Carnival of Space #249
Published May 16, 2012
Saturn and Titan, as seen this month by the robotic spacecraft Cassini. Saturn is one of the amazing places we'll see in this week's Carnival of Space. Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI
Carnival of Space #249 is available at Riding with Robots!
This edition features great articles about:
Check it out at: http://www.ridingwithrobots.org/2012/05/carnival-of-space-249/
Remember, if you’ve got a space-related blog, you really should consider joining the Carnival. It’s easy to participate – just email an entry to carnivalofspace@gmail.com, and the next host will link to it.
By participating, your writing will get more exposure, and you will also meet other bloggers in the space/astronomy community. You can also sign your blog up to host the Carnival of Space by sending an e-mail to the address above.
The Glowing Swan
Published May 16, 2012
Herschel Telescope image of the Cygnus-X star-forming region. Featured prominently are dust and gas lanes that indicate massive star formation. Image Credit: ESA/PACS/SPIRE/M. Hennemann & F. Motte, Laboratoire AIM Paris-Saclay, CEA/Irfu, CNRS/INSU, Univ. Paris Diderot, France
With Cygnus the swan visible in the east around midnight, it’s starting to become a good time to check out the myriad clusters and nebulae in the summer Milky Way. Shown above is a new view of the Cygnus-X star-forming region by the Herschel Telescope. In the image, star-forming regions of dust and gas are shown.
The image uses far-infrared data with filters at 70 micron (blue); 160 micron (green); and 250 micron (red). The Herschel Telescope made the observations for this image on May 24, 2010, and Dec. 18, 2010.
Source:NASA Image of the Day Gallery
Night Sky Guide for Summer 2012
Published May 11, 2012
Visibility of the May 20, 2012 solar eclipse. Image Credit: NASA/GSFC
The nights are getting warmer; it won’t be long until summer comes! With summer near, many astronomers are dusting off their telescopes and preparing to take advantage of good weather.
This summer should provide great opportunities for stargazers to view planets, meteor showers, the transit of Venus, and for some, the annular solar eclipse.
Some Highlights:
You can read the full Night Sky Guide for Summer 2012 at The Planetary Society
What Can We Do About Light Pollution?
Published May 9, 2012
The brightest areas of Earth are the most urbanized, but not necessarily the most populated. (Compare western Europe, China, and India.) Cities tend to grow along coastlines and transportation networks. Even without the underlying map, the outlines of many continents would still be visible. Image Credit: Marc Imhoff of NASA GSFC, Christopher Elvidge of NOAA NGDC, Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon, NASA GSFC.
With truly dark skies (Bortle Class 1) becoming an endangered species, many parks and cities across the globe are doubling their efforts to become “dark sky preserve” sites. Often times though, these efforts conflict with housing developments, mining efforts, and other side-effects of the rapidly developing world.
In some cases, cities, parks, and dark sky preservationists clash with new developments, as it’s very easy for developers to throw up lighting without any concern for night skies or lighting efficiency. Recent studies have shown that increased levels of artificial lighting at night can have a detrimental effect on birds, insects, and even humans. New studies by the EPA have also led to a correlation between high smog levels in the lower atmosphere and high levels of artificial lighting at night.
In the debate between providing adequate light at night, and protecting our night skies, opponents often cite security and cost as the main factors for not utilizing “dark sky safe” lighting methods. That being said, many cities are now seeing tremendous cost-savings from reducing their nighttime lighting levels, along with a corresponding reduction in crime! Seems like criminals don’t like carrying flashlights! Also consider with energy costs rapidly rising, the value of reclaiming countless millions of tons of coal, and barrels of oil wasted on unnecessary outdoor lighting. With the heightened concerns over energy usage and global climate change, it is a logical conclusion to reduce energy usage through the use of properly configured, energy efficient outdoor lighting.
What other factors affect our night skies, and what can be done to help take back the night?
Carnival of Space #248
Published May 7, 2012
Welcome to another installment of The Carnival of Space! Here’s some highlights of space and astronomy news from the past week. We’ve got great stories on Astrophotography, Spaceflight, This weekend’s “supermoon”, test pilots, astronomy word of the week, and more!
This sunday the moon was at Perigee, The closest to earth. Also the Moon was in its full phase. We will have a slightly larger than normal full moon. Numerous people have taken photos of the “supermoon”. Read more at http://www.thevenustransit.com/
Drawing lines on the sky…the astronomy word of the week is “meridian”! Check it out at http://astrowow.wordpress.com
Cheap Astronomy presents on podcast on how the age of the universe is calculated. Listen at: http://www.cheapastro.com/podcasts/CA140_AgeOfUniverse.mp3
Alan Shepard. Image Credit: NASA
Here’s a quartet of stories from Next Big Future. For starters, A new approach to solar sails is taking shape in a clean room in an Illinois laboratory. Researchers there have designed a sail that would unfurl from bobbins into a giant space ribbon 250 meters long, says Victoria Coverstone, an aerospace engineer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Read more at: http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/05/cube-sail-and-other-solar-sails.html
Next up, Another type of Dyson Sphere is the “Dyson bubble”. It would be similar to a Dyson swarm, composed of many independent constructs. Unlike the Dyson swarm, the constructs making it up are not in orbit around the star, but would be statites—satellites suspended by use of enormous light sails using radiation pressure to counteract the star’s pull of gravity. Read the full article at: http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/05/adam-crowl-design-for-dyson-bubble-of.html
Blue Origin is a secretive private spaceflight firm, which was established in 2000 by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is developing systems to launch astronauts to both suborbital and orbital space. Learn more about Blue Origin at: http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/04/blue-origin-is-also-trying-to-get.html
Lastly, Check out “Cookbook for a Galactic Empire” – Civilization Demand and Resources for Energy Relative to Kardashev Scale. An outline of the economic growth that would drive the energy demands to climb the Kardashev scale and the basic technology that will enable getting the energy equivalent of all of the solar energy of the earth, of our sun and of our galaxy. You can read the full post at: http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/05/civilization-demand-for-energy-relative.html
Had it not been for worried doctors and engineers, Alan Shepard might have launched three weeks before Yuri Gagarin on March 24. Amy Teitel provides coverage at: http://vintagespace.wordpress.com/
Continue reading
Spitzer Telescope Finds Hidden Jet
Published May 7, 2012
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope took this image of a baby star sprouting two identical jets. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
New studies also show that the area the jets originate from is roughly spherical, with a radius of about three astronomical units (1 AU is the distance between Earth and the Sun). Past studies revealed that the jet making zone may have been up to ten times larger. In the image, the gas and dust is seen as “wispy” material. Bow shocks can be seen near the ends of each jet.
The jets in Herbig-Haro 34 jets are located about 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Orion.
Source:NASA Image of the Day Gallery
