Saturday, May 14, 2011

Astronomy News Update 5/14/11

10:12 PM Astronomy Pirate

Originally, a couple of these stories were to have articles of their own on my blog. The whole Blogger going down thing messed up my flow, and since I am limited on what I can post in a day (I try to keep it to one post), I decided to lump them together with some other cool astronomy news. So, I unofficially bring back a 'Caturday News Round-Up!' These are some of the best stories in the astronomical community from the past week or so. Check them out: Squids in Space: On Space Shuttle Endeavour's last flight, it will be carrying some very special passengers: baby squid. Not just any squid either, they are glowing bobtail squid. They carry a...


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Friday, May 13, 2011

Blogger Annoyance & Moon Photos

4:04 PM Astronomy Pirate

So, as a few of your may have noticed blogger has been an annoyance, being down most of the past two days. I can understand that, updates need to be done, but something seems to have gone terribly wrong with the entire thing. As it stands now, I lost my Endeavour Launch Update article, I hope that it may be returned... If not, know that Space Shuttle Endeavour is set to have it's final launch at 8:56 a.m. EDT on Monday, May 16. Everything is on course and repairs to the Shuttle's heater system that caused the initial delay have been fixed. After this flight it will go into retirement and be displayed at the California Science Center. The launch...


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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Astro-Lesson: The Star Life Cycle

6:21 PM Astronomy Pirate

This week's topic kinda picks up from last weeks topic, the Sun. From our short and limited view of the cosmos, we have been able to discern something amazing, the life cycles of stars. It turns out stars have a birth, then long lives of constant work converting hydrogen to helium and other elements, and then they die, either by withering away or massive violent explosion. Art of the life of a Sun-like star.  There is a significant reason why knowing this is important. A star can last for BILLIONS -- or even TRILLIONS!-- of years, and yet humans have only been around for about 200,000 years, but a brief moment of any star's life. But...


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Monday, May 9, 2011

Life on Ceres

4:00 PM Astronomy Pirate

I like to look at my stats and see what people are searching for when they come across my blog. A while ago I got a hit from a search for 'Life on Ceres,' and ever since then I have been considering writing a post about it. So this is for you, person out there looking for information about life on Ceres, and hopefully other readers will enjoy this as well. I had previously glossed over Ceres in my Asteroids Astro-Lesson. Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt, and recently got reclassified to a dwarf planet. It is also the smallest known dwarf planet, Pluto (the former smallest planet) is 14 times more massive. And yet Ceres comprises...


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Sunday, May 8, 2011

Sunshine Award

8:21 PM Astronomy Pirate

I wasn't considering on caving into one of these award things. They seem more like chain e-mails then actual awards. Though I guess it is a sign of appreciation from the person who passes it on to you, that they like what you have to say. Kicking Rocks bestowed upon me the Sunshine Award. I kinda like the name of the award, since it deals with a celestial body (the Sun). Though backtracking it shows that it originated on some fashion blogs, but whatever, I can deal. Also, check out Kicking Rocks' blog about him rising up in the theatrical world. The rules for this award are: Thank the person who gave you this award and link back to them...


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Happy Mother's Day

2:22 PM Astronomy Pirate

Seriously, go give her a call, or a hug, or take her out to dinner. Unless you are a mom, then I hope you have a swell day. On a side note, my presentation when pretty well last night. The youth group seemed to enjoy it, they were mostly in high schools, a couple in middle school. They were pretty smart too, and I always enjoy talking with a smart group of kids, it always leads to an interesting dialogue. And when it comes to alien life, they have some pretty amazing ideas. But as amazing as some of those ideas are, I have to remind them the importance of science and needing factual evidence. Some of them were even smart enough to talk about shadow biomes: life that may exist on Earth, but we don't recognize as life because it doesn't constitute the classical idea of what is alive. Sure...


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