Happy Halloween

Courtesy of the Cassini team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Hubble is working again!

Thankfully, the Hubble Space Telescope appears to be up and running again, with no permanent loss of its scientific capabilities resulting from it's recent mechanical troubles. Go here to see the wonderful first image it took after getting fixed. Shew! That was scary...

Special Sunset for Halloween

This Halloween, the sunset sky has a nice treat for you. Go here for details.

New NASA contest for kids

As part of its work on a future human base on the Moon, NASA is conducting a test of a lightweight, durable, inflatable habitat on the cold, harsh landscape of the National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station to see if it is suitable for a future moonbase. However, everything needs a name, and this structure doesn't have one yet. Until November 20th, NASA and the Challenger Center for Space Education will be accepting possible naming entries from students in kindergarten through twelfth grades from Oct 21 to Nov. 20, 2008. The winning name will be selected later this year and announced by scientists in Antarctica in January 2009. For more information about entering the Name that Habitat contest, go here, and good luck!

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!

Free Astronomy movie Tomorrow!!!!

Tomorrow night, as part of the Imagine Science Film Festival going on in NYC (look at the calendar for events), will be the NY premiere of the new documentary "BLAST!", directed by Paul Devlin, on the launch of the Balloon-borne, Large Aperture, Sub-millimeter Telescope (BLAST!) from Antarctica to study the cosmic microwave background (CMB). It sounds likes a great movie. For more information on the showing, which is tomorrow night (Oct. 23rd) at 7:30 PM at Baisley Powell Elebash Recital Hall in the CUNY Graduate Graduate Center (365 5th Ave at 34th Street), go here. For more information on this movie, check out their website. And for more information on the CMB, listen to my interviews with Dr. Daniel Babich and Dr. Gary Hinshaw. Enjoy!

October 15th Radio Show: Star Formation, Planet Formation, and Massive Stars

Continuing my recap of topics I discussed this summer, here is the October 15th episode of the radio show, where I discuss the latest results concerning star and planet formation, massive stars, in addition to the usual Astronomy news and calendar. I'll post a more detailed description later, but in the mean time, enjoy! Comments and concerns are always appreciated, and please leave any you have below.

Orionid meteor shower tomorrow morning

Before sunrise tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct. 21st) is a good time to see the annual Orionid meteor shower which peaks today and tomorrow. This meteor shower is caused by the Earth passing through the dusty debris from Halley's Comet, but is hard to observed during the night due to the Full moon. Check out spaceweather.com for updates and a sky map, and happy meteor hunting!

Great World Wide Star Count 2008

The Great World Wide Star Count is an event where people around the world go outside and just count the number of stars and constellations they see. Of course, living in New York City, that is easy for me because I can only see about 10 stars on a given night. For more information, or if you would like to join the fun, go here. Enjoy!

IBEX Spacecraft launched

Dropped from an airplane, the rocket which contains the IBEX spacecraft flew into orbit this Sunday. To watch the launch go here.