Science – Page 14 – Slugger O'Toole

10 years of [XMM] Newton and the hexagon on Saturn

Pete Baker on December 10, 2009, 9:15 pm

| Readers 10

The European Space Agency is marking the 10th anniversary of the launch of the X-ray observatory XMM-Newton with a less than informative slide-show. Of better value, if un-embeddable, is the BBC hosted version. Meanwhile Nasa’s Cassini probe, after imaging Saturn’s northern lights, has been capturing visible-light images of the mysterious hexagon-shaped jet-stream around Saturn’s north pole – full image here. First seen by the Voyager probes in 1979, infrared images of the structure were previously captured in 2006. Image Credit: …

“The methane being generated on Mars is indigenous to Mars”

Pete Baker on December 9, 2009, 9:31 pm

| Readers 4

It’s still not proof of life on Mars but, as the BBC reports, “Scientists at Imperial College London say they have now ruled out the possibility that the methane is being constantly deposited by meteorites landing on the planet.” Or, as the Irish Times notes, “The methane being generated on Mars is indigenous to Mars,” [Kevin Nolan, physics lecturer at the Institute of Technology Tallaght] said yesterday. “It is a big deal.” And we also know there’s water [ice] there …

That’s not a “Little Planet”, it’s a dwarf planet..

Pete Baker on December 7, 2009, 11:32 pm

| Readers 5

If you thought the last honk for Pluto was to be heard in the Illinois Senate, you’d be wrong. From the Professor comes news of the perfect Christmas gift for your inner space geek. MSNBC’s Cosmic Log’s Alan Boyle’s The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference. Available at all good book stores. Samizdata’s Dale Amon was at the launch. Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell sent her apologies.. Just don’t mention plutoids.. Pete Baker

“for the promoting of Experimentall Philosophy”

Pete Baker on December 6, 2009, 12:50 am

| Readers 9

The Royal Society has cracked open its archive again, although they’ve left the doors on their hinges – unlike the last time. In fact, there are only a handful of articles, 60 from over 60,000 in the archive, available to download on the Society’s Trailblazing site to commemorate its 350th anniversary in 2010. Although you can access more once you get into the archive proper – such as Dr Edmund Halley’s observations of the 1715 total solar eclipse “Made before …

The world’s highest-energy particle accelerator

Pete Baker on December 1, 2009, 3:37 am

| Readers 4

The Large Hadron Collider at Cern experienced its first collision a week ago and, as the BBC reports, in the early hours of this morning it officially became the world’s highest energy particle accelerator by accelerating its twin beams of protons to an energy of 1.18 TeV – breaking the previous world record of 0.98 TeV, held by the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s Tevatron collider since 2001. There’s an elongated Cern video report here. First physics due early 2010 …

Saturn’s Northern Lights

Pete Baker on November 25, 2009, 4:09 am

| Readers 4

Wondrous false colour images from Nasa’s Cassini probe of aurora at the northern pole of Saturn. JPL press release here and more details of the images here. Below the fold Cassini scientist Andy Ingersoll explains. Cassini scientist Andy Ingersoll on Saturn’s ‘northern lights’, shown for the first time in a visible-light movie. Video from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Update Original second [embedded] video wasn’t working for me. I’ve replaced it with a YouTube upload instead. Pete …

“The tracks we’re seeing are beautiful”

Pete Baker on November 24, 2009, 2:45 am

| Readers 4

Beams of protons started circulating again on Friday at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern. And the first low energy collisions have begun! From the Cern press release. “It’s a great achievement to have come this far in so short a time,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “But we need to keep a sense of perspective – there’s still much to do before we can start the LHC physics programme.” Also from the Cern press release, some of those …

“It’s great to see beam circulating in the LHC again”

Pete Baker on November 21, 2009, 4:12 am

| Readers 4

Understandably, it’s been a lot more low-key than last year. At the newly refurbished, and tested, Large Hadron Collider [LHC] at Cern scientists have successfully sent a beam of protons around the ring in a clockwise direction, some 10,000,000 times, and are preparing for the anti-clockwise beam. BBC report here. And from the Cern press release Particle beams are once again circulating in the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, CERN1’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This news comes after the machine …

“It flashed from the west, and it lit up the whole freakin’ neighborhood.”

Pete Baker on November 20, 2009, 4:30 am

| Readers 2

Via Space Weather. For something suppsoedly expected once every five years there seem to have been a remarkable number of “majestic” meteors recently – including one reported over Ireland in April this year. December 2008 over Edmonton, Canada. The anticipated asteroid 2008 TC3 over Sudan. Unexpectedly over Scandanavia in January 2009. The 8th October 2009 explosion over Indonesia. And in looking around I spotted this video report from Seattle in February 2008. Although they may have been variable in size, …

Space Shuttle Mission STS-129

Pete Baker on November 17, 2009, 1:08 am

| Readers 1

The space shuttle Atlantis is due to lift-off tonight at 7.28pm [GMT] from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on mission STS-129 – delivering stocks of spare parts ahead of the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2010. There’s the launch blog, and the usual live coverage on Nasa TV. And, if you’re lucky [and not in Europe – Ed], the Leonids might put on a show tonight. Adds A particularly stunning launch video from NasaTV Pete Baker

“We didn’t just find a little bit; we found a significant amount”

Pete Baker on November 14, 2009, 3:50 am

| Readers 11

When it followed the Centaur booster rocket into the lunar crater Cabeus on 9th October [Whilst wondering if it would be its friend – Ed] it appeared as if Nasa’s LCross mission hadn’t made as big a splash as expected. But at a press conference today Nasa revealed that the preliminary examination of the data collected showed evidence of “a significant amount” of water vapour and water-ice in the impact plume. Which adds yet more complexity to the story of …

“Who’s afraid of a big black hole?”

Pete Baker on November 4, 2009, 4:49 am

| Readers 5

A wondrous Horizon broadcast tonight, a real return to form – “Who’s afraid of a big black hole?” Astro-physicists apparently. Well, not really. But not a mention of the string hypothesis. Nor of the Large Hadron Collider. And that’s a good thing! You can catch the program again via the iPlayer – since the BBC don’t like me editing won’t let me edit clips. A taster, not the one I would have chosen and not embeddable, here. Alternative, not my …

Particles are back in the Large Hadron Collider!

Pete Baker on November 1, 2009, 11:09 pm

| Readers 11

After a successful switch-on in September last year there was a slight electrical mishap, and a large helium leak, at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern. They completed the £14million £24million refit back in May this year and, after testing the high-current superconducting electrical connections, have now started to test fire particles through one sector of the super-cool collider. Beams are expected to be in full flight, if not full power, by the end of the year. For those of …

“such objects are expected to impact the Earth on average every 2 – 12 years”

Pete Baker on October 31, 2009, 3:02 am

| Readers 2

A reported meteorite strike in Latvia turned out to be a publicity stunt by a telecommunications company, who are now facing some awkward questions from the Latvian government – BrandRepublic has the video. But, as the Belfast Telegraph noted, there was an unexpected celestial visitor earlier in October – a 5-10m wide asteroid exploded at a height of around 15-20 km over Indonesia on October 8th. Nasa’s Near Earth Object Program reports that the explosion was detected up to 18,000km …

“the last blank bit of the map of the Universe”

Pete Baker on October 29, 2009, 9:02 pm

| Readers 6

[Image Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler] The Irish Times follows the BBC in reporting the publication in Nature of detailed observations of the most distant cosmic object to be detected by telescope, GRB 090423 – a gamma ray burst with a red-shift of 8.2, corresponding to a distance of around 13.035 billion light years, when the Universe was only 630 million years old. It’s confirmation of the initial findings noted back in April this year – when I incorrectly attributed the sighting …

Ulster Museum re-opens

Pete Baker on October 22, 2009, 5:24 pm

| Readers 4

As mentioned back in August, the Ulster Museum re-opens today after its extended and expensive (£17million), and controversial, renovation – 80 years on from the original building’s official opening in 1929. The BBC reports here and, from their slideshow, it’s claimed that “Even though the exterior may look the same..” Does that mean the battle over “one of the glories of Modernism” was won? And have all those borrowed items been returned?Here’s a video of the work in progress in …

IBEX sees heliosphere boundary structure

Pete Baker on October 22, 2009, 3:57 am

| Readers 3

Nasa’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (Ibex) spacecraft has identified unexpected evidence of structure at the farthest reaches of our solar system, at the edge of our heliosphere – a crucial layer of protection against galactic cosmic rays. The structure, a “bright, winding ribbon” which seems to be ordered by the galactic magnetic field just outside the heliosphere, has also been confirmed by observations from Cassini in orbit around Saturn. And for the geeks out there, you know who you are, here’s …

“That’s it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it’ll be friends with me?”

Pete Baker on October 14, 2009, 4:37 pm

| Readers 6

Nasa’s LCROSS mission didn’t make the splash expected with its double impact on the Moon – as the BBC’s Spaceman says, it will be up to Nasa to explain the significance of that result. And, via the Guardian’s live-blog, we have LCROSS’ final [twittered] thoughts. “And what’s this thing coming toward me very fast? So big and flat and round,” “it needs a big wide sounding name like ‘Ow’, ‘Ownge’, ‘Round’, ‘Ground’!” “That’s it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it’ll …

LCROSS Lunar Impact Heads-up

Pete Baker on October 8, 2009, 2:48 pm

| Readers 2

I’m probably not going to be able to post anything for a couple of days. I know, I know.. Don’t worry though, I will be back. In the meantime here’s a heads-up – particularly for those of you on the Moon. You know who you are. ANYhoo.. On Friday 9th October Nasa’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite [LCROSS], launched on 18th June – as noted here – will make lunar impact. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is in position to …

Herschel’s looking at the stars!

Pete Baker on October 3, 2009, 11:38 pm

| Readers 4

Today’s space pics arrive courtesy of ESA’s cool infrared Herschel observatory, launched earlier this year along with ESA’s even cooler Planck observatory. Both of whom are twittering away – Planck and Herschel. Fine-tuned from its initial test observation Herschel has been looking at a reservoir of cold gas in the constellation of the Southern Cross near the Galactic Plane. Image credits: Left panel: ESA and the SPIRE consortium, Right panel: ESA and the PACS consortium. BBC report here. And from …