Archives for June 2005
Posted by Davin Flateau on 1 Jun 2005 at 12:12 pm.
Make a Comment. Filed under Astronomy.
Stars spin. For instance, our own sun takes about a month to rotate , but that’s a snail’s pace compared to some. Pulsars, the leftover cores of exploded stars, can spin hundreds of times a second. This rotational energy changes the shape of a star from spherical to somewhat egg-shaped. Actually measuring […]
Posted by Davin Flateau on 2 Jun 2005 at 11:19 am.
Make a Comment. Filed under Astronomy.
Boeing Wichita’s Ted Bates has spent nearly thirty years repairing the aging airframes in such planes as the B-52, the KC-10 and even Air Force One. After the shuttle Columbia was destroyed in 2003, NASA needed to assess the aging shuttle fleet, and Bates was tapped to apply his aviation expertise to the three […]
Read ‘Wichita Man Helps Aging Shuttle’
Posted by Davin Flateau on 2 Jun 2005 at 3:52 pm.
Make a Comment. Filed under Astronomy.
It’s been a busy week in astronomy and space news. The American Astronomical Society meeting is wrapping up in Minneapolis, where many interesting discoveries were announced, and NASA was also busy with the shuttle and new space missions. Here’s a wrap-up of some of the more interesting stories this week.
NASA’s Going Back to […]
Read ‘Astronomy News Roundup 6/2’
Posted by Davin Flateau on 3 Jun 2005 at 9:45 pm.
2 Comments. Filed under Astronomy.
Today, I was reminded of a fantastic passage from Carl Sagan’s book Pale Blue Dot – one of his last books before he passed away in 1996. I thought it would be good food for thought as we all depart our separate ways for the weekend.
It’s a comment on a picture from the Voyager […]
Posted by Davin Flateau on 6 Jun 2005 at 9:20 am.
Make a Comment. Filed under Astronomy.
After a month of being stuck in a martian sand dune, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity finally worked its way free on Saturday.
“We’re out!…all six wheels are on top of the soil,” said Steve Squyres in an online status report he posted on Saturday.
“Boy, this has been a good day. We’ve had […]
Posted by Davin Flateau on 6 Jun 2005 at 1:17 pm.
Make a Comment. Filed under General.
Courtesy of our friends at Universe Today, a guide to what’s happening in the night sky this week. Go forth and look up!
Read ‘What’s In the Sky This Week: 6/5’
Posted by Davin Flateau on 7 Jun 2005 at 3:42 pm.
Make a Comment. Filed under Astronomy.
It seems that for as long as we’ve looked up to that bright reddish-pink light in the sky, we’ve been dreaming about going to Mars. And while rovers and probes are useful for gathering information by remote control, nothing is like actually being there. A keyboard and mouse will pale in comparison to […]
Posted by Davin Flateau on 8 Jun 2005 at 11:04 am.
Make a Comment. Filed under General.
Oh no! Stars Over Kansas has been ruthlessly attacked. Not by hackers, but by:
Alien Spaceships!
Meteors! (use the mouse to click on ground zero)
Dinosaurs!
Oh, the humanity!
Posted by Davin Flateau on 9 Jun 2005 at 11:47 am.
1 Comment. Filed under Astronomy.
It’s time again for this week’s round-up of cool, awesome, surprising, shocking, amazing and otherwise outstanding otherworldly announcements!
Martian Lights - The Mars Express orbiter has confirmed that the red planet has its own version of aurora, much like the northern and southern lights here on earth. The discovery is especially curious because Mars really […]
Read ‘Astronomy News Roundup 6/9’
Posted by Davin Flateau on 9 Jun 2005 at 3:27 pm.
Make a Comment. Filed under Astronomy.
Alan MacRobert at Sky and Telescope has written an excellent article detailing the different scientific searches for extraterrestrial intelligence going on today.
Several large searches for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) are currently scanning the stars, looking for both radio and laser transmissions from distant civilizations. Either type of signal could be sent across interstellar distances […]
