I Talked About Proxima Centauri Last Week But Didn't Realize It Has A Planet!

Gotta wake up pretty early in the morning to see the blue blood moon!

The Super Blue Blood Moon Is Wednesday. Watch It Before You Go to Work.

On Wednesday, Earth will cast its shadow over the second full moon of January, making it turn red in a lunar eclipse. Here’s when and where you can see it.

SUPER BLUE BLOOD MOON

A New Angle on Two Spiral Galaxies for Hubble’s 27th Birthday

In celebration of the 27th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990, astronomers used the legendary telescope to take a portrait of a stunning pair of spiral galaxies. This starry pair offers a glimpse of what our Milky Way galaxy would look like to an outside observer. The edge-on galaxy is called NGC 4302, and the tilted galaxy is NGC 4298. These galaxies look quite different because we see them angled at different positions on the sky. They are actually very similar in terms of their structure and contents. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Mutchler (STScI) Read more NASA Media Usage Guidelines

Light Echoes Used to Study Protoplanetary Disks : This illustration shows a star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk. A new study uses data from NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope and four ground-based telescopes to determine the distance from a star to the inner rim of its surrounding protoplanetary disk. Researchers used a method called photo-reverberation, also known as light echoes.

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115th Anniversary of the Antikythera Mechanism's Discovery

Today's Google Doodle

On this date in 1902, Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais sifted through some artifacts from a shipwreck at Antikythera. The wrecked Roman cargo ship was discovered two years earlier, but Stais was the first to notice an intriguing bit of bronze among the treasures. It looked like it might be a gear or wheel. That corroded chunk of metal turned out to be part of the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient analog astronomical computer.

The Antikythera Mechanism tracked planetary positions, predicted lunar and solar eclipses, and even signaled the next Olympic Games. It was probably also used for mapping and navigation. A dial on the front combines zodiacal and solar calendars, while dials on the back capture celestial cycles. Computer models based on 3-D tomography have revealed more than 30 sophisticated gears, housed in a wooden and bronze case the size of a shoebox.  

Opportunity discovers fresh crater on Mars

via reddit

Ep. 3 Hubble Space Telescope - HD and the Void

Different kinds of telescopes and 19th-century photographic techniques demonstrate far more vividly than mere words can convey that taking photos of space is VERY hard, but the Hubble Space Telescope is doing it well at age 27! This episode talks ...

The last episode I posted went up on a very special birthday that I failed to acknowledge or, well, realize was even happening until I saw it on the Google homepage. So, to rectify this oversight, I’m talking about the history of cosmological photography and how we reached the high point of the Hubble Space Telescope, which turned 27 this past April 24th!

Below the cut is some elaboration on the episode itself, including my sources, music credits, a glossary, and a transcript (not an exact record of this episode, but it’s the loose, fairly conversational script I was working with). I mention a couple of books and authors in this episode so if you want to see that written down, those are there too (one of the authors is Chinese and listen, Chinese is at least as hard for me to pronounce as French. I did try though). I’m also on Twitter at @HDandtheVoid, though I keep forgetting I have it. Talk to me on there and maybe I won’t forget!

Let me know what you think of this episode, let me know what you think I should research next*, tell me a fun space fact… anything’s helpful at this point!

*(Move fast if you feel strongly about what I research next, though, cuz I have to get it done by May 22nd! My thoughts were henges because I didn’t get to them this week, probes and satellites, the planets, spectroscopy, or maybe black holes? Please hit me up by May 11th so I can start working on it!)

Glossary:

catadioptric/Cassegrain telescope - use lenses and mirrors in combination.

focal length - the distance between the lens and the image sensor of a camera when the subject of the photo is in focus. According to the Nikon website this is usually measured in millimeters, but I’ll take a wild guess and say it’s probably easier to measure it in feet on the Hubble Telescope because that thing is school bus-sized.

Lagrange points -  five points where three bodies can orbit each other, yet stay in the same position relative to each other in a stable configuration. L1-L3 are in line with each other, while L4 and L5 are at the points of equilateral triangles in the configuration. See an example specific to the James Webb Telescope in the link.

objective lens - the optical element that gathers light from the object being observed and focuses the light rays to produce an image at the focal point.

reflection telescope - reflects light rays off the concave surface of a parabolic mirror to get an image of a distant object. Higher contrast image, worse color quality.

refraction telescope - uses convex lenses to focus a far-off, dim image. Good color quality, poor contrast.

satellites - objects that move around a larger object. Can be man-made or natural. Geostationary satellites orbit west to east over the equator, moving in the same direction and at the same rate as Earth. Polar-orbiting satellites orbit north to south, which allows them to scan the Earth along longitude lines.

Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe—a spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences in the cosmic microwave background radiation leftover from the Big Bang. It orbited at L2, just like the James Webb Telescope will!

Script/Transcript (I do tend to embellish in the moment of recording so it’s not exact, but all the facts are there and I can’t know a fact and not talk about it so trust me, all you’re missing is probably another swear word or two)

Sources:

Facts about telescopes via the Naperville Astronomical Association

More facts about telescopes via Western Washington University

Earth’s atmosphere definition via the Encyclopedia Britannica Online

Correcting for atmospheric interference in astronomical imaging

Info on satellites for K-4th grade via NASA

Info on satellites for 5th-8th grade via NASA

What focal length means in photography via Nikon (the camera brand)

Hermann Oberth’s museum website

The history of NASA’s Orbiting Astronomical Observatories, which an older British gentleman seems to like enough to run a website about it

The history of OAO-3 aka Copernicus via NASA

Info on the Hubble Space Telescope for K-4th grade via NASA

Hubble-T’s 25th anniversary website, which I highly recommend. The timeline is a dream come true in terms of organization and brevity. It was last updated in December 2014, though, since that was when the Hubble was 25, so not a lot of new info there.

What the Hubble Space Telescope looks like, all its parts, and some of its history

What Hubble-T is looking at right now and why

The history of maintenance missions to the Hubble-T

Hubble: The Beginning, a 4-minute documentary video with a couple interviews, including Nancy Roman!

Hubble’s YouTube channel!!!!!!!!

Spitzer Space Telescope website

James Webb Space Telescope website

Hirshfeld, Alan. Starlight Detectives. Bellevue Library Press: NY, 2014.

Liu, Cixin. The Three-Body Problem. Trans. Ken Liu. Tor Books: NY, 2016.

Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity

Filler Music: ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ by Muse off their album Black Holes and Revelations

Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught

Next Generation Spacesuit like Second Skin

Scientists from MIT have designed a next-generation spacesuit that acts practically as a second skin, and could revolutionize the way future astronauts travel into space. (Photo : Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT)

Astronauts are used to climbing into conventional bulky, gas-pressurized spacesuits, but this new design could allow them to travel in style. Soon they may don a lightweight, skintight and stretchy garment lined with tiny, muscle-like coils. Essentially the new suit acts like a giant piece of shrink-wrap, in which the coils contract and tighten when plugged into a power supply, thereby creating a “second skin.”

“With conventional spacesuits, you’re essentially in a balloon of gas that’s providing you with the necessary one-third of an atmosphere [of pressure,] to keep you alive in the vacuum of space,” lead researcher Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at MIT, said in astatement.

“We want to achieve that same pressurization, but through mechanical counterpressure - applying the pressure directly to the skin, thus avoiding the gas pressure altogether. We combine passive elastics with active materials. … Ultimately, the big advantage is mobility, and a very lightweight suit for planetary exploration.”

Newman, who has worked for the past decade on a design for the next-generation spacesuit, describes the new garment in detail in the journal IEEE/ASME: Transactions on Mechatronics.

The MIT BioSuit’s coils, which are a main feature of the outfit, are made from a shape-memory alloy (SMA). At a certain temperature, the material can “remember” and spring back to its engineered shape after being bent or misshapen.

Skintight suits are not a novel idea, but in the past scientists have always struggled with the question: how do you get in and out of a suit that is so tight? That’s where the SMAs come in, allowing the suit to contract only when heated, and subsequently stretched back to a looser shape when cooled.

Though the lightweight suit may not seem at first like it can withstand the harsh environment that is outer space, Newman and his colleagues are sure that the BioSuit would not only give astronauts much more freedom during planetary exploration, but it would also fully support these space explorers.

Newman and his team are not only working on how to keep the suit tight for long periods of time, but also believe their design could be applied to other attires, such as athletic wear or military uniforms.

“An integrated suit is exciting to think about to enhance human performance,” Newman added. “We’re trying to keep our astronauts alive, safe, and mobile, but these designs are not just for use in space.”

Ep. 34 Stargazing - HD and the Void

Not enough people in the real world listened to my stories about my recent stargazing adventure, so I distilled my process and plans so that the process of selecting a site and using a stargazing app seems more attainable for those who have never ...

I went stargazing in early August of this year (2019) and I want to suggest a few options that will hopefully make this sort of trip accessible to people who are curious about stargazing but haven’t tried it yet. I talk through the process of finding the right time and location, selecting campsites, preparing some tools to maintain your nightvision, and using an app to figure out stars and constellations more easily.

Below the cut are the transcript, sources, and music credits. Send me any topic suggestions via Tumblr message (you don’t need an account to do this, just submit as anonymous). You can also tweet at me on Twitter at @HDandtheVoid, or you can ask me to my face if you know me in real life. Subscribe on iTunes to get the new episodes of my semi-monthly podcast, and I’d love if you could rate and review it. Go ahead and tell friends if you think they’d like to hear it, too!

(The next episode is undecided, but I’m hoping to have it out for September.)

Transcript

Sources

Dark Site Finder

SkyView Lite

Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity

Filler Music: me singing ‘House of Gold’ by Twenty-One Pilots off their album Vessel

me singing a parody of ‘Mexican Wine’ by Fountains of Wayne off their album Welcome Interstate Managers

Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught

The Moon of Lakes and Rivers - Saturn’s moon Titan

Saturn’s moon Titan is the only world - other than earth - that we know has liquid’s pooled on its surface. Unlike Earth, Titan has lakes of liquid methane - you wouldn’t want to swim in these lakes.

Titan’s “methane cycle” is analogy to Earth’s water cycle. In the 3rd and 4th images above we can see clouds of methane in Titan’s atmosphere. Ever since NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, we have known that the gases that make up Titan’s brown colored haze were hydrocarbons. The atmosphere of Titan is largely nitrogen; minor components lead to the formation of methane–ethane clouds and nitrogen-rich organic smog.

It is thanks to the Cassini spacecraft that we now understand more about the climate of Titan - though we still understand very little!

The Cassini Space craft has mapped most of the Northern polar region of Titan, this is the region that contains almost all of Titan’s lakes. Cassini is systematically sweeping across Titan and mapping the surface of this strange alien world. The image below is an example of Cassini’s mapping process:

Credit: NASA/JPL/Cassini

In the Heart of the Virgo Cluster : The Virgo Cluster of Galaxies is the closest cluster of galaxies to our Milky Way Galaxy. The Virgo Cluster is so close that it spans more than 5 degrees on the sky - about 10 times the angle made by a full Moon. With its heart lying about 70 million light years distant, the Virgo Cluster is the nearest cluster of galaxies, contains over 2,000 galaxies, and has a noticeable gravitational pull on the galaxies of the Local Group of Galaxies surrounding our Milky Way Galaxy. The cluster contains not only galaxies filled with stars but also gas so hot it glows in X-rays. Motions of galaxies in and around clusters indicate that they contain more dark matter than any visible matter we can see. Pictured above, the heart of the Virgo Cluster includes bright Messier galaxies such as Markarians Eyes on the upper left, M86 just to the upper right of center, M84 on the far right, as well as spiral galaxy NGC 4388 at the bottom right. via NASA

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