Cosmic Vertigo

I'm pleased to announce the LAUNCH of my new space podcast, Cosmic Vertigo, made with co-host Alan Duffy and our amazing producer Joel Werner.

"Do you ever feel dizzy when you think about the incomprehensible scale of space? We call that feeling Cosmic Vertigo. Welcome to a head-spinning conversation between two friends who study the sky for a living."

Rest state: Alan and I cracking up (Photo: ABC/Radio National)

The three of us had a lot of fun creating this series, and I'm in awe of Joel's editing and production genius.

Dream Team: Alan Duffy, Joel Werner, and yours truly (Photo: ABC/Radio National)

The first two episodes are now LIVE with a new one released every two weeks.... so GO LISTEN and COMMENT and SUBSCRIBE wherever you get your podcasts!

All 5 bright planets up in the morning sky!

all of you early risers may have noticed the lovely line of bright planets across the sky in the morning hours before sunrise lately.  definitely get out and have a look between jan 20th and feb 20th for a spectacular view, no matter where on earth you live!

you'll need to be able to see low on the horizon to spot mercury until early february or so, but you can do it if you have an unobstructed view!

this alignment of the planets has not occurred for over ten years. it's rare because all the planets have to be on the same side of the sun in their orbits.  while venus, mars, jupiter, and saturn have been in the morning sky all year, mercury is just getting ready to transition from being visible in our evening sky to being visible in the morning sky.  hopefully the visualisation below makes that clear.

via The Conversation

so... get out early and LOOK UP! 

the sirens of titan

i recently finished reading Kurt Vonnegut's second novel, The Sirens of Titan.  overall, an enjoyable read. i like how vonnegut plays with words and patterns and patterns of words so nonchalantly.  it feels like an efficiently written story, deceivingly simple, yet so much happens throughout!

Saturn's largest moon, Titan (Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona) 

it seems fitting that just as i finish reading this book, NASA published a new video, Approaching Titan a Billion Times Closer, in honor of the Huygens probe touching down on Titan, ten years ago this month!

titan is saturn's largest moon and the only moon in the solar system with a dense atmosphere. the video shows a collection of images taken by the cassini spacecraft and then images from huygens, as it fell down to the surface of titan in 2005.

Australian Astronomical Observatory on YouTube!

i've been working to launch an AAO YouTube channel and guess what - it finally happened!  our first instalment is a new time-lapse video from AAO's Angel Lopez-Sanchez filmed at siding spring observatory.

please enjoy "the sky over siding spring observatory" and subscribe to the AAO's YouTube channel to keep up to date with the video releases i'll be posting once a month or so.  topics to be covered include: what is a spectrum, a short documentary about observing, how we re-aluminize the 4-meter telescope mirror, the construction of a new $18 million dollar instrument, and possibly a ukulele rock video ;)  stay tuned!

what if saturn flew past the earth?

great video simulating what would happen if saturn flew very near the earth.   it includes some interesting facts i didnt know and then shows fantastic visuals of the meteor shower that would occur as saturn approched, as the earth collected ring dust in its atmosphere. video produced by yeti dynamics.

have a great day being a scientist!

i have visited a few classrooms of 7-10 year old students this holiday season to talk about the solar system and what it's like being a scientist.  so many fantastic things happened during and since those visits that i think i will post several stories about them.

a little of the crazy eye, but look at all the enthusiastically raised hands! (Photo Credit: Jeff Shaefer)

i'm constantly impressed by the eagerness of the kids to answer questions, ask questions, and share stories.  they want to tell me how something in their life relates to something i've said about the universe.   and they're so sharp!

the 8 year olds are still sympathetic towards pluto not being a planet any more, despite the fact that it was reclassified to "dwarf planet" status before they were born!   it shows how strongly families and society influence what these kids know and how they behave.

Talking with my hands again.  (Photo Credit: Jeff Shaefer)

the 10 year old classes listened to the solar system news with interest, felt satisfied learning why pluto isnt a planet anymore, and then got really excited about the existence of planets around stars other than our sun!  then they asked questions about dark matter and black holes and the expanding universe!?!  certainly keeping me on my toes!  :)

some of my favourite questions are about planetary moons.  one that i do not have a good answer for is "why is ours just called "the moon" when all the other moons in the solar system have interesting names like mimas or titan?"  i mentioned that ours has a name in different languages, Luna, for example but in english it just received the definite article distinction (no, i didnt actually say the "definite article" bit).

the students also loved the idea that one of saturn's moons, mimas, looks like the death star from star wars!

Death star moon! (Photo Credit: Jeff Shaefer)

i felt a bit like a rock star after the talk as kids swarmed me with more questions and stories.   the girl in this photo is looking a bit skeptical, which means i've either done my job right or she's just annoyed that it's not her turn to ask a question yet!

Endless questions and stories :)  (Photo Credit: Jeff Shaefer)

the wonderful teachers from each class i talked to had students write thank you letters and draw pictures for me.  i have read over these adorable stacks of letters so many times since receiving them.  absolutely the best present i received this year!    here are a few favorites :)

the day the earth smiled

these images from the cassini space craft are just amazing.  many images taken in july this year were combined to create these fantastic panoramas.

the image below shows where planets and moons of saturn are located.

to understand all the details in this image, i share this video of emily lakdawalla describing all the fascinating subtleties.  very much worth the 10 minutes of your time.  enjoy!

in saturn's rings

look out for in saturn's rings, what looks to be an incredible IMAX movie.   i'll certainly be watching!  the opening credits explain the details.  enjoy!

saturn's hurricane

thanks to the cassini spacecraft, that is in orbit around saturn, we've known for a while that saturn's north pole features a massive storm in the shape of a hexagon, instead of earth's common circle-hurricane-storms.  check this out from november 2012:

saturn's north pole hexagon (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

now look at this infrared image taken by cassini late last year.  the red shows low clouds deep in the atmosphere, and green reveals high clouds floating above on the outskirts of the storm.  the depth of the image has a dizzying affect.... especially when you consider that the red storm covers an area of 2000 kilometers (1200 miles) across!

saturn's storm (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

amazing.

if you have a telescope, or access to one, saturn is visible in the night sky right now.  it's always worth the effort to see it with your naked eye, enhanced by binoculars or a telescope, fluttering through our atmosphere.

annular eclipse

a finalist in the smithsonian magazine's 2012 photography contest, viewing an annular eclipse in new mexico:

saturn is cool

thanks to the bad astronomer, phil plait, i have just spent quite a bit of time enjoying entertaining videos by charlie mcdonnell.  charlie is a twenty-something british guy with a lot of hobbies, talents, and interest in science, which he likes to share through clever youtube videos he makes. 

here's a recent one about saturn, the floating planet with a death star moon :)

cassini and saturn

here is a lovely shot of saturn, its rings, their shadows and saturn's largest moon titan.  

Saturn and Titan.  Photo Credit: NASA

this photo was taken by cassini - a spacecraft that humans sent up to explore saturn and its moons 15 years ago!   cassini launched in 1997 and arrived at saturn in 2004.   it successfully completed it's original mission after 4 years, in 2008.  since the satellite has remained healthy, its missions have been extended, completing the equinox mission in 2010, and currently working on the solstice mission.

that's an impressive lifetime for a little machine flying around a distant planet!   

  

the moon, mars, saturn and spica

we managed to get a few good shots around siding spring observatory this week, including the lovely trio of mars, saturn and spica! 

the dome of the AAT 4-meter telescope

Photo Credit: @mehmsy

you can see the AAT dome's silhouette in the lower left.   the top of the triangle is a mars, the bottom right is saturn and blue star at the bottom left is spica.  what struck me about this conjunction on the sky was how obviously the distant star spica twinkled through the atmosphere while the mars and saturn shined unflinchingly.

Photo Credit: Gabriela Iacobuta

Photo Credit: Gabriela Iacobuta

you can see the coalsack dark nebula right in the middle of this lovely image.

Photo Credit: @mehmsy

and because i never get tired of watching these creatures hopping around and eating grass....

Photo Credit: @mehmsy

planetary triangle

be sure to pop outside for the next couple nights to watch the sunset and the show soon after.   you'll see a crescent moon above the setting sun, which will sit in the sky very close to a special planetary and stellar alignment.   forming a nearly equilateral triangle is a bright mars, saturn, and spica. 

notice at how amazingly red mars looks compared to the other two!

Map from Sky & Telescope

this is a perfect setup to view with binoculars, as they typically have a 7 degree field of view and the triangle fits within 6 degrees. 

enjoy, and dont forget to wave to curiosity ;)

the size of saturn

here are a few gorgeous recent photos of the ringed planet saturn.

the first was featured as an astronomy picture of the day in december.

the rings of saturn are seen from the edge here, as the nearly horizontal blue line. there shadows can be seen on the surface of the planet.

also, at the top left of the image, you can see one of the most massive storms in the solar system. it has lasted for longer than an earth year so far and it's going strong!

to get an idea of just how big saturn and its current storm are, matt andrews created the image below to show the scale of the planet compared to the US.   pretty incredible!

link

round and round and round saturn goes

for about a year after observations are taken with the hubble space telescope, no one but the original scientist who thought of the idea and took the observations is allowed to access the data. after this "embargo" period, anyone can access the data from an archive via the HST search form.

that is exactly what the imaging editor of sky & telescope magazine, Sean Walker, recently did! he took advantage of some newly released images of saturn and created this lovely video. in addition to watching the storm clouds in saturn's surface go round and round, you can see moons move and patterns in the rings as they spin around.



from el lobo rayado

pluto, the previous planet: a song

a couple years ago i was walking to the bus stop with the song "rudolph the red nosed reindeer" stuck in my head, much to my frustration! in order to maintain my sanity, i started singing alternative lyrics based on the phrase that popped into my head: pluto the previous planet! i've been wanting to record this song and post it for the public ever since, but had never really been inspired.

so yesterday during the hack day portion of dotAstronomy meeting, i gathered a few fellow conference participants: astronomers, a great pianist, and an enthusiastic director.... and off we went!

so without futher ado... pluto, the previous planet!!

Pluto, the previous planet from carolune on Vimeo.

as much as i like the song as it is, the last verse might lead one to believe that i would like to reinstate pluto as a planet. i want to state for the record that this is NOT the case! i'm pleased that astronomers have decided on a definition of a planet that is based on some actual physics! the song is just fun and i hope people enjoy it.

with all this in mind, we also developed an accompanying website with a special message from pluto:

"First of all, thank you everyone for your concern, but really, I’m happy in my new role as the original dwarf planet! And there’s no need to worry, nothing physically happened to me to cause my reclassification. In fact, Charon’s been jealous for years that I was considered a planet, while we’ve been dancing around each other in our joint orbit around the sun. And don’t forget about our other two small satellites: Nix and Hydra! They may be small, but they’re important to me. And your Earth only has one Moon, so I feel special..."

here's the website: http://youpiter.org/pluto/

hope you enjoy!

space

(via its called science)

we're searching for ET, but it's really hard to see

some clever folks recently made a parody of Ke$ha's hit song, "We R Who We R." i've never heard that song or seen the video, but i don't really feel that i need to after this. its almost a little embarrassing to watch, because of the ridiculousness of modern pop style, but the lyrics are actually really good and the background images are gorgeous!



those of you following the continuing debate about the potential for life to survive on arsenic, might take offense to the song's notion that the discovery expands the possible types of lifeforms that can exist.

i will leave you with some of the reasonable response from the makers of the movie:

We’d like to defend our honor just a little bit in regards to the arsenic debate. Certainly, we know it is a very contentious subject, but we felt we couldn’t really do the whole controversy justice in the context of this parody, so we went with the brief mention. Are we trying to say this is a comprehensive look at everything about astrobiology? Of course not, and we understand you weren’t implying that it was supposed to be. But if we can pique the scientific curiosity of even a few young people, and get them interested in pursuing this field, that’s a win for us.

perseids and planets: evidence

did anyone get out to see the perseid meteor shower or the planets last week? in case you were clouded out or just not lucky this time around, you can see a nice 2010 perseids photo gallery, from which i've chosen a couple to share.

this is a shot by david harvey from mount lemmon in arizona, USA on august 12, 2010:


this capture comes from amir abolfath, from the alamut castle in iran, august 14, 2010:



today's APOD shows a lovely view of the current planetary alignment from a beach in portugal.


here's a key they provide so you can keep an eye out over the next few evenings! :)