cities at night from the space station

this video is just so awesome in so many ways!! folks on the international space station (ISS) managed to rig up a little camera system to track the earth against their orbital motion, in order to get focused nighttime images with resolution of 60 meters! i find that taking digital photos at night is extremely difficult anyway, because i want to expose for a little longer in order to not use the flash that always ruins the mood.... imagine wanting to take an image to share with everyone of the amazing night lights of a city on the surface of the earth from your vantage point... 400 km (250 miles) above the surface, moving at 27,700 km/hour!! a tough task!

aside from the impressive technological innovation of the picture takers on the ISS... the commentary by Don Pettit is quite interesting! this presents a surprisingly cool study of the various types of geographic geometry that cities on different continents maintain. the perspective from above is not one easily gathered or perceived by foot on the earth. how fun would it be to be able to identify exactly where you were above the surface of the earth, from seeing the pattern of lights of the city below you. just wow!



aside from the worrying perspective this video provides regarding light pollution... i think its super cool! thanks skepchicks!

black hole in omega centauri!

a former fellow grad student, eva noyola, has discovered an intermediate-mass black hole at the center of the globular cluster, omega centauri! a globular cluster is a group of stars all born from the same cloud of gas and gravitationally bound to each other. they are less massive and smaller than what we call a galaxy, but they still have a very large amount of stars!!


to discover the black hole, they used images from the hubble space telescope to identify stars very close to the center of the globular cluster. then used the gemini-south telescope to get spectra of those stars to determine how fast they were wizzing around the center of the globular cluster. they found that the stars move way faster than expected for the gravity created by the stars they see! this implies that there is some other source of large mass in the center that doesnt produce any light, but causes the stars near it to move really really fast!


this is super exciting for many reasons! omega centauri has been known to harbour some odd characteristics that the presence of a black hole helps explain, but this is also a long-looked-for intermediate-mass black hole! we've discovered many super massive black holes (ten million times the mass of our sun) at the centers of galaxies, and we know of many stellar mass black holes that result from the deaths of a big stars (about 10 times the mass of our sun), but this is only the second black hole ever found with a mass somewhere in between! how exciting!

you can listen to eva speak of her discovery herself on this nice hubble cast video!

as i did when another former fellow grad student, robert quimby, discovered something super cool in our universe, i'll share a few memories of eva!

she's known for her rockin' parties, impeccable taste in both film and music, and always having great halloween costumes!


when she first moved to germany in the fall of 2006, i was there for 4 months as well, so we enjoyed exploring munich together.... including oktoberfest!




we drove to vienna that fall for a beautiful wedding of two other astronomers...




and i was lucky enough to be invited to and able to attend her wonderful wedding in mexico!





ok, i guess i'll stop with all the gushing now... oh but wait, one more thing. since i mentioned oktoberfest... watch closely ;)



congratulations eva!!

make it work!

"make it work!" has been my mantra recently and will continue to be until i finish this crazy phd defense business... at least! i caught it from watching season 4 of project runway and hearing the incredibly poised tim gunn repeat his catchphrase over and over while guiding the blossoming designers to greatness! i havent been too big of a tv show watcher for many years now, but i definitely have my favorites. project runway unexpectedly caught my attention while i was hanging out in the sleepy town of hilo, hawaii last fall, trying to occupy myself after the entire town shut down at 9pm! i've been a complete fan ever since!

anyway, i had a realization this week as i motivationally said to myself "just make it work!" over and over in my head....

tim gunn totally has a C-3PO stance!!!!





his mannerisms fit, it totally works, and i think it's completely adorable!! i like tim even more now!! thanks tim for helping me thru a crazy period in my life even though you have no idea of your influence!

happy for change

indexed

springtime

springtime makes me want to eat fruit.



(orange you glad i didnt say banana!!! :)

carnival of space #47

this week's installment of space-related articles is up, for your reading pleasure, at the martian chronicles blog.

enjoy!

i'm your density

i've spent most of today writing!!! yippee! dissertation writing is not one of the most enjoyable experiences i've ever had, but a productive day always feels great!

i've managed to amuse myself quite a bit today while writing about the history of how many stars form in different types of galaxies during different epochs. (although i regret not having time right now to get into the details, i will have time at some point in the future and choose now to just skip to the punch line.) there are two main relations you investigate to study this process: the star formation rate density and the stellar mass density and how they change over time.

almost every single time i write the word "density" i accidentally type "destiny"!! the first several times it made me chuckle because of the obvious reference to the classic destiny/density mix up from one of the best science-fiction comedies ever created: back to the future - but backwards! i have to admit that at this point, it's just plain annoying because i think i've tried to write that word at least two dozen times today!! oh well. here you go....



there are sooo many good quotes from that movie!!

this about sums it up

(pun intended)



the formula t-shirt

the international space station meets jules verne

i hope some of you got to the see spectacular and rare triple flyby tonight! the european space craft, jules verne, came into view first, rising in the southwest and brightly passing almost overhead. (jules verne was a popular author of the 19th century, who pioneered the science-fiction genre with popular novels like journey to the center of the earth and twenty thousand leagues under the sea).

it was difficult to spot jules verne at first because there were scattered clouds overhead which confused us into thinking all the stars were moving! jules verne was bright at about 1st magnitude, but it was nothing compared to the international space station (ISS), which followed about 5 minutes later. the ISS was negative two magnitudes.... which means super-bright! way brighter than anything else in the night sky other than the moon! the shuttle, endeavor, caught our eyes, as it followed the same path across the sky as the ISS, just 40 degrees or so behind it, not as bright, but still bright indeed! it was so cool to see both of them trailing across the sky in tandem!

i excitedly looked thru binoculars to try to find more details of the bright ISS. I could see the brightest central region reflecting the sun's light, then some extended metallic stuff sticking out to the sides... solar panels!



the ISS has been in orbit around earth since 1998. it constantly moves around the earth at 350-460 km (217-286 miles) above the surface, and moves at 27,700 km/hour! that means it makes nearly 16 orbits everyday!! so why is it so rare that we see the super-bright ISS pass overhead? since the ISS doesnt produce light of its own, we rely on reflected sunlight to see it. the ISS is only illuminated when it passes is in sunlight... which means most of the time that it passes overhead, its daytime which prevents us from seeing it, or it's nighttime, which prevents it from being illuminated. we can see the ISS over our heads when it passes near sunrise or sunset. at sunset, we are just barely in the darkness of earth's shadow, but the ISS, still floating above the surface, still receives and reflects the sun's light! the ISS is soooooo bright because its football-field size reflects a lot of light!

what a fun sight tonight!! thanks to my students who came to the roof with me after our lab class to watch the event :)

triple flyby alert - TONIGHT!!

NASA's space shuttle, endeavor, just undocked with the international space station (ISS) and both are orbiting the earth very close to each other. in addition, the european space agency's cargo carrier, jules verne, is flying just 2000 km ahead of the first two space ships, creating a triple flyby tonight!! you'll see a bright (1st magnitude) jules verne, followed 4 minutes later by an even brighter ISS and space shuttle close together!


this event will be visible from austin, texas at 8:30pm tonight... look to the west! if you live in the US or canada, go to http://spaceweather.com/flybys/ for details. otherwise, you can use heaven's above to find out whether this stunning trio will pas over your head during the next couple days!

machine tattoo

i dont know if i'd really call this a science tattoo, but it sure is one hell of an awesome (and creepy) tattoo!!

godfather of fitness

here's jack lalanne speaking quite a while ago in an inspirational manner to convince us all to be happy by living a more natural life... eating properly, exercising and doing the things in life that we enjoy!



i'm convinced, especially since he's still kickin it at 93 years old!

second best chocolate day of the year!

happy first sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after the vernal equinox of march 21st!!


it's also the second best chocolate day of the year. the #1 chocolate day of the year is, of course, halloween, which wins in my eyes because everyone gets to dress up in costumes as well! and at halloween, there are fewer animals cast as chocolate bars. as a child i always thought it was a bit creepy to eat so many cute little bunny heads. but ultimately the "chocolate!!" factor won!

miriam & amadou

miriam & amadou are definitely a duo that i cannot wait to hear live!! the "blind couple from mali" create and intensely positive world music sound together. i was hooked the instant i heard their 2005 album dimanche a bamako. in combination with producer, manu chao, they created an album that feels as the name suggests.... like a lazy, happy, productive sunday afternoon. it's soft, but intricate, relaxed and intense!

here's a song called "senegal fast food"...

expelled from expelled!

this is the most hilariously ironic story i've heard in a long, long time.

from my perspective, it started this past wednesday, when i went to hear richard dawkins speak on UT's campus. i knew his general debate points before going in, but i appreciated that he raised my consciousness to concepts i hadn't considered.

during his talk he mentioned a movie i hadnt heard of... ben stein's expelled: no intelligence allowed. dawkins spoke of being tricked into being interviewed for the movie by people claiming they were sympathetic to his views on biology, evolution, religion and atheism. he also mentioned that biologist and blogger, pz myers, was similarly tricked into participating in this movie that apparently claims professors should be given tenure even if they throw out the massive amounts of evidence and scientific consensus for evolution, and instead believe in creationism.


so i just read on pharyngula, pz myers blog, a fabulously ironic story from last night. read his version for yourself, but i'll summarize here. he went to a ticket-less special screening of the movie last night with his family and a few guests. the producer of the film recognized him and sent over a policeman to escort him out of the line into the theatre with the threat of arrest! pz questioned the officer, then left without a fuss, leaving his family and guests to view the film. the irony? one of his guests was freaking richard dawkins!!! hahahaha!!

the producer recognized pz, but not his guest. way to be on top of things! here's another account from a witness last night. enjoy!!

looming defense

defense is looming
nerves peak in middle of night
less than two months left

now i have a job (!!!!!!!)
assurance relieves pressure
but tough times remain

much work still to do
prolific writing abound
concentration, please!

continuing tree

link

a last message from sir arthur c. clarke

Sir Arthur C. Clarke shares reflections and preditions on his 90th birthday in this ~9 minute recording from december 2007.

the moon and saturn and regulus

it's the time of the month for the moon to swing past saturn again! look to the south-east to see the moon just below a white-yellow saturn!


this time last month when the moon passed by the 6th planet in our solar system, it also passed through the earth's shadow and shared with us a lovely lunar eclipse!


the above compilation image shows 12 lunar eclipses from 1996 to last month! it's interesting to see how the size of the moon changes in each image as the physical distance between the moon and the earth changes based on the moon's position in its elliptical orbit. enjoy!

what is intelligence, anyway?

this is a particularly interesting insight as i'm stuck in the depths of writing my dissertation and studying everything i think my committee members might ask me i should know to earn my doctoral degree. unfortunately, the insight isnt terribly useful for my current predicament, but it's interesting nonetheless.

What is intelligence, anyway?
By Isaac Asimov

When I was in the army, I received the kind of aptitude test that all soldiers took and, against a normal of 100, scored 160. No one at the base had ever seen a figure like that, and for two hours they made a big fuss over me.

(It didn't mean anything. The next day I was still a buck private with KP - kitchen police - as my highest duty.)

All my life I've been registering scores like that, so that I have the complacent feeling that I'm highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think so too.

Actually, though, don't such scores simply mean that I am very good at answering the type of academic questions that are considered worthy of answers by people who make up the intelligence tests - people with intellectual bents similar to mine?

For instance, I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80, by my estimate. I always took it for granted that I was far more intelligent than he was.

Yet, when anything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him anxiously as he explored its vitals, and listened to his pronouncements as though they were divine oracles - and he always fixed my car.

Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence test.

Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an academician. By every one of those tests, I'd prove myself a moron, and I'd be a moron, too.

In a world where I could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly.

My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in and of the fact that a small subsection of that society has managed to foist itself on the rest as an arbiter of such matters.

Consider my auto-repair man, again.

He had a habit of telling me jokes whenever he saw me.

One time he raised his head from under the automobile hood to say: "Doc, a deaf-and-mute guy went into a hardware store to ask for some nails. He put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering motions with the other hand.

"The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left. Well, doc, the next guy who came in was a blind man. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked for them?"

Indulgently, I lifted by right hand and made scissoring motions with my first two fingers.

Whereupon my auto-repair man laughed raucously and said, "Why, you dumb jerk, He used his voice and asked for them."

Then he said smugly, "I've been trying that on all my customers today." "Did you catch many?" I asked. "Quite a few," he said, "but I knew for sure I'd catch you."

"Why is that?" I asked. "Because you're so goddamned educated, doc, I knew you couldn't be very smart."

And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there.

cape canaveral night launch

one day i hope to witness a shuttle night launch at cape canaveral. i want to watch the night sky glow like its daytime from the immense thrust created by humans to shoot rockets up so fast that they escape earth's gravity!! here's an image from APOD showing last week's night launch of the space shuttle endeavour.



many many years ago when vacationing with my family in florida (like every other family from ohio and the midwest at large it seemed!), we watched a daytime shuttle launch from many miles away. we stood on the beach, delaying our long ride home, to watch a tiny little streak of smoke rise quickly in the air. we saw it rise up and heard and felt the rumble afterwards. the sound delay was so long, that i almost forgot to expect it!

it's amazing to think that we (humans) are launching something into space almost every week now, even though we only started exploring space 50 years ago!!

planetary nebula NGC 2371

there's a footprint in this big cloud of gas!


this image of planetary nebula, NCG 2371, just released from the hubble space telescope heritage collection. see the red left-footprint over on the left representing glowing nitrogen gas? perspective is grand, isn't it?!


as a title for this blog entry, i almost used: "caught red-footed!" while it caused me to sigh a big enough ... uuuuuuugh... that i ultimately chose a different title, i thought phit plait might appreciate it! :)

NGC 2371 lives about 4,300 light-years away in the constellation, gemini. in fact, tonight, there is a line up of the moon and mars, inside gemini, and NGC 2371 jumps right in between gemini's twin's , castor and pollux, and the moon!







now, NGC 2372 a very faint gas cloud at about 11 magnitudes, so you won't be able to pick it out with your eye, or even binoculars, but it'll be nice to know it's there!

the moon, mars, and gemini

did anyone catch how gorgeously the moon lined up next to bright orange mars last night?

tonight the moon slides down and over a little to perch right between mars and the twins of gemini, pollux [PAUL-ux] and castor [CASS-ter]. the moon is bright and the alignment will occur practically overhead after sunset, but you'll be able to see the filling-up moon for most of the afternoon!

carnival of space - #45

enjoy this week's round up of all spacey bloggy things at the 45th carnival of space hosted observations from missy's window.

her stroke of insight

in this video from TED, dr. jill bolte taylor mixes her knowledge of science with the poetry of her personal experience.

"Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another."