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You Too Can Drive A Rover On The Moon
For you iPhone users out there, NASA has released its first game and its worth taking a look at. It simulates what it would be like to be in control of an electric rover driving over a lunar outpost. Of course, there are currently no such devices on our nearest neighbor, but the action is similar to what the Mars rovers experience. But if you are hoping for some intense game play or interactions with alien beings, you may be disappointed. The game is actually rather simple, seemingly more educational than riveting game play. The player can drive the rover around and explore the lunar surface as well as discover details about a proposed Moon base.
This game is the latest tool in NASA's effort to reveal itself to the public through mass media. Already having a strong presence on Facebook and Twitter, it seems that this was the next logical step. And while the game may be found lacking to all but the most diehard NASA fans, it is perhaps an indication of things to come. My hope is that this is a small first step and that NASA will continue its promotional assault through technology. Who knows, maybe a game to design your own rocket or spacecraft is in the future. Or perhaps a sim game that allows you to design a plan to colonize Mars or other worlds. The possibilities are endless. But for now, those of you wanting to learn a little more about the Moon, NASA has you covered.
Image Credit: NASA
You Too Can Drive A Rover On The Moon originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 15:25:14.
Beautiful Bug
The latest image of the week is of NGC 6302, more commonly known as the Bug Nebula. With the most recent updates to the Hubble Telescope, the most famous optical instrument in the world is beaming back more amazing images than ever before.
The Bug Nebula, from a class of objects known as planetary nebulae, was created when a main sequence star like our Sun used all its available "fuel". The resulting outpouring of gas receeds from the remaining star -- a white dwarf -- at speeds in excess of 600,000 miles per hour, forming this beautiful butterfly shape.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team
Beautiful Bug originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 10:00:23.
Oh, How Little We Know...
A result was published in the journal Nature a few weeks ago that caught my interest, and may contain a broader lesson for the scientific community. You see, my background is in astrophysics, specifically searching for gamma-rays from objects such as supernova remnants and pulsar wind nebulae. Then using this data to model the physics of how these objects work.
Of course, some of this work hinges on our understanding of what created these supernovae in the first place. But it now appears that even the basis for this understanding has been called into question. In short, there are two basic types of supernovae. Type II supernovae result from the collapse of a massive star releases a massive amount of energy that will easily outshine its entire host galaxy. I mention this one first since there, at least for now, is less controversy surrounding it.
Type I (specifically Type IA -- a subclass of supernovae) events on the other hand are now under considerable scrutiny. Long thought to be the result of an exploding white dwarf (as a result of accreting material, from a main-sequence companion, past a critical limit), there is new evidence that these events are actually the result of a binary merger of stars.
If you are still reading at this point you are probably wondering why in the world we care. Does it really matter what the mechanism is for these events? Well, yes. Type I supernovae play a key role in our measurements of the Universe. It was long been held that these events all produce the same amount of energy at their peak (since they occur under the exact same conditions). And since the intensity of light falls off in a known way -- inversely as the square of the distance -- scientists could use this information to measure the distance to distant objects, including other galaxies, simply by looking for these events. But, if the cause of these events is not well understood, or more specifically if there are multiple mechanisms that could create these events, then our ability to use this information to calculate distance diminishes.
So, this new information, specifically the addition of new X-ray data from NASA's Chandra Observatory, indicate that one of the standing rules of astronomy has been called into question. This brings me to my main point (finally), that we don't always know as much as we think we do. I always tell my astronomy students that professors like myself often teach this information like it is written in stone, and we are believed because we are an "authority" on the subject. But the reality is that we, as humans, are constantly learning. And our understanding of the Universe is evolving, hopefully toward the truth. So for you young scientists out there, it is good to question and think outside the box. For even the most well established theories are subject to change.
Image Credit: NASA
Oh, How Little We Know... originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 14:52:39.
One small Step for Man, One Dance Leap for Buzz Aldrin
Michael Jackson made famous the moon walk, but he had nothing on Buzz Aldrin. Famous for being one of the first men to set foot on the Moon as part of Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin has now accepted a new challenge. And as far as moon walks go, this challenge will require more of the Michael Jackson kind than the kind he achieved in the late 60s.
The lineup for the reality show Dancing with the stars was released this past week and Mr. Aldrin is one of the headlining participants. Now getting on in years -- old enough to be a grandfather to most of the other participants -- there is a natural reaction to believe that this is nothing more than a publicity stunt. He can't possibly be taken seriously as a contender. Right?
Well this is Buzz Aldrin we are talking about. He doesn't take anything lightly -- he once punched Bart Sibrel for suggesting that the Moon landings were faked. I believe that he is in it to win it, just like everyone else. Too old? Nah. I think he will surprise some people. I sure wouldn't bet against him. The show starts March 22 on ABC.
Image Credit: NASA
One small Step for Man, One Dance Leap for Buzz Aldrin originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 15:18:36.
Collision In Antarctica
In my image (or rather images) of the week, taken in February 19 days apart, the iceberg B-09B can be seen raming the Mertz Glacier Tongue and seperating it from the rest of the Mertz Glacier. Both the iceberg and galcier tongue are each nearly the size of Rhode Island.
The collsions is thought to have occured around February 12 or 13. However, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite, which was used to catalog the event, was unable to see through the dense cloud cover those days, missing the actual event. In the images you will notice that the water is particularly dark. This is a condition known as polynya, meaning that the region is kept clear of ice. This is good for wildlife that have more access to food in the ice-free waters. Now that the glacier tongue has been seperated to form its own iceberg, it is not clear if the water will remain as clear of ice. The effects that this will have on the wildlife in the area is unknown.
Image Credit: NASA
Collision In Antarctica originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 12:00:15.
Massive Chilean Quake Altered Earth's Axis
Last week Chile was rocked by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake. On Monday a NASA scientist reported that the event has altered the Earth's rotation, effectively shortening the length of our day. Now I know what you may be thinking, "I can't hardly get everything done in a day as it is, now the days will be shorter?" Well yes, but worry not, the difference amounts to about 1.26 milliseconds. That is about 1 thousandth of a second. My guess is that you won't likely know the difference.
In fact, this sort of slow down is not all that uncommon. Large earthquakes in the past have shortened the length of the Earth day. But even beyond that, during a normal year the Earth slows down by about 1 millisecond anyway. The only difference is that this was a rather abrupt change. In fact, what NASA scientists are more fascinated by is the amount that the Earth's figure axis shifted.
The Earth's figure axis -- the axis about which the Earth's mass is balanced, located about 33 feet from the spin axis -- shifted by about 3 inches (or about 27 milliarcseconds). This represents a significant shift in the figure axis location. Past earthquakes did not have quite this magnitude of an effect. The reason for this is that the location of the Chilean quake was offset much further from the equator than the magnitude 9.1 earthquake that hit the Sumatran region in 2004.
While these effects are still relatively small, it just goes to show that these massive earthquakes do more than just cause damage to things on the surface of the planet, but have lasting effects on other areas as well.
Image Credit: NASA
Massive Chilean Quake Altered Earth's Axis originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 13:02:10.
Stolen $30,000 Telescope Recovered
Back in October an 11 foot tall, 700 pound telescope costing $30,000 was stolen from a home in San Antonio Texas. The scope was taken as part of a larger robbery in which several vehicles and a trailer. Interestingly, a man claiming to be an attorney for the thieves recently contacted the police and arranged to return the telescope in a church parking lot. When police arrived they found the instrument, but no trace of the criminals. The telescope did sustain some minor damage, but was otherwise in good condition.
My question is, naturally, what on Earth were these criminals expecting to do with such an advanced piece of scientific equipment? Clearly any attempt to sell the item would have been noticed by the authorities, as it is not exactly the kind of thing you come across at flea markets or auctions. And it does not have any other value besides being used for the purpose for which it was intended. I guess it could have been stripped and sold for parts, but that does not seem likely either. It seems to me that it was a huge risk for something that they had no hope of receiving any benefit from. On the other hand no one is accusing the thieves of being smart.
Stolen $30,000 Telescope Recovered originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Saturday, February 27th, 2010 at 12:00:57.
The Space Shuttle Endeavour Sends Shock-waves Across El Salvador
In the wake of the devastating earthquakes in Haiti last month, the people of El Salvador fled to the streets when a deafening boom shook the ground and sent shock-waves literally through the people of the small Central American country. Luckily, it was not a natural disaster or a meteorite impact as some feared. Rather, it was the Space Shuttle Endeavour flying over head on its way to Florida.
During its landing over the weekend the shuttle made a course correction to avoid inclement weather over the southern states. The new path took the shuttle over El Salvador at extraordinary speeds. During the decent the shuttles break the sound barrier. This is not unusual, it happens every time a shuttle takes off or lands. But if you are not expecting it, or have never heard it before, the accompanying sonic boom can be quite jarring. The event was powerful enough that emergency personal were put on standby and panicked residents took to the streets. Luckily there have not been any injuries reported.
Image of Space Shuttle Endeavour landing courtesy of NASA/Kim Shiflett
The Space Shuttle Endeavour Sends Shock-waves Across El Salvador originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 12:00:25.
Night and Day
Although I have never had the honor (and I am quickly running out of time to do so), I have to imagine that any shuttle launch is pretty spectacular. But as the image of the week shows, a night launch is particularly impressive. This was the scene in the pre-dawn hours of Monday February 8 as the Space Shuttle Endeavour was thrust into outer space. What I find particularly astonishing is how the rockets light up the night sky. It seems more like morning than the middle of the night. What do you think?
Image Credit: NASA/Paul E. Alers
Night and Day originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 12:00:44.
Dangerous Atmospheric Explosions
O.k., maybe the term "explosions" is a bit strong, but a recent article from NASA details newly discovered atmospheric phenomena called Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (or TGFs) that occur at high altitude during thunderstorms. The Fermi gamma-ray telescope, which has been in service now for about a year and a half, carries on it a burst monitor to detect sudden changes in gamma ray flux. Ideally, these outbursts would come from deep space, indicating the presence of a supernova or an even more exotic gamma-ray burst (GRB).
But recent data suggests that large gamma-ray events are happening in our own atmosphere. To study the risk of these events, particularly to passing airplanes, scientists at NASA are using Fermi's advanced burst monitor to study them in greater detail. According to NASA, passengers on a passing aircraft could be exposed to the equivalent of 400 chest X-rays during a millisecond burst. Clearly this would not be good for ones health.
So why have we not heard of these events before; shouldn't people have gotten sick already from being exposed to such high levels of radiation? Well, these events happen during storms, which pilots tend to try and avoid. So it is not likely that many craft have even been directly exposed. In fact, NASA claims that the risk of actually being exposed to a TGF is actually quite low since the further away you are from the burst the risk of radiation exposure diminishes rapidly. However, they do go on to say that it is definitely worth studying so that we properly evaluate the risks.
What's puzzling is that we don't really understand what causes these bursts in the first place. Clearly they are associated with storms, but beyond a vague correlation scientists aren't sure what the mechanism is for their creation. Hopefully the riddle will be solved with the new Fermi data streaming in, but in the meantime there does not seem to be a reason to quit flying. The skies are still safe.
Dangerous Atmospheric Explosions originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 13:06:27.
NASA Reveals Shuttle Patch
With only four missions left, the retirement of NASA's shuttle fleet is imminent. To commemorate the 30 years of service that the fleet has provided, NASA launched an in-house design competition to design a patch that encapsulated the spirit of the shuttle program.
Now NASA has released the winning design created by Blake Dumesnil, a camera engineer at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The patch features the shuttle and is flanked by 14 stars in honor of the astronauts that lost their lives on the Columbia and Challenger disasters. The five larger stars to the right of the shuttle represent all the members of the fleet, including Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour.
The design will appear on NASA's internal documents as well as publicly distributed materials. If you want a patch for yourself you can purchase them where NASA souvenirs are sold. For those of you that are big fans of the manned space flight program, I recommend you pick one up.
Image Credit: NASA
NASA Reveals Shuttle Patch originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 22:57:00.
WISE Reveals Amazing M31 Image
NASA's new Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has begun to beam back brilliant images of our Universe. This image of the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31, gives some of the greatest details ever seen of the enormous spiral galaxy.
The Andromeda galaxy, the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way and is a very popular object of study. One of the reasons there is so much interest is that scientists feel that it has an abnormally large amount of dark matter -- the mysterious stuff that seems to comprise much of the Universe. This is the first image of many that WISE will create of our local group -- the galaxies closest to our own -- and it is our image of the week.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
WISE Reveals Amazing M31 Image originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 22:22:22.
Will Astronauts Ever Set Foot on Mars?
With the recent cancellation of the Constellation Program, which included the craft that would carry the first humans to Mars, this question has been discussed in the media and in the political arena. Initially, the reaction was decidedly that it would not be possible for NASA to meet their initial timeline of having astronauts on the Martian surface by 2030. However, a closer analysis of NASA's future indicates that the 2030 target date may still be achievable, though ambitious to say the least.
Even though NASA, along with help from private contractors, will need to completely reinvent human space exploration, there are other things to consider. First, the exploration of the Moon has been de-emphasized. While this may allow NASA to move up its time table, it also creates a risk. Part of the reason that NASA had planned to visit the Moon in 2020 was to use those missions as testing beds for the impending Mars expeditions. While it ultimately may not make a difference, my initial conclusion is that foregoing the Moon missions may increase the risk of traveling to Mars. This is particularly paradoxical given the plan's emphasis on safety.
Whatever the means, it appears that Mars is still NASA's destination. There are still many hurdles to overcome, but the picture is beginning to become clear. At the end of this month NASA is scheduled to unveil its plan to replace the cancelled Constellation Program. It is not likely that a timeline will accompany the announcement (or if one does it will be highly speculative), but at the very least we should have an idea the direction in which NASA is moving and what their focus will be.
Image Credit: NASA
Will Astronauts Ever Set Foot on Mars? originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 13:00:45.
What Did You Get For Valentine's Day?
Everyone in our household was under the weather this past weekend, so our Valentine's Day was rather low key. There was, of course, the obligatory exchange of chocolate, flowers and a fancy dinner out. But not much out of the ordinary.
Ultimately though, I don't think I could have topped this no matter what I did. Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, aboard the International Space Station, created a very unique valentine using an image he took of Coral Island as they passed over southeast Asia. Now that's unique.
Image Credit: NASA
What Did You Get For Valentine's Day? originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 21:25:29.
Image of the Week
This week's image of the week comes courtesy of NASA researchers studying the dynamics of our Sun. Researchers at the solar dynamics observatory -- a new space based observatory that was supposed to be launched today, but was delayed due to weather -- released an article this week detailing some interesting new information about our Sun, specifically that our Sun might be a variable star.
This revelation flies in the face of conventional wisdom that has held that the Sun was a source of constant radiation. Even though we have been aware of small short term variations, such as solar flares and Sun spots, as well as their longer term cause -- namely the solar cycle -- it now appears that our Sun is even more dynamic than once believed. It now appears that even the solar cycle is part of a larger, more chaotic variability pattern. This is further evidenced by the fact that we are coming out of one of the deepest solar minimums in recent history.
This particular image comes from the solar dynamics observatory, and is easily the coolest representation of how the Sun's magnetic field twists inside the Sun to create the dynamic features on its surface. So, enjoy the image of the week.
Image Credit: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory
Image of the Week originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 12:00:36.
Hubble Sees Changing Surface of Pluto
Poor Pluto. Once known as the smallest and loneliest planet in our solar system, it was subsequently stripped of its planet status. And pictures of the tiny world always painted it as a grey, desolate wasteland. There is even a Facebook support group for the little fella.
Well not anymore. After four years of computers crunching away on Hubble data, a new image of the icy rock shows that it is much more dynamic -- and colorful -- than once thought. From the image it is evident that as Pluto rotates the color pattern on the surface also changes. At first scientists believed that this might have been a problem with the data. However, Pluto's companion, Charon, was also in the Hubble image and did not exhibit this behavior, so they concluded that this was indeed an actual effect.
Further study revealed white areas that have been determined to be an icy layer of methane and nitrogen. But scientists also noted the presence of the black and orange regions, thought to be caused by the ultraviolet radiation of the Sun breaking up the methane molecules. This is somewhat amazing given how distance Pluto is from the Sun.
Pluto may not have regained its planet status back (nor will it), but at least its hidden beauty has finally been revealed.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Buie/Southwest Research Institute
Hubble Sees Changing Surface of Pluto originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 14:32:07.
3-2-1 Launch... Only 4 To Go!
The Space Shuttle Endeavour left the launch pad early this morning and is now in orbit on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). This is the first shuttle flight of the year, and represents the beginning of the end for the aging shuttle fleet.
The focus of this mission is to deliver a module to the ISS that will increase the interior space and provide additional living quarters. While the crew will not arrive to the space station until Wednesday, they are busy testing equipment and preparing for the space walks that will be needed to install the new node and research facility.
Image Credit: NASA
3-2-1 Launch... Only 4 To Go! originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 22:56:08.
Update on NASA Budget
Last week I noted that the Obama administration had cut the Constellation Program from the budget, effectively killing the proposed return mission to the Moon and future manned Mars missions. An ancillary effect being that we would not need to rely on our Russian counterparts to complete our obligations to the International Space Station. This news initially angered proponents of the space program, including myself, because of the administration's demolition of our manned space program.
However, once President Obama officially released the complete budget and vision for the future of our space program things began to come into focus. The Constellation Program was behind schedule and over budget. It may turn out to be that canceling the program is the best long term solution. However, this does mean that we will effectively outsourcing our manned space program for the next several years at least.
There is another side to the story however, one that I overlooked in my haste to criticize the extermination of the Constellation Program. The government is actually getting behind NASA and the space program. President Obama has committed $6 billion more to NASA's budget over the next five years than expected. The new focus is going to be on developing new technologies to advance our ability to do space research as well as lower future costs of space exploration. And, while the Constellation Program is dead, the future of manned space exploration is not.
The president is laying the ground work for what NASA calls "A bold new effort that invests in American ingenuity for developing more capable and innovative technologies for future space exploration". This exploration will also rely more heavily on private industry and other nations to develop new technology and take on some of the manufacturing burden for large scale projects. It may be slow going -- forget about the 2020 and 2030 time tables for landing men on other worlds -- but this new program promises to be better and more cost effective in the long run.
The International Space Station (ISS) will also see its life extended, at least through 2020. This will allow the ISS to reach its full potential.
So, I must admit, I may have been too quick to judge. After looking more deeply at the plan that has been laid out for NASA, I think we are heading in the right direction, it will just take some time to see it through to fruition. The new plan is immense and complex, and I will outline the details in a forthcoming article, but until then I just want to make clear that there is a future for the space program. And the details of that program are beginning to come sharply into focus. Stay tuned.
Image Credit: NASA
Update on NASA Budget originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 14:22:06.
The Future of the International Space Station
As part of the re-invisioning of NASA (more on this tomorrow), the work of the International Space Station will be extended through at least 2020. This will allow scientists to expand the experiments being conducted and, according to NASA, enable "this vital orbiting laboratory to reach its full potential."
Sounds good to me. Personally though, I was just psyched about this image that was released along with the announcement. Pretty spectacular, huh? Telll me what you think!
Image Credit: NASA
The Future of the International Space Station originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 15:29:36.
NASA Has Given Up on Getting Spirit Free
NASA has announced that it has officially given up trying to free the Spirit Rover from the bed of sand that has been holding it captive. (For a rather funny portrayal of these events, go here.) This does not mean however that it will no longer provide scientific data. Rather, it will study the surrounding martian surface and what lay beneath it.
The coming Martian winter is of concern, but NASA hopes that the little trooper will survive. Should the rover live on, scientists hope that it can help answer a question that has plagued them for years: is the Martian core completely solid, or does it contain a liquid outer shell like Earth?
So, it's not a particularly sexy question, but it is of considerable importance. You see, the origin of our solar system is still something of a mystery. The solar nebula hypothesis -- the theory that our solar system evolved from a large cloud of gas and dust -- has gone a long way in explaining the data we have collected about our solar system. However, as we have begun to study other solar systems we have noticed that they have significantly different characteristics than our own. So, at the very least, assumptions that we made about the origin and evolution of our solar system don't seem to apply to solar systems in general.
The hope is that the more that we study other worlds we can get a clearer picture of how our solar system formed, and perhaps shed some light on a rather significant hole in our scientific understanding.
Image Credit: NASA
NASA Has Given Up on Getting Spirit Free originally appeared on About.com Space / Astronomy on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 17:04:53.