Saturday Space News!

Another Saturday with a couple more news stories! I hope you all are having a great weekend. We're having our 'horse party' for the Preakness race here in Maryland today. So it's a good day to relax, sip on something cool, and enjoy the Universe. And once again, it appears the Rapture has disappointed. So in astronomy news this past week, there are a couple of stories of interest: First up, NASA set the launch date for the final space shuttle flight. Space Shuttle Atlantis is targeted to lift off on July 8 around 11:40 AM EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle will take four veteran astronauts to deliver supplies and spare parts...

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Posted in Cats,Dark Energy,Leroy,Planets,Space News,Space Shuttle,Voyager 25 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...

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

Changing Things Up.

So, my schedule has changed around and I don't think I will be posting the Astro-Lessons on Tuesday afternoon anymore. Mostly this is because I play Frisbee with a bunch of friends. We had been playing on Thursdays, but Tuesdays seem to be working out better. Unfortunately, I used to spend most of my Tuesday putting together a good Astro-Lesson, but this week I just didn't have the time and no idea what to write really pulled at me. So, I am thinking of moving the Astro-Lesson topics to Wednesday afternoon. And I have a good idea what I want to write for the next one. I'll also be bringing the poll back, it was just easier to do the last few ones without it. I felt that the star life cycle was a natural progression after the Sun. And tomorrow, to continue on that, I am going to do supernovae....

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Posted in Blogger,internet,NASA,personal,Supernova 31 comments

Successful Endeavour Launch

Space Shuttle Endeavour successfully lifted off into space this morning from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is the shuttle's final mission (STS-134), led by mission commander Mark Kelly. The crew will be delivering the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station, among other science projects and spare parts. You can watch the launch below (I attempted to embed the code from NASA's website, if it doesn't work, watch it here): After nearly a month long delay due to a heater malfunction, the launch went flawlessly. Endeavour is the youngest of the shuttles, built to replace the Challenger, which was tragically lost...

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Posted in Endeavour,ISS,Space News,Space Shuttle 34 comments

Impending End of the World

So as you may or may not have heard, apparently Judgement Day is coming this weekend. According to some loonies, the Rapture is going to occur on May 21, 2011. This Saturday. 'Borrowed' from My Own Private Idaho. Unfortunately they don't give a time, which kind of worries me. I hope it happens at 11:59 PM or something like that. See, Maryland is home to the Preakness, the second race of the Triple Crown (the Kentucky Derby is the first). It also happens to be this Saturday afternoon, which I think is a conflict of interests, as God will be swamped with prayers for Animal Kingdom, Dialed In, Astrology, Midnight Interlude, Mucho Macho Man,...

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Posted in Asteroids,Black-Eyed Susan,Death From The Skies,Doomsday,End of the World,Gamma Ray Bursts,Preakness,Rapture,Sun 26 comments