Poor Jupiter

Hit by another asteroid. Well, I guess that is the downside of being the most massive planet in the Solar System. Go here to read about it and see the damage.

Asteroids giving birth

To a baby asteroid, of course. Mainly by budding - i.e. spinning so rapidly some rocks shoot off and orbit the parent. So cute! Go here and here and here to learn more.

Dawn on an asteroid

Literally. NASA's Dawn satellite will hopefully land on the asteroid Vesta soon. Go here to read more, or listen to it here. Enjoy!

Asteroids trapped by Neptune...

... where the gravitation attraction by Neptune and the Sun balance out to form a "trap" of sorts. Go here to read more.

The end of the world is coming!

Well, maybe. Okay, a 0.1% chance. In 2182. Go here to read more about the next possible killer asteroid.

Rock Catalog

Available here, courtesy of the WISE satellite.

Rosetta’s blind date with asteroid Lutetia

Read about it here. Hopefully it works...

They might be called "dwarf planets"

but they are still interesting. NASA is developing a mission called Dawn to travel to and orbit two of the largest bodies in the Asteroid belt, Ceres and Vesta. Go here to read more. Enjoy!

The WISE asteroid hunter...

.... is being very successful, as detailed here. And better yet, the WISE satellite will discover many other interesting things as well.

Asteroid collision?

You would think, given how "empty" space is, the odds of two asteroids colliding together would practically never happen. However, it appears that Hubble might have imaged the debris from such a collision. Go here for details.

WISE's first discovery is...

... a near-Earth asteroid. It's good to discovery these things in time, don't you agree? Go here to read more how it was identified, and how many more WISE is expected to see.

August 10th Radio Show: Mars, Asteroid Belt, and Jupiter

Picking up where I left off discussing Mars, and continuing further out of the Solar System to the asteroid belt and Jupiter, here is the August 10th episode of this radio show. As always, please email me or leave below any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. Thank you very much for listening!

Asteroid Watch

NASA has recently started a new webpage, available here, where you can track of all the latest news on Near-Earth Asteroid. Hope you enjoy!

Asteroid Flyby Today

Today, newly-discovered asteroid 2009 BD is slowly passing the Earth at a distance of only 400,000 miles away. This asteriod is thankfully too small (approximately 10 meters wide) to pose a threat, but is interesting because its orbit appears to be almost identical to the orbit of Earth - a rare event. For more information of this asteroid, and information on where to see it on the sky, visit spaceweather.com. Enjoy!

Description of October 8th Radio Show: Solar System

Already available here, below is a description of the October 8th episode of this radio show:

• News: NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander discovers snow falling in Mars's upper atmosphere, and evidence for liquid past in the soil (link; Eberswalde Crater chosen as preliminary site for NASA's next rover to Mars called Mars Science Laboratory; Mars Science Laboratory to have a computer chip to measure the wind on Mars (link); MESSENGER spacecraft flies by Mercury for a second time on October 6th (link); NASA developing sensor to allow lunar landers to automatically determine a safe landing site for future return to the Moon (link); ESA's SMART-1 mission makes 3D map on Moon's south pole (link); Hubble Space Telescope (HST) enters "safe" mode due to error in device which transmits science data to Earth, resulting in postponement of final servicing mission; 10th anniversary of Hubble Heritage Project, which distributes the prettiest pictures taken by HST; ESA's GOCE satellite has new launch date of 2008 October 27; NASA's IBEX spacecraft ready for launch on October 19; ESA's Planck satellite - the next satellite to study the Cosmic Microwave Background (listen to inteviews with Dr. Gary Hinshaw and Dr. Dan Babich for more infomation on the Cosmic Microwave Background) - almost done with final pre-launch testing; teams behind the three different proposals for NASA/DoE Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) told to work together on a single, joint, design; European astroparticle physics list the seven major experiments they want to build (link); ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile takes highest-resolution image of Jupiter ever done from the ground; privately developed Falcon 1 rocket finally has successful launch; congratulations to Custer Institute and Observatory for receiving a Break-Thru Mini-Grant for their research and public outreach activities (for more information on their activities, listen to my interview with Dr. Jeffrey Owen Katz); congratulations to Robert Cabana for succeeding William Parsons as head of NASA's Kennedy Space Center; congratulations to teams awarded five-year grants by the NASA Astrobiology Institute (link); NASA issues new challenge for college students to design tools for next generation of Moon rovers (website); new art exhibit at Pasadena, CA's Art Center College of Design inspired by pictures taken by Spitzer Space Telescope.
• Wednesday Morning Astronomer (an Astronomer's response to the astronomy content in this ESPN column): I don't think SCP 06F6, which had 100 day long outburst of optical light, is the result of intergalactic warfare. Sorry.
• Calendar of upcoming Astronomy / Science events in the greater New York City / Poughkeepsie area.
• Solar System: So far during 2008, the Sun has produced many fewer sunspots than any other year in the last 50 years - not that surprising though; NASA's RHESSI satellite finds that Sun not a perfect sphere with the equator wider than the distance between the poles (link); changes in Sun's output of light has very SLIGHT effect on Earth's temperature (link); ESA's Venus Express mission, in orbit around Venus, has made 3D map of Venus's winds over Southern hemisphere (link); observations done by ESA's Mars Express satellites determines why Mars's Southern Polar Cap misplaced in the Martian summer- result of local weather systems; difference between Mars's Northern and Southern hemisphere (e.g. thickness of crust, number of craters) believed to be the result of ancient collision with a meteorite that essentially melted the entire northern hemisphere of Mars (link 1, link 2); astronomers at Armagh Observatory see meteorites striking Mars's surface (link); ancient Moon believed to have been rich in water; same is true for ancient Mars - though it might have lasted only a short period of time (link); might have once rained on Mars as well (link); NASA spacecrafts photograph evidence for avalanches on Mars (link); glaciers on Mars show evidence for recent climate activity (link); Mars has undergone five periods of high amounts of volcanic activity (link); atmospheres of Mars and Venus interact with the Solar wind in a similar fashion (link); graphite found in Solar System meteorites, if graphite exists in interstellar medium, could complicate using supernovae to measure the distance to galaxies - the best evidence for the existence of dark energy (link); meteorites could be the source of all the Platinum and Iridium found on Earth (link); Jupiter and Saturn may have liquid metal helium in their cores (link); Cassini spacecraft makes a 3D image of the region responsible for the low-frequency radio emission emitted by Saturn (link); Saturn's moon Titan keeps some of Saturn's magnetic field when it leaves Saturn's magnetosphere; new Pluto-like object found in outer Solar System (link); "backward-orbiting" comet discovered (link); Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey discovers no objects between 2 miles - 17 miles big inthe Kuiper Belt - suggests they either broke apart in collisions or stuck together to form bigger objects.

Hope you enjoy, and thank you very much for listening!

Description of September 10th Radio Show: Milky Way Structure and Galaxy Formation

Already available here, below is a description of the September 10th edition of this radio show. On this program, I discussed:

• Calendar of upcoming Astronomy / science events in the greater Poughkeepsie / New York City area.
• Interview with Prof. Allyson Sheffield of Vassar College.
• News: Phoenix Mars Lander begins analysis on deepest soil sample to date (link) as well as makes some puzzling measurement regarding humidity on the Martian surface; amateur astronomers see Perseid meteor shower hit the Lunar surface; ESA's Rosetta spacecraft flies by astroid (2867) Steins - sees chain of craters, rotation, and overall diamond shape (link); Cassini detects ring arcs around two moons of Saturn (link); NASA awards contract to S.C. Jones Services, Inc. to get rid of pests at Kennedy Space Center; NASA building "Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation" to measure the strength of the magnetic field at the outer edges of the Sun; NASA developing a new space equiptment rack for "Zero-Gravity" flights; NASA delays launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis to October 12 and launch of Space Shuttle Endeavor to November 12 due to bad weather - media viewing of equipment to be flown on Atlantis for installation on Hubble Space Telescope set for Sept. 10; launch of ESA's GOCE satellite delayed due to rocket problems; NASA to hold media briefing on September 25th on Lunar Exploration plans; mirror blank produced for Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (link); NASA produces 50th anniversary art book - information here; NASA announces new Carl Sagan postdoctoral fellowship to study extra-solar planets - information here; NASA issues a challenge to high school and college students to describe a future supersonic airliner - information here - as well as a new aeronautics competition - information here; Swift to announce new gamma-ray burst findings today; Custer Institute to host 30th annual Astronomy Jamboree and Conference October 3rd and 4th.
• Milky Way Structure and Galaxy Formation: It is currently believed that all galaxies, including the Milky Way, formed by the merging of smaller galaxies together - an this process is ongoing. If this is correct, there should be evidence for this in the Milky Way today - as discussed by Prof. Sheffield at the beginning of this show. A recent survey of satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, small galaxies which are in the process of merging into our galaxy, discovered that they all have roughly the same total mass (stars + dark matter) - regardless of how many stars they have. This implies something strong about the formation of these galaxies or the properties of dark matter - astronomers are still not sure which (link). Evidence of previous mergers is also in "streams" of stars - stars with similar orbits and chemical composition - in the halo of the Milky Way. There are many questions regarding the structure of the Milky Way - including how many spiral arms there are, since two of the spiral arms that were thought to be there have apparently disappeared (link).

Hope you enjoyed and, as always, any and all feedback is appreciated. Thank you very much for listening!

Description of September 3rd Radio Show: Galaxy Formation

I know it has long been available here, but below is a detailed description of the September 3rd radio show:

• Calendar of upcoming Astronomy/Science events in the greater New York City / Poughkeepsie area.
• Interview with Prof. Debra Elmegreen of Vassar College, available here.
• News: NASA's Mars rover Opportunity climbs out of Victoria crater (link 1, link 2); ESA's spacecraft Rosetta on track to rendezvous with asteroid (2867) Steins on September 5th (link) - rendezvous will be blogged live here; NASA announced new name for GLAST last week, now called Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, released first image of gamma-ray sky from this telescope (link); IBEX spacecraft continues to go through final tests before October 5th launch; space shuttle Atlantis moved to launch pad was scheduled for September 2nd, but delayed due to Hurricane Hanna; mock-up of NASA's Orion crew vehicle crashed during test of parachute system; NASA announced new Carl Sagan postdoctoral fellowships; NASA signs agreement with Challenger Center for Space Science to develop educational activities designed to get more students to study math and science.
• Wednesday Morning Astronomer (an Astronomer's take on the astronomy content of Gregg Easterbook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback column): Gregg Easterbrook questions the wisdom of building the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) since he says that its main purpose is to give work to physicists especially given its supposedly non-zero possibility of destroying the Earth. I feel that society spends a lot more money on other endeavors that poses much more of a threat to humanity. Also, he advocated the closure of Fermilab, arguing that it has produced a groundbreaking science result in over a decade and is expensive. Fermilab cost the US government ~$160,000/employee, not an outrageous sum - especially since almost all of it spent in the surrounding area and goes back into the local economy. Additionally, it has produced lots of good science during this period, and is critical for any future US involvement in particle physics. And no, the Earth being swallowed by a black hole would not produce a gamma-ray burst.
• Galaxy Formation: The current thinking is that stars formed first, grouped together into proto-galaxies, which merged into galaxies. However, creating the first stars has always been difficult to understand due to lack of heavy elements in primordial gas believed to be critical for the formation of stars today, as I discussed on August 6th. Recently, a computer simulation of star formation in the early universe was able to make proto-stars, critical in understanding how stars formed in this period, and what their properties (e.g. mass) were (link, article). As Prof. Elmegreen discussed in her interview, to understand how galaxies formed it is extremely important to detect and determine the properties of these proto-galaxies. The Spitzer space telescope, which operates at the Infra-Red wavelengths where most of the light from these galaxies is now detected, has been very important for this. Spitzer observations have found that the clumping of galaxies at earlier times (high redshifts) supports the sketch of galaxy formation discussed above, and have measured the mass of galaxies at early times where a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) occurred and found they have masses much smaller than galaxies today too - also consistent with smaller galaxies merging to form bigger ones. In addition, to detect GRBs, it is possible to discover galaxies at high redshift by their absorption of light of even more distant quasars (link) or through gravitational lensing - a very massive object (like a galaxy cluster) between the Earth and the more distant galaxy will also focus the light from this distant galaxy onto the Earth just like a lense does, making it bright enough to detect (link)

. Thank you very much for listening, and hope you enjoyed it. As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated. Again, thanks a lot!

Description of August 27th radio show: Stars

As promised, below is a description of the August 27th edition of this radio show, already available here. On this program, I discussed:

• News: Phoenix Mars Lander to get its deepest soil sample yet in the upcoming weeks; NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity climbs out of Victoria Crater where it had spent more than half of its time on Mars; Visual Monitoring Camera on ESA's Mars Express turned into a webcam (watch here); ESA's Rosetta spacecraft on-track to rendezvous with asteroid (2867) Steins on September 5th; ESA about to launch GOCE spacecraft to measure the Earth's gravitational field (link); ESA funds a team of engineers to develop mission-critical control systems for future robotic missions to Mars (link); NASA invites media to experience lunar life; NASA seeks input for a GPS-like system on the Moon (link); NASA and Alliant Tech Systems investigates rocket failure on August 22nd; leak shuts down Chinese PLATO observatory in Antarctica; JPL opened doors to students this summer, go here for details; CA high school students chat with NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff who is currently on-board the International Space Station; NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman talks about life onboard the International Space Station at the American Museum of Natural History.
• Calendar of upcoming science events in the greater New York / Poughkeepsie area.
• Stars: Stars come in a very wide range of masses (by far the most important characteristic which determines the properties of a star), and have very different properties - brightness, evolution, lifetime - across this range. Brown dwarfs are very low mass stars, only slightly more massive than Jupiter, with a mass too low to trigger fusion in their core. There is increasing evidence that maybe brown dwarfs are formed differently than stars or planets (link). Sun-like star tau Bootis observed to flip the orientation of its magnetic field, just like the Sun does every sunspot cycle (link). Also, very bright flare observed from red dwarf EV Lacertae, 1000x more powerful than a normal Solar flare - believed to be produced by this stars very powerful magnetic fields (link). Massive stars burn much hotter than the Sun. As a result, one can get mixing between gas at the edge and gas in the core through convection (hot gas rises, cool gas falls.) A recent study of this process in massive stars found that more complicated than previously thought, possibly not due solely to rotation (link). Light echoes used to measure distance to Cepheid variable stars, a key link in the distance scale astronomers use to measured the distance to far-away galaxies and supernovae. New "brightest" star in Galaxy possibly discovered by Spitzer Space Telescope (link). ESO's VLT celebrates 10 year by imaging cloud of gas expelled by eta Carinae, one of the most massive stars in the Milky Way (link). Massive belt of gas and dust discovered around red supergiant WOH G64 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (link).

Thank you very much for listening, hope you enjoyed. As always, please email me or leave below any comments, questions, or concerns you might have.

ESA Rosetta press conference tomorrow

Today, ESA's spacecraft Rosetta is scheduled to fly by asteroid (2867) Steins. You can follow this event live here, and tomorrow morning, starting at 5 AM US EST, there will be a press conference to discuss the initial results that will be streamed live here. Enjoy!

Rosetta spacecraft blog

The European Space Agency's spacecraft Rosetta is scheduled to rendezvous with asteroid (2867) Steins on September 5. As it gets closer, ESA is maintained a live blog of this events, which you can read here. Enjoy!