Category Archives: Space

Keep looking up

Posted on June 24, 2008 | Comments Off on Keep looking up

Pick a dot, any dot, in the night sky. Say, one of those in my favorite constellation, Orion. Better yet, pick a blank, black space, where nothing seems to be. Then look again, through Hubble’s eyes.

Via The Elephant Bar.

Comments Off on Keep looking up

Posted in Space

Tagged ,

Thunderheads over the Midwest

Posted on June 16, 2008 | Comments Off on Thunderheads over the Midwest

Thunderheads.jpg 

Space shuttle shots of the amazing cloud cover below. Thunderheads look menacing enough from the ground. They look like atomic mushroom clouds from above. The pictures are not current, but they could be, with all the rain that’s going on down there these days.

Via DougRoss@Journal.

Comments Off on Thunderheads over the Midwest

Posted in Space

Tagged , ,

Home from afar

Posted on June 6, 2008 | Comments Off on Home from afar

MWspitzer_lab_750.jpg

The Orion Spur, about a third of the way in from the outer edge, is where the home planet and the sun lie on this map of the Milky Way. The view without the superimposed map is an illustration of what a distant  astronomer in another galaxy likely would see, according to new, infrared info gathered by the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Comments Off on Home from afar

Posted in Space

Tagged ,

It ain’t rocket science

Posted on June 2, 2008 | Comments Off on It ain’t rocket science

The latest on Jack’s beanstalk, otherwise known as the Space Elevator: still a dream, but still…

Comments Off on It ain’t rocket science

Posted in Science/Engineering, Space

Tagged

Just another day on Mars

Posted on May 25, 2008 | Comments Off on Just another day on Mars

229952main_S_000EFF_CYL_SR10CA8_R888M1.jpg

One of the first photos from Phoenix, a black-n-white "postcard," as the JPL engineers call it, of the Martian arctic. Color panoramas to come later. This is going to be fun. 

Comments Off on Just another day on Mars

Posted in Space

Tagged ,

Phoenix touchdown

Posted on May 25, 2008 | Comments Off on Phoenix touchdown

The robot made a gentle, five mph landing on Mars about 6:53 p.m. CDT and all looks good:

"…we’ve found that the lander is tilted only one quarter of a degree, which means we’ve landed nearly perfectly level. The next step for Phoenix is surface initialization during which the solar arrays, Surface Stereo Imager (SSI), Biobarrier (which has been protecting the robotic arm from contamination since it was sterilized on Earth) and meteorological mast will deploy."

Stay with NASA’s Phoenix blog for updates, and reports as the robot gets to work analyzing its site on the Arctic Plain of the Red Planet.

Comments Off on Phoenix touchdown

Posted in Space

Tagged , ,

Waiting for the Phoenix

Posted on May 20, 2008 | Comments Off on Waiting for the Phoenix

183570main_pia09943-516.jpg

Just five days from now, the Phoenix will land on Mars’ icy northern plains. NASA has a new blog up in prep for the event, word of which could come as soon as 6:53 p.m. Sunday CDT. Should be exciting. Worth remembering: fewer than half the international attempts to land on Mars have been successful. Phoenix could crash and not be heard from again–nor arise from the ashes.

Comments Off on Waiting for the Phoenix

Posted in Space

Tagged , ,