Space - The Super Thread

JFL, are you an astrophysicist or just a fan?

This is some thread, thanks for all the posts.
I need to come back here with my kids.

Your question made my day, SL! Alas, I'm justa naked eye observer in the midst of all this celestial wonder.

I did take an astronomy class at a school with a planetarium which was very cool. And there's a local amateur astronomical association here in PA that meets for star watches. I think I'm going to try to catch a few of those this year. In the meanwhile, I'll just keep posting stuff that I find on the net.

As for your kids, since it's the International Year of Astronomy, you might find some neat stuff here:

http://www.astronomy2009.org/

It's a funny coinkydink that your name is squidlips!

Orion Nebula: The Hubble View


Picture Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto

Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like the Orion Nebula. Also known as M42, the nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away. The Orion Nebula offers one of the best opportunities to study how stars are born partly because it is the nearest large star-forming region, but also because the nebula's energetic stars have blown away obscuring gas and dust clouds that would otherwise block our view - providing an intimate look at a range of ongoing stages of starbirth and evolution. This detailed image of the Orion Nebula is the sharpest ever, constructed using data from the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys and the European Southern Observatory's La Silla 2.2 meter telescope. The mosaic contains a billion pixels at full resolution and reveals about 3,000 stars.

How to spot comet Lulin this Mon. (23rd) and Friday (27th)


YouTube - How to Spot Comet Lulin

Comet Lulin - Time Lapse, over 4.5 hours

YouTube - Comet Lulin Time Lapse Over 4.5 Hours

The Swift View of Comet Lulin

Now growing brighter, Comet Lulin is headed for its closest approach to planet Earth early next week. But the comet's greenish glow, familiar to earthbound skygazers, is replaced by false colors in this premier view from the orbiting Swift satellite. Image data from the Swift detectors, normally intended to follow cosmic gamma-ray bursts, were recorded on January 28. The data are combined here, along with a sky survey image of background stars, to show optical and ultraviolet light in green-blue hues and x-rays from the comet in red. The result maps remarkable x-ray emission on the comet's sunward side as incoming solar wind ions interact with gases in the swollen coma. It also shows substantial ultraviolet emission opposite the Sun, in the direction of motion and the comet's tail. The ultraviolet emission is from the OH molecule derived from the breakup of water, an indicator of the copius amounts of water produced by this extremely active comet. In fact, astronomers estimate Lulin was releasing about 800 gallons of water each second, enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in less than 15 minutes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090219/sc_afp/sciencespaceastronomy

Holy cow...12 BILLION light years away. Meaning this thing happened relatively close the the beginning of the entire universe as we know it. Amazing.

This made me say "holy cow".

"Taking into account the huge distance from earth of the burst, scientists worked out that the blast was stronger than 9,000 supernovae -- powerful explosions that occur at the end of a star's lifetime -- and that the gas jets emitting the initial gamma rays moved at nearly the speed of light."

9,000?!?!?!?! Holy nuclear reaction Batman!!!!! :be:

Goin' hunting for Earth-like planets.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html
Kepler Attached to Rocket

How a massive star might not end up a Black Hole

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29838696/

Mystery supernova may revise star theory



These photographs from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have been used to uncover the progenitor star to a supernova that exploded in 2005. To the surprise of astronomers, the progenitor is a rare class of ultra-bright star that, according to theory, shouldn't explode so early in its evolution.

Well, the star couldn't have exploded in 2005, we simply noticed it exploding in 2005....right?

Interesting nonetheless.

exactly right. This star exploded about 215 million years ago, but it's light is just reaching us within the past few years.

Picture of the entire ISS from Discovery, taken earlier today.

Flowers on the Moon

A company that has built mini-biospheres for orbiting space stations says it's ready for the next giant leap: growing flowers on the moon.

"It's all very aggressive," Taber MacCallum, chief executive officer of Arizona-based Paragon Space Development Corp., said of his company's plan to send a miniature greenhouse to the lunar surface. "But it isn't fun if it isn't aggressive."

Paragon's "Lunar Oasis" would piggyback on a lunar lander currently being developed by Odyssey Moon to vie for a share of the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize. Details of the partnership are to be publicized Friday during a news conference at Paragon's headquarters in Tucson, Ariz.

To win the prize, Odyssey Moon would have to get its lander/rover craft on the moon's surface by the end of 2014. Paragon is working with Odyssey Moon on the lander design and its thermal control system as well as the mini-greenhouse.

"We are thrilled to have Paragon join the team with their expertise in thermal and biological systems," Odyssey Moon's founder and chief executive officer, Bob Richards, said in a news advisory. "I am incredibly inspired by our hope to grow the first plant on another world."

Capturing the imagination

The greenhouse idea has emotional as well as scientific appeal.

"People of all ages will get excited about the idea of growing a plant on the moon," Jane Poynter, president and founder of Paragon (as well as MacCallum's wife), said in the advisory. "Imagine a bright flower on a plant in a crystal clear growth chamber on the surface of the moon, with the full Earth rising above the moonscape behind it; these are the ideas that got me interested in space."

MacCallum has been impressed in particular by how kids react to the idea. "To them, right now it's more cool than astronauts," he told me.

But the experiment isn't just kid stuff. "The first plant to grow from seed and complete its life cycle on another world will be a significant step in the expansion of life beyond the earth," Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, said in the advisory. "The sooner we do it, the better."

Plants already have been found to flourish in zero gravity - in fact, Paragon played a big role in plant-growth experiments on the space shuttle and Russia's Mir space station as well as on the international space station. But plants haven't yet been grown in lunar-type reduced gravity, said Volker Kern, Paragon's director of NASA human spaceflight programs.

"Scientifically, it will be very interesting to understand the effects of the moon and one-sixth gravity on plant growth," he said.

Mother Nature on another world

MacCallum knows that getting plants to grow in the Lunar Oasis will be a challenge. First of all, the greenhouse would have to survive the trip to the moon in working order - which is definitely one giant leap for the Odyssey Moon team.

Then Mother Nature would have to do its thing on another world, with a lot of help from the onboard life support system. The current prototype for the greenhouse is a 15-inch-high (37.5-centimeter-high) reinforced glass cylinder that's about 7 inches (18 centimeters) wide on the bottom. Seeds for a rapid-cycle type of Brassica plant - basically, mustard seeds - would be planted in Earth soil within the container.

"It's one of those 'lab-rat' plants that scientists use a lot and know very well," MacCallum explained.

The petite plants have been bred on Earth to develop yellow flowers 14 days after planting - which happens to be how long a lunar day lasts. "We're hoping to at least go to flower and set seed in the course of one lunar day," MacCallum said.

Without the mediating influence of an atmosphere, lunar surface temperatures can swing widely between day and night, from 225 degrees Fahrenheit (107 degrees Celsius) during the day to colder than 240 degrees below zero F (-153 degrees C) at night. "My guess is the plant is going to get so cold that it dies during the night," MacCallum said.

But wouldn't it be cool if the plant developed mustard seeds that started a whole new cycle of growth on the moon? If that happened, "we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves," MacCallum said.

Lessons in life support

Paragon's would-be lunar gardeners will have to work their way through lots of technical challenges: How do you design the greenhouse glass to block the sun's harmful rays while letting in the sunlight needed for Earth-style photosynthesis? How do you meter in the carbon dioxide and water that the plant will require, while removing the oxygen given off by the plant? "It gets complicated very quickly," MacCallum said.

But as MacCallum said, that's part of the fun. These are the kinds of challenges he's been dealing with since the early 1990s, when he and Poynter served as resident scientists in the eco-laboratory known as Biosphere 2. The couple started up Paragon even before they left Biosphere 2, and the company collaborates with NASA as well as outside researchers on space-biology experiments.

Today, Paragon specializes in the testing and development of life support systems for outer space as well as for underwater diving. The company is part of the Lockheed Martin team building NASA's next spaceship, as well as the Oceaneering team designing NASA's next spacesuit. Paragon has also been awarded a U.S. Navy contract to start production of an advanced diving system designed specifically for use in contaminated water.

All those projects will be mentioned during Friday's news conference, with U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., in attendance. But the Lunar Oasis is likely to be the star of the show: Paragon plans to present a model of the greenhouse to Giffords, who is chairwoman of the House subcommittee on space and aeronautics.

The model was still under construction as of this week, and MacCallum said he couldn't guarantee that it'll be a realistic representation of the greenhouse eventually going to the moon. "Since we really don't know what 'realistic' is, we'll have to see," he joked.



Flowering plants would be enclosed in a mini-greenhouse placed on Odyssey
Moon's lunar lander, as shown in this artist's conception.


http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/03/26/1867485.aspx

Hopefully the plants won't mind a possibly stinky Outer Space.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29921131/

Space smells funny, astronauts say
Likened to burnt gunpowder or the ozone smell of electrical equipment

I wonder if it has anything to do with the proximity to earth. I can't imagine deep space having much of a smell.

Anyone remember "Silent Running"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oani3-RDvHw&feature=channel

Hubble Finds Hidden Exoplanet in Archival Data

In 19 years of observations, the Hubble Space Telescope has amassed a huge archive of data--an archive that may contain the telltale glow of undiscovered extrasolar planets. Such is the case with this image--one of three extrasolar planets orbiting the young star HR 8799--which is 130 light-years away. The planetary trio was originally discovered in images taken with the Keck and Gemini North telescopes in 2007 and 2008. But using a new image processing technique that suppresses the glare of the parent star, scientists found the telltale glow of the outermost planet in the system while studying Hubble archival data taken in 1998. The giant planet is young and hot, but still only 1/100,000th the brightness of its parent star. By comparison, Jupiter is one-billionth the brightness of our sun.

President Obama Talks With Shuttle and Station Crews

President Barack Obama is joined by members of Congress, including former astronaut Sen. Bill Nelson, right, and school children as he talks Tuesday, March 24, 2009, with astronauts on the International Space Station from the Roosevelt Room at the White House.

Just read this book, pretty good

Looks like we got lucky with the Phoenix Lander landing in the northern polar region.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29960909/

Scientists study Mars’ ‘most habitable zone’
Phoenix Lander may have plopped down on a microbe-friendly location

Good book, got to love Phil Plait.

TEDTalks: Steve Hawking: Asking big questions about the universe

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjBIsp8mS-c"]YouTube - Stephen Hawking: Asking big questions about the universe[/ame]

In keeping with the theme of TED2008, professor Stephen Hawking asks some Big Questions about our universe -- How did the universe begin? How did life begin? Are we alone? What is the future of the human race? -- and discusses how we might go about answering them.

Stephen Hawking was not present at TED. Due to his physical limitations his talk was prerecorded and then played back for us. We listened in silence out of respect, but we also hung on every word. Also, due to differences in time between California and England, Chris' question was posed when we were not in session and then played back for us later.

Follow along with astronomers, scientists and enthusiasts all around the world with live video feed from Around the World in 80 Telescopes! Part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy International Year of Astronomy 2009 Cornerstone Project, over the next 24 hours members of science teams from observatories worldwide will be participating in interviews and sharing their amazing work with the public. Enjoy!

Click here to watch previously aired videoclips of Telescopecasts:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/100-hours-of-astronomy


Telescope casts that aired last night:

04 April 00:00 Telescope Bernard Lyot (TBL), Pic du Midi (France)
04 April 00:20 CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility - Parkes Observatory (Australia)
04 April 00:40 Space Sciences Laboratory - UC Berkeley (Space)
04 April 01:00 University of Tasmania Hobart 26m Radiotelescope (Mount Pleasant Observatory) (Australia)
04 April 01:20 Australian International Gravitational Wave Observatory (AIGO) Research Facility (Australia)
04 April 01:40 Shanghai Radio Telescope (Shanghai Astronomical Observatory) (China)
04 April 02:00 Arecibo Observatory (Puerto Rico)
04 April 02:20 ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) (Chile)
04 April 02:40 Concordia station, Dome C, Antarctica (Antarctica)
04 April 03:00 Las Campanas Observatory (Chile)
04 April 03:20 ESO La Silla Observatory (Chile)
04 April 03:40 Rothney Astrophysical Observatory (Canada)
04 April 04:00 Gemini South telescope (Chile)
04 April 04:20 NOAO South - Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (Chile)
04 April 04:40 Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (Australia)
04 April 05:00 McDonald Observatory (Hobby-Eberly Telescope) (USA)
04 April 05:20 Apache Point Observatory ARC 3.5-meter Telescope (USA)
04 April 05:40 Large Binocular Telescope Observatory (USA)
04 April 06:00 TAMA 300 (Japan)
04 April 06:20 Arizona Radio Observatory's Submillimeter Telescope, Mt Graham (USA)
04 April 06:35 Vatican Telescope, Mt Graham (USA)
04 April 06:50 MMT Observatory (USA)
04 April 07:05 Kepler Mission (Space)
04 April 07:25 The 10-meter South Pole Telescope/IceCube Neutrino Telescope (South Pole, Antarctica)
04 April 07:40 Kitt Peak National Observatory (USA)
04 April 08:00 Lick Observatory (USA)
04 April 08:20 CHARA (Mount Wilson) (USA)
04 April 08:40 Palomar Observatory / Hale Telescope (USA)

Here's a link (PDF) to the full Schedule of Telescopecasts:

http://www.eso.org/public/events/special-evt/100ha/WebcastSchedule.pdf



http://www.100hoursofastronomy.org/

http://solarastronomy2009.org/100-hours-sunday/