All kinds of recent articles

I have been saving so many of these articles and just never got around to posting them. Some seem to have some age on them, so I'll leave them out and just share the good stuff.

Astronomically Far Away: How to Measure the Universe

Defining missions for the Ocean Worlds (since we are finally going to send a probe to Europa)

Beyond Earth (Day) Where will alien life be discovered first?

Send us your most ambitious spaceship designs (mainly aimed at students in K12 education)

My new favorite company - SpaceX!

And finally, in honor of the Mercury Transit today

I have been meaning to write about space tourism and I will get my act together and share what is on my mind.

Good astronomy news

Using neutrinos in space:

http://www.astronomy.com/news/2016/04/fermi-helps-link-cosmic-neutrino-to-blazar-blast

Are we ready to send humans to Mars?

http://www.airspacemag.com/ask-astronaut/ask-astronaut-do-we-have-knowledge-today-send-humans-mars-180958897/

How to measure the universe:

http://www.space.com/32552-how-to-measure-astronomically-far-distances.html?cmpid=514648_20160413_60478156&adbid=720333250778894336&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15431856

The largest sunspot ever observed, and I saw it through my telescope!

http://www.thesuntoday.org/solar-observations/ar12192-the-largest-sunspot-group-of-solar-cycle-24/

I love raspberry pi

A raspberry pi cosmic ray detector from CERN.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-cosmic-ray-detector-from-cern/

Some recent science news (Black holes and Mars, but not together)

I have been meaning to catch up and have a few links to share today. I have had some ideas about both citizen science (such as galaxy zoo) and space tourism (ala Richard Branson) about which I have been meaning to write. Those are upcoming, I promise. Or you can take away my blogging salary.


Tomorrow begins our spring break here at school, and on top of that, my family and a few lucky friends are going to see Superman vs Batman. It has been much anticipated and I am looking forward to it.
Clocking the rotation rate of a supermassive black hole (But whose clock to use?)

A great, and light hearted, video about black holes

Mars Radiation Risk: How Would 'The Martian' Hero Fare?  (Not well, I think).

New gravity map gives best view yet inside Mars

Success with hyperlinking!

More about general relativity

Great link about the first 100 years of general relativity and how that has led to recent discoveries with gravitational waves.

http://frontierfields.org/2016/03/11/a-century-later-general-relativity-is-still-making-waves/

Double astronomy Tuesday

I am enough of a Star Wars nerd to love anything that resembles Tatooine. So when astronomers investigate double sun systems (binary systems) with planets, I am all ears. 

https://public.nrao.edu/news/pressreleases/binary-star-disk

And of course my favorite dwarf planet, which needs no introduction. 

http://www.space.com/31930-pluto-geology-map-new-horizons.html?cmpid=514648_20160216_58319506&adbid=699601657689014272&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15431856

A gas cloud out for revenge? That sounds like Star Trek! Now you're talking!

http://www.space.com/31873-gas-cloud-boomerangs-back-from-milky-way.html?cmpid=514648

Refrigerator update: delay due to ice and snow. It will be delivered on Saturday. 

Gravitational waves

I am sitting here at home on a snowy President's Day morning, waiting for our new refrigerator to arrive, and I started thinking about the recent gravitational wave discovery and what that means. Even after having several days to let the discovery sink in, I am still coming to grips with it.

(To add a side comment, this has already been an incredible year to teach astronomy for the first time. We've had the Pluto flyby, eclipses, exoplanet discoveries, possibly another planet discovery and now LIGO's announcement.)

Very simply, the discovery of gravitational waves opens up an entire new realm of astronomy. Astronomers use every wavelength available (radio, microwave, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X Ray and gamma ray) and use a range of methods to gather information from them. (They also use cosmic rays and neutrinos now that I think about it.) 

One of the best ways to learn more about an object is to compare it in multiple frequencies. Now they use gravity as a tool as well.

Much has been made about the double black hole merger that LIGO described in their big announcement. ANY rearrangement of matter would also lead to these waves. Supernovae, colliding stars and who knows what else is colliding and rearranging out there in the universe.

It is a higher leap forward for astronomy and for science as well.