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

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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.

Black holes and neutrinos, but not together

Black holes and their weird properties (from Symmetry magazine)

 http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/black-holes

Are neutrinos and anti neutrinos the same particle? (Again, from Symmetry magazine, how, what's the word I'm looking for?)

http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/is-the-neutrino-its-own-antiparticle

I'll offer some commentary on these articles in a future post.

Physics for the snowbound

This week marks the fifth time in my 21 years of teaching that I have had an entire week of school cancelled due to weather and snow. We have about 26 inches (66 cm) of snow outside and it has made the roads treacherous and now the sidewalks are impassible. And now I have heard that tomorrow (Friday) will be our fifth day in a row of no school. So that means that our planned snow days are used, and any more days off will have to made up. Hmm.

At least the internet works! 

Babylonian mathematics was 1500 years ahead of others.

http://www.space.com/31765-ancient-babylonians-tracked-jupiter-with-math.html?cmpid=514648

Archival film footage from CERN from 1961!

http://cern.ch/go/FJb9

And finally, Quantum physics themed short stories. They are actually quite good - check them out.

http://bit.ly/1OL9kyD

Quantum magnetic loops???

Perhaps the most fascinating news that I have heard lately is that of scientists using magnetic fields to tie particles in loops. I don't even know what that means yet, but it sounds absurdly interesting. And I do like the absurd.

My son and I have really been into the Mythbusters this season, even as they end their show. I predict that Adam will continue to have a TV presence, and Jamie will disappear into his workshop, never to be heard from again.  The Mythbusters, as well as other people at Discovery channel, have been working on content for a virtual reality app for phones.  Instead of watching a screen that is the size of you device, you can turn and point your device to view their show in a 360 degree circle.  Very cool.

To round it out today, I was dipping into the past this weekend to listen to a lot of David Bowie. I am not poetic enough to really say much about him, other than he was an original and will be missed. Okay, one more thing about Bowie - he was three years ahead of grunge music.

CNN tribute to David Bowie

Ground control to Major Tom...


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So much news

I am doing a news blast here with many articles that I have collected, and some that I have yet to read. Enjoy, and send me a message if you really like one of them.

Planetary Exploration Timelines: A Look Ahead to 2016

What could dark matter be?

Closest Earth-size Alien Planet Found, May Be a Venus Twin

Are We Living in a Multiverse?

10 ExoPlanets that could host alien life

Different news

What can I do to catch you up with recent events? 

Some particle physics news: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/the-particle-physics-of-you

New views of Pluto and Charon: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/a-day-on-pluto-a-day-on-charon

I have made some progress with my telescope. My older one is a 5 inch reflector. It is all metal and has a sturdy stand but it needs attention from time to time. I bought an adapter unit so I could use my iPhone to take astronmical pictures (planets and star trails and things like that). I had to figure a way to balance the telescope when I added the adapter and my iPhone. One of my friends mentioned "why don't you put an extra weight on the other end?" That seemed like an easy change, so I bought some weights, a carabiner and a chain (from an id tag) so I can hang all of those things on when I use the adapter. It works very well.

Now I just need to take some pictures. 

Catching up

This has been a difficult time to do a lot of blogging. Last summer was much better. I wonder what accounts for the difference...


Anyway, I don't want this to be a place where I complain a lot, but I will. It has been BUSY.  A little bit has been taken off my plate lately, somewhat against my wishes. I will consider sharing more about that later.  At least it has diminished my responsibilities for the moment and that is alright with me.

Astronomy class continues to be great. Despite some hiccups (rare ones) my students have been up to the challenge and respond in thoughtful ways. Today we discussed a way to choose people for a fictional trip to another world. The premise is that the Earth is dying and we need to send a group to a new world (sounds like Interstellar).  There is no perfect way to choose people, but we made our own lists and then discussed how to make choices. I always like it when they come up with a new idea or new perspective.

Over time, I think I am getting less enthusiastic for teaching subjects in which there is one "correct" answer. Everyone accepts the answer and there is nothing to talk about (unless you can't figure out that answer and that can be frustrating). (I.e. Physics)

I noticed the beautiful alignment of planets earlier in October. I took this photo as I got in my car at home and was about to drive to school. So this is taken at about 6:45 am looking east. The moon is the easiest to see and a small dot to the lower left of the moon is Venus. As time went on in October, you could see Mars and Jupiter there as well. It was quite a sight to see!

So much blogging to do, so little time...

This year has been really hectic and busy. I am having a great time teaching astronomy for the first time, but,... the first time with any course means a lot of preparation.

Here are some new things in the news. I have been pleased to see so much news about not just New Horizons, but Mars, comets, exo-planets, black holes and other objects out there.

And while we're at it - take a look at the southern sky in the morning, looking east. You'll see a wonderful alignment of Venus, Jupiter and Mars, in order of brightness. You can't miss them. Here's a link.

Next up: New Horizons published first Pluto paper

Exoplanets! How do you spot an Exo-planet from Earth?

Your moment of Zen: Wonderful video from the ISS of water in space


I have to find some time to go see The Martian...

Hello astronomy

Well I had some time off at the end of the summer and now I am back at school. Alex and I had some good time to relax and do things that we wanted. It started off as a busy summer with me at NIST and Alex at camps, but ended very nicely with my friend Grzegorz's visit from Poland.

This year I am teaching astronomy for the first time and am having a great time. You never know when you start a new course or project, but this one is working out well. I have the background and the interest and everything is working out fine.

I have some links here to post from some brand new, and also ground breaking news regarding exo-planets (planets orbiting other stars).

Exo-planet "movie"

A comet on its way to hit the sun. This is kind of striking in its own way.


And finally, a group of people making a scale model of the solar system in the desert. Very nicely done.

Next week we will work on our equinox project, during which we will take measurements of the sun and the angle of the shadows that an object makes on the ground. We will share that data with some local teachers as well as a number of my friends from CERN!

Quickly- sign up now!!

A pair of researchers are developing a mobile phone app that will detect cosmic rays.

http://crayfis.io/beta/

(story from NPR) http://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/395800694/want-to-do-a-little-astrophysics-this-app-detects-cosmic-rays

Well this is interesting

If this is accurate, the Air Force has a very interesting vehicle at this disposal. 

http://m.space.com/30245-x37b-military-space-plane-100-days.html?cmpid=514648_20150814_50787526&adbid=632159827867791360&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15431856

Philae lander data

Here is an announcement of the results from the Philae lander from last November.

A little particle physics today

Time for a little particle physics today. I have been concentrating on Pluto lately, for darned good reasons, but I actually do have some other interests (see older posts.)

In the summer of 2014, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to study particle physics at CERN, outside of Geneva, Switzerland. I took part in a High School Teacher program that invited 50 teachers from across the globe (32 countries I believe). It was a fantastic experience and one I will never forget.

(Come to think about it, I should have blogged about it at the time...)

Here are a few of the reasons it was so spectacular.  I made friends from different countries that I never would have otherwise met. One of those friends is coming to visit me soon. The other teachers were some of the most thoughtful, interesting people I have met. Also, as my first true international experience, I was thrilled to meet people with different ideas and different ways of doing things. I love those kinds of experiences and seek them out.

After three weeks, we had really become our own little community. We have our own Facebook group and have managed to stay in touch. A few of us even did an equinox activity and measured the length of shadows on the spring equinox. (With a small amount of math, you can determine the latitude of your location from the shadow. Pretty nice.)

Another aspect about the CERN scientists that impressed was not actually the incredible technology or the fact that they had found the Higgs boson two years prior (although it is pretty darned cool). What impressed me most was that they were so giving of their time. When they answered our questions (and there were many questions) no one was ever peeking at their watch, or saying "Oh, I'd love to stay and talk more, but..." A couple of them even came back for a second talk, or simply another question and answer session. They were giving of themselves and their time and showed how invested they are in their work.

Along those lines, I found some wonderful links from PHD comics, about the Higgs boson, dark matter and extra dimensions. Enjoy!


Okay, I can't help it, here is something cool about Pluto.

The icy plains of Pluto

More of the data from New Horizons is on its way to APL and Earth.  I am not even sure what to write about what has been found. Instead of a cold, dead, icy world, we have found a mysterious little world with very few craters, and well as flowing Nitrogen glaciers. Pluto's atmosphere has also finally had a close-up investigation.

I'll collect some of my thoughts about this new information, but I think it really shows how well prepared the New Horizons team was for the encounter, and it also validates the entire mission.

"The Frozen Plans of Pluto"

"Unofficially naming Pluto"