Cosmic Log : Space

Science by the book

Alan Boyle — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:13:00 GMT

Featurepics.com

Books on scientific subjects offer the world ... and other planets as well.

Science books used to show dinosaurs exclusively in shades of scaly green and brown. Books about the solar system used to list just nine planets, and books about the subatomic world didn't go much farther than protons, neutrons and electrons.

As times have changed, so has the science - and so should science books. Just in time for holiday giving, here's a selection of books for kids (and grownups) that incorporate recent developments on the scientific frontiers.

...(read more)

Suborbital science goes public

Alan Boyle — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:45:00 GMT

	Blue Origin
	Click for video: New Shepard flies in Blue Origin video from 2006, used with permission.

Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos' usually secretive Blue Origin rocket venture raised the curtain today on three research experiments that are slated to take suborbital journeys on its prototype spaceship in two years' time.

For years, Blue Origin has been working on a vertical-launched rocket that could someday take passengers on an automated trip beyond 62 miles (100 kilometers) in altitude. That's beyond the boundary of outer space - at a height where passengers could see the blue, curving Earth beneath the blackness of space, and experience a few minutes of weightlessness.

Blue Origin's engineers have flown their New Shepard prototype craft through several low-altitude tests at Bezos' hush-hush launch facility near Van Horn, Texas. But details about any of the tests beyond the first one have been hard to come by.

...(read more)

Play the galactic slots

Alan Boyle — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

NASA / STScI

The galaxies NGC 2207 (left) and IC 2163 are entangled in a picture from the
Hubble Space Telescope. Such mergers are the focus of Galaxy Zoo's latest project.

Galaxy Zoo's latest online research project is a "cosmic slot machine" that asks users to match up simulations of galactic smash-ups with pictures of the real things. The payoff? That comes in the form of citizen science.

...(read more)

Chair floats to final frontier

Alan Boyle — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:45:00 GMT

Toshiba UK

Click for video: An armchair floats to the edge of space in Toshiba's "Space
Chair Project" commercial. Click on the image to see Toshiba's video on YouTube.

Space ballooning hits new heights in an HDTV commercial showing a simple armchair floating against the backdrop of our curving planet, almost 100,000 feet above the ground. When you watch the video, the first thought that comes to mind is, "Wow, that's cool!" And the second thought is probably, "How the heck did they do that?"

...(read more)

X marks the galactic spot

Alan Boyle — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:44:00 GMT

NASA / ESA

An ethereal "X" or boxlike structure marks the chaotic center of the edge-on
galaxy NGC 4710. Click on the picture for a larger version.

One of the "X-Files" that astronomers keep in their filing cabinets relates to the mysterious X shape seen at the center of some galaxies — but this particular mystery may be close to being explained.

...(read more)

Stellar views of meteor show

Alan Boyle — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:45:00 GMT

Malcolm Park

A fireball seems to shoot right through a house in Grafton, Ontario. Malcolm Park
captured the image as he was setting up to photograph meteors on Monday night.

This week's Leonid meteor shower may not rise to the level of a shooting-star storm, but it's certainly producing a flurry of fine-looking pictures.

...(read more)

Shooting stars on the Web

Alan Boyle — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:40:00 GMT

S. Abe and H. Yano / NASA / ISAS

Meteors flash brightly in a picture taken from an aircraft flying at an altitude of
39,000 feet during the 1999 Leonids Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign.

The Internet can help you get a great view of this week's Leonids or any other meteor shower, on your computer screen or in the honest-to-goodness night sky.

...(read more)

Marvelous view ... and a mystery

Alan Boyle — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:58:00 GMT

ESA

The OSIRIS camera on the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft captured
this view of Earth from 393,000 miles (633,000 kilometers) away on Thursday.

Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft is making its final flyby past Earth on its way to an asteroid and a comet – a close encounter that should yield beautiful pictures of our home planet, and perhaps the answer to a cosmic mystery as well.

...(read more)

Space rock buzzes past Earth

Alan Boyle — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:55:00 GMT

NASA

A NASA graphic traces the asteroid 2009 VA's path within the moon's orbit and past
Earth. Each dot on the 2009 VA line indicates an hour of time along the route.

Asteroid-watchers say a space rock about as big as a garage came within 9,000 miles (14,000 kilometers) of Earth last Friday, just 15 hours after it was detected.

Experts quickly determined that the asteroid 2009 VA would miss us - and even if it came directly at us, it wouldn't have caused a catastrophe. Nevertheless, the close encounter serves as a reminder that someday a much bigger rock may well hit us and that it's best to be prepared.

...(read more)

Triple delight in the Milky Way

Alan Boyle — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:30:00 GMT

NASA / ESA / SSC / CXC / STScI

Click for video: Color-coded images from NASA's three Great Observatories —
the Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes — are combined to produce this
spectacular view of the Milky Way galaxy's central region. Click on the image to
watch a video about the image from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

NASA has blended three views of our home galaxy's turbulent core to produce a picture filled with scientifically significant snap, crackle and pop. And the deeper you go into the image, the more you learn.

...(read more)