Monday, July 20, 2009

the moon's shadow on earth

i'm off to china this morning - to go stand on the earth where the moon's shadow will quickly pass over on wednesday! i have 15 hours in the air and many more in between to look forward to. i'm excited and nervous... and exhausted! i'll keep you up-to-date as much as i can about the solar eclipse and surrounding events!

here are a few images of what the moon's shadow looks like from above earth's surface! astronauts on the MIR space station captured this photo of the august 11th, 1999 solar eclipse!


the dark spot shows the area on earth where one sees a total solar eclipse. the shadow is only about 100 miles wide and moves across the earth at a few times the speed of sound!

here is an image taken from the international space station on march 29, 2006:


may the clouds not be with us!

carnival of space #112

the 112th carnival of space is up at out of the cradle.

enjoy!

Friday, July 17, 2009

astronaut mike massimino

astronaut mike massimino was on the recent shuttle mission to repair the hubble space telescope, he twitters, and he was on the late show with craig ferguson!

mission to the moon

NASA has a fancy new logo in honor of the apollo rocket successes the 1960s. the main accomplishment was the apollo 11 mission carrying the first human beings to ever step foot on the moon. today, july 16th, was the day the apollo rocket launched 40 years ago with three excited astronauts on board: neil armstrong (left), michael collins (center), and buzz aldrin (right).

those three lucky and persevering men landed on the moon on july 21st, 1969. i'd love to hear stories from people about their memories of this date. did you watch the event in the living room of a neighbor? with your family? did you hear stories from your parents or grandparents about their memories of the historic moment? were you or your family not aware of it at the time?

the photo below comes from a wonderful set of 40 pictures featured in the big picture series from the washington post. neil armstrong took the photo while being reflected in buzz aldrin's helmet.

michael collins remained in the command module while the other two took the lunar module to the surface of the moon. when asked to describe his strongest memory of the Apollo 11 mission, he said:

"Looking back at Earth from a great distance.

I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified façade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or Communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied.

Small, shiny, serene, blue and white, FRAGILE."

congratulations humanity on your 40th anniversary of landing on the moon - almost 400,000km away!!!

as far as our future endeavors go, i dont personally see a reason to bother going back to the moon and think we should set our sights a bit higher (and farther). but i'm thoroughly pleased to sit back, remember, and celebrate the amazing reality that human beings successfully explored our nearest neighbor in the universe, our moon, 40 years ago!

neil armstrong, just hours after 1st walking on the moon.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

feynman lecture from 1964

i really enjoy listening to richard feynman talk about physics! luckily for us, a website was just launched by microsoft research and bill gates that shows a series of lectures given by feynman at cornell university in 1964! this was the year before he won the nobel prize in physics and he was as lively and energetic as ever!!

i love watching him speak because he doesnt use unnecessary jargon, he's relaxed, he's understandable, he speaks comfortably, and his voice reminds me of the older generations of my family who i am very far away from right now.


when you have some extra time, go enjoy listening to some feynman lectures!!

ballerina galactica

universe today is hosting a creative astronomy art project! apply your photo editing skills to astronomy images and submit them to nancy atkins (and/or share them here!)!

here's the contribution they share from alan lipkin with the fantastic title "ballerina galactica":


notice the star cluster back drop, the star, sirius, as the earring and star she's delicately reaching for, and the sombrero galaxy as her tutu!

very nice and fun project! thanks for the tip, lab lemming!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

bubbles: a consideration

bubbles are fun and photogenic, no matter what age you are!


last month, there was a gathering in times square of people playing with bubbles. edward champion created a nice little video about the event.



anyone know the song? i love it!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

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

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

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!

Monday, July 6, 2009

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!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

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?

Friday, July 3, 2009

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!)

Thursday, July 2, 2009

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 ;)

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

mercury - sixty symbols

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

Friday, June 26, 2009

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

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

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!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

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!!

Monday, June 22, 2009

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?

Sunday, June 21, 2009

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!