Category Archives: Space

Our generation will go into space

Posted on January 16, 2007 | Comments Off on Our generation will go into space

Black Line Ascension, a new New York space elevator LLC endeavor, has a new web site with a cool animation of what a working elevator would look like and what it could do for travel to moon, Mars and beyond… Worth a peek.

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Today’s pretty picture

Posted on January 14, 2007 | Comments Off on Today’s pretty picture

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Orion again, my favorite. The deep field here, in the belt on the left, with the nebulae in the upper right. When the clouds of the last few days clear out, I’ll look for this winter companion again./NASA 

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McNaught brightening

Posted on January 13, 2007 | Comments Off on McNaught brightening

Comet McNaught is brightening so much as it nears the sun–the heat making the rocky snowball vaporize furiously–that it is becoming visible in daylight, which could make it the brightest one in centuries. Tricky to find, though, because it’s close to the sun. Spaceweather.com advises: "Go outside and stand in the shadow of a building (or billboard) so that the glare of the sun is blocked out.  Make a fist and hold it at arm’s length.  The comet is about one fist-width east of the sun." Bincoulars will allow you to see the structure within the comet’s tail, but be careful not to look at the sun. You don’t want a black (burned) spot in your eyes forever after. Comet pix here to see what you’re looking for.

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Space

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Brightest comet in thirty years

Posted on January 10, 2007 | Comments Off on Brightest comet in thirty years

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This could be the best night to see Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1), brightening as it speeds towards the sun. It’s visible both at sunset and at dawn if you have a clear view of the horizon. At sunset, it shows up in the twilight as soon as the sun is down. In the morning, it emerges just before the sun rises. Looks even better in 10X50 binoculars. More images here./photo over Johnston, Iowa last night by Stan Richard, Iowa Public Television.

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Dark matter mapped

Posted on January 8, 2007 | Comments Off on Dark matter mapped

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3D map by Hubble Space Telescope (in lower left corner) shows clumpy nature of cold, dark matter which is invisible but accounts for most of the Universe’s mass. Its gravitational attraction pulls normal matter–the stars in their galaxies–into the large-scale structures seen through telescopes.

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Fireball over Denver

Posted on January 4, 2007 | Comments Off on Fireball over Denver

It was beautiful and a little scarey, at 6:30 this morning, but the tumbling body of a Soyuz U rocket captured on video here presented no danger as it burned up quickly, according to Space Weather. Witnesses described it as "brilliant, slow, twinkling, sparkly and full of rainbow colors." It was part of the vehicle that launched a French orbital telescope on Dec. 27, visualized here.

UPDATE  It didn’t all burn up, but so far no reports of damage or injury. 

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Today’s pretty picture

Posted on January 2, 2007 | Comments Off on Today’s pretty picture

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The Witch’s Broom Nebula, in honor of my and Mr. Boy’s embarkation on the second novel in the Harry Potter series. Mr. B. already identifies with Mr. P., as one might expect. /NASA 

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Posted in Library, Mr. Boy, Space

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