CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA canceled an X-ray astronomy mission designed to shed light on black holes, saying the project would have exceeded its budget by about 25 percent, officials said on Thursday. The Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small explorer, or GEMS, telescope won a NASA competition for a moderately priced space science mission in 2009 and had been scheduled for launch in ...
Originally posted here:
06-06-2012 04:48 Crowds gather across the world to watch as the planet Venus passes between the Sun and the Earth in a rare astronomical event. Report by Melissa Nathoo. Like us on Facebook at and follow us on Twitter at
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Rare astronomical event as Venus passes between the Sun and Earth - Video
I wasnt going to post another Venus Transit shot, because my mousing arm still hurts from putting together the gallery for this morning.
But holy geez, I saw this, and cmon!
I mean, seriously. Wow. [Click to cythereanate.]
This image of Venus as it entered the Suns disk was taken by the NASA/JAXA (Japanese space agency) spacecraft Hinode on June 5. The detail is breathtaking. The ring around Venus is due to scattering and refraction light from the Sun passes through the upper part of the Venusian atmosphere and gets bent toward us. You can also see some texture on the Suns surface (really packets of hot gas rising and cool gas sinking) and some nice prominences off the Suns limb material lifted against the Suns massive gravity by its equally ridiculously strong magnetic field.
Thats a whole planet there, folks, nearly the same size as Earth, roughly 40 million kilometers (25 million miles) from Earth, back lit by a star 110 million km (70 million miles) farther away yet and well over 100 times bigger than Venus!
And we knew about it, predicted it, aimed our machines at it, and observed it so we can learn more and see more beauty. The things we humans do when inspired by the Universe. Amazing.
Image credit: JAXA/NASA/Lockheed Martin
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How could I NOT post this Venus transit picture? | Bad Astronomy
This is what Ive been waiting for: the stunning video views of NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory of the Venus transit. Sit down, set this video to high-def, tune out everything else for 3 minutes 7 seconds, and soak in the clockwork glory of our solar system.
OK, you can breathe now. NASA has provided high-resolution versions for download, too.
SDO orbits the Earth about 40,000 kilometers (24,000 miles) above the surface of the Earth, with a nearly-continuous view of the Sun so it had the best seat in the Universe for the transit. One of its most important tasks is to observe the Sun in ultraviolet, where our stars magnetic activity is most obvious. The views in the video show the Sun different parts of the ultraviolet spectrum, colored to make them easier to see: magenta is at 1700 Angstroms (a unit of length astronomers like; 100 million Angstroms would comfortably fit across your fingernail), red is 304 Angstroms, and gold is 171 Angstroms. The orange segment is from the light we can see, about 3000 7000 Angstroms.
The Suns ethereal outer atmosphere, its corona, glows at at 171 and 304 Angstroms. In visible light the transit lasted about 7 hours, but in the UV it took longer since the silhouette of Venus can be seen against the softly luminous corona.
SDO was commanded to take images faster than usual, to provide as much coverage of the transit as possible, so the passage of the planet across the Sun is smooth and I know, but it fits other-worldly.
And I cant help but think about a sad milestone today: one of Americas one of the worlds greatest writers, Ray Bradbury, has died. Among his many works was "The Long Rain", a short story which took place on Venus. It had a huge impact on me when I first read it as a kid, and it still makes me think about human nature, space exploration, and what happens when we mix the two.
Bradbury was more than a writer, he was a poet, and his works inspired generations of people to look beyond the borders of our world while still considering our humanity. We all must go someday, and for him to do so on the eve of the last transit of Venus to be seen for over a century is, somehow, fitting.
Ray Bradbury knew that no matter where we are, whether we are looking down into the water of another world, or looking up into the skies, what we are always seeing is a reflection of ourselves.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
Credit: NASA/SDO
Originally posted here:
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.
The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.
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Mankind has long gazed toward the heavens, searching to put meaning and order to the universe around him. Although the movement of constellations patterns imprinted on the night sky were the easiest to track, other celestial events such as eclipses and the motion of planets were also charted and predicted.
Definition of astronomy: Astronomy is the study of the sun, moon, stars, planets, comets, gas, galaxies, gas, dust and other non-Earthly bodies and phenomena. In curriculum for K-4 students, NASA defines astronomy as simple the study of stars, planets and space. Astronomy and astrology were historically associated, but astrology is not a science and is no longer recognized as having anything to do with astronomy. Below we discuss the history of astronomy and related fields of study.
Historically, astronomy has focused on observations of heavenly bodies. It is a close cousin to astrophysics. Succinctly put, astrophysics involves the study of the physics of astronomy and concentrates on the behavior, properties, and motion of objects out there. However, modern astronomy includes many elements of the motions and characteristics of these bodies, and the two terms are often used interchangeably today.
Modern astronomers tend to fall into two fields: the theoretical and the observational.
Observational astronomers in the observational field focus on direct study of stars, planets, galaxies, and so forth.
Theoretical astronomers model and analyze how systems may have evolved.
Unlike most other fields of science, astronomers are unable to observe a system entirely from birth to death; the life of worlds, stars, and galaxies span millions to billions of years. As such, astronomers must rely on snapshots of bodies in various stages of evolution to determine how they formed, evolved, and died. Thus, theoretical and observational astronomy tend to blend together, as theoretical scientists use the information actually collected to create simulations, while the observations serve to confirm the models or to indicate the need for tweaking them.
Astronomy is broken down into a number of subfields, allowing scientists to specialize in particular objects and phenomena.
Planetary astronomers, for instance, focus on the growth, evolution, and death of planets, while solar astronomers spend their time analyzing a single starour sun. Stellar astronomers turn their eyes to the stars, including the black holes, nebulae, white dwarfs, and supernova that survive stellar deaths.
Galactic astronomers study our galaxy, the Milky Way, while extragalactic astronomers peer outside of it to determine how these collections of stars form, change, and die.
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04-06-2012 18:59 In the 18th century, astronomers believed that they could use the transit of Venus to answer one of the most pressing questions of the age: What is the size of the solar system? Elaine Quijano reports on the perilous quest hundreds of scientists took across the globe to record this rare occurrence.
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CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley - Transit of Venus used as astronomical yardstick - Video
Stories making headlines across New Zealand include ripples of excitement in astronomical observatories across New Zealand, the GC stars have been let loose in New Zealand and it has been a tough few days in the education sector....
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At Mt. Wilson, Caltech and elsewhere, astronomy enthusiasts and the curious watch with reverence and resignation as Venus crosses the face of the sun for the last time this century. Across Southern California, sky watchers assembled Tuesday afternoon for a chance to view the last-in-a-lifetime transit of Venus.
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For those of us in the US and Europe, Venus has completed its transit across the sun. If you missed it, too bad: it won't happen again for another 115 years.
The transit has huge historical importance, as in the past it's what enabled us to calculate our distance from the sun. This image, courtesy of NASA, shows the planet completing its transit last night, just before it moved far enough to stop casting a silhouette. Goodbye, Venus!
If you missed it, don't worry too much: thousands of talented photographers around the world have been recording the event, and we'll bring you some of the best images before too long. [NASA]
Image by NASA
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Venus Has Crossed the Sun For the Last Time Until 2117 [Astronomy]
The last Venus Transit for 105 years is happening in a few minutes as I write this it goes from roughly 22:00 June 5 to 05:00 June 6 UTC (check your local listings).
Fraser Cain, Nicole Gugliucci, Pamela Gay, and I are hosting a live video chat of the transit with many amateur astronomers across the world! I am embedding it below:
If you want to participate in the chat room, you need to 1) be signed up for Google+, b) circle Fraser Cain, and ) go to the live video chat post.
[UPDATE (21:55 UTC): First view of Venus silhouetted against the Sun's corona are coming in!
This shot is in the far-ultraviolet, where the Sun's thin atmosphere, called the corona, glows. You can see the Sun on the right, and Venus -- which is dark in the UV -- is the dark circle on the left. Amazing. Credit: NASA/SDO]
For more info, you can read my lengthy post with a ton of info, or watch my interview with Cara Santa Maria on the Huffington Post. I also have a nifty video made up of images taken of the 1882 transit, too!
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2004 transit of Venus
This June 8, 2004, file photo shows the transit of Venus, which occurs when the planet Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun. Venus will cross the face of the sun on Tuesday, a sight that will be visible from parts of Earth. This is the last transit for more than 100 years. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu,File)
MOORHEAD Astronomy enthusiasts around the area are gearing up for an event today that wont happen again for another 105 years.
Starting a little bit after 5 p.m., the orbit of planet Venus will take it directly in front of the sun, blocking out a small portion of its light as it crosses between the Earth and the sun a transit of Venus, as astronomers call it.
To the naked eye, though, it wont be that noticeable without special solar eclipse glasses needed to look into the sun.
Unlike last months solar eclipse, which blocked out more than 50 percent of the sun, Venus will only block out roughly 1 percent, said Juan Cabanela, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Minnesota State University Moorhead.
To assist the public with safely viewing the rare solar event, MSUM and the F-M Astronomy Club have scheduled a public viewing with telescopes and other special equipment, which Cabanela said will make the transit absolutely crystal clear.
The event wont happen again until December 2117, but Cabanela said this is actually the second time its occurred in our lifetime, most recently taking place just eight years ago.
The transits occur in cycles, he said, happening twice in eight years, followed by a 105- or 107-year period, depending on the year. The reason for the odd cycles and the rarity of the event, Cabanela said, is because Venus travels around the sun differently than does Earth.
Venus orbit isnt perfectly lined up with ours, he said. When Venus is between the Earth and the sun, its usually a little bit below or above the sun.
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For no other reason than it is beautiful, here is a picture astronaut Andr Kuipers took of Buenos Aires as the International Space Station sailed into the night over the Atlantic Ocean.
[Click to enmsgrandenate.]
Kuipers took that picture on May 11, 2012. Looking to the west you can see the city lights, as well as the thin green line of the atmospheric aerosol layer. I suspect thats Venus right over the horizon, too. The silhouette is of the Russian Progress 47 capsule which docked with the ISS in April, and will remain there for several more months.
Image credit: NASA/ESA
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A period lithograph showing urchins permanently damaging their eyes for astronomy (Harper's).
This is a big spring for amateur astronomy. The annular solar eclipse of two weeks ago captivated watchers around the Pacific Rim. And I hope you saved your solar shades and pinhole projectors: This week, on June 5th and 6th, Venus will pass in front of the Sun, in the last Transit of Venus in our lifetimes (unless you plan to be alive in 2117).
It's also been a big spring for public-facing projects at science museums and historic observatories. Transits of Venus happen at intervals of either 105.5 or 121.5 years, in pairs that are eight years apart -- but the scientific work of transit observers leaves traces. The 1631 transit was predicted by Kepler, though the 1639 transit was the first observed on Earth. The 1761 and 1769 transits of Venus became enormous, globally coordinated projects that used a network of natural philosophers and their transit observations to help calculate solar parallax and celestial distances. (These two Venus transits have become so famous indeed as some of the first examples of global research work that many of the historians of astronomy I know are weary of talking about them.) The 1874 and 1882 transits were popular phenomena as well as astronomical ones (as evidenced by, for instance, this Harper's cover of urchins watching the transit through [the inadequate eye protection of] smoked glass.) John Phillip Sousa even wrote a march for the 1882 transit. And the 2004 transit, though no longer vital for measuring astronomical distances, was an opportunity to produce digital historical content, like the Smithsonian did with this great online exhibit.
Museums around the world are commemorating historic transits. The Australian National Maritime Museum has a replica of Captain James Cook's HMB Endeavour, which was dispatched to Tahiti for the 1769 Venus transit. The reproduction ship has been sailing from Sydney to Lord Howe Island to view this year's transit; you can follow along on their ship's blog. In the UK, the Science Museum has a number of artifacts from transit observations, and the Royal Observatory installed an exhibit called Measuring the Universe which discusses the transit.
The University of California's Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton participated in the 1882 Transit of Venus observations. Volunteers at the observatory are digitizing, slowly but surely, an amazing collection of manuscript observatory logbooks and journals, as well as scientific instruments. Tony Misch of the Lick Observatory Historical Collections Project and transit of Venus expert William Sheehan used photographs from Lick astronomers' observations of the 1882 transit to make this stop-motion video of Venus moving across the sun.
Most of North America should be able to see the transit of Venus on Tuesday. This handy tool will tell you when it will be visible in your area. (Transitofvenus.nl and transitofvenus.org are both great sources for transit info.) There's even an app to gather distributed observations of the transit. Every science museum worth its planetarium lens has developed a transit of Venus exhibit or public program; check your local for opportunities to learn more and see the transit in excited and learned company. And don't forget your smoked glasssolar shades.
More From The Atlantic
Original post:
The secretive government agency that flies spy satellites has made a stunning gift to NASA: two exquisite telescopes as big and powerful as the Hubble Space Telescope. Theyve never left the ground and are in storage in Rochester, N.Y.
Its an unusual technology transfer from the military-intelligence space program to the better-known civilian space agency. It could be a boost for NASAs troubled science program, which is groaning under the budgetary weight of the James Webb Space Telescope, still at least six years from launch.
Or it could be a gift that becomes a burden. NASA isnt sure it can afford to put even one of the two new telescopes into orbit.
The telescopes were built by private contractors for the National Reconnaissance Office, one of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. The telescopes have 2.4-meter (7.9-foot) mirrors, just like the Hubble, but they have 100 times the field of view. Their structure is shorter and squatter.
Theyre space qualified, as NASA puts it, but theyre a long way from being functioning space telescopes. They have no instruments there are no cameras, for example. More than that, they lack a funded mission and all that entails, such as a scientific program, support staff, data analysis and office space. They will remain in storage while NASA mulls its options.
Its great news, said NASA astrophysics director Paul Hertz. Its real hardware, and its got really impressive capabilities.
The announcement Monday raised the obvious question of why the intelligence agency would no longer want, or need, two Hubble-class telescopes. A spokeswoman, Loretta DeSio, provided information sparingly.
They no longer possessed intelligence-collection uses, she said of the telescopes.
She confirmed that the hardware represents an upgrade of Hubbles optical technology.
The hardware is approximately the same size as the Hubble but uses newer, much lighter mirror and structure technology, DeSio said. She added, Some components were removed before the transfer.
See the article here:
I dont have a lot to add to this incredible picture taken by astronaut Andr Kuipers of the Dragon capsule as it approached the International Space Station on May 25:
[Click to embiggen.]
Isnt that spectacular? Actually, I will add something: the caption for this post indicates its over the Rocky Mountains. I got excited for a second, thinking maybe it was near my neck of the woods. But then I realized the icy mountaintops look nothing like they do here in Boulder. I checked anyway, and on Wolfram Alpha I found the picture was taken over Vancouver Island, which is where my friend Fraser Cain from Universe Today lives!
Huh. Small planet.
[P.S. Speaking of Fraser, I'll be doing a live video star party with him, Pamela Gay, and many others for the Transit of Venus Tuesday. We have telescopes lined up all over the world to view this last-chance-in-a-lifetime event! Stay tuned for more info, but I'll have the chat embedded here on the blog when the time comes.]
Image credit: ESA/NASA
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- When a Dragon mated the space station - Update: the Dragon capsule as seen by the ISS - SpaceX Dragon on its way to the ISS! - Dragon hunting above, dragon hunting below
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KRBC PM Forecast: Monday, June 4, 2012
A wet and cooler weather pattenr will unfold across the Big Country the next few days...
It's an exercise that claims to help you lose wait by simply breathing and there is a group of Abilene senior citizens who say it...
We have a 30% chance for thunderstorms overnight, some possibly severe with large hail and damaging winds. Overnight lows will be near 71 degrees.Tuesday we...
The Big Country Astronomy Club is providing a chance to see Venus on the move.
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The Litchfield Hills Amateur Astronomy Club is to host a Star Party on Tuesday, June 5, at White Memorial in Litchfield
Arare event -- a Venus transit -- will occur. The planet Venus will pass between Earth and the sun. The last Venus transit was in 2004 and the next one will be in 2117. There will not be a talk; the group will meet at the observatory at WMCC at 5:30pm. At about 6:03pm EDT Venus will start to cross the disc of the Sun. Although it will takesix hours to pass all the way across, we'll only see the first two hours because of sunset. Do not bring binoculars or a telescope unless you have a proper solar filter. (Club members will have telescopes with the proper filters.) If the weather is cloudy or rainy, the event is cancelled.
There is no charge. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
For more information, see the club's web site: http://lhaac.shutterfly.com/calendar or contact the club secretary at lhaacsec@gmail.com.
Arare event -- a Venus transit -- will occur. The planet Venus will pass between Earth and the sun. The last Venus transit was in 2004 and the next one will be in 2117. There will not be a talk; the group will meet at the observatory at WMCC at 5:30pm. At about 6:03pm EDT Venus will start to cross the disc of the Sun. Although it will takesix hours to pass all the way across, we'll only see the first two hours because of sunset. Do not bring binoculars or a telescope unless you have a proper solar filter. (Club members will have telescopes with the proper filters.) If the weather is cloudy or rainy, the event is cancelled.
There is no charge. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
For more information, see the club's web site: http://lhaac.shutterfly.com/calendar or contact the club secretary at lhaacsec@gmail.com.
View original post here:
Litchfield Hills Astronomy Club Holding Venus Transit Event at White Memorial June 5
Listen, I dont usually hawk stuff on this blog. When I do urge you to give up your hard-earned lucre, I only link to stuff that I really like, and from people I really support.
Having said that: go buy this video.
Tom Lowe is an amazing photographer, and his time lapse videos are simply astonishing (see Related Posts at the bottom of this post). I could throw lots of words around, but why waste your time? Just watch the trailer for his new video, Timescapes 4k:
[Make that full screen and turn your speakers up.]
Stunning. Jaw-dropping. Mind-blowing. Drop-dead gorgeous. Seriously, wow.
The whole thing was shot in very hi-def (4096 x 2304 pixels) on a Red camera Ive seen this camera at work, and the video from it is breath-taking. Tom uses this to its full potential, creating a time lapse movie that, seriously, has set a new standard of beauty and awe for the genre.
Its not just land and skyscapes, either. His shots of people are enthralling. I love the dancing native American the sparks from the fire make that scene and for some reason the rodeo dude is strangely compelling shot in slow motion. The people dancing at an outdoor concert are surreal, too.
You can order the video from Toms website, and its available on iTunes, too.
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Timescapes 4k: a time lapse of super hi-res beauty | Bad Astronomy