Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Astronomy

The Eye of God

This startling Astronomy Picture of the Day image from the Spitzer Space Telescope reminded me of the “Eye of God.”

From APOD:

Over six hundred light years from Earth, in the constellation Aquarius, a sun-like star is dying. Its last few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a well studied and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula, typical of this final phase of stellar evolution. Emission in this infrared Spitzer Space Telescope image of the Helix comes mostly from the nebula’s molecular hydrogen gas. The gas appears to be clumpy, forming thousands of comet-shaped knots each spanning about twice the size of our solar system. Bluer, more energetic radiation is seen to come from the heads with redder emission from the tails, suggesting that they are more shielded from the central star’s winds and intense ultraviolet radiation. The nebula itself is about 2.5 light-years across. The Sun is expected to go through its own Planetary Nebula phase … in another 5 billion years.

Here’s looking at you, Kid!

12 Jan 2006 by Astronomy

Stardust to Return to Earth

NASA’s Stardust capsule is scheduled to streak across western skies over a path from Crescent City, California, Winnemucca and Elko, Nevada to its touchdown point in western Utah. The probe will return minute particles collected during it’s journey in space.

One of my daily visits, SpaceWeather.com had this information:

FIREBALL ALERT: On Sunday morning, Jan. 15th, between 1:56 and 1:59 a.m. PST, a brilliant fireball will streak over northern California and Nevada. It’s NASA’s Stardust capsule, returning to Earth with samples of dust from Comet Wild 2. The best observing sites are near Carlin and Elko, Nevada, where the man-made meteor is expected to shine as much as 60 times brighter than Venus.

The flight path of the Stardust capsule

The fireball might be widely visible from parts of Oregon, Idaho and Utah as well as California and Nevada: observing tips. NASA is interested in videos and photos of the re-entry, which could help researchers learn more about, e.g., the physics of heat shields. Got data? Send it here.

After the spacecraft returns, volunteers will analyze the micrographs by looking for “needles” in “haystacks” – minute particles, few and far between – from electronic images distributed for analysis, similar to the Search for Extra Terrestrial Institute’s distributed processing of SETI data. You can volunteer and maybe be part of the team at Stardust@Home.

10 Jan 2006 by Astronomy Cyberspace Rocket Science

Moonbat Alert

There will be FIFTEEN HOURS of full moon tonight. Beware of extra-lunaticular activities.

From SpaceWeather.com:

LONG NIGHTS MOON:

According to folklore, tonight’s full moon is called the Long Nights Moon. The reason is obvious: December nights are long (in the northern hemisphere).

Tonight’s moon also happens to be the highest-soaring full moon in 18 years. As seen from most parts of the USA and Europe, it will be above the horizon for more than 15 hours–a long night indeed.

14 Dec 2005 by Astronomy Culture Science

Mountaintop Vista

You can enjoy occasional views like this one when you point your browser to Mt. Wilson Towercam Image. This webcam is situated atop the UCLA 150 foot Solar Tower on Mount Wilson overlooking the Los Angeles area.

Of course, this is a very unusual day here, unobscured by the usual coastal haze and fog (and smog, of course). Damsel claims this picture to be an optical illusion and reminds people that California is a blue state and the weather isn’t worth the aggravation. Public schools suck, there are gangs, and traffic and … and … don’t move here (unless you’re a conservative).

05 Dec 2005 by Astronomy California Photography Science

Moon and Venus

The second and third brightest objects in the sky conjoin in the California evening twilight. The Moon and Venus appear to be nearly at the same elevation above the southwest horizon.

I was taking pictures of the Christmas lights we put up today, and this nice asterism caught my eye (and the camera’s).

04 Dec 2005 by Astronomy Photography

SOHO Marks 10th Year

One of my top 10 things to be thankful for is technology, which gives mankind insights into the unknown. One of these technological wonders is SOHO, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Satellite located at Earth’s inner Lagrangian point.

From SpaceWeather.com:

10 YEARS OF SOHO: Where would we be without SOHO? The orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) keeps a ’round-the-clock eye on the sun and is crucial to space weather forecasting. Thousands of our readers have witnessed auroras only because SOHO spotted an incoming CME [coronal mass ejection] in time for us to issue an alert.

So it is with pleasure and appreciation that we wish a happy 10th anniversary to the SOHO team, whose spacecraft was launched on Dec. 2nd, 1995. Originally planned as a two year mission, SOHO is now entering its second decade. Amazing.

And an article from Astronomy Picture of the Day indicates that operations are planned to continue until 2007, at which time SOHO will have been in position to observe a complete 11-year solar cycle (which, as we all know, is responsible for climate change and other phenomena – not the puny efforts of mankind who the moonbat left blame for the mythical global warming).

01 Dec 2005 by Aerospace Astronomy Environment Global Warming Rocket Science

Hurricanes on Jupiter Must be the President’s Fault

How long before the Democrats blame this on George Bush‘s reluctance to sign the insane Kyoto Pact?

Jupiter’s Massive Winds Likely Generated From Deep Inside Its Interior, Scientists Report

A new computer model indicates Jupiter’s massive winds are generated from deep within the giant planet’s interior, a UCLA scientist and international colleagues report in the journal Nature.

This image shows results from a computer simulation of Jupiter’s winds. The color contours show wind speed with red representing eastward flows and blue representing westward flows. (Credit: Dr. Moritz Heimpel, University of Alberta, Department of Physics)

Jupiter’s powerful winds are very different from those on Earth. They continually circle the planet, and have changed very little in the 300 years that scientists have studied them. Massive east-west winds in Jupiter’s equatorial region reach approximately 340 miles per hour — twice as rapid as winds generated by strong hurricanes on Earth. At higher latitudes, the wind pattern switches to alternating jets that race around the planet.

See “Jupiter’s Massive Winds Likely Generated From Deep Inside Its Interior, Scientists Report” from Science Daily for the complete article.

And, by the way, mankind is not the cause of Global Warming.

16 Nov 2005 by Astronomy Environment Satire Science Whacko Politics

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