Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman: watch it
July 20, 2011
This post on Universe Today prompted me to write up my own little plug for the Science Channel’s new(ish) show Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. The show is in its second season and is seeing more success than your average run-of-the-mill science show. Obviously having a celebrity figure like Morgan Freeman as the host is big reason for that, but watch the show and you’ll really understand why. It’s just uncannily appealing to hear Freeman’s warm, grandfatherly voice talking about quantum entanglement, time travel, string theory, relativity and all sorts of other fascinating topics that are at the very edge of modern science. The context and delivery of the information is unique, too. It’s hard to present what most average folks regard as “mumbo-jumbo” in a way that keeps them interested for a whole hour, but this show manages to pull it off. Freeman’s own genuine interest in the subject matter is definitely a big reason the show is successful; he has always had a keen interest in these edgey topics and simply decided to make a show in which he both asks these questions to real scientists who are working to answer them and attempts to share that sense of awe and wonder that inspired him to ask said questions to begin with. Tonight’s episode focuses on the question “can we travel faster than light?” This is obviously a very important question to answer if mankind is ever to explore beyond our own solar system. All those convenient workarounds (warp drives, hyper-space windows, wormholes, etc…) you see in science fiction actually have some basis in real scientific principles, and I suspect we’ll get much clearer and layman-friendly explanation than ever before of those principles on tonight’s episode. It airs at 10pm eastern/9pm central on the Science Channel, which most of you should now get if you have regular cable or satellite service.
The end of the Space Shuttle era
July 7, 2011
If all goes as planned, tomorrow’s scheduled launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis will be the beginning of the end for the shuttle program. And when it touches down, the shuttle era will officially be over. With the program literally being almost exactly as old as I am (the first shuttle flight was on April 12, 1981, and I was born on Nov. 20th, 1981), it just seems surreal to know that the shuttles will no longer be operating. They were the face of NASA as I was growing up- they were “it.” But it is time for NASA to move on, let the private spaceflight industry take over the now routine task of ferrying astronauts to the ISS, and focus on exploring beyond low earth orbit.
The last I read, weather is going to be a big concern for the launch tomorrow, so there’s a decent chance it’ll get pushed back days or even weeks. But when it does happen, you should watch it. Especially if you’ve never seen one before. It’ll be all over the media so it’ll be hard to miss.
I decided to gather a few of the more interesting shuttle-related links I’ve come across over the past few days in my various science and space-related RSS feeds:
- Photo gallery of Atlantis on the launchpad, via Universe Today.
- Photo gallery that spans the entire shuttle program’s history, via Discovery News.
- Discovery’s first pilot remembers its troubled first mission, via Discovery News.
- Countdown: 10 amazing space shuttle photos, via Space.com.
- A glimpse into the complex rescue scenario in the event that Atlantis is irreparably damaged and incapable of re-entry, via Space.com.
I’ve been waiting since the end of May for this:
(Click to enlarge) Credit: NASA/Paolo Nespoli
THAT is something that has never been captured on film before. It may not seem like a big deal, but the opportunity to to photograph a space shuttle docked to the ISS from space has never happened before, and never will again. The schedules happened to line up so that a Russian Soyuz capsule undocked from the ISS carrying three astronauts home while Endeavour was still docked. This gave astronaut Paolo Nespoli the opportunity to take photos of the shuttle/ISS combo from the window of the Soyuz capsule as they floated away. They paused the Soyuz some distance away and the space station actually performed a “flip” maneuver to allow for more angles. Please click through to the NASA image gallery and see the rest of these amazing images.
Think the idea of humans boarding a massive spaceship headed into the cosmos for 100’s or even 1,000’s of years (a.k.a. real-life Star Trek) is completely in the realm of science fiction? Think again. Last fall DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the highly secretive experimental arm of the Department of Defense who happened to invent the internet, released an official Request for Information regarding a “100-year starship plan.” Basically, they want people to come up with a fully thought-out plan for forming a team of researchers/engineers/scientists to investigate the technology necessary to build such a spaceship. Needless to say, this is one tiny baby step in a project that could cost many billions of dollars and require decades of advances in propulsion technology, but it’s still rather amazing that there is real, serious effort being put into something that has always seemed so far out of reach for humankind. As pointed out in their RFI, there will no doubt be unanticipated discoveries and technological advances as a “side-effect” of this research. So the actual spaceship itself is not the only purpose of this initiative. It really makes me happy to see something like this happening because I think manned space exploration has been quite stagnant for the last couple of decades. We need this kind of spark to really push forward the technology needed to extend our presence beyond low-Earth orbit. (Via Universe Today)
Ok, that’s really it for this week. Probably. I can’t fathom any more posts because tomorrow morning I will be heading to Manchester with the rest of the Scene/Cream team to photograph Bonnaroo. Keep your eyes on the Nashville Cream for updates on our shenanigans, and to see some of my photos.
Shows to see this weekend
June 3, 2011
Here’s a quick rundown of shows I recommend this weekend in Nashville:
FRIDAY:
Lambchop at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens. This is strange but awesome juxtaposition of outdoor fun, art, food, and music. The event starts at 5pm, but Lambchop plays at 9pm. For more info checkout Cheekwood’s website.
Quichenight, A Country Gentleman, Rock City Birdhouse @ the 5 Spot. 9pm $5
SATURDAY:
Times New Viking, D. Watusi, Big Surr @ The End. 9pm $10
… That’s about it for stuff that piques my interest.
I simply can’t go without posting this awesome video created by director Chris Abbas that combines a plethora of amazing imagery from the Cassini spacecraft (which has been orbiting Saturn for many years now) with the track “2 Ghosts I” from the album Ghosts I-IV by Nine Inch Nails. As the name of this blog implies, I’m obviously a huge fan of both music and science, and when they come together to create something beautiful like this I’m a happy man. If you can’t enjoy this there is something wrong with you. *HINT: If you’re viewing this post in an RSS reader, the Vimeo video below doesn’t show up, click through to actually view the blog page to see it!*
Have a great weekend!
Credit: NASA
NASA has officially given up efforts to contact the presumably dead Mars rover Spirit. Things started going downhill for the rover back in the Spring of 2010 after attempts to free it from a mound of sand were unsuccessful. The rover was in a bad position for its solar panels to absorb power from the sun, and with the impending martian winter, engineers put Spirit into a sort of “hibernation” mode. They feared that the rover didn’t have enough power to run its heaters which protect the circuitry from the -125 °F temperatures that can occur during winter. Those fears appear to be correct, because now that we’re well into the Martian spring (for Spirit’s location), the solar panels should have collected plenty of power to run the communications equipment. But the rover has been silent for several months now, and the engineers believe the rover is truly dead.
The good news is that Spirit’s twin, Opportunity, is still going strong on the other side of the Mars, with no problems whatsoever. And furthermore, the death of Spirit comes after over 6 YEARS of operation. Loads and loads of valuable data have been gained from the rover, and it has lasted 25 TIMES its expected lifespan of a few months. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, these twin rovers are arguably NASA’s second greatest achievement, behind putting a man on the moon. For more, read Phil Plait’s post on this, or go straight to the source, NASA.
Endeavour launched through a low deck of clouds Monday morning. Credit: NASA
As I’m sure you know, Space Shuttle Endeavour launched Monday morning, and is now docked with the International Space Station. I want to point out one very special part of this mission that could change mankind’s understanding of the universe forever- the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. This device is the brainchild of Nobel Prize winner Professor Samuel Ting. It cost about $2 billion to build, but the knowledge gained from it will be well worth the money. The device will be mounted on the exterior of the ISS and will run its experiments for the rest of the duration of the ISS (currently the ISS is to be funded and run through 2025). Basically, this amazing piece of equipment has a ring of immensely powerful magnets that will bend the path of any nearby cosmic rays so that they pass through a very sensitive detector. The velocity of these cosmic rays out in space is many orders of magnitude greater than anything we can create in a collider here on Earth (the Large Hadron Collider, for example). These rays do hit the Earth’s atmosphere, but most of them are scattered, deflected, or broken up by the ozone layer. That’s why this space-based experiment is so important. The main things Ting will be looking for are evidence of antimatter, dark matter/dark energy, strangelets, and other aspects of cosmic radiation that could affect future missions involving manned spaceflight. For a good breakdown of each of these scientific objectives, visit the AMS’s official website. The wikipedia page and this space.com article are also pretty good.
It’s been a while since I’ve talked much about exoplanets- one of my favorite areas of science and astronomy. I’m happy to report that our old friend Gliese 581 has yet another surprise: one of its well-confirmed planets may actually have liquid water on its surface, which means the temperature range would generally be suitable for human life. For a few years now we’ve known about several planets orbiting this red dwarf star that sits about 20 light-years away from us. The latest exoplanet discovery associated with this system (Gliese 581g) is being hotly contested, so it may not even exist at all, but the one we’re now talking about is certain to exist. It could be a while before we can definitively say whether or not this exoplanet (Gliese 581d) actually has liquid water on its surface, but a new set of computer models/simulations has shown that if the atmosphere of this rocky super-earth is dense enough, it would be stable and keep the temperature range suitable for liquid water, and possibly even life. This all hinges on an assumption that this world has a thick atmosphere full of CO2, so scientists aren’t really certain about the climate. But, based on what is known about planet formation and the makeup of Gliese 581d, a thick CO2 atmosphere is very likely to exist. This is certainly not the “holy grail of planet-hunting” a.k.a. an earth-twin because the planet is about twice the size of Earth/has about 7 times the mass, is tidally locked (meaning the same side always faces its star), and has an atmosphere of mostly CO2. Indeed, if life exists at all on this world, it would be vastly different from what’s found on Earth, but this news is very exciting nonetheless.
Today is Yuri’s Day/Night
April 12, 2011
50 years ago today, the USSR beat the US in the first milestone of the space race: they put the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space. Gagarin’s accomplishment is celebrated each year in a series of “Yuri’s Night” parties. Obviously this year is a big deal, since it’s the 50th Anniversary, and not only does Discovery News have a gallery of photos from various Yuri’s Night parties around the globe, but this story also clued me into something I didn’t yet know about- a feature length film by director Chris Riley that attempts to re-create what Yuri would have seen from his capsule. Audio from the flight has been released, as have video clips of Gagarin’s face during the flight, but no video of the earth below was taken during the flight. So, Riley teamed up with Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli to capture video footage from the International Space Station’s Cupola as the passed over the same areas Gagarin’s capsule did during that first flight. Check it out on YouTube here.
30 years ago today, the US reached another milestone, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight- they launched the first space shuttle flight. It was shuttle Colombia, with astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen on board. Thus it’s only fitting that today, during a ceremony celebrating 30 years of shuttle flights, NASA will announce the final resting places of the 3 remaining shuttles after they’re decommissioned. Many museums and towns with history tied to the space program have made their cases for getting one of the shuttles, but it’s expected that one will go to the Smithsonian and another to the Kennedy Space Center visitor complex. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess, but I have a feeling the 3rd will go to Houston, as it’s home to NASA’s mission control. (Update: the announcement was just made, and Discovery goes to the Smithsonian, Atlantis goes to Kennedy Space Center, and Endeavour goes to the California Science Center in L.A.) This celebration at KSC is just getting underway as I type this at 11:50am CDT, and the announcement regarding the shuttles’ destinations is scheduled for 3pm EDT (2pm here in Nashville). Watch it all at NASA TV if you’re interested. I’ll update this post after the announcement is made.
NASA’s next Mars rover/why eyes are blue
April 6, 2011
This animation shows how NASA’s next Mars rover, called Curiosity, will get to its destination. The mission is schedule to launch late this year and if all goes as planned, 8.5 months later we’ll start learning more about Mars than ever before. This rover is the first we’ve sent to specifically look for evidence of life, both past and present. This video is the first I’ve seen that shows every aspect of how the rover will arrive on the surface. Getting a probe safely on the surface of Mars is much harder than you might think- it’s actually the hardest aspect of the whole mission. Mars has a very thin atmosphere, so not only does the initial entry NOT slow the probe down nearly as much as a thicker atmosphere like Earth’s would, but also the atmosphere renders parachutes almost pointless, because in order for a parachute to slow the probe to a safe touchdown speed they’d have to impractically massive in size. In both cases, the thin air makes the slowing mechanism much less effective. For Curiosity, NASA came up with this “sky-crane” landing process that is simply amazing. The engineering and technology required to pull this off simply can’t be overstated- it’s both magnificent and terrifying at the same time. I say terrifying because one tiny glitch or mechanical failure could cause the rover to crash into the surface, land sideways, or even miss Mars altogether. Every minute detail of the mission must be executed with absolute precision and perfection. In the current economic climate, failure of a mission this expensive would be a catastrophic blow to NASA’s unmanned mission programs, and we likely wouldn’t return to Mars’ surface again for many years. But with the huge successes of 2004’s twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity and 2008’s lander Phoenix, it’s safe to say NASA is getting pretty good at this. (Via Universe Today)
Another interesting tidbit I felt compelled to share: people with blue eyes (such as myself) don’t really have blue eyes. In fact, our eyes are actually pigment-less, and the same effect that makes the sky blue makes our eyes look blue. In a nutshell, irises have 3 layers and people with brown eyes have pigment in all 3. People with blue eyes have pigment only in the back layer, while the front layers have no color. However, those front layers also have tiny particles in suspension that scatter blue light (due to its shorter wavelength) more readily than other colors. This is the same thing that happens in the atmosphere and causes the sky to appear blue. As we age, those particles tend to get larger and scatter a larger portion of the light spectrum, thus our eyes look less blue and more grayish the older we get. (Via i09)
- Credit: NASA
You’re looking at an important piece of history when you look at the above photograph. That’s the first ever image of Mercury taken from orbit. NASA’s Messenger spacecraft successfully entered stable orbit around the solar system’s smallest planet, and yesterday morning we got the first images taken from said orbit. The spacecraft has taken other images of Mercury as it approached, but Messenger just recently actually entered a permanent/stable orbit, and will remain there for at least a year, studying this hot, battered planet in unprecedented detail. This is also the first time any spacecraft has orbited Mercury to begin with. (Via Discovery News)
In some other space-related news, NASA decided to pull the plug on James Cameron’s idea to install a 3D camera on the next Mars rover mission, Curiosity. Honestly, I love this idea, as it would have allowed anyone with 3D glasses to watch cinema quality footage from the surface of Mars. When you really think about that, it’s absolutely mind-boggling: 3D video footage from another planet. However, NASA felt that since this rover is already way over-budget, the risk of failure was too great because the cameras haven’t been thoroughly tested. I’m certain that this technology will end up on another NASA mission to Mars in the future. So just wait. In another 5-10 year’s we’ll be looking at HD footage from Mars in 3D. NBD… (Via i09)
First of all if you haven’t donated to the Red Cross relief efforts in Japan, do it RIGHT NOW by texting “RED CROSS” to 90999. It’s only $10 and I don’t care how fucking broke you are, you can afford to give $10 to help people who have it WAY WORSE. And all you have to do is send a couple texts. They take it out of your phone bill.
There has been a lot of speculation about this quake being caused by the “supermoon.” That is absolute bullshit. Click those words for three different stories from very reliable and respected sources for detailed explanations as to why the moon didn’t cause this quake. In short- the moon’s orbit is elliptical, so it’s distance from earth varies over a 2-week period. When it’s closest we call it perigee, and when it’s farthest it’s called apogee. When the full moon happens to coincide with perigee, we call it a supermoon, because this full moon will appear just a tiny bit bigger than the rest because the moon is at it’s closest. The phase of the moon (how much of it is lit by the sun) cannot have any effect on earth whatsoever beyond the fact that a clear, full moon-lit night will be a little brighter than a clear, new moon-lit (unlit) night. What does have some effect on earth is the moon’s gravity (which causes tides), which is understandably just tiny bit stronger at perigee. If those tiny fluctuations in the moon’s gravitational tug had any effect on earthquakes we would see it every TWO WEEKS because that’s how often the moon goes from perigee to apogee! Again, for more info click those links above.
One thing that is based on scientific fact is that the quake altered the length of one day, and shifted the Earth’s figure axis. The changes are so minute that they are completely insignificant, but interesting nonetheless. According to computer models, Earth’s day is about 1.8 microseconds (millionths of a second) shorter and the Earth’s figure axis moved by about 6.5 inches (17 centimeters). These changes are tiny compared to normal fluctuations of the both of these measurements over a year’s time, however. Both the length of a day and the position of the Earth’s figure axis fluctuate yearly by a margin greater than the amount the earthquake changed them. So, this is nothing to worry about, but it’s still amazing. (Via Universe Today)
I must also point out that Boston Globe’s Big Picture blog, as always, has an amazing collection of stunning photos from the aftermath. Definitely a must-see.
steve cross loves music and science 