carnival of space #111

enjoy this week's space reading selection in the 111th carnival of space hosted at 21st century waves!

full moonset

absolutely stunning photograph from michael kenna.

the extinct thesaurus

spotted at one good move.

total solar eclipse of the heart (in china!)

a long laboring title for the post, i know, but i have some great news to share!

first, my sister sent me the literal version of that super cheesy song that i remember belting out in the car with my mom: total eclipse of the heart (view at your own risk, but parts are funny)!

second, in a little over a week i will be going here...


...to see and record one of these!!!!!


i've been invited to china to comment on and help film the total solar eclipse that is occurring on july 22nd, 2009! wwoohhhooooo!!!! i've never seen a total eclipse before, only a partial one, so i'm super excited!

a solar eclipse occurs when the (new) moon passes directly in front of the sun in our sky! the full eclipse is only visible over narrow path along the earth, seen as the blue area on the map below...


i'll be in the eastern city of ningbo and then spending a few days in shanghai afterwards. i've never been to china before and am currently working quickly to get my visa in time! if anyone has recommendations on what to do or see in and around shanghai, let me know! also, if there are any words i should absolutely know (hello, how much?, yes, no) that you can phonetically teach me, please share in the comments! thank you!!!

photo credits: shanghai, china by flickrgao; solar eclipse by stefan seip

approaching jupiter

this excellent animation was created by adding images taken by one of the voyager space crafts, as it approached the planet jupiter in 1979!


notice how the gas from different horizontal layers moves in *different* directions creating amazing vortices in the atmosphere!! the 66 images used to create this animation were some of the first close-up shots humans collected of jupiter!

the voyager space crafts continue to travel away from the earth and beyond our solar system! as of may 2009, voyager 1 had traveled 16.4 billion kilometers (110 astronomical units) from the sun. 1 astronomical unit is the distance between the earth and the sun, so this little chunk of synthetic machinery is 110 times farther from the sun than we are, and it is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.6 astronomical units per year!

voyager 1 remains the most distant human-made object in space!

rain rain go away

this is what it feels like in england this week...


of course, its not really flooding, but i think it's a great photo! my guess is that it was taken in italy!

galileoscope

if you are looking for a fun and simple little telescope for yourself, or someone you know, i would like to recommend the galileoscope! this little refracting telescope has a 2-in diameter lens and is modeled after the first telescope galileo built 400 years ago to look at night sky objects for the first time! the only accessory you really need is a tripod to mount the telescope on, and i think any simple one will do.


the telescope at the top of the image below is a replica of one of galileo's original telescopes.


the cute little galileoscope is only $15 and will allow you to see great features on the moon, the phases of venus, the rings of saturn, the moons of jupiter, and much more! find out more here. enjoy!

42 meter diameter telescope

sometimes telescopes are named after famous scientists, or people who donate loads of money to build them, or an acronym relating to the type of science it will do, etc... as this sixty symbols episode on the diameter of telescopes illustrates, we are severely lacking in creative new telescope names, considering the big one they talk about is the ELT which stands for "extremely large telescope!"



so on twitter, a friend suggested that if we name the ELT something a bit more attention-grabbing for current times, maybe we could guarantee funding! he suggested OBAMA, and like any good scientific name, we have been trying to turn OBAMA into an acronym!! mine is OBAMA: Overwhelmingly Big Aperture Measures All!

NASA recently had a contest to name a new Mars rover. the winner was a 12-year-old girl from kansas who suggested possibly my favorite name for any tool of astronomy: curiosity.

can you think of any good names for telescopes or other universe explorers?

electromagnetic leaks from earth

how far do our electromagnetic (EM) signals reach in to outer space? lets estimate that we started transmitting EM signals with the first radios about 100 years ago... which means we have been sending weak signals in every direction for 100 years, and the first signals have reached a maximal distance of 100 light years away from earth! there are about 130 stars within a radius of 20 light years from us and probably several thousand stars within 100 light years.

a recent abstruse goose cartoon puts this into perspective for us earthlings, by showing what TV shows are currently being broadcast to stars at various distances from earth! (click image for larger view)


there are ~400 billion stars in our galaxy alone, and hundreds of billions of galaxies in our universe... just remember that our synthetic radiation hasnt really traveled very far! (aka. to know who yoda is, closer than pollux a civilization must be!)

have a giraffe-themed art party!

yes, modern technology is loads of fun to play with, but nothing beats using your imagination to create art with your hands - especially with friends! a norwegian person has challenged the people of the world to create one million giraffes by 2011 using any technique possible, except on a computer. of course, you'll probably eventually capture your creation with a digital camera and upload the photo to the one million giraffes website, but thats not the point! the point is to take a break from digital media for a little while and create something with your hands!




i like this idea, and i might make a big dinner for some friends this weekend to celebrate the 4th of july, and then insist we make some giraffes ;)

mercury - sixty symbols

here's my latest contribution to the sixty symbols of physics and astronomy project: the closest planet to the sun... mercury!

US men's soccer team surprises all!

congratulations to the US men's national soccer team, who have made it into their first ever FIFA international tournament final!! the confederations cup is currently happening in south africa in preparation for next year's world cup! the US succeeded in pulling off one of the most incredible upsets in recent history by defeating the current european champions, spain, 2-0 in the semi-final wednesday night! as you can imagine - i'm thrilled!!

there has been some controversy about holding the world cup in south africa: doubt as to whether they could construct all the necessary stadiums, handle the massive number of people who will come to watch the games, manage the violence reported around the region, etc... but it seems at this point as though everything is coming together successfully!

the big picture has a nice series of photos from south africa over the recent weeks in honor of the confederations cup!




the final of the confederations cup will be played this sunday: the US against Brasil!!!

a quote for today

“the art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mood of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change, for happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up.”

- charles morgan

jupiter and the speed of light

in this sixty symbols video about jupiter, professor mike merrifield and i talk about how the first measurement of the speed of light were taken using jupiter's moons, how to remember the names of the galilean moons, the crashing of comet shoemaker-levy 9 into jupiter, and more!

what did you have for breakfast?

the US supplies all sorts of silly types of cereal: lucky charms, cinnamon toast crunch, count chocula, etc... most of these cereals have a ridiculous amount of sugar in them, but i got reminiscent the other day thinking about them.

then i received this video from brady, the guy making the sixty symbols videos, and i realize that a lot of scientists in nottingham eat corn flakes for breakfast!?



today i had strawberries and a piece of toast. what did you have for breakfast?

carnival of space #108

head over to starts with a bang for this week's plethora of space reading at the 108th carnival of space!!

burning bananas

from the test tube video series comes a very interesting short video about research being conducted on bananas! there's an excess of banana peels available in several african countries that are just going to waste. could these banana peels be used as an efficient energy source when burned?

long days and short nights

england is known for its rainy weather and dreary days, but one thing i forgot to consider before i moved here is just how far north it lies on the earth! nottingham sits at a latitude of almost 53° north of the equator. due to the tilt of earth on its axis, when the north pole is facing towards the sun (summer in the northern hemisphere), the sky doesnt really get dark until well after 10pm and the begins to get light again before 4am!



i realize places even farther north get less, or no dark time, but i've never lived in a place where i experience this and i have to say - it's weird! when i wake up and feel light pouring in my system and think to myself - oh, it must be about time to wake up - but then open my eyes and see that's its only 4:30 am!?! maybe it should make me happy that i have so many more hours to continue sleeping, but i've been having a hard time getting back to sleep in such brightness (even with my eye cover, but that does help).

anyway, all this complaining is mostly to say that i'm very excited to celebrate the solstice tonight because that means the nights will start getting longer again in the northern hemisphere. yay!!

some friends are having a party and our goal is to watch the sun sloooowly set and then stay awake to watch it rise again!

happy solstice!

if you think i'm cute....

i sent my niece a present recently ;)

the whirlpool galaxy in the far-infrared!

last month we watched the successful launch of the herschel and planck telescopes aboard an ariane 5 rocket! they have since been traveling to their destination at L2 orbit (about 4 times farther from the earth than the moon). while traveling, scientists have been remotely calibrating the various systems inside the telescopes, and today they released the "first light" image from Herschel!!

this is one of my favorite galaxies, the whirlpool galaxy (M51), seen in far infrared light (160 microns, 100 microns and 70 microns) at higher resolution than ever before!


at these wavelengths, we are looking at the radiation from warm and cold dust and gas that live in the galaxy. the redder regions show colder material. from this gas and dust, new stars will eventually form!!

click here to view a little movie that combines the optical and new far-infrared images of M51! its interesting to me that the central region glows so bright with stars in the optical, but is still unresolved in the far-infrared that only sees dust and gas.

sarah jarosz

while living in austin, texas, the self proclaimed "live music capital of the world," i enjoyed quite a wide variety of bands in the plentiful venues around town and also at loads of great festivals!

one musician who i really enjoyed listening to over the years is sarah jarosz. i first heard her play the mandolin when she was maybe 12 or 13 years old and i was absolutely blown away! she always played at the local bluegrass/folk/americana festivals, both big and small, and managed to play as a guest with the biggest names headlining!

one of my favorite musical memories was at the 2004 old settler's music festival when i weasled my way to the front of the david grisman quintet show. to my delight, they invited sarah to play with them - some of the bluegrass greats!! pictured below from L to R are billy bright, david grisman, 13-year-old sarah, vassar clements, joe craven, and tim o'brien.



i mention this now because sarah just turned 18, graduated from high school, and released her first album with 11 original songs! i'm glad people didnt pressure her to rush into creating albums, because from the tracks i've heard so far, she's really matured into a fantastic song writer! i remember that her vocals many years ago were a little course and sounded... well... young! but her sound on these songs is really fantastic and i cant wait to hear them all!

you can listen to a brief interview with some live music in this NPR interview that aired this week!

i chose to highlight the video below from last year's OSMF which shows a trio of youngins, all teenagers, and all amazing musicians!! sarah jarosz on the mandolin, alex hargreaves on the fiddle, and samson grisman on the stand up bass (yes, he's david's son)... they look like they're having so much fun! enjoy!

angkor temples of cambodia

exploring the ancient temple complexes around angkor, cambodia was an amazing experience! angkor is said to be the largest religious monument/complex in the entire world as there are hundreds of temples surrounding angkor wat, covering something like 1000 square miles! the pictures i share here are spread throughout the temple complexes that we explored over three days!

the ankorian period of khmer rule started in the 9th century A.D. by the khmer hindu monarch, jayavarman II. the main temples began construction in the 1100's and the khmer ruled the region until the mid 1400's when the thai forces conquered, forcing the khmer to move their capitol to the present location of phnom pehn.

[sorry if this takes a while to load, i added the big pictures to show the details...]

must start the day with a solid cambodian breakfast!


the most famous temple of the bunch: angkor wat (with monks!).


a huge statue of buddha as you enter angkor wat.


monkey crossing.








the traditional peacock hats were fantastic!


the tourists were sometimes goofy ;)


conservationists have struggled to decide whether to restore all the temples to their original forms or let the trees continue to grow throughout. i'm glad they left some trees!






i love the details of the carvings, even though these structures are SO old!! i cant imagine what they looked like in their prime! the colors of the stones are amazing as well.




a decorated elephant!


some temples required serious(ly sweaty) climbs up steep stairs!




i loved the temple of faces, bayon!!









peace out!



more photos here!!

sixty symbols - schrödinger's cat

several new videos of the sixty symbols: videos about the symbols of physics and astronomy are appearing each week!


here are several scientists talking about a modern icon of physics and quantum mechanics: schrödinger's cat. what does the thought experiment involve exactly...? watch to find out!

carnival of space #107!

the 107th installment of the carnival of space is up at innumerable worlds!

enjoy your weekly space reading!