Space

PN G054.2-03.4: Necklace Nebula Gets A Close Up

A giant cosmic necklace glows brightly in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of an object named (surprise) the Necklace Nebula, a recently discovered planetary nebula which is the glowing remains of an ordinary, Sun-like star.  The nebula consists of a ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 14 2011 - 10:59am

The Moon Just Got Younger

Analysis of a piece of lunar rock brought back to Earth by the Apollo 16 mission in 1972 has shown that we may have been wrong about the age of the Moon. It is commonly accepted that the Moon was created by the impact of a large planet-like object and our ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 17 2011 - 12:46pm

Interstellar Crashes Ejecting Habitable Planets- Another Way Our Solar System Is Distinct

Our solar system, with planets over a range of sizes and moving in near-circular paths, seems to be unusual, according to a model in t Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society which finds that forming planetary systems may be knocked around by cr ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 18 2011 - 11:25am

Snow White Is Actually One Of The Dwarfs- And Is Red

2007 OR10, nicknamed Snow White by the graduate student who discovered it because it would presumably be white due to breaking off from icy fellow dwarf planet Haumea, turned out to be red. Well, it still turned out to be ice also but the surprise is it ma ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 22 2011 - 12:39pm

Australian Space Radio

FutureTense is a radio program in Australia that I had absolutely never heard of until they decided to interview me.  It's time to remedy this for that handful of you out there that, similarly, haven't yet caught them.  Thanks to the magic of the ...

Blog Post - Project Calliope - Aug 23 2011 - 9:56pm

Measure The Sun Yourself

Do you know what a creepmeter measures?  Measurement is the heart of science.  What distinguishes science from opinion or philosophy is measureables.  The root of science is facts that are determined by actual observation, compared, then extended into pred ...

Article - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Aug 26 2011 - 7:11pm

Near Orion Nebula, Stellar Jets Show The Birth Of A Young Star

1350 light-years from Earth, near the Orion Nebula,  a bright, clumpy jet called called Herbig-Haro 34 (HH 34) ejected from a young star has changed over time-  a signpost of star birth.  Stars aren't shy about sending out birth announcements. They fi ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 31 2011 - 10:17am

SDSS J102915+172927- The Star That Shouldn't Exist

SDSS J102915+172927 is in the constellation of Leo.   It has a mass smaller than that of the Sun and is probably more than 13 billion years old and has been found to have the lowest amount of elements heavier than helium (what astronomers call "metal ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 31 2011 - 1:32pm

See A Supernova This Weekend With Your Kids

Have a telescope?   Heck, do you have a pair of binoculars? If so, head outside the city and take a look at a Type 1A supernova.  It's 21 million light-years away, which sounds like a lot, but to astronomers and modern optics that's actually pret ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Oct 25 2011 - 4:07pm

So You Think You Can Launch (SYTYCL)

A fun update, Interorbital lists their filled manifest for their first N30 launch.  This is everyone who is building a Tubesat or Cubesat for their first private launch.  Put another way, these are all of Calliope's kinfolk.  Pioneers, every one of t ...

Article - Project Calliope - Sep 9 2011 - 12:48pm