Science – Page 9 – Slugger O'Toole

Black Marble Earth

Pete Baker on December 7, 2012, 8:45 pm

| Readers 68

As the BBC’s Spaceman, Jonathan Amos, notes This [above] spectacular night-time view of Earth is called Black Marble. It has been assembled from a series of cloud-free images acquired by one of the most capable satellites in the sky today – the Suomi spacecraft. Here is the associated, wondrous, video from Nasa Explorer This view of Earth at night is a cloud-free view from space as acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Satellite (Suomi NPP). A joint program by NASA and …

“The new A32 Cherrymount link road near Enniskillen will eventually be built on top of the crannog…”

Pete Baker on November 29, 2012, 8:28 pm

| Readers 119

The BBC reports, as do other news outlets, the Northern Ireland Environment Minister’s press release on “the first substantial, scientific excavation of a crannog in Northern Ireland”. A “huge treasure trove of artefacts” was uncovered – potentially of “international importance” – and the crannog was occupied from at least AD 900 to AD 1600. The ministerial press release also announced “the Drumclay Crannog Open Day on Saturday 1st December” – between 9.30 and 3.00pm. The BBC has the DoE images in an online gallery. …

The moment of quickening

Andrew Gallagher on November 20, 2012, 9:00 pm

| Readers 110

Patsy McGarry has an interesting article in the Irish Times today on the surprisingly fluid nature of the Catholic Church’s stance on abortion: … some of the church’s greatest teachers and saints believed no homicide was involved if abortion took place before the foetus was infused with a soul, known as “ensoulment”. This was believed to occur at “quickening”, when the mother detected the child move for the first time in her womb. In 1591, Pope Gregory XIV determined it …

“damn, what a sky…” – redux

Pete Baker on November 15, 2012, 8:17 pm

| Readers 63

[Image credit: ESO/Y. Beletsky] Another stunning time-lapse video of the wondrous night sky above the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope [VLT] array on top of Cerro Paranal in Chile’s Atacama Desert. This time presented as ESO Cast 50: Chile Chill 1. [Marvel at the solar system in motion… – Ed] Or, indeed, the galaxy. Stay with it past a relatively slow start for the best images. Video via Eso Observatory. Video Credit: ESO. Editing: Herbert Zodet. Web and technical support: Mathias André and Raquel Yumi …

Ever had a #DigitalLunch: Why not take a leap into a new space?

Mick Fealty on October 15, 2012, 11:44 am

| Readers 6

This week’s #DigitalLunch ‘jumps off’ from where on Herr Baumgartner’s sensational (in more ‘senses’ than one) leap into space lands… If you want to come along or just watch from your desktop (we don’t quite expect the 8 million Felix got, a few dozen would do us at this stage), you’ll be very welcome. I guess some of you are still scratching your head as to what this digital lunch thing is all about. It’s pretty straightforward. It is interactive …

“Sometimes you have to go up really high to understand how small you are.”

Pete Baker on October 14, 2012, 10:43 pm

| Readers 626

Stunning images of record-breaking skydiver, Felix Baumgartner, as he completes his last checklist, steps out of the capsule, and falls to earth. From a height of 128,097ft (24.2 miles; 39km). You can also see the flatspin that almost scuppered the attempt to break the sound barrier. The voice on CAPsuleCOMmunications is that of retired US Air Force Col Joe Kittinger who has been an integral part of Baumgartner’s record attempt team. Col Kittinger has held the record for the previous highest [102,800ft (31.3km)], farthest, …

Abortion clinic opens in Belfast…

Belfast Gonzo on October 11, 2012, 3:49 am

| Readers 83

NORTHERN Ireland is to get its first abortion clinic next week. In one of the biggest stories of our generation – and one which will unite hardline Protestants and Catholics – it’s reported that Marie Stopes will open for business in Belfast next Thursday, with the help of former PUP leader Dawn Purvis. The organisation says it will operate within the framework of the law here, but that will do little to assuage the anger of opponents, who will see …

Not a good week for ‘gay cure’ quacks

Patrick Corrigan on October 4, 2012, 9:58 pm

| Readers 58

This week California passed a law banning therapy aimed at making gay teenagers straight. Now Britain’s biggest professional body for psychotherapists, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) has instructed members that it is unethical for them to attempt to “convert” gay people to being heterosexual. The other main professional body for British psychotherapists, the UK Council for Psychotherapy, had issued similar guidance to members back in 2010. The professional guidance comes on top of the BACP withdrawing professional membership from ‘conversion …

National Trust: “However, not everyone agrees with the scientific view…”

Pete Baker on October 3, 2012, 11:56 am

| Readers 64

The BBC report that the National Trust have amended the controversial exhibition at the new Giants’ Causeway interpretive centre following their announced review of the materials in the display. But have they fully addressed the problem? Not quite. Here’s how the revised controversial section of the transcript now reads Today there is a clear understanding among scientists that the heat of the earth was the driving force behind the formation of the Giant’s Causeway – and that the earth is far older than …

“We stared at this patch of sky for about 22 days…”

Pete Baker on September 26, 2012, 6:53 pm

| Readers 140

As the BBC’s spaceman, Jonathan Amos, notes, the Hubble Space Telescope team have released an updated version of their stunning Ultra Deep Field image – the eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) – and they have seen further than ever. [Image credit: NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. Oesch (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (Leiden University), and the HUDF09 Team] From the text accompanying the above image The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is an image of a small area of space in the …

Endeavour’s Final Final Flight

Pete Baker on September 22, 2012, 8:37 pm

| Readers 54

Nasa’s fifth and final Space Shuttle, Endeavour, following in the footsteps of Discovery, undertook a farewell fly-over yesterday atop a modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft over numerous west coast landmarks including the shuttle’s future home, the California Science Center. Here it is flying over the Reliant Stadium and the Astrodome in Houston [Image credit: Nasa]. As the JPL press release said Endeavour holds a special place in the hearts of many at JPL. After all, this is the shuttle orbiter that JPLers have had …

Jupiter swallows an asteroid – redux

Pete Baker on September 13, 2012, 4:43 pm

| Readers 47

As Space Weather notes Around the world, amateur astronomers have been scanning the cloudtops of Jupiter for signs of debris from an explosion witnessed by Dan Peterson and George Hall on Sept. 10th. So far the cloud layer is blank. “Several observers have now obtained excellent images on the second and third rotations after the fireball, and there is nothing new nor distinctive at the impact site,” reports John H. Rogers, director of the Jupiter Section of the British Astronomical …

“some of us are looking at the stars. Just not very many of us…”

Pete Baker on September 1, 2012, 6:34 pm

| Readers 55

Reading Frank McNally’s An Irishman’s Diary today – on the number of comments here, compared to the numbers here – all I can say is that, fortunately, I don’t suffer from ‘comment envy’… Much. From today’s Irishman’s Diary. And all right, Mars might be a minority interest on most websites, never mind sites focused on Northern politics. One couldn’t expect stories from the red planet to be anything like as pressing as events on the green and orange planets where …

#DigitalLunch: Future of Education Live at 1pm…

Mick Fealty on August 31, 2012, 12:22 pm

| Readers 44

Our digital lunch on the future of Education today is the first of two live panels today. It will start at about 1pm. You can also watch on this page and pose and vote on questions for the panel as we go along… I missed these last week due to a technical problem, but they really do help us get do to some good material… For you night owls we shall be hosting a conversation with panelists from across the …

“Thrust is engaged, and we are now climbing away from Vesta atop a blue-green pillar of xenon ions”

Pete Baker on August 30, 2012, 8:18 pm

| Readers 53

Having arrived at the 530km-wide giant asteroid Vesta in July 2011, in May this year Nasa’s Dawn Mission scientists published some of their findings. Now Dawn’s ready to head out on the next leg of its journey – Destination [the even larger protoplanet (dwarf planet)] Ceres, ETA 2015. From the JPL press release “Thrust is engaged, and we are now climbing away from Vesta atop a blue-green pillar of xenon ions,” said Marc Rayman, Dawn’s chief engineer and mission director, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, …

“This is an area on Mount Sharp where Curiosity will go”

Pete Baker on August 29, 2012, 7:37 pm

| Readers 83

More wondrous images from Nasa’s mobile Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the 900kg rover Curiosity, now safely on the Martian surface in Gale Crater. And it’s only warming up its instruments. Here’s a panaroma of the landing site and the prime mission target, Mount Sharp. Focusing in on Mount Sharp… [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS] But the images that have attracted attention are from the telephoto lens [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS] As the Nasa press release notes The telephoto images beamed back to Earth show a …

“the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink”

Pete Baker on August 26, 2012, 9:07 pm

| Readers 113

Private family man, engineer, US Navy fighter pilot, war veteran, civilian test pilot, astronaut, academic, businessman, reluctant hero, and the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong has died at the age of 82. Reg Turnill, who was the BBC’s aerospace correspondent at the time of the first moon landing, gives his thoughts. Nasa’s tribute is available here. And, via the Professor, Rand Simberg has a detailed biography that’s worth a read. For the 40th Anniversary of the launch of …

Curiosity drops in on Mars – in Hi-res

Pete Baker on August 23, 2012, 9:50 pm

| Readers 53

Nasa’s mobile Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the 900kg rover Curiosity, may have started roving on the surface of Mars, but there’s still room for more stunning video of its descent. In high-resolution. Audio from mission control can also be heard, counting down the critical events. Video from JPL News This movie from NASA’s Curiosity rover shows most of the high-resolution frames acquired by the Mars Descent Imager between the jettison of the heat shield and touchdown. Pete Baker

“Curiosity will soon have a different patch of ground beneath it.”

Pete Baker on August 22, 2012, 3:12 pm

| Readers 47

Nasa’s mobile Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the 900kg rover Curiosity, may have damaged one of two sets of wind sensors in its Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) during its dramatic landing on Mars, but it will still be providing daily weather reports from the Red Planet. And, as a JPL/Nasa press release noted yesterday – with moving images Curiosity will soon have a different patch of ground beneath it. Today, the six-wheeled rover wiggled its four corner wheels side to side for the …

Curiosity: “This is a very low-resolution panorama”

Pete Baker on August 11, 2012, 4:45 pm

| Readers 56

Having survived the seven minutes of terror, and landed successfully at Gale Crater, earlier this week Nasa’s mobile Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the 900kg rover Curiosity, lifted its 2m high camera mast. And took a look at itself. [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech] Then it took a look at its new surroundings. In colour. [Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS] JPL have helpfully put together a video of the panoramic view. As the BBC spaceman, Jonathan Amos, notes The low-resolution vista shows at centre the big mountain …