• Geoengineering on NPR: “A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come” | The Intersection

    Updated: 2010-05-30 11:09:15
    : Log In Subscribe Give a Gift Archives Customer Service SEARCH Health Medicine Mind Brain Technology Space Human Origins Living World Environment Physics Math Video Photos Podcast RSS Blogs The Intersection Point of Inquiry Hosts to Convene With Listeners and Students in Amherst , New York The Hurricane-Oil Slick Story Makes the New York Times Geoengineering on NPR : A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come” by Chris Mooney Eli Kintisch , Point of Inquiry guest listen and the author of Hack the Planet was on All Things Considered” yesterday Here’s an excerpt from the show : transcript Another scientist is taking a different approach to geoengineering . Instead of looking to the sky for solutions , he’s looking to the ocean . Victor Smetacek , a German oceanographer , is trying to cool the planet by

  • Stomping Through the Permian [Science Tattoo] | The Loom

    Updated: 2010-05-30 03:25:37
    Mandy writes, “I am actually a microbiologist, but my side interest is the trilobite. I went in thinking I’d just get a small black outline of a trilobite, and the tattoo artist was so excited that I wanted a trilobite, and insisted on designing something more complicated for me. So attached is a photo of [...]

  • Astronomy Without A Telescope – Life In Cosmic Rays

    Updated: 2010-05-29 23:30:12
    We all know that astronomy is just plain awesome – and pretty much everything that's interesting in the world links back to astronomy and space science in one way or another. Here I'm thinking gravity, wireless internet and of course ear thermometers. But wouldn't it be great if we could ascribe the whole origin of [...]

  • Carnival of Space 155 | Bad Astronomy

    Updated: 2010-05-29 22:29:35
    Time for the Space Carnival, me droogs, this time at Backseat Driving. Just a little something for a lazy Saturday afternoon, or whatever time and day it is for you on this spinning ball.

  • Spying on a Hubble Telescope Look-Alike

    Updated: 2010-05-29 21:43:59
    Amateur astronomer Ralf Vandebergh from the Netherlands is becoming well-known for his ability to capture images of the space shuttle, space station and other satellites in low Earth orbit. Recently, he tried his hand at something a little more distant: The Keyhole 11-4 satellite, which orbits at about 600 km (360 miles) above [...]

  • Carnival of Space #155

    Updated: 2010-05-29 18:02:04
    This week's Carnival of Space is hosted by Brian Schmidt over at Backseat Driving. Click here to read the Carnival of Space #155. And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry [...]

  • Up for Discussion: Neanderthals and Synthetic Genomes | The Loom

    Updated: 2010-05-29 15:47:22
    Two of my favorite bloggers, John Hawks and Christina Agapakis, talk about the big genome news of recent weeks on Bloggingheads. Gets technical, but in a good way!

  • NASA: Is Approaching Space Object Artificial?

    Updated: 2010-05-29 15:32:11
    NASA authorities report that an unknown object approaching the Earth from deep space is almost certainly artificial in origin rather than being an asteroid. Object 2010 KQ was detected by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona earlier this month, and...

  • Point of Inquiry Hosts to Convene With Listeners and Students in Amherst, New York | The Intersection

    Updated: 2010-05-29 15:01:36
    , Log In Subscribe Give a Gift Archives Customer Service SEARCH Health Medicine Mind Brain Technology Space Human Origins Living World Environment Physics Math Video Photos Podcast RSS Blogs The Intersection The Coming Hurricane Season is Forecast to Be Brutal Geoengineering on NPR : A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come” Point of Inquiry Hosts to Convene With Listeners and Students in Amherst , New York by Chris Mooney I’ve just confirmed that I’ll be joining my fellow POI hosts Karen Stollznow and Robert Price at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst , New York in late June . The occasion is the Center for Inquiry’s summer annual leadership conference , which brings in freethinking student leaders from across the country for workshops , lectures , and to finally get to know each . other This is a

  • First Ever Video of NASA's 'Ice Team'

    Updated: 2010-05-29 01:56:39
    NASA has released, for the first time, video of the final inspection of a space shuttle before launch. The Final Inspection Team, also known as the "Ice Team," performs a walkdown of Kennedy's Launch Pad 39A during space shuttle Atlantis' STS-132 launch countdown on May 14, 2010. The six-member team walks on every level [...]

  • Giant airplane-mounted telescope sees first light! | Bad Astronomy

    Updated: 2010-05-28 22:09:10
    Very cool news: the flying infrared observatory, SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) — which has been in the works for many years — has seen first light. What’s remarkable about this observatory is that it’s mounted in a hole in the side of a 747! Don’t believe me? Check. This. Out: [Click any of the images [...]

  • Weekend SkyWatcher's Forecast: May 28-30, 2010

    Updated: 2010-05-28 21:26:56
    Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! It's a green "Corn Moon" weekend and time to get out of the house and enjoy the night sky! Enjoy sharing "Moon Illusion" with friends or simply spotting bright features with easy optics. In the mood to kick back and stargaze? The learn more about the constellation of [...]

  • Amateur Astronomer Images X37-B Space Plane in Orbit

    Updated: 2010-05-28 19:59:47
    Even since amateur astronomers picked up on the orbit of the Air Force's secret X37-B space plane, others have been trying to capture images of the mini-space shuttle look-alike. So far, images have been just streaks or dots, but Universe Today reader Brent (a.k.a. HelloBozos) was actually able to image the plane in some [...]

  • A little weekend Saturn awesomeness | Bad Astronomy

    Updated: 2010-05-28 19:01:00
    If you need a little more awesome in your weekend, then try this: I know I’ve been posting quite a few Saturn images from Cassini, but I really like this one. It shows the big round moon Rhea, the lumpy small moon Janus, and a lovely view of the foreshortened rings. Both moons were on the [...]

  • Answer Posted for This Week's WITU Challenge

    Updated: 2010-05-28 18:33:04
    Mars or Earth? That is the question. Find the answer back at the original post for this week's Where In The Universe challenge. And check back next week for another test of your visual knowledge of the cosmos.© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.usPost tags:Feed enhanced [...]

  • Dang, What Was That? Astronomers Wonder What Just Whizzed by Earth | Discoblog

    Updated: 2010-05-28 18:10:44
    Momma always said to pick up after yourself. Otherwise, you won’t know where your old pieces of junk will end up, and might end up confusing them with asteroids. Astronomers have decided that a near-Earth object that passed by Earth last week is likely a rocket piece, a chunk of metal left behind in the darkness [...]

  • A Shrine to Science on the Missouri River | Cosmic Variance

    Updated: 2010-05-28 18:09:27
    One of the many places I’ve been traveling to recently is a bit unusual: the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, Missouri. For one thing, it’s a private library; like the Huntington Library in Pasadena, it’s supported almost entirely by private funds. For another, Linda Hall is completely dedicated to science, technology, [...]

  • SOFIA Sees First Light

    Updated: 2010-05-28 16:04:04
    Flying SOFIA has opened her eyes! The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint program by NASA and the German Aerospace Center made its first observations on May 26. The new observatory uses a modified 747 airplane to carry a German-built 2.5 meter (100 inch) reflecting telescope. "With this flight, SOFIA begins [...]

  • Teen’s Winning Science Fair Project Could Turn Tire Dumps Into Power Stations | Discoblog

    Updated: 2010-05-28 15:58:10
    When other Albertans saw landfill fodder, 17-year-old Kyle Schole saw electricity. His project, “Microbial Degredation of Vehicle Tires,” which uses a strain of bacteria to harness energy from decomposing rubber tires, hasn’t yet hit the journal circuit. But it has won the farm-raised teenager a gold-prize at his national science fair. Schole devised his plan while driving past an Alberta tire recycling plant. Though [...]

  • Air Force Launches Next Generation GPS Satellite

    Updated: 2010-05-28 15:02:48
    The first in a series of next-generation GPS satellites launched late Thursday from Cape Canaveral launch Complex 37 on board a Delta IV rocket. The Air Force’s Global Positioning System GPS IIF SV-1 satellite blasted off at 11 p.m. EDT on May 27, 2010, after overcoming three different launch aborts over the last [...]

  • The Coming Hurricane Season is Forecast to Be Brutal | The Intersection

    Updated: 2010-05-28 08:37:27
    Log In Subscribe Give a Gift Archives Customer Service SEARCH Health Medicine Mind Brain Technology Space Human Origins Living World Environment Physics Math Video Photos Podcast RSS Blogs The Intersection Are We Hardwired to Kill Point of Inquiry Hosts to Convene With Listeners and Students in Amherst , New York The Coming Hurricane Season is Forecast to Be Brutal by Chris Mooney I have to say , I am a bit staggered by just how severe the forecast from NOAA is for the Atlantic hurricane year 2010. We know these predictions aren’t always spot on , but they get increasingly accurate as the season nears–and now just before June 1, NOAA is calling for 14-23 named storms , 8-14 hurricanes , and 3-7 major . hurricanes In short , they’re calling for a year that would almost rival the worst year

  • Could the Clouds of Venus Harbor Life? Experts Say "Yes"

    Updated: 2010-05-28 07:46:00
    Scientists suspect that Venus's atmosphere might hide extraterrestrial lifeforms, and in the most extraordinary safari ever, they want to go there and capture them with a flying balloon. Interplanetary travel, extraterrestrial life, and Venusian airships - anyone doing anything other...

  • Ancient Dwarf Galaxies Orbiting the Milky Way -Clues to Dark Matter?

    Updated: 2010-05-28 07:13:00
    Dwarf galaxies are faint, inconspicuous systems with only a few million stars, but they may ultimately play a key role in understanding dark matter. Measurements of the random motions of stars in nearby dwarf galaxies show that these galaxies may...

  • NCBI ROFL: Origins of magic: review of genetic and epigenetic effects. | Discoblog

    Updated: 2010-05-28 00:00:31
    It’s BMJ week (again) on NCBI ROFL! After the success of our first BMJ week, we decided to devote another week to fun articles from holiday issues of the British Medical Journal. Enjoy! “Objective: To assess the evidence for a genetic basis to magic. Setting: Harry Potter novels of J K Rowling. Participants: Muggles, witches, wizards, and squibs. [...]

  • Bright galaxies like to stick together

    Updated: 2010-05-28 00:00:00
    The Herschel Space Observatory has been able to see thousands of galaxies and identify their locations, showing for the first time that they are packed closely together in the center of large galaxy clusters.

  • NASA spacecraft penetrates mysteries of martian ice cap

    Updated: 2010-05-28 00:00:00
    Layers of ice record a history of accumulation, erosion, and wind transport. From that, scientists can determine a history of climate that's more detailed than anybody expected.

  • Japan Shoots for Robotic Moon Base by 2020

    Updated: 2010-05-27 23:21:52
    These ARE the droids we've been looking for. The Japanese space agency, JAXA, has plans to build a base on the Moon by 2020. Not for humans, but for robots, and built by robots, too. A panel authorized by Japan's prime minister has drawn up preliminary plans of how humanoid and rover [...]

  • 3QD Science Blogging Prize | Cosmic Variance

    Updated: 2010-05-27 19:53:56
    3 Quarks Daily has embarked on an annual hunt for the best blog posts in four areas: science, politics, philosophy, and arts & literature. Nominations have now opened for this year’s science prize; you have until May 31 to suggest your favorite science blog post from the last year; then there will be [...]

  • Andromeda's Unstable Black Hole

    Updated: 2010-05-27 16:23:15
    The Andromeda galaxy, the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way, has a supermassive black hole at the center of it much like other galaxies. Because of its proximity to us, Andromeda – or M31 – is an excellent place to study just how the supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies consume [...]

  • Time-Lapse Satellite View of Growing Oil Spill

    Updated: 2010-05-27 14:45:22
    We've featured many satellite views of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, here on Universe Today, but this time-lapse video puts them all together. The video reveals a space-based view beginning on April 12 before the accident, then after the April 20 explosion, with the burning oil rig. Later, the ensuing oil spill is [...]

  • Spacecraft Reveals Solar Effects on Earth Technology

    Updated: 2010-05-27 07:48:00
    NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, has allowed scientists to comprehensively view the dynamic nature of Solar storms that have long been recognized as a cause of technological problems on Earth since the invention of the telegraph in the 19th...

  • NASA Satellite Video of Gulf Oil Spill (VIDEO)

    Updated: 2010-05-27 07:41:00
    <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"

  • 'Nature's Batteries' May Have Powered Origin of Life

    Updated: 2010-05-27 07:20:00
    Researchers at the University of Leeds may have uncovered new clues to the origins of life on Earth with the discovery of a compound known as pyrophosphite may have been an important energy source for primitive lifeforms. There are several... </div

  • BP Gulf Oil Spill: The Ecological Damage -Up Close

    Updated: 2010-05-27 07:14:00
    Image credit: bostom.com/bigpicture

  • The Daily "140" Insight

    Updated: 2010-05-27 07:08:00
    "I want to put a ding in the universe." Steve Jobs

  • You Create the Caption

    Updated: 2010-05-27 07:06:00
    Image credit: With thanks to our friends at gizmodo.com

  • Where In the Universe #106

    Updated: 2010-05-27 01:31:58
    Here's this week's Where In The Universe Challenge. You know what to do: take a look at this image and see if you can determine where in the universe this image is from; give yourself extra points if you can name the instrument responsible for the image. We’ll provide the image today, but won’t reveal [...]

  • Masten Successfully Re-Ignites Rocket Engine During Test Flight

    Updated: 2010-05-27 01:09:42
    “This was by far the coolest rocket flight I’ve ever seen!” said Ian Garcia, Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Engineer for Masten Space Systems. I'll second that! With their motto, "Just gas 'em up and go!" the Masten team today successfully demonstrated in-air engine re-light capability on their Xombie vehicle, and this was the first time [...]

  • Stellar shrapnel seen in aftermath of explosion

    Updated: 2010-05-27 00:00:00
    A new observation from the Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals evidence for a bullet-shaped object being blown out of a debris field left over from an exploded star.

  • NASA's Swift survey finds "smoking gun" of black hole activation

    Updated: 2010-05-27 00:00:00
    Galaxy mergers appear to feed black holes, causing them to give off as much as 10 billion times the Sun's energy.

  • Galaxies Like Grains of Sand in New Herschel Image

    Updated: 2010-05-26 23:56:16
    Wow. Just wow. Each of the colored dots in this new image from the Herschel telescope is a galaxy containing billions of stars. These are distant luminous infrared galaxies, and appear as they did 10–12 billion years ago, packed together like grains of sand on a beach, forming large clusters of galaxies [...]

  • Man-Made Object Spotted Orbiting the Sun

    Updated: 2010-05-26 23:05:34
    My dotAstronomy pal Edward Gomez from the Las Cumbres Observatory is reporting that a man-made object has been spotted orbiting the sun. First noticed in the Catalina Sky Survey on May 16, it was thought to be an asteroid, but then, because of its very circular and low-inclined orbit, Richard Miles, using the [...]

  • Atlantis Crew 'Riding Inside a Fireball'

    Updated: 2010-05-26 21:39:17
    At a post-landing news conference, STS-132 commander Ken Ham described the incredible visual effects the crew of Atlantis witnessed as they returned to Earth today. As the shuttle was engulfed in plasma during the hottest part of their re-entry through Earth's atmosphere, they were in orbital darkness, which highlighted the orange, fiery glow around [...]

  • Newly-Discovered Stellar Nurseries in the Milky Way

    Updated: 2010-05-26 20:57:00
    Our Milky Way churns out about seven new stars per year on average. More massive stars are formed in what's called H II regions, so-named because the gas present in these stellar nurseries is ionized by the radiation of the young, massive stars forming there. Recently-discovered regions in the Milky Way that are nurseries for [...]

  • Galaxy Mergers Make Black Holes 'Light Up'

    Updated: 2010-05-26 20:55:37
    Only about 1% of supermassive black holes emit large amounts of energy, and astronomers have wondered for decades why so few exhibit this behavior. Data from Swift satellite, which normally studies gamma ray bursts, has allowed scientists to confirm that black holes "light up" when galaxies collide, and the data may offer insight into [...]

  • Mars Polar Cap Mystery Solved

    Updated: 2010-05-26 15:43:58
    The shape of the two-mile-tall Texas-sized ice cap at the north pole of Mars has puzzled scientists for forty years, but new results to be published in a pair of papers in the journal Nature on May 27 have put the controversy to rest. The polar caps of Mars have been known since the first telescopic [...]

  • Atlantis Returns Home — For the Last Time?

    Updated: 2010-05-26 14:31:38
    A bittersweet moment in space history as Atlantis and her six-member crew landed at Florida's Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday morning. Very likely, this was Atlantis' final landing, returning home after 25 years of service. Atlantis' rich history includes 294 days in space, 4,648 orbits and 120,650,907 miles during 32 flights. There's a [...]

  • New star-forming regions in Milky Way discovered

    Updated: 2010-05-26 00:00:00
    Scientists found concentrations of these regions at the end of the galaxy's central bar and in its spiral arms.

  • Astronomers discover clue to origin of Milky Way gas clouds

    Updated: 2010-05-26 00:00:00
    Astronomers conclude that these clouds have been blown away from the galaxy's plane by supernova explosions and the fierce winds from young stars in areas of intense star formation.

  • Supermassive black holes may frequently roam galaxy centers

    Updated: 2010-05-25 00:00:00
    The most likely cause for M87's supermassive black hole to be off center is a previous merger between two older, less massive ones.

  • Phoenix Mars Lander is silent as new image shows damage

    Updated: 2010-05-25 00:00:00
    The solar-powered lander completed its 3-month mission and kept working until sunlight waned 2 months later.

  • Nearby black hole is feeble and unpredictable

    Updated: 2010-05-25 00:00:00
    Andromeda's black hole is fainter in X-ray light than astronomers might expect given the reservoir of gas around it.

  • STEREO, SOHO spacecraft catch comet diving into the Sun

    Updated: 2010-05-25 00:00:00
    Sun-grazing comets, composed of dust, rock and ice, are seldom tracked close to the Sun because their brightness is overwhelmed by the solar disk.

  • Weird orbits of neighbors can make 'habitable' planets not so habitable

    Updated: 2010-05-24 00:00:00
    A Jupiter-like planet's eccentric orbit could effect the orbit of an earthlike planet, possibly causing the smaller planet to cycle between habitable and uninhabitable conditions.

  • Out of whack planetary system offers clues to disturbed past

    Updated: 2010-05-24 00:00:00
    Scientists can no longer assume planets orbit their parent star in a single plane.

  • Helium pair has regular violent flare-ups

    Updated: 2010-05-24 00:00:00
    The stars are helium-rich white dwarfs, the compact remnants that are the end state of stars like our Sun.

  • WISE telescope has heart and soul

    Updated: 2010-05-24 00:00:00
    The new image demonstrates the power of the space telescope to capture vast regions such as the Heart and Soul nebulae.

  • Metallic liquid crystals

    Updated: 2010-05-07 11:48:50
    David Bradley Science Writer A new class of materials formed by combining liquid crystals and metal clusters glow intensely red in the infra-red region of the electromagnetic spectrum when irradiated over a broad range of wavelengths. The materials, dubbed clustomesogens, could be used in analytical instrumentation and potentially in display technologies. Liquid crystals are well known in [...]

  • Scrubbing up knowledge of submarine volcanoes

    Updated: 2010-05-07 11:48:36
    David Bradley Science Writer A study of the shape of pumice from three adjacent submarine lava dome volcanoes in the western Pacific reveal that explosive volatility driven by the movement of molten magma is lower in deeper water. The shape of pumice stones, which are formed by expansion of magmatic volatiles as the magma rises to [...]

  • Get Your Daily Dose of Awe @The Daily Galaxy Facebook Page

    Updated: 2010-05-04 09:55:18
    Link & Share The Daily Galaxy Facebook Page <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"

Current Feed Items | Previous Months Items

Apr 2010 | Mar 2010 | Feb 2010 | Jan 2010