Posts tagged astronomy

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Posted 6 days ago

Remote Reconnaissance of Another Solar System

This visualization, produced using the Hayden Planetarium’s Digital Universe—the most comprehensive and scientifically accurate, three-dimensional map of th…

This is a beautiful video that not only shows the spectra of a star and its four confirmed exoplanets, but shows you the spread and locations of many other confirmed exoplanets relative to our own solar system in a way that’s true to real proportions.

I found myself smiling with wonder at this video, much more than I thought I would.  When it pointed out that every blue circle is a star with a confirmed exoplanet, I literally whispered to myself “there’re so many.”  It was a beautiful realization: planets are indeed more the norm than not, around stars.  That’s an amazing fact of science.  I hope it affects you all the same way it affected me.

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Posted 2 months ago
moderation: Evidence for a Deep Ocean on Europa Might be Found on its Surface — Astronomer Mike Brown and his colleague Kevin Hand might be suffering from “Pump Handle Phobia,” as radio personality Garrison Keillor calls it, where those afflicted just can’t resist putting their tongues on something frozen to see if it will stick. But Brown and Hand are doing it all in the name of science, and they may have found the best evidence yet that Europa has a liquid water ocean beneath its icy surface. Better yet, that vast subsurface ocean may actually shoot up to Europa’s surface, on occasion. In a recent blog post, Brown pondered what it would taste like if he could lick the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. “The answer may be that it would taste a lot like that last mouthful of water that you accidentally drank when you were swimming at the beach on your last vacation. Just don’t take too long of a taste. At nearly 300 degrees (F) below zero your tongue will stick fast.” (via universetoday) More new stuff on Europa!!  Looks like the deeper oceans of the moon actually spew forth water to the surface much like our volcanoes do for lava. And this is the most exciting paragraph in the article for me: “We now have evidence that Europa’s ocean is not isolated—that the ocean and the surface talk to each other and exchange chemicals,” said Brown, who is an astronomer and professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech. “That means that energy might be going into the ocean, which is important in terms of the possibilities for life there. It also means that if you’d like to know what’s in the ocean, you can just go to the surface and scrape some off.” Pretty sweet, eh?  Or, well, salty.  And cold.  :)  They also found Magnesium Sulfide salt via spectroscopy, which could be a result of oxidation from somewhere in the oceans below.   Zoom

moderation:

Evidence for a Deep Ocean on Europa Might be Found on its Surface

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Astronomer Mike Brown and his colleague Kevin Hand might be suffering from “Pump Handle Phobia,” as radio personality Garrison Keillor calls it, where those afflicted just can’t resist putting their tongues on something frozen to see if it will stick. But Brown and Hand are doing it all in the name of science, and they may have found the best evidence yet that Europa has a liquid water ocean beneath its icy surface. Better yet, that vast subsurface ocean may actually shoot up to Europa’s surface, on occasion.

In a recent blog post, Brown pondered what it would taste like if he could lick the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. “The answer may be that it would taste a lot like that last mouthful of water that you accidentally drank when you were swimming at the beach on your last vacation. Just don’t take too long of a taste. At nearly 300 degrees (F) below zero your tongue will stick fast.”

(via universetoday)

More new stuff on Europa!!  Looks like the deeper oceans of the moon actually spew forth water to the surface much like our volcanoes do for lava.

And this is the most exciting paragraph in the article for me:

“We now have evidence that Europa’s ocean is not isolated—that the ocean and the surface talk to each other and exchange chemicals,” said Brown, who is an astronomer and professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech. “That means that energy might be going into the ocean, which is important in terms of the possibilities for life there. It also means that if you’d like to know what’s in the ocean, you can just go to the surface and scrape some off.”

Pretty sweet, eh?  Or, well, salty.  And cold.  :)  They also found Magnesium Sulfide salt via spectroscopy, which could be a result of oxidation from somewhere in the oceans below.  

via moderation
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Posted 9 months ago
did-you-kno: Source Holy shit, really???  How is this not bigger news??  And what are we planning to do about it when it comes back around again in 4 years?  This is, um, sort of important, isn’t it?

did-you-kno:

Source

Holy shit, really???  How is this not bigger news??  And what are we planning to do about it when it comes back around again in 4 years?  This is, um, sort of important, isn’t it?

via did-you-kno
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Posted 9 months ago

Voyager Nears Edge of Interstellar Space

Lost in all the Curiosity hype (which is absolutely hype-worthy) is this little gem of information.

Voyager I is almost at the true edge of the solar system and is thus almost officially in interstellar space.  Ever since learning about the Voyager missions in college, I’ve been really excited to see what happens to them.  The end-game of both Voyagers is just them floating out of the solar system and reporting back as long as they can.

Very glad to see they’re not forgotten, and that since their launch in 1977 they’re still providing valuable scientific feedback.  Woohoo Voyager Mission!

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Posted 11 months ago

Venus Transit Visible with Naked Eye!

I’m on a brief hiatus from blogging, but I wanted to post this.

If you can see the sunset on Tuesday night, look for Venus!  I hope I can see it!

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Posted 1 year ago
emergentfutures: Mission hopes to find fish on Jupiter’s moons The European Space Agency has approved a mission to Jupiter’s moons to discover whether fish live under their icy surfaces. The mission will send a five-tonne satellite to the solar system’s biggest planet to study three of its largest moons - Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. These are of special interest because beneath their icy surface it is thought they might have vast oceans. Scientists believe this makes them one of the most likely places in the solar system to harbour alien life, possibly even fish. Full Story: ABC YES!!!  As I mentioned in a previous post, Europa is one of the most promising places where we might find extraterrestrial life.  As I also mentioned in said previous post, I can’t believe it’s taken anyone on Earth this long to arrange such a mission. I’m EXTREMELY excited to see what they find.  I think it will be a TREMENDOUS step forward for humanity—both scientifically and culturally—if we finally can confirm the existence of life somewhere other than our planet. And if they find fish, or any other complex life forms….oh man, that will the greatest scientific discovery in HISTORY to that point.  Guaranteed.

emergentfutures:

Mission hopes to find fish on Jupiter’s moons


The European Space Agency has approved a mission to Jupiter’s moons to discover whether fish live under their icy surfaces.

The mission will send a five-tonne satellite to the solar system’s biggest planet to study three of its largest moons - Callisto, Europa and Ganymede.

These are of special interest because beneath their icy surface it is thought they might have vast oceans.

Scientists believe this makes them one of the most likely places in the solar system to harbour alien life, possibly even fish.

Full Story: ABC

YES!!!  As I mentioned in a previous post, Europa is one of the most promising places where we might find extraterrestrial life.  As I also mentioned in said previous post, I can’t believe it’s taken anyone on Earth this long to arrange such a mission.

I’m EXTREMELY excited to see what they find.  I think it will be a TREMENDOUS step forward for humanity—both scientifically and culturally—if we finally can confirm the existence of life somewhere other than our planet.

And if they find fish, or any other complex life forms….oh man, that will the greatest scientific discovery in HISTORY to that point.  Guaranteed.

via emergentfutures
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Posted 1 year ago

Self-Replicating Exobots for use in SETI

This is a pretty damn cool idea.  The concept of self-replication is probably something that isn’t explored, or at least mentioned, enough in space exploration.

The last time I heard of the concept was in the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 episode where they decide to lay a mine field of cloaked, self-replicating mines in front of the wormhole to prevent the Dominion reinforcements from arriving from the Gamma Quadrant.

Yes, this is from science fiction—and this is my point. If we CAN do it now, we SHOULD. Think of how much effort and resources something like this can save?  And not just for SETI, but for the other uses mentioned in the article: clean-up and recycling of space debris, tagging and tracking of near-earth asteroids, lightspeed communications over large distances…all of this without the need for manpower or money.

And, speaking of money, how awesome is this quote:

“If [extraterrestrials] are like us, they too have a dysfunctional government and all the other problems plaguing us,” said Mathews. “They won’t want to spend a lot to communicate with us.”

HA!  Neil DeGrasse Tyson would be proud of this guy, and so am I. Everything I read these days gives me the impression that we can be so much farther ahead in space science than we actually are already, but we’re being inhibited by politics and money.

Maybe once a functional space elevator is built, we’ll start looking at things a little differently.  But that might still be 50 years off.  Aaargh.

Anyway, great article, with lots of interesting points about the current state and needs of space exploration and SETI.

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Posted 1 year ago

The Scale of the Universe 2

I posted a video of this before, but this is the interactive version!

Also, I recommend playing around with this with a Wikipedia window open as well.  You can learn a whole ton of stuff about astronomical entities down to subatomic particles just by putting into Wikipedia what you find in this presentation.

Enjoy, and learn!

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Posted 1 year ago

Watch This: The Scale of the Universe 2 Will Blow Your Mind Once Again(via @Gizmodo)

itscandidlycara:

Enjoy being reminded of your mortality and insignificance. I have this weird mix of wonderment and depression right now. You broke my heart, Plank. You broke my heart

SCIEEENCCEEGAHJHJHDJKSJK

I remember the original Scale of the Universe video from grade school.  Always stuck with me, always blew my mind in a great way.  This one’s just as good, although it goes so fast it’s hard to read all the labels.  Still, the scale is nonetheless staggering.  It’s a big universe we live in.  And a small one, too.

via itscandidlycara
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Posted 1 year ago
milkywaymusings: Have you ever wondered what a hypothetical alien civilization, capable of radio astronomy, might think of us? Well, that depends on how close this hypothetical civilization is. Here’s what these hypothetical civilizations, inhabiting the nearest stars may have seen of our television and radio culture Very cool graphic for perspective. But, in something that I think when looked at historically is very, very sad…the first signal strong enough to be carried into space is Hitler opening the 1936 Olympics.  I REALLY hope that if some alien culture out there eventually receives that message, they don’t view that asshole as some heroic human. The film Contact incorporated this possibility quite nicely, actually, into its plot. Zoom

milkywaymusings:

Have you ever wondered what a hypothetical alien civilization, capable of radio astronomy, might think of us? Well, that depends on how close this hypothetical civilization is. Here’s what these hypothetical civilizations, inhabiting the nearest stars may have seen of our television and radio culture

Very cool graphic for perspective.

But, in something that I think when looked at historically is very, very sad…the first signal strong enough to be carried into space is Hitler opening the 1936 Olympics.  I REALLY hope that if some alien culture out there eventually receives that message, they don’t view that asshole as some heroic human.

The film Contact incorporated this possibility quite nicely, actually, into its plot.

(Source: milkywaymusings)

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