Slugger O'Toole

Conversation, politics and stray insights

Environment

Phobos-Grunt: “Re-entry is now imminent”

Sun 15 January 2012, 4:49pm

The BBC’s spaceman, Jonathan Amos, reports on the imminent re-entry of the 13-tonne failed Russian Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt.  Included in that 13-tonnes are more than 10 tonnes of fuel which is expected to explode when the aluminium storage tanks rupture during re-entry.  From the BBC report The Russian space agency says little of the probe will [...] more »

ISS Commander: “the most amazing thing I have ever seen in space”

Fri 23 December 2011, 7:53pm

Having, unexpectedly, survived its solar close encounter, Comet Lovejoy is providing some spectacular views for early morning observers in the southern hemisphere.  Spaceweather has a growing collection of images. But the most spectacular view has to have been the one captured by the crew of the International Space Station (ISS).  Wow!  [Video courtesy of the Image [...] more »

Sleigh Ride over the Red Planet

Thu 22 December 2011, 3:19pm

A short seasonal diversion from JPLnews, using images of the real landscapes of Mars taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.   more »

Comet Lovejoy is still with us!

Sat 17 December 2011, 5:58pm

Rumours of the demise of Kreutz sungrazing Comet Lovejoy may have been greatly exaggarated.  NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught Comet Lovejoy emerging from its scorching close encounter with the sun.  [Video Credit: NASA SDO] As the Science at Nasa press release notes Comet Lovejoy was discovered on Dec. 2, 2011, by amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy of [...] more »

“Without prejudice to the negotiation of territorial sea boundaries…”

Thu 15 December 2011, 3:51pm
Agreed line between Northern Ireland and Ireland at Lough Foyle

The Northern Ireland Energy Minister, the DUP’s Arlene Foster, has welcomed the “announcement by The Crown Estate of two parallel Leasing Rounds for offshore wind and tidal stream development as new sources of renewable energy for Northern Ireland.”  The Crown Estate website has more details here. From the Minister’s press release Arlene Foster said: “Today’s [...] more »

Kepler-22b: “This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth’s twin”

Mon 5 December 2011, 7:43pm
Kepler22bDiagram_1024-768

By the time its last catalogue of exoplanet candidates was released in February,  Nasa’s Kepler space observatory, launched in March 2009, first light in April 2009, had identified 1,235 planetary candidates – and 54 candidates within the habitable zone. The Kepler team have now identified 2,326 planet candidates – of those, 207 are approximately Earth-size, 680 are super Earth-size, [...] more »

“Maybe Picasso did not paint any pictures at all, at least not the Mona Lisa.”

Sun 4 December 2011, 3:52pm

As the Guardian’s Ian Sample notes from the science desk The runup to Christmas looks exciting for the Large Hadron Collider at Cern near Geneva. Staff at the laboratory have arranged a special seminar on Tuesday 13 December at which the latest results in the search for the Higgs boson will be made public. The presentation [...] more »

Curiosity heads to Mars

Sat 26 November 2011, 6:14pm

Nasa’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Centre earlier today on an Atlas 5 rocket at the start of its eight and a half month journey to Mars.  With its massive 900kg rover, Curiosity, it’s being billed as “the biggest and best Mars mission yet.” Mike Meyer is the lead scientist on Nasa’s Mars exploration effort: [...] more »

What’s all this #fracking nonsense then Arlene?

Fri 25 November 2011, 12:42pm

Mention money and land and someone, almost anyone, in the DUP and some people get very excited. But all that’s happened is that 54 acres of her husband’s farm has been included in the vast area in which permission for gas exploration may be sought: As previously noted by Andy, the area under consideration is [...] more »

Ulster Wildlife Trust: “we are now totally cynical as to whether government ever intended to meet its obligations”

Sat 19 November 2011, 4:38pm

The BBC NI environment correspondent, Mike McKimm, has an update on his August 2010 report on the Northern Ireland Executive’s failure to protect and restore a special habitat, of [protected species] horse mussel beds, in Strangford Lough – a designated Special Area of Conservation, an Area of Special Scientific Interest and a Ramsar (protected wetland) site.  And [...] more »

Chaos on Europa

Thu 17 November 2011, 4:40pm
Europa pictured by Nasa's Galileo probe

And that could be a good thing. [Image credit: Nasa/JPL. Image reprocessed by Ted Stryk].  As a BBC report notes, Nasa scientists have published their latest thinking on the chaos terrains of Jovian satellite Europa. [All hail our friend and lord, Jupiter! - Ed] *ahem*.  It suggests that the “chaos terrains form above liquid water lenses perched [...] more »

“An aircraft carrier-sized asteroid will make a safe, close flyby of Earth…”

Tue 8 November 2011, 3:03pm
Radar image of asteroid 2005 YU55

If the calculations are correct, the 400m-wide asteroid 2005 YU55 will make a safe, close flyby of Earth at around half past eleven tonight (11.28pm GMT).  [If?! - Ed]  If not, we’ll have a wondrous new scar to boast about!  Radar image of asteroid 2005 YU55 obtained on Nov. 7, 2011, at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. [...] more »

Wow, indeed.

Fri 28 October 2011, 11:55am

Via Tom Chivers at the Telegraph blog. [Video courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center] This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken October 18, 2011 from 07:09:06 to 07:27:42 GMT, on a pass from just [...] more »

NI Auditor General: “This pattern has continued in 2010-11.”

Tue 25 October 2011, 4:24pm

Last year the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland, Kieran Donnelly, qualified “a larger number of [NI Executive department's] accounts than usual” and highlighted his concern “that there [were] significant problems within the registered housing association sector in Northern Ireland.” As the NIAO press release notes, “This pattern has continued in 2010-11”.  Six out of the nineteen [...] more »

Belfast City Airport passenger limit reinstated

Tue 25 October 2011, 3:03pm

Having launched a consultation on the 2 million passenger seats per 12 month restriction on Belfast City Airport in June last year, the then Northern Ireland Environment Minister, the DUP’s Edwin Poots, announced in December 2010 Environment Minister Edwin Poots today announced his decision to remove the seats for sale restriction at George Best Belfast City Airport [...] more »

“Are the Scots more the Greeks or Germans? I couldn’t possibly say.”

Mon 24 October 2011, 1:18pm

“It’s starting”, is it?  [Whatever 'it' is - Ed].  The Guardian’s Michael White spots a flaw in Alex Salmond’s cunning plan.  [Does it involve turnips? - Ed]  Neeps.  From the Guardian Politics Blog The SNP and the Tory Eurosceptics have much in common – and I don’t mean that as a compliment, decent people though [...] more »

“one of the most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain”

Wed 19 October 2011, 2:38pm

The discovery of an intact Viking boat burial on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula - by the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project, a team led by experts from the universities of Manchester and Leicester, CFA Archaeology Ltd and Archaeology Scotland – has generated plenty of coverage.  Believed to be from the 10th Century, it’s the first fully intact Viking boat [...] more »

“humanity’s first overland expedition on another planet..” – redux

Thu 13 October 2011, 2:45pm
Sunrise on Mars

[Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University.]  Having completed what once “seemed like a crazy idea”, Nasa have released a video documenting the journey of Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity from Victoria crater to Endeavour crater.  A “three-year trek that totaled about 13 miles (21 kilometers) across a Martian plain pocked with smaller craters.”  Opportunity arrived on Mars in [...] more »

ALMA opens its eyes

Mon 3 October 2011, 6:26pm
Composite of ALMA and Hubble observations Antennae Galaxies

As the BBC report, and see here also, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have released the first image obtained by their new telescope, the Atacama Large Millimetre/Sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) – even though the array isn’t expected to be completed until 2013.  It’s the focus of the latest ESOcast 36 – ALMA opens its eyes. And here’s that [...] more »

Odyssey Marine’s “Irish project”

Wed 28 September 2011, 5:05pm

The Irish Times’ marine correspondent, Lorna Siggins, notes an interesting addendum to the US company Odyssey Marine Exploration’s confirmation of the site of the SS Gairsoppa – and, potentially, 200 tonnes of silver.  From the Irish Times report THE US marine exploration company which has located a British wartime shipwreck with £150 million worth of [...] more »

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