Spitzer Space Telescope: The Musical

No, I'm not joking. Watch it here, if you dare. Enjoy? Please leave reviews below if you actually watch it...

Pin the tail on the galaxy

That is what these astronomers did here. Enjoy!

No, Mars is not going to appear as large as the Moon

I don't care what that email said, it won't. Read why here or listen to it here.

New Gravitation Wave Detector?

Maybe in Australia. Go here to read more.

Anti-matter in space

It is nowhere as scary as it sounds. There are anti-matter particles constantly bombarding the Earth's atmosphere, where they promptly annihilate and never make it to the surface. Go here to read about a new experiment to be placed on the ISS to detect these and figure out where they come from.

Yet another Solar System Clone

It hasn't gotten old yet, at least for me. Read about it here.

How to mix up a galaxy

Collide it with another one, of course. Go here to learn what exactly I'm talking about.

NASA High School Engineering Competition

Straight from the emails of NASA headquarters:

NASA is challenging high school teams to design software to program small satellites aboard the International Space Station. The competition centers on the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES. SPHERES are bowling ball-sized spherical satellites used to test maneuvers for spacecraft performing autonomous rendezvous and docking. Three of these satellites fly inside the station's cabin. Each is self-contained with power, propulsion, computing and navigation equipment.

The Zero-Robotics investigation, run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., is designed to inspire future scientists and engineers. The teams are asked to address challenges of satellite docking, assembly and flight formation. The 2010 Zero-Robotics Challenge expands on a limited pilot program performed in fall 2009. This expanded pilot, called HelioSPHERES, will involve
high schools from across the country during the 2010 - 2011 academic year. This new education program builds critical engineering skills for students, such as problem solving, design thought process, operations training, teamwork and presentation skills. The first 100 high school teams to register by Sept. 10 will be selected for the competition. Their full proposals are due by Sept. 14. More information and registration instructions are available here. Twenty teams selected from the 100 candidates will compete using simulations and ground-based testing at MIT. The software of the top 10 winners will be sent to the station, and an astronaut aboard the orbiting laboratory will program the SPHERES satellites to run the students' tests. For additional information on NASA and MIT's Zero-Robotics program,
visit this webpage.

Neutrinos they are very small.

They have no charge and have no mass
And do not interact at all.

Well, so said John Updike. They don't have no mass, but very very little mass, and it now appears that they have even less mass than people thought as you can read here. And while to them "The earth is just a silly ball," by detecting them deep underground you can learn quite about the Earth, which you can read about here. Enjoy, and my apologies for butchering that quite cute poem.

The Future of Astronomy

Every ten year, the National Academy of Science convenes a panel of astronomers to come up with a plan for what research should be accomplished over the next ten years. It is a nerve wracking process for many, and was recently completed. Go here to read more about it and see the results.

You too can discover a pulsar

as three non-scientists recently did using the Einstein@Home software. Go here and here and here to read more. I personalize also use this software as my laptop screen saver, it does science and looks nice all at the same time!

Underneath the Moon

Thanks to recent missions, we can now get a peek. Go here or listen here (NASA production, not mine), to read about what scientists are learning from these limited views.

What gorgeous spirals you have

Go see them here.

All good things...

... must come to an end, including the WISE satellite whose detectors must be cooled with liquid helium in order to work properly. Go here to read more about what this satellite can still do.

New Earth-Sized Planet Found

Not in an Earth-like orbit around their central star, but impressive nevertheless. Go here to read all about it.

Going to Jupiter?

Bring a lot of protection, as NASA's future spacecraft Juno will. Read more about it here. Enjoy!

What other than light travels at the speed of light?

Rumors.

Messages from MESSENGER

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft recently completed its third flyby of Mercury and the initial science results are available here, here, and here. Imagine what it will accomplish when it is actually in orbit around Mercury!

Mars. In 3D.

On your computer. Read about it here and here.

Cool.

Poor Neptune

It got hit by a comet only 200 years ago! Go here to read why scientists believe this is the case.

Want to study low-gravity environments?

Well, you are a US citizen and a college undergraduate, NASA has the program just for you! NASA is offering undergraduate students an opportunity to test an experiment in weightless science as part of the agency's Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program. Proposals are due by Oct. 27. The program provides aspiring explorers a chance to propose, design and fabricate a reduced gravity experiment. Selected teams will get to test and evaluate their experiment aboard a microgravity aircraft. The specially modified jet aircraft flies approximately 30 roller-coaster-like climbs and dips to produce periods of micro and hyper-gravity, ranging from weightlessness to three times the force of Earth's gravity. Interested teams also should submit a letter of intent by Sept. 22. This step is optional, but serves as an introductory notice that a team plans to submit a proposal for the competition. All applicants must be U.S. citizens. Full-time students must be at least 18 years old. For more information about the Reduced Gravity Education Flight
Program or to submit a proposal, contact jsc-reducedgravity@nasa.gov or visit
this website.

The Origin of Type Ia supernovae

Type Ia supernovae are believed to be the results of white dwarfs somehow gaining enough mass to push them above the limit where they can support themselves, but nobody knows what these white dwarfs look like before they explode. Until now, possibly. Read more about it here and here.

Why are some galactic nuclei active?

Maybe because they happen to be accreting a large gas cloud from the inter-galactic medium (the space between clouds)? This process is supposed to play an important role in the growth of galaxies. Read about this possibility here.

Yet another way of finding planets around other stars

Instead of just measuring the dip of light from a star by a planet passing between us and it, measure the time of this dip occurs and look for changes around the orbital period resulting from the gravitation tug of a different planet in this system. It is called "Transit Timing Variation," and you can read more about it here.

The Origin of Comets

Most comets are believe to reside in the Oort Cloud, the most distant part of the Solar System, and were though to form from the dust and gas left behind from the formation of our Solar System. Well, this article argues that it was formed from the dust and gas stolen from other Solar Systems. Wow!

Baby Planet Formation

captured inside Saturn's rings. Read about it here and here. It is so reassuring when you actually see the things the computer models tell you should be taking place.

Awesome set of wheels

On the next Mars rover, as you can read here.

A River of Oxygen

From Saturn's moon Enceladus to Titan. Really? Yes, according to this article. Wow.

The Next NASA Solar-System Mission

It is a reality show of sorts, but a more serious one that on your television. Read an update here (subscription required).

Puff, the Magic Dragon

Lived out in space
And frolicked in the molecular cloud called M17 SWex

Confused? See the pretty picture here and read more about the science here and here. Enjoy!

Puff the Small Black Hole...

.. it can make such a big hole. Remember how a couple of days ago I linked to a post stating that astronomer now think that most of the X-ray emission from a black hole is generated by fast-moving material ejected (called "jets") which are from the disk of infalling material? Well, there is now evidence that these jets can clear out large cavities around the black hole, pushing the surrounding medium far away - as you can read here and here or in its full scientific glory here (library access required, sorry). This isn't new necessarily, evidence for such behavior from the supermassive black holes located in the center of galaxies has been around a for a while, but seeing it in a low-mass black hole that is nearby is new and suggests we may be able to study this process a lot better than before. Enjoy!

3D Lunar Exploration Game

Available here courtesy of NASA. Let me know what you think.

Pencils on the Moon?

Well, not pencils, but the same materials that makes up "pencil lead." Go here for more information.

The Coolest Stars

Not cool enough to touch, but pretty darn cold for a star - read more here. Courtesy of the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is still going after all of these years.

First Planck Results

ESA's Planck satellite, designed to detect very tiny fluctuations in the light emitted by the Big Bang (the Cosmic Microwave Background), has just released its first all-sky image here. Got to get rid of that pesky Milky Way before you can study the CMB. For more about the CMB, list to this interview with Dr. Dan Babich, recorded and broadcast all-too-long ago. Enjoy!

X-rays from Black Holes

Huh? Well, yes, black holes are "black" because their gravity is so strong that any light emitted from inside them can't escape. However, light can be emitted from outside black holes, and in fact it often is - it believed that many of the most luminous objects in the universe (quasars) are powered by material falling into a black hole. A recent study by RXTE suggests that the X-ray emitted by these objects is not from material falling into the black hole, but material flowing away from the black hole very rapidly in a narrow cone, called jets (go here for details). Very interesting indeed. To learn more about RXTE, listen to this interview I broadcast a while back.

Quantum Mechanics and You!

In Physics classes, they'll teach you that all of the randomness and weirdness that makes Quantum Mechanics so interesting/fun/confusing/painful only is important for really tiny things (like subatomic particles and atoms) and not for big things like you and me. Well, this might not always be the case. Go here to read more. I know this isn't about astronomy, per se, but still pretty interesting.

The Birth of a Star

Go here to read how lab experiments on Earth are providing important clues, and listen to an interview with Dr. Savin on this very program here. Enjoy!

Cosmic Watercolor

Seriously.

Now you see it...

Now you don't. Kids, don't let you satellites re-enter the Earth's atmosphere unless you WANT it to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere (which JAXA actually did for this mission since it was returning samples to Earth). Watch the re-entry here.

WISE Brown Dwarfs

As is it surveys the entire sky, the small WISE satellite has detected 14 new brown dwarfs - the lowest mass "stars" there are, with a mass so low that it is debatable if they are even stars since they have no fusion in their core. Read more about it here.

Stormy Exoplanets

Not only (with very large optical telescopes and lots of observing time) is it possible to determine the chemical composition of the atmosphere of a planet observing another star, but it is possible to study its weather as well. Wow! Go here to read all about it.

Wow!

Double, double toil and trouble;

Stars burn and gas bubbles

Go here to figure out what I'm trying to talk about, and my apologies to William Shakespeare

Rip van New Horizons

Asleep for half of its trip to Pluto, NASA's New Horizons mission has awoken! Go here to read more.

Galaxy Tails

Most likely created by the gravitational interaction between two merging galaxies, GALEX has captured this beautiful image of a stream of stars trailing their host galaxy. Go here to see and read more. Enjoy!