Earth… our home planet, a brilliant “blue marble” tirelessly turning through space on an endless journey around the Sun and across the galaxy. Basically a ball of Âmolten rock and metal, its relatively thin crust is mostly covered by a sea of liquid water as well as wrapped in a sea of air… and it's […]
Posted by Lights in the Dark
I'm back in Cardiff for the day, mainly for the purpose of attending presentations by a group of final-year project students (two of them under my supervision, albeit nowÂremotely). One of the talks featured a famous quote by the statistician George E. P. Box: Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful. I agree with […]
Posted by In The Dark
Astronaut Chris Hadfield described himself as a man who never looks back. Still, he spoke fondly of his five months in space during the first press conference with media today (May 16) after his return to Earth earlier this week. “I don't spend my life going gosh, IÂwent to [space station] Mir in 1995 and
Posted by Universe Today
Even if Nasa's Kepler space telescope is coming to the end of its mission, the search for other Earths will continueThe Kepler space telescope is in trouble. On Tuesday, during one of their regular twice-weekly communications slots, Nasa scientists found the telescope in "safe mode". An investigation has now revealed that a stabilising wheel has broken. This led the telescope to place itself in the protective, low-power mode. Without this wheel, the telescope cannot point precisely at its targets
Posted by Across the universe
The Orion nebula Âis one of the most favorite spots for stargazers to explore in the heavens, but this week astronomers are releasing a stunning new look to this giant stellar nursery 1300 light years from Earth. A fiery cosmic ribbon glows with orange colors as grains of cold interstellar dust light up like…
Posted by Breaking Orbit
... observing is fun and the science is cool, but the program I have planned is also technically challenging and uses a brand new instrument, which is a little scary. In addition, although I'm plenty experienced with data, I haven't done […]
Posted by Galaxy Zoo Blog
John Wheeler once summarized General Relativity as “Matter tells space how to curve, and space tells matter how to move.” While that is a handy description, and while there have been many textbooks written, lectures givenÂand websitesÂconstructedÂto explain this, the quote itself doesn't address what happens to the light streaming through the universe as it […]
Posted by Galaxy Zoo Blog
three men who have been on the international space station for the last several months, including commander chris "space oddity" hadfield, arrived safely back on earth's surface today via the russian soyuz capsule. it's a great vision to watch so many nations work together, people as humans, to make such a reality possible.
Posted by astropixie
Congratulations to Michelle Knights who has won both the South African leg of the FameLab competition and first prize in theÂbroadcast category of the Young Science Communicators Competition for herÂradio scriptÂcalled “The Great Debate”, a dramatised version of the real … Continue reading →
Posted by Cosmology at AIMS
Nasa's Skylab fell to Earth after budget cuts left it stranded in space. More than three decades later we are still struggling with the threat from space debrisToday Nasa will commemorate the 40th anniversary of Skylab, America's first space station, launched on 14 May 1973. In a televised discussion, Skylab astronauts, a current astronaut and agency managers are expected to discuss its legacy and the future of manned space flight. Skylab was a historic mission. It was part of an initiative to re
Posted by Across the universe
Among the things I learnt over the last few days was some interesting information about the diversity (or rather, lack of diversity) of undergraduates taking undergraduate degrees in STEM subjects in the UK universities. For those of you not up on the lingo, STEM' is short for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Last year the […]
Posted by In The Dark
Add IBM to the list of entities eagerly counting down to Star Trek: Into Darkness, the next installment of the famed franchise, which opens up in theaters May 17. Researchers at the computing giant are so excited that they created atomic images of Star Trek symbols. (...)Read the rest of Tiny Bubbles: Star Trek Gets
Posted by Universe Today
He is everywhere, in the heavens and earth, He makes the stars shine yet He cannot be seen. He is noble, abundant, and fills the universe. He can lift you into the sky and bring you gently down. He can take many forms. He can help heal, He can help kill. He can help create, and He can help destroy. Praise be unto He, Helium he he :)
Posted by astropixie
An incredible 1,200-mile-wide vortex of spiraling clouds swirling above Saturn's north pole is seen in all its glory in this stunning image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, originally captured last year but recently released by NASA on April 29. Taking advantage of a new orbital trajectory that puts it high above Saturn's rings and poles, Cassini
Posted by Lights in the Dark
... glorious service to science, the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory mission has come to the end this week. Running out of helium coolant needed to chill its instruments down to near absolute zero means that it has closed its far-infrared eyes to the Universe for good. ÂAfter a…
Posted by Breaking Orbit
Not too long ago we announced that Galaxy Zoo has gone open source – along with several other Zooniverse projects. Part of that announcement was that it is now possible for anyone to translate the Galaxy Zoo website into their own language and have that pulled back into the main site. We love translation at
Posted by Galaxy Zoo Blog
It's another very busy day (as well as another lovely one) so I thought instead of sitting indoors this lunchtime writing a typically verbose blog item I'd just pick something out of my back catalogue and give it another airing because it deals with something that's come up a couple of times recently. This is
Posted by In The Dark
big news: i've accepted a new job!i'm thrilled to announce that i'll be staying in sydney for at least several more years, officially splitting my time as a research astronomer and the head of a new outreach office at the australian astronomical observatory (AAO)!i'm very excited about the possibilities in this new role. i look forward to continuing to investigate the unknown aspects of the universe that intrigue me most, while helping my colleagues translate their research for general aud
Posted by astropixie
... CosmoQuest is to share science with as many people as possible. This means travelling to where people are. We've been weighing our reduced budget as well as our core mission and decided on our travel schedule for the rest of the year. We've had to cut down how many people we send to each event, but not as much the number of events, which is lovely. In some cases, this means we'll be looking
Posted by CosmoQuest Blog
... have a phd in astrophysics and yet magnets mystify me and seem like wonderful, natural magic. i love being able to *feel* their force and resistance on tangible scales without being able to see what's going on. my birthday isnt too far away. if anyone wants to either send me a post card or some of this "super magnetic thinking putty," you would make me a very happy super scientist!! ;)
Posted by astropixie
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided the first direct evidence of small meteoroids breaking into streams of rubble and crashing into Saturn's rings. These observations make Saturn's rings the only location besides Earth, the Moon and Jupiter where meteor impacts have been observed as they occur.ÂThe meteoroids at Saturn are estimated to range from about one-half
Posted by Lights in the Dark
Spiral galaxies are a seemingly endless source of fascination, perhaps because they're so complex and diverse. But why does spiral structure exist? Why do some spiral galaxies have clearly defined spiral arms and others have flocculent structure that barely seems to hold together? What's the difference between a 2-arm spiral and a 3-arm spiral? How
Posted by Galaxy Zoo Blog
Do you know how much material falls onto Earth from space every day? How many different species there are in the ocean? How far the continents move every year? In honor of Earth Day here's a very cool infographic that answers those questions about our planet — and 47 more! Check out the full version
Posted by Universe Today
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