescope. Unfortunately, most of the planets...

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Posted in April,Highlights,Meteor Shower,Moon,Planets,Saturn,Venus 20 comments

ALIEN LIFE FOUND!

Everything about life as we know it has been turned on its head! It turns out there has been a group of aliens living among us throughout the entirety of human civilization. They have lived hidden and infiltrated almost every level of society. Secretly gathering information for their alien masters. Who are these alien creatures? CATS!!! After the genetic code for cats was completely mapped, scientists began to notice huge anomalies. This genetic code has some fundamental differences from normal Earth DNA. DNA is thought to be made up of only four base pairs, cytosine, adenine, thymine, and guanine. Cats have a fifth base pair, dubbed nomonine,...

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Posted in April Fools,Cats 31 comments

Dark Life

So, this was just to cool to not share! Dark matter could make planets habitable. I saw the article from the NewScientist.com detailing the theoretical idea of two astrophysicists from Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois. The actual science paper can be found here, on astro-ph. The basic idea is that dark matter could be collected inside of a free-floating planet, a planet that has lost the star which warms it. This dark matter would generate enough heat to maintain liquid water on the surfaces...

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Posted in astrobiology,Dark matter,Habitability,Unicorns 24 comments

Eskimos, Ghosts, Messengers, and Discovery.

On Sunday, in between writing the two halves of the moon list, I went up to the Harford Community College Observatory. This is where the Harford County Astronomical Society is based, a small dirt road, some way into the woods next to a community college in Maryland. Anyways, we have a pretty decent set up with a mount and telescope, and a small group of us from the club (five in total) decided to try some imaging. Eskimo Nebula. NGC 2392. HCAS. We aren't the best group at it in the club, but we figured what the hey, worth a shot. It was a learning experience. Our targets were NGC 3242 (the Ghost of Jupiter) and NGC 2392 (the Eskimo Nebula)....

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Posted in Astrophotography,Discovery,Mercury,MESSENGER,Planetary nebula 27 comments

Expansion of the Universe

So, this last poll had some of the best results, with 24 votes. I was kind of hoping to do asteroids, but the expansion of the Universe won with 9, which is totally cool. There were also a couple of good suggestions that will be up in the new poll, which should be up, so go vote! The expansion of the Universe is an intricate topic, not exactly easy to dump a massive load of information and have it be understandable. In order to help present this on as basic a level as possible, I am busting out some of my old astronomy books for reference. The most helpful will probably be my old Astronomy 111/113 textbook: Universe, 7th edition. I managed to dig it out of a box in my closet. I'll also provide some Wikipedia links if you want to read more. So, lets begin...

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Posted in Cepheid,Expansion,Hubble,Universe 26 comments

Top 12 Moons of The Solar System (THE MOON RULZ #1 )

Here is Part 1 and Part 2. The winner of this from the start has clearly been the Moon. Not just any other moon, it is our Moon. Life as we know it would not exist without the Moon. On top of that it is the only astronomical body humans have ever visited (a sad fact in my mind at this point). Even if it is a sad fact, it has been 50 years (Kennedy's speech was in 1961) since we started and the amazing technological feat is still jaw dropping and the is mouth watering for more. Crater Daedalus from the far side of the Moon. (Apollo 11, Crater 308) We all want more space. I know people who deny it and say we should focus on problems of the Earth....

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Posted in Moon,Solar System,THE BEST 29 comments

Top 12 Moons of The Solar System (Part 2)

Part deuce of the top 12 moons. Part one here, in case you missed it. As you learned in the first post, there is a huge amount of diversity among the moons in our solar system. There are big ones, there are small ones, there are wet ones, there are dry ones, ones made out of rock, ones made out of ice. They are pretty crazy, and for the most part, each moon has its own personality. Just like say, you were sitting in a lecture hall with 170 students. They would all be students, but different in their own ways. This list is just a fraction of all these moons, and volumes could be, and have been, written about each one of them. These are just some of my favorites, just like a professor might have his favorite student. Or a blogger might have his favorite followers. So without further bantering,...

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Posted in Charon,Europa,Ganymede,Io,Moon,Moons,Titan 15 comments

Top 12 Moons of The Solar System (Part 1)

There are at least 170 known natural satellites, or moons, in our Solar System. A number growing as discoveries are made. This excludes those orbiting small Solar System bodies, such as comets and asteroids. These moons vary across a wide range of size and features, making a number of them extremely unique places. 19 of them are large enough to be considered planets or dwarf planets if they directly orbited the Sun. The large variety of moons make them one of the more interesting subjects in astronomy. Some of these moons may even have life or conditions similar to an early Earth. So, I figured I'd give you all a two-parter post of my "Top 12 Moons of The Solar System." Here is the first half, with plenty of pictures:...

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Posted in Callisto,Deimos,Hyperion,Mimas,Moons,Phobos,Triton 32 comments