Galaxies

We’ve been talking galaxies in class these past few days. Ours, of course, is called the Milky Way because when it is viewed in the night sky from Earth, we see the swath of stars as almost a cloud or mist. We’re actually looking at it on edge, an we’re (Sol and Earth) on an outer arm.

Sound confusing? Here’s an artist’s view of the situation:

And so, along those lines, we’ve been watching the latest HubbleCast, this one entitled “Galaxies Gone Wild“. They’re hosted by the Hubble Site, and it’s well worth going there to explore more.

Hubblecast 16: Galaxies gone wild!

One of the big mysteries in astronomy is how galaxies grow and evolve over time. Collisions between galaxies are thought to be key events that shape their development. A stunning collection of 59 new images of colliding galaxies has been released to mark the 18th anniversary of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. They give us a unique insight into how galaxies collide to form larger galaxies.

ASIMO

ASIMO stands for “Advanced Step in Innovative MObility”.  It’s a robot designed and constructed by the Honda Motor Company to demonstrate what an advanced autonomous biped
can do.  For a million bucks (or a $166 000 yearly lease) one can be yours.

It’s a fully autonomous little dude, able to perform logic-based tasks (not entirely unlike what out NXT robots are supposed to do).  It all depends on the programming.

Well this one can do something special: conduct a symphony.  From Computerworld:

Jill Woodward, a spokeswoman for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, said she hopes having Asimo conduct a song in the sold-out May 13 concert will spark interest in science, technology and music among adults and children.

“It’s an interesting marriage of technology and culture,” said Woodward. “He’s being programmed [to conduct the orchestra]. The musicians will have to follow him and do what he says. It will be interesting to see if he has, shall we say, a different take on the piece.

Now personally, I’d attend.  But mostly to see cellist Yo-Yo Ma,  Oddly enough, he won’t be conducted by ASIMO.

By the way, ASIMO may sound like Asimov (as in Isaac Asimov), who developed the three rules for robots.  But there is no relation.   It’s all just a big coincidence.

ISS gets a boost

Anything in orbit – especially big anythings – eventually fall back to Earth if nothing is done about it. Old satellites, even entire space stations, have succumbed to gravity and the drag from the very (very) thin atmosphere at 200 km above Earth’s surface.

If the International Space Station were left to its own devices, it too would eventually be dragged down.

But every once in a while, she gets a boost up. This time it was from the European Space Agency’s Jules Verne.

From the ESA site:

ESA’s Jules Verne ATV was used for the first time early this morning to raise the orbit of the International Space Station. A 740-second burn of the Automated Transfer Vehicle’s main engines successfully lifted the altitude of the 280-tonne Station by around 4.5 km to a height of 342 km above the Earth’s surface.

There’s a cool animation of the event, over there too.

Insurance policy

And so, what kind of insurance policy do you take out on your planet?

Let’s say you’re worried about the future of mankind on Earth.  There’s too many selfish types who won’t reduce or reuse (let alone recycle), and they’re running our planet to her grave.  Well, if you listen to Stephen
Hawking (you know him, the world-famous physicist who works out of a wheelchair and talks with the synthetic voice due to ALS – Lou Gehrig’s Disease), you hedge your bets:  colonize the Moon and Mars.

From NewScientist Space:

Stephen Hawking called for a massive investment in establishing colonies on the Moon and Mars in a lecture in honour of NASA’s 50th anniversary. He argued that the world should devote about 10 times as much as NASA’s current budget – or 0.25% of the world’s financial resources – to space.

The renowned University of Cambridge physicist has previously spoken in favour of colonising space as an insurance policy against the possibility of humanity being wiped out by catastrophes like nuclear war and climate change. He argues that humanity should eventually expand to other solar systems.

But in a speech in Washington, DC, US, delivered in honour of NASA’s 50th anniversary in 2008, Hawking focused on near-term possibilities, backing the space agency’s goals of returning astronauts to the Moon by 2020 and sending humans to Mars soon after that.

Hawking is one of those once-in-a-lifetime kinds of people; brilliant and a visionary. He is now totally paralyzed from his disease, and yet remains productive in the fields of theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity. If you’re interested in questions about the age of the universe or the big bang, then click on that first link.

Korean astronaut lands… somewhere

And so, the first Korean astronaut (as well a Russian and an American) landed safely over the weekend.  (I first blogged about it over here.)

Problem is, they landed a bit off course.  From Scientific American:

A Russian space capsule landed about 420 km (260 miles) off course in Kazakhstan on Saturday but South Korea’s first astronaut and the other two crew were safe.

The Soyuz capsule landed west of the target area and about 20 minutes past the scheduled time after it adopted a so-called “ballistic landing,” space officials said. Rescue helicopters rushed to the site.

“The capsule landed with an overshoot. Such things happen,” said mission control spokesman Valery Lyndin.

He said the crew had begun leaving the capsule, which carried Yi So-yeon, a 29-year old nanotechnology engineer from Seoul, U.S. commander Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko.

Hump day – time for another killer astroid story

How’s this for moxy… a thirteen year old student in Germany reviews some information from NASA, and finds a mistake in their calculations. Instead of a one in 45 000 chance of an asteroid hitting Earth, there’s a one in 450 chance.

Quite the difference, wouldn’t you say?

German schoolboy corrects NASA’s asteroid figures.

There are, of course, many millions of asteroids in orbit around Sol. Many of these orbit in between Jupiter and Saturn, in what is known as the Asteroid Belt. But others have have very elongated orbits around Sol that cross Earth’s own orbit. When an asteroid intercepts our orbit, they collide, and the asteroid becomes a meteoroid.

From the article:

NASA had previously estimated the chances at only 1 in 45,000 but told its sister organisation, the European Space Agency (ESA), that the young whizzkid had got it right.

The schoolboy took into consideration the risk of Apophis running into one or more of the 40,000 satellites orbiting Earth during its path close to the planet on April 13 2029.

Those satellites travel at 3.07 kilometres a second (1.9 miles), at up to 35,880 kilometres above earth — and the Apophis asteroid will pass by earth at a distance of 32,500 kilometres.

If the asteroid strikes a satellite in 2029, that will change its trajectory making it hit earth on its next orbit in 2036.

I’ll say this: when our possible future as a race depends on the math of a thirteen year old, some is very very wrong. Or very very promising.

Addendum(dumdum)

Or Not…  From The Universe Today, it seems as though this whole thing was a hoax.  I am  shocked!  Shocked to find a hoax on the Internet.

It turns out this story is a fabrication and AFP didn’t check the facts with NASA as I suspected. According to the blog Cosmos4u, they talked with Don Yeomans at NASA’s NEO office and this is what Yeoman’s said about the news story of a 13-year old boy correcting NASA’s estimates of Apohpis impacting earth: “We have not corresponded with this young man and this story is absurd, a hoax or both.

Just goes to show you can’t always trust the Intertubz, even if the information comes from a supposedly reliable source.  Like a tabloid newspaper.

Sea of red

The Flames are on tonight (note to the rest of the world, who may be finding us for the first time: we are Calgary Flames fans, here), and as I watch, I also surf.

This is an amazing photo. Part of a photo, actually. A very small part of a grand mosaic produced Opportunity, on of the two Mars Rovers.

Yes, this is Mars!

The photo comes to us by way of the Martian Chronicles Blog, to which you should head to see the full image in full resolution.

If I hadn’t said that this was Mars, you might think it was Earth herself. Dunes, just like those found in the Sahara or Namib Deserts, Or even closer to home.

A sea of red. Just like at the Saddledome.

April 12

On this day in history, 47 years ago, our civilization sent the first person into space. His name was Yuri Gagarin, and he was a Soviet (Russian) cosmonaut. 47 years. That is all. That is how long we’ve been in space.

20 years after than, in 1981, the Americans launched the first space shuttle, Columbia.

A very important day indeed.

Powers of ten

Multiply by ten.

Start ten million light years from the Milky Way, which is our home galaxy (and which is itself 100 000 light years in diameter). It is but a splotch in the visible universe. But when you zoom in by a factor of ten times, you can see better, and the spiral arms become visible. Zoom in again, and all of the sudden you’re in our neighbourhood, the eastern spiral arm.

Each click brings you ten times closer to Earth. But then what? Click and find out.

It’s a java powered animation that brings you from the verge of our galaxy to deep inside teh cell of a leaf, magnifying by ten times each step.

Korea in space

The International Space Station is truly an international undertaking. Astronauts from 15 countries have visited and spent time there, and Canadians have been stationed there more than any other country except Russia and the U.S.

Now Korea has entered the club. Take a look at this video of the Russian launch, and try to make note of how different from the American launched these are

First Korean woman in space

Here she is, Yi So-Yeon.

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And Here’s the full story, courtesy of Space-Travel.com.

(h/t to Matt C.)