| Monday, October 27, 2003 |  |
| Disastrous 'perfect space storm' could strike again | 0 comments |
| 27 Oct 2003 @ 20:44 Disastrous 'perfect space storm' could strike again John Innes A “PERFECT space storm” that occurred 144 years ago could happen again at any time with catastrophic consequences, scientists have warned. Newly uncovered scientific data has shown the true extent of history’s most massive electromagnetic storm which blew up on the first two days of September 1859. Like “the perfect storm” at sea, which inspired a blockbuster movie, it was the result of a number of titanic events coming together. But in this case the centre of the storm was the sun, not the ocean. A combination of sunspots and solar flares produced an explosive release of magnetically charged gas and particles which sped towards the earth. When the storm struck, the effects had a huge impact even on the limited technological landscape of the 19th century. Within hours, telegraph wires in both the United States and Europe spontaneously shorted out, causing numerous fires. People were amazed as the Northern Lights – caused by charged solar particles bombarding the atmosphere near the northern magnetic pole – illuminated the sky as far south as Rome, Havana and Hawaii. Dr Bruce Tsurutani, a plasma physicist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who has investigated the event, said: “What happened in 1859 was a combination of several events that occurred on the sun at the same time. “If they took place separately they would be somewhat notable events. But together they create the most potent disruption of earth’s ionosphere in recorded history. What they generated was the perfect space storm.” The amount of power locked within the sun is almost beyond comprehension. At almost 900,000 miles wide, the sun contains 99.86 per cent of the mass of the entire solar system – enough room to accommodate well over a million Earths. The total energy radiated by the sun averages 383 billion trillion kilowatts, equivalent to 100 billion tonnnes of TNT exploding every second. Close inspection of the sun’s surface reveals a turbulent tangle of magnetic fields and boiling arc-shaped clouds of plasma dappled by dark, roving sunspots. On August 28, 1859, solar observers noted the development of numerous sunspots – localised regions of very intense magnetic fields – on the sun’s surface. The fields intertwined, generating violent solar flares. From August 28 several flares were observed, said Dr Tsurutani. Then, on 1 September, the sun released a single mammoth solar flare. For almost a minute, the amount of light the sun produced at the region of the flare doubled. With the flare came an event called a coronal mass ejection (CME), a volcanic eruption on the sun. A huge cloud of plasma, a turbulent mass of electrically charged gas, was blasted into space. It moved fast, taking just 17 hours and 40 minutes to reach the Earth. The magnetic fields it contained were extremely intense and in direct opposition to the Earth’s fields. The magnetic “shield” that surrounds the Earth was overwhelmed, allowing charged particles to enter the upper atmosphere. In 1859 the invention of the telegraph was only 15 years old and electrical systems were in their infancy. But the potential effects of such solar events have been demonstrated more than once in modern times. In March 1989, a solar storm of much less intensity knocked out the Hydro-Quebec power grid in Canada for more than nine hours causing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage. A similar event in 1994 caused major malfunctions to two communications satellites, disrupting newspaper, network television and radio services throughout Canada. |
| Sunday, September 28, 2003 | |
| Next generation rocket takes slow lane to the moon | 0 comments |
| 28 Sep 2003 @ 00:27 Next generation rocket takes slow lane to the moon European spacecraft will test new method of propulsion - accelerating almost undetectably, but with the potential for incredible speeds Tim Radford, science editor Saturday September 27, 2003 The Guardian A small explorer called Smart-1 will soar into space 20 minutes after midnight tonight aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket on a leisurely voyage to the moon. The Smart - or small missions for advanced research technology - spacecraft will be powered by a Star Trek-style propulsion system which will puff it gently towards Earth's nearest neighbour over a period of about 15 months. It will be a test for solar-electric ion propulsion - firing electrically charged xenon atoms to provide the thrust, using a tenth of the weight of fuel of a more conventional chemical rocket. But its light touch - roughly the pressure of a postcard on an outstretched hand - will accelerate the spacecraft at just 0.2mm per second, to its destination a quarter of a million miles away. Once in orbit around the moon, Smart-1 will spend at least six months analysing the soil chemistry of the lunar surface, and look for water in the permanently shaded crater at the moon's south pole. "Because we've set foot on the moon and brought back rock samples, we all think we know what the moon is made of," said Sarah Dunkin of the Rutherford Appleton laboratory in Oxfordshire. "But this isn't true. It's a bit like someone from outer space landing on the Sahara desert, taking rock and sand samples, and saying they understand the geology of the Earth. "This instrument will be carrying out the first ever global survey of the moon and it will help us find out how the moon was created." The conjecture is that early in the solar system's history, something the size of the planet Mars smashed into the primordial Earth, tearing off huge chunks of rock which gradually became the moon. The spacecraft measures about one cubic metre, but has solar panels that unfold to a span of 14 metres (46ft). The cost to the European Space Agency of the entire package, together with the launch, and the dozen experiments on board, was €110m (£76m). The craft will be launched from Kourou in French Guiana with two commercial satellites, one of them made by the Indian space research organisation. Chemical rockets deliver immense thrust, but burn their fuel swiftly. Ion drive engines could work for years, slowly building up to much greater speeds than any chemical rocket. Because the ion tortoise should eventually overtake the chemical hare - and keep on accelerating - ion drives open the way for deep-space exploration. Smart-1 is also a testbed for a mission in 2009, to try to unravel some of the mysteries of Mercury, the planet nearest the sun. "The weird thing about Mercury is that it is very, very dense," said Manuel Grande of the Rutherford Appleton labo ratory. "If you think of it as a planet, the middle two-thirds of that planet is just an enormous iron cannonball, and people do not understand why. That is much denser than everyday theories of solar system formation should make it". There were three possible explanations, Prof Grande said. Mercury might have suffered some ferocious impact early in its history; or the early sun was much hotter and burned away most of its outer crust; or rocks and gas in the early solar system separated in a different way from that suggested by theoreticians. An exact measurement of the planet's chemical composition should help astronomers decide the answer. Mercury's magnetic field is another mystery - it suggests that the planet's core, like that of Earth, must be molten. "But you have a planet which is really very small, and therefore it should be cool inside," said Prof Grande. "The iron should be solid." |
| Saturday, September 20, 2003 | |
| NASA Images Of Your favorite Planet | 0 comments |
| 20 Sep 2003 @ 14:47 Choose your planet and enjoy the images captured by our spacecraft in their voyages through the universe. |
| Saturday, July 19, 2003 | |
| Concern: Near Earth Objects | 0 comments |
 19 Jul 2003 @ 10:21CONCERNED CITIZENS ASK FOR CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ON NEAR EARTH OBJECTS By Leonard David Space.Com July 9, 2003 A distinguished group of Americans joined together to send a unique request to Congressional leaders Wednesday -- a request that preparations be made to deal with the prospect of Earth being slammed by an asteroid or comet. In an "Open Letter to Congress on Near Earth Objects," the communication underscores the danger our planet faces from near Earth objects, also termed NEO's. The letter has been sent to President Bush and his cabinet, the Secretary General of the United Nations and to leaders around the globe. Included among those that urged action on the NEO issue were: Apollo 17 Astronaut, Harrison Schmitt; Neil Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium; Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus of Princeton University; Lucy Ann McFadden, NEO scientist at the University of Maryland; New York University professor and author, William Burrows; John Lewis, a scientist at the University of Arizona, Tucson; and Thomas Jones, former astronaut and veteran of four shuttle missions. Potentially devastating threat "We write to you today as concerned citizens, convinced that the time has come for our nation to address comprehensively the impact threat from asteroids and comets," the letter begins. The overall aim of the Open Letter is start a process to educate national leadership about the real threat posed by worrisome comets and asteroids that can approach Earth: "A growing body of scientific evidence shows that some of these celestial bodies, also known as Near Earth Objects (NEOs), pose a potentially devastating threat of collision with Earth, capable of causing widespread destruction and loss of life. The largest such impacts can not only threaten the survival of our nation, but even that of civilization itself." Three step effort The letter urges U.S. lawmakers to take a series of three steps, thereby shaping a coordinated program to deal with the impact threat: Step 1: NEO Detection - Expand and enhance this nation's capability to detect and to determine the orbits and physical characteristics of NEOs. Step 2: NEO Exploration - Expand robotic exploration of asteroids and Earth-approaching comets and direct that U.S. astronauts again leave low-Earth orbit Š this time to further explore certain NEOs in deep space for information required to develop an effective capability to deflect an NEO should we learn that one threatens life on Earth. Step 3: NEO Contingency Planning - Initiate comprehensive contingency planning for deflecting any NEO found to pose a potential threat to Earth. In parallel, plan to meet the disaster relief needs created by an impending or actual NEO impact. U.S. government/private sector planning should invite international cooperation in addressing the problems of NEO detection, potential hazards and actual impacts. This step also advocates establishment of an Interagency NEO Task Force to address the NEO Impact Threat. This Task Force should be composed of senior representatives from appropriate government agencies. Insurance policy Resources committed to the NEO work have been very modest, an enclosure to the Open Letter declares, "and not commensurate with the potential threat." What is warranted is additional investment in search programs, deemed by the letter's supporters as both "appropriate and prudent." A dramatic improvement in the rate at which asteroids and comets are discovered would likely result if the United States were to increase the current level of funding, now at about $3.5 million per year, to at least $20 million annually, the letter's enclosure explains. The Open Letter concludes: "For the first time in human history, we have the potential to protect ourselves from a catastrophe of truly cosmic proportions." "We cannot rely on statistics alone to protect us from catastrophe; such a strategy is like refusing to buy fire insurance because blazes are infrequent. Our country simply cannot afford to wait for the first modern occurrence of a devastating NEO impact before taking steps to adequately address this threat." Prudent approach A leader in scripting the NEO Open letter is former shuttle astronaut, Thomas Jones. He is a veteran space traveler of shuttle missions, STS-59, 68, 80, and 98. Contacted by SPACE.com , Jones said he is hopeful that the Open Letter stirs Congress to take action. But he is also realistic. "It may very well take an impact to shake things up and make the government act," Jones said. "But since it's a basic responsibility of government to provide for the common defense, and since that mission is spread over many agencies, we thought that Congress is the right body to address the hazard, and to direct a joint approach." If Congress takes no action, Jones said that he and the other supporters hope the President will act in response. "It seems no one agency desires to take the lead on this, but since many have roles to play, from Homeland Security to Defense to NASA, our hope is that Congress can direct a concerted plan of action," Jones told SPACE.com . "We already devote taxpayer funds to disaster preparedness in advance of other natural hazards, and so we call for a similar, prudent approach to studying and countering the impact hazard," Jones concluded. ............ AN OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESS ON NEAR EARTH OBJECTS READ THE COMPLETE LETTER AND PLAN |
| Tuesday, July 15, 2003 | |
| Earth And Mars Are Converging | 0 comments |
 15 Jul 2003 @ 23:58Approaching Mars Photo:from Ron Wayman of Tampa, FL, on June 11th. "I thought this image of Mars was rather interesting because it was taken through the city lights of Tampa during fair to poor seeing conditions. The picture was taken with an 8-inch Meade LX200GPS telescope and a Nikon CP995 camera." Earth and Mars are converging for a close encounter in August. The red planet is already an appealing target for sky watchers. June 18, 2003: Count slowly: one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand.... You just got about 30 km closer to the planet Mars. Earth and Mars are rapidly converging. On August 27, 2003--the date of closest approach--the two worlds will be 56 million km apart. That's a long way by Earth standards, but only a short distance on the scale of the solar system. NASA, the European Space Agency and Japan are all sending spacecraft to Mars this year. It's a good time to go. Between now and August, Mars will brighten until it "blazes forth against the dark background of space with a splendor that outshines Sirius and rivals the giant Jupiter himself." Astronomer Percival Lowell, who famously mapped the canals of Mars, wrote those words to describe the planet during a similar close encounter in the 19th century. Already Mars is eye-catching. You can see it this month in the morning sky--bright, steady and remarkably red. Only Venus near the sun is brighter. Amateur astronomers looking through backyard telescopes have reported in recent days great views of Mars's south polar cap. Made of frozen water and carbon dioxide ("dry ice"), it reflects sunlight well. "I can see the polar ice vividly using my 8-inch telescope," says Ron Wayman of Tampa, Florida. He's also spotted "some faint darker-shaded areas on the surface." Such markings will become clearer in the weeks ahead. On June 1st Mars was 12.5 arcseconds across and it glowed like a -1st magnitude star. On August 27th it will be twice as wide (25 arcseconds) and six times brighter (magnitude -2.9). Much has been made of the fact that the August 27th encounter with Mars is the closest in some 60,000 years. Neanderthals were the last to observe Mars so favorably placed. This is true. It's also a bit of hype. Mars and Earth have been almost this close many times in recent history. Some examples: Aug. 23, 1924; Aug. 18, 1845; Aug. 13, 1766. In each case Mars and Earth were approximately 56 million km apart. Astronomers call these close encounters "perihelic oppositions." Perihelic means Mars is near perihelion--its closest approach to the sun. (The orbit of Mars, like that of all planets, is an ellipse, so the distance between the sun and Mars varies.) Opposition means that the sun, Earth and Mars are in a straight line with Earth in the middle. Mars and the sun are on opposite sides of the sky. When Mars is at opposition and at perihelion--at the same time--it is very close to Earth. August 27th is indeed the best perihelic opposition since the days of the Neanderthals, but it scarcely differs from other more recent ones. That's fine because all perihelic oppositions of Mars are spectacular. Mars is a morning planet now. You have to wake up early to see it. Soon, though, it will be more conveniently placed. By mid-July Mars will rise in the east around 11 p.m. local time. In late August it will appear as soon as the sun sets. It won't be long before everyone can see Mars at a civilized hour. We'll be telling more stories about Mars in the weeks ahead. This one, though, is finished. Did you make it to the end? Congratulations! You're now 2000 km closer to Mars. |
| Monday, July 14, 2003 | |
| First for Hawaiian telescope link-up | 1 comment |
 14 Jul 2003 @ 23:06First for Hawaiian telescope link-up The first scientific result from a pair of linked telescopes - the mighty Keck twins on Mauna Kea - has been released. It is the observation of a young star surrounded by a disc of dust in which planets may be forming. When the two 10-metre (33 feet) Kecks - sited up a volcano in Hawaii, US - open their eyes on the heavens in tandem, they form what is arguably the world's largest optical telescope system. Acting in unison, they create an interferometer, in which the outputs from several smaller telescopes are combined to mimic that from a much larger, single telescope. The swirling dust disc seen around the star DG Tau is an important discovery, say astronomers. Observations of such systems, now possible at higher resolution, will cast light on how worlds like our Earth formed. Combining signals Interferometry is a technique used routinely in radio astronomy where the long wavelengths involved make the bringing together of signals from different dishes relatively straightforward. In the optical region of the spectrum, things are more difficult, however, because the shorter wavelengths involved demand a greater accuracy when combining the light beams. Still under development, the Keck interferometer is equivalent to a single 85-metre (279 feet) telescope. An added complication for engineers trying to bring the different light signals together is that the individual Keck telescopes employ an adaptive optics system. This adjusts the shape of the telescopes' mirrors to remove distortion caused by the Earth's atmosphere. It all has to be taken into account to provide a final pin-sharp image. Immature star The Keck interferometer's inaugural scientific observation was of the young star DG Tau, a star that is not yet mature because it has not yet started to burn hydrogen in its core. "We're trying to measure the size of the hot material in the dust disc around DG Tau, where planets may form," says Rachel Akeson, of the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, US. "Studies like this teach us more about how stars form, either alone or in pairs, and how planets eventually form in discs around stars," she adds. The observations reveal a gap of 29 million kilometres (18 million miles) between DG Tau and its orbiting dust disc. This may be significant because the gap is larger than that seen in other systems. Of the planets known to orbit other stars, roughly one in four lies within 16 million km (10 million miles) of the parent star. Because planets are believed to form within a dust disc, either DG Tau's disc has a larger-than-usual gap, or planets form farther out from a star and migrate inward. By measuring dust around other stars where planets may form, the Keck interferometer will pave the way for the US space agency's Terrestrial Planet Finder mission which will look for Earth-like planets. More > |
| Quantum Wormholes Could Carry People | 1 comment |
 14 Jul 2003 @ 00:06An older story but a goodie.... Quantum Wormholes Could Carry People By Charles Choi New Scientist May 23, 2002 All around us are tiny doors that lead to the rest of the Universe. Predicted by Einstein's equations, these quantum wormholes offer a faster-than-light short cut to the rest of the cosmos -- at least in principle. Now physicists believe they could open these doors wide enough to allow someone to travel through. Quantum wormholes are thought to be much smaller than even protons and electrons, and until now no one has modelled what happens when something passes through one. So Sean Hayward at Ewha Womans University in Korea and Hisa-aki Shinkai at the Riken Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Japan decided to do the sums. They have found that any matter travelling through adds positive energy to the wormhole. That unexpectedly collapses it into a black hole, a supermassive region with a gravitational pull so strong not even light can escape. But there's a way to stop any would-be traveller being crushed into oblivion. And it lies with a strange energy field nicknamed "ghost radiation". Predicted by quantum theory, ghost radiation is a negative energy field that dampens normal positive energy. Similar effects have been shown experimentally to exist. Delicate balance Ghost radiation could therefore be used to offset the positive energy of the travelling matter, the researchers have found. Add just the right amount and it should be possible to prevent the wormhole collapsing -- a lot more and the wormhole could be widened just enough for someone to pass through. It would be a delicate operation, however. Add too much negative energy, the scientists discovered, and the wormhole will briefly explode into a new universe that expands at the speed of light, much as astrophysicists say ours did immediately after the big bang. For now, such space travel remains in the realm of thought experiments. The CERN Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland is expected to generate one mini-black hole per second, a potential source of wormholes through which physicists could try to send quantum-sized particles. But sending a person would be another thing. To keep the wormhole open wide enough would take a negative field equivalent to the energy that would be liberated by converting the mass of Jupiter. More > |
| Saturday, July 12, 2003 | |
| Scientists Discover Planetary Patriarch | 0 comments |
 12 Jul 2003 @ 13:32Scientists Discover Planetary Patriarch (It's interesting to note that although this article was written by a women, she chose to call teh planet a patriarch, rather than a matriarch. In choosing to genderize the planet as male she revealed how deep our cultural patriarchy runs.} Astronomers have detected a world many times older than any other known, a remarkable surviver formed in a violent, primordial setting where planets were not thought to exist. Above is an artist's interpretation of the the 13-billion-year-old planet as it orbits a helium white-dwarf star. By Kathy Sawyer Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 11, 2003; Page A01 Astronomers have detected the Methuselah of planets, a world many times older than any other known, a remarkable survivor formed in a violent, primordial setting where planets were not thought to exist. About 800 times more massive than Earth, the planet was born around a yellow, sun-like star about 13 billion years ago. That is about 9 billion years earlier than any planet previously detected and a mere billion years after the big bang that spawned all space and time -- a time, most astronomers believe, when the universe had yet to create the raw material needed to make planets, according to researchers who revealed their findings yesterday. The discovery could change theories about how easily nature makes planets from even the skimpiest of raw materials, and about the abundance of planets -- including some that might harbor life -- thriving unexpectedly in odd corners of the cosmos, astronomers said. "What we think we've found is an example of the first generation of planets formed in the universe," said Steinn Sigurdsson of Pennsylvania State University, a member of the observing team. "We think this planet formed with its star 12.713 billion years ago, when the [Milky Way] galaxy was . . . just in the process of forming." For a decade, the identity of this object had been an astronomical mystery. The observing team solved it by combining the sharp vision of the Hubble Space Telescope with other instruments and techniques, plus many years of inventive detective work. The results were announced at a NASA headquarters news conference yesterday and in today's issue of the journal Science. Confirmation that the object is a planet "is a stunning revelation," said Alan P. Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, an expert on the formation of planetary systems who is not a member of the observing team. "This means that 13 billion years ago, life could have arisen and then died out," he said. "This has immense implications." Andrew Fruchter of the Space Telescope Science Institute, a specialist in pulsar studies not on the discovery team, said the evidence seems convincing but noted that it is only one example. "These are very early days in the study of extrasolar planets, and it probably is too early to rule them in or out just about anywhere," he said. Less than a decade ago, astronomers were still struggling to confirm the first planet detected beyond the family of the sun. Now, the population of known extrasolar planets exceeds 100. But the latest addition breaks the mold in several ways, Boss said. Today, the planet orbits an odd couple made up of a cold, collapsed star called a white dwarf and an even more bizarre companion known as a pulsar, which spins on its axis almost 100 times a second. The newfound planet is the only one known to orbit such a double star system. This eccentric trio resides at the core of the ancient globular star cluster M4, about 5,600 light-years from Earth in the direction of the summer constellation Scorpius. That cluster is visible in binoculars as a fuzzy white smudge very near the bright star Antares. The planet's habitat is as noteworthy as its longevity, astronomers said. The cluster was the site of a furious firestorm of star birth in its early history, and the young planet must have survived blistering ultraviolet radiation, the shockwaves of stellar cataclysms known as supernovas and other mayhem. Also, in what is possibly most significant for theories of planet formation, the setting has almost none of what Boss called "feedstock" for making planets. The globular cluster formed so early in cosmic history that it was deficient in heavy elements, such as carbon, silicon and oxygen -- the building blocks of planets such as those in our solar system. All the heavy elements that fill the modern universe were cooked up over time in the nuclear furnaces of successive generations of stars. But 13 billion years ago, the cluster was almost all hydrogen and helium gas, with only about 1/30th the heavy elements found in our own sun and planets, Boss said. With this deficit in the stuff of rocks, ice and other presumed essentials, some astronomers had argued that globular clusters could not spawn planets, and recent searches had seemed to confirm that. The new discovery "offers tantalizing evidence that formation processes are quite robust and efficient at making use of a small amount of heavier elements," said Sigurdsson, lead author of the Science paper. It also means that "the traditional way of making gas giant planets just isn't going to work in this case," Boss said, and that less widely accepted theories, such as one he has proposed that requires nothing more than gas, may get a boost. The planet is too dim to be directly observed, but the team ferreted out its existence and inferred its tortured history by sifting through generous clues provided by its weird present-day setting -- especially by the pulsar's peculiar properties. In the early 1990s, radio astronomers had timed the pulses the spinning pulsar emitted -- like beams from a lighthouse -- with exacting precision. They detected a complex wobble caused by the gravity of two unseen companions tugging at it. The first companion was determined to be a white dwarf in a tight, 191-day orbit around the pulsar. But the other object, orbiting about 2 billion miles from the central pair, remained a mystery. It was only when the Sigurdsson team used the Hubble Space Telescope to distinguish the movement of the white dwarf that it was able to determine the mass of the third body at 2.5 times the mass of Jupiter. "Several pieces of the puzzle were missing," Sigurdsson said. "The Hubble data snapped it all into place." Once it determined this unlikely trio's characteristics, the team inferred its adventuresome recent history, which included a plunge through the heart of the cluster, a hostile encounter there that bounced it back out toward the cluster's outskirts, and the transformation of the planet's parent star into the white dwarf. |
| Friday, June 27, 2003 | |
| Perspective | 1 comment |
 27 Jun 2003 @ 22:43Just to keep things in perspective. More > |
| Wednesday, May 28, 2003 | |
| COLOSSAL WATERFALLS TURNED SOLID | 1 comment |
 28 May 2003 @ 21:41Mars Anomaly Research COLOSSAL WATERFALLS TURNED SOLID Investigative Report #50 Joseph P. Skipper May 6, 2003 As you can see in the above first image from MGS MOC strip M11-00111, this will no doubt be regarded as some of the most striking looking evidence to come from Mars. It is strange and fantastic looking but the real question is, what is it evidence of? Full Article With Photos Here More > |
| Wednesday, May 21, 2003 | |
| Eclipsed Moon Montage | 0 comments |
 21 May 2003 @ 22:27 Credit and Copyright: Sebastien Gauthier Explanation: After watching this month's lunar eclipse, amateur astronomer Sebastien Gauthier carefully composed this montage of telescopic images of the Moon sliding through planet Earth's shadow. While the deepest part of the total eclipse corresponds to the central exposure, the play of light across the lunar surface nicely demonstrates that the planet's shadow is not uniformly dark as it extends into space. In fact, lunar maria and montes are still visible in the dimmed, reddened sunlight scattered into the cone-shaped shadow region, or umbra, by Earth's atmosphere. For this eclipse, the Moon's trajectory took it North of the umbra's darker core, seen here cast over the Moon's cratered southern highlands. Gauthier's telescope and camera equipment were set up near the Trois-Rivieres College Champlain Observatory in Quebec, Canada. |
| Wednesday, May 14, 2003 | |
| Lunar Eclipse May 15, 2003 | 0 comments |
 14 May 2003 @ 17:55NASA Science May 12, 2003 Later this week, millions of sky watchers can step outside and see the first lunar eclipse of 2003. This story, which tells when and where to watch, begins with a bit of science fiction to present the eclipse from an unusual point of view. The astronomy in this story is real. The rest is science fiction--at least for now. One day lunar colonists will stride outdoors to enjoy such eclipses. They happen about twice a year whenever Earth passes directly between the sun and moon. Our planet's shadow darkens the moon, while sunlight filtering through the edge of our atmosphere turns it red. Here on Earth we call them lunar eclipses--and one is about to happen. On May 15th and 16th the moon will glide through Earth's shadow for the first time this year. The eclipse begins at 10:00 p.m. EDT (7:00 p.m. PDT) on Thursday evening, May 15th, or 0200 Universal Time (UT) on Friday morning, May 16th. At first the moon will seem pale and bright, as usual. During the hour that follows, however, it will plunge into the darkest part of our planet's shadow--a region astronomers call "the umbra." Jack was inside the umbra when he saw the sunset-red ring around Earth. On May 15th the moon will be inside the umbra for about 52 minutes, from 11:14 p.m. to 12:06 a.m. EDT (8:14 to 9:06 p.m. PDT) or 0314 to 0406 UT on May 16th. How dark and red the moon appears during that interval depends on what's floating in Earth's atmosphere. Dust storms and volcanic eruptions can fill the air with particles that redden sunsets and eclipsed moons alike. Sometimes the moon is so dark it's nearly invisible. Other times it's a lovely shade of bright copper. Sky watchers in North America and South America are favored. Except for Alaska and some remote areas in Canada, the eclipse will be visible from all parts of those two continents. In Europe and Africa, the early stages of the eclipse will be visible for just a while before dawn on May 16th. The eclipse will not be visible from Australia or most of Asia. Or from the Moon, but that's only because there's no one there to see it ... not yet. Visit NASA Eclipse page |
| Thursday, April 24, 2003 | |
| Breathtaking.....M17 | 0 comments |
 24 Apr 2003 @ 23:19From NASA AstroPix site... Explanation: Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, these fantastic, undulating shapes lie within the stellar nursery known as M17, the Omega Nebula, some 5,500 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius. The lumpy features in the dense cold gas and dust are illuminated by stars off the upper right of the image and may themselves represent sites of future star formation. Colors in the fog of surrounding hotter material indicate M17's chemical make up. The predominately green glow corresponds to abundant hydrogen, with trace sulfur and oxygen atoms contributing red and blue hues. The picture spans about 3 light-years and was released to celebrate the thirteenth year of the Hubble Space Telescope's cosmic voyage of exploration. |
| Sunday, February 23, 2003 | |
| A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence | 1 comment |
 23 Feb 2003 @ 10:00How could this not have some influence on our behavior? It would be interesting to see global / human history graphed to the eleven year solar activity cycle. A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence Credit: SOHO Consortium/, EIT, ESA, NASA Explanation: A huge eruptive prominence is seen moving out from our Sun in this condensed half-hour time-lapse sequence. Ten Earths could easily fit in the "claw" of this seemingly solar monster. This large prominence, though, is significant not only for its size, but its shape. The twisted figure eight shape indicates that a complex magnetic field threads through the emerging solar particles. Recent evidence of differential rotation inside the Sun might help account for the surface explosion. The sequence was taken early in the year 2000 by the Sun-orbiting SOHO satellite. Although large prominences and energetic Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are relatively rare, they occur more frequently near Solar Maximum, the time of peak sunspot and solar activity in the eleven-year solar cycle. More > |