Just because it is beautiful...........(11)

Part of the constellation Cygnus (The Swan) where a new star is forming

Australia Autumn 2016: The Emu in the Sky

The Emu in the Sky

CSIRO Australian Aboriginal Astronomy

Map of Australian sky in April here.

The Stars Sing the Blues

Image from Stellar Planet

A hat tip to @upjulie for finding this website where x-ray signals from the stars are turned into music…..

Star Songs: Infusing Noise With Meaning:

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/sed/projects/star_songs/music_audio/signal1.ogg

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/sed/projects/star_songs/music_audio/blues.ogg

Yet another good reason to be thankful I live in Australia and not America - no inchoate death star cult

 

At the time of writing this post these two petitions accepted by the U.S. White House had a combined total of 6,844 signatures:

we petition the obama administration to:

Assign NASA to do a feasibility study and conceptual design of the Gen1 USS Enterprise interplanetary spaceship.

We have within our technological reach the ability to build the 1st generation of the USS Enterprise. It ends up that this ship’s inspiring form is quite functional. This will be Earth’s first gigawatt-class interplanetary spaceship with artificial gravity. The ship can serve as a spaceship, space station, and space port all in one. In total, one thousand crew members & visitors can be on board at once. Few things could collectively inspire people on Earth more than seeing the Enterprise being built in space. And the ship could go on amazing missions, like taking the first humans to Mars while taking along a large load of base-building equipment for constructing the first permanent base there.

For more information see BuildTheEnterprise.org.

Created: Dec 22, 2012

we petition the obama administration to:

rapidly develop and deploy a nuclear thermal rocket for both manned & un-manned space missions.

Harness the full intellectual and industrial strength of our universities, national laboratories and private enterprise to rapidly develop and deploy a nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) adaptable to both manned and un-manned space missions. A NTR (which would only operate in outer space) will jump-start our manned space exploration program by reducing inner solar system flight times from months to weeks. This is not new technology; NTRs were tested in the 1960s (President Kennedy was a guest at one test). The physics and engineering are sound. In addition to inspiring young Americans to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, a working NTR will herald a speedy and economical expansion of the human presence in the cosmos.

Created: Jan 03, 2013

 

However, this earlier petition had 34,435 signatures:

 

we petition the obama administration to:

Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.
Those who sign here petition the United States government to secure funding and resources, and begin construction on a Death Star by 2016.
By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense.

Created: Nov 14, 2012

 

The official White House response:

White House Response to

Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.

This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For

By Paul Shawcross

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

·     The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.

·     The Administration does not support blowing up planets.

·     Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be   exploited by a one-man starship?

However, look carefully (here's how) and you'll notice something already floating in the sky -- that's no Moon, it's a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that's helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts -- American, Russian, and Canadian -- living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We've also got two robot science labs -- one wielding a laser -- roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo -- and soon, crew -- to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.

Even though the United States doesn't have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we've got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we're building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

We don't have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke's arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.

We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country's future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.

If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

Paul Shawcross is Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget

Tell us what you think about this response and We the People.

Exraterrestrial life on the horizon? Don't pick up the phone to ET!

 

A little light-hearted entertainment from the BBC:

 

The BBC's star science presenter Brian Cox thought he might have a scoop on his hands when he trained his telescope at a newly discovered planet in search of alien life.

But the professor said his hopes for an exclusive were brought back down to earth after he was told by the BBC that impromptu extraterrestrial contact would break health and safety guidelines.

Cox, the former pop star turned particle physicist, wanted to use the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire to listen in to the planet, Threapleton Holmes B, on his BBC2 series Stargazing Live.

"We decided that we'd point the Jodrell Bank telescope at the planet that had been discovered by these two viewers and listen because no one had ever pointed a radio telescope at it and you never know," said Cox.

"The BBC actually said, 'But you can't do that because we need to go through the regulations and health and safety and everything in case we discover a signal from an alien civilisation'.

"You mean we would discover the first hint that there is other intelligent life in the universe beyond Earth, live on air, and you're worried about the health and safety of it?

"It was incredible. They did have guidelines. Compliance."…..

* Martian cartoon found at Google Images

NASA livestreams the 2012 Orionid meteor shower

Streaming live video by Ustream

http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/orionids2012.html

Heavenly lights

View from the ISS at Night from Knate Myers on Vimeo.

Transit of Venus: I saw'd it, I saw'd it!

Transit of Venus on 6 June 2012, University of Sydney Physics Society
(Photo: Terry Cuttle)

Using the tools of my childhood - two white cardboad sheets acting as both 'pinhole camera' and photographic paper - I saw the 6th June 2012 Transit of Venus.
It was as magical as the first time I, in my skewed tie, baggy shorts and long woollen socks, used this crude instrument to watch my first solar eclipe in the schoolyard so many years ago.

OMG! It's 2012 - let's announce a celestial tragedy expected in 4 billion years

Presuming no possible knock-on effect from a collision between Andromeda and The Milky Way, NASA has blithely announced this event scheduled for around 4 billion years’ time.

After all; by then climate change, population pressure, government inaction and the dominance of multinational corporations will have extinguished human life on Earth anyway and the Sun will have probably begun to die of its own accord.

But hey, the 24hr news cycle is alive and kicking right now – so let’s put out a press release!

A Special Event For Australia: Venus crosses the face of the Sun on 6 June 2012

Transit of Venus 2004 from Google Images

Scienceworks:

On the 6th June, Venus will line up directly with the Sun and we'll get to see the planet as a small black dot against the bright Sun. It's an astronomical curiosity today, but in times past it prompted major scientific expeditions. Men devoted their lives to the Transit – some were successful and there were also many tales of despair – as they tried to unlock the true size of the Solar System.

Only six transits have occurred since the phenomenon was discovered – 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882 and the most recent in 2004. Each has its own story. Like the transit of 1769 that provided the public reason for James Cook's voyage to the Pacific but led him to chart the east coast of Australia.

The transit in June will be the last in our lifetimes. No one will witness this event again until 2117……

The best time to view this phenomenon is thought to be between 8.16am and 8.35am EST as it first moves onto the Sun's face.

20.500 ways to feel the Earth move

Click on image to enlarge

Edge-on View of Near-Earth Asteroids

New results from NASA's NEOWISE survey find that more potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs, are closely aligned with the plane of our solar system than previous models suggested. PHAs are the subset of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) with the closest orbits to Earth's orbit, coming within 5 million miles (about 8 million kilometers). They are also defined as being large enough to survive passage through Earth's atmosphere and cause damage on a regional, or greater, scale.

This diagram shows an edge-on view of our solar system. The dots represent a snapshot of the population of NEAs and PHAs that scientists think are likely to exist based on the NEOWISE survey. Positions of a simulated population of PHAs on a typical day are shown in bright orange, and the simulated NEAs are blue. Earth's orbit is green.

The diagram shows that the orbits of the PHAs tend to be more closely aligned with the plane of our solar system, or less tilted above and below the plane, than the NEAs. This characteristic of PHAs was known before the NEOWISE survey. Now, NEOWISE has found the PHAs to be about twice as likely to have these "lower-inclination" orbits than previously thought.

To make these estimates, the NEOWISE project observed a small portion of the total PHA and NEA populations. The survey not only looked at the objects' orbits but also their total numbers and physical properties such as size. The latest results provide the best count yet of the total PHA population, finding about 4,700 plus or minus 1,500, with diameters larger than 330 feet (about 100 meters). These numbers are in loose agreement with prior, rougher predictions. The NEOWISE team estimates that about 20 to 30 percent of the PHAs thought to exist have actually been discovered to date.

In an earlier study, NEOWISE estimated that there are about 20,500 near-Earth asteroids larger than 330 feet, fewer than previous estimates.

NEOWISE is the asteroid-hunting portion of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, mission, which scanned the entire sky twice in infrared light before entering hibernation mode in 2011.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Nostalgia as well as a perigee moon rising over Coffs Harbour this week

http://youtu.be/WQtgVy-ggoQ

A 'Supermoon' rose over Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia today, 5th May 2012 and even though it was hidden behind clouds on the horizon for a few minutes, it soon shone extra bright.
People were seen wondering the streets all night like zombies, wondering why the night was so bright.
Please note no copyright infringement is intended by the use of the Credence Clearwater song, 'Bad Moon Rising' which was used as a pun on the lunar event.

The Coffs Coast Advocate 6 May 2012

Celestial art

Click on photograph to enlarge
Then click again for full resolution

Carina Nebula

Milky Way :  Star Formation

Distance: 7500 light years

This broad panorama of the Carina Nebula, a region of massive star formation in the southern skies, was taken in infrared light using the HAWK-I camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Many previously hidden features, scattered across a spectacular celestial landscape of gas, dust and young stars, have emerged.

Credit:  ESO/T. Preibisch

Starry, starry night

The Giant Nebula, NGC 3603

Thousands of sparkling young stars nestled within the giant nebula NGC 3603. This stellar "jewel box" is one of the most massive young star clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy. NGC 3603 is a prominent star-forming region in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way, about 20,000 light-years away. This image shows a young star cluster surrounded by a vast region of dust and gas. The image reveals stages in the life cycle of stars. The nebula was first discovered by Sir John Herschel in 1834. The image spans roughly 17 light-years. Text and Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage

Southern Ocean Sky 2011

Ocean Sky from Alex Cherney on Vimeo

Out of this world eye candy

An unnamed green nebula
courtesy of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

Another non-event on the night

It is almost a certainty that if a spectacular night-time celestial event is about to take place (be it comet, meteor shower or total lunar eclipse) then the night skies over northern NSW coastal estuaries will seriously cloud over.
Last Wednesday night and early Thursday morning were no exception.

Here is a little taste of what places like Mt. Gambier in South Australia saw on the night

This is what Yamba, Iluka and many other Northern Rivers villages saw as the Moon turned red

Still, one must be thankful for Nature's wayward mercies. At least it has stopped raining for the moment.

Google live feed of 15-16 June 2011 lunar eclipse on now

http://youtu.be/UgUieQsR4YI

Eta Aquarids due to cross Australian sky around 4am on 6 May 2011

According to Meteors Online; This represents the view from mid-southern latitudes at about 4:00 a.m. local time around May 6. The graphic does not represent the view at the time of maximum, but is simply meant to help prospective observers to find the radiant location.

Eta Aquarids are fast and often trace yellow-coloured long paths across the sky. However, if the skies are clear early on Monday you will not need binoculars or a telescope to see larger objects in this meteor shower created by the tail of Halley's Comet.

So look north-east around 4am and with luck you will enjoy one of life's many wonders.

Halley's Comet in 1997 from Messiers Meteors

How small we are......

NASA video taken of the Sun on February 24, 2011:
large prominence erupting from the surface. The dramatic explosion was captured in ultraviolet light in the above time lapse video covering 90 minutes, where a new frame was taken every 24 seconds. The scale of the prominence is huge -- the entire Earth would easily fit under the flowing curtain of hot gas.