Word of the day

The "Goldilocks Zone" is the term astronomers use for a narrow band of space in the universe where the conditions exist for an Earth-like planet and therefore, Life. In other words, where conditions are "just right." More on how and why scientists are starting to postulate that may no longer be the case over at i09.

Ten things you don't know about the earth

More fun facts and an interesting read from Discover magazine about the planet. No time to pull out the key tidbits, so I'm suggesting this is worth a full read. Most of the first facts talk about the weird and shifting shape of the earth but there is more, oh, there is more. From multiple moons, to yo-yoing in a tunnel through the center of the planet infinitely like a pendulum, the author outlines some pretty wondrous facts. He also closes with a cheesy but appropriately Bueller paragraph I found resonant. Its reflects one of my motivations for this here blog.

But remember the main point here: you live on a planet, and you may not know all that much about it. The only cure for that is learning, and that’s driven by wonder. Keep wondering, and keep learning. And don’t forget to look around.

Thanks to Kottke.org.

Pic of the day 8/24/08

Project complete!

Word of the day 8.15.09

Lithopanspermia - The theory that life can be carried between planets on rocks ejected by impacts
-courtesy of this post on i09.

Hubble anniversary

ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

In commemoration of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope completing its 100,000th orbit in its 18th year of exploration and discovery, scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., have aimed Hubble to take a snapshot of a dazzling region of celestial birth and renewal.
Hubble peered into a small portion of the nebula near the star cluster NGC 2074 (upper, left). The region is a firestorm of raw stellar creation, perhaps triggered by a nearby supernova explosion. It lies about 170,000 light-years away near the Tarantula nebula, one of the most active star-forming regions in our Local Group of galaxies.
The three-dimensional-looking image reveals dramatic ridges and valleys of dust, serpent-head "pillars of creation," and gaseous filaments glowing fiercely under torrential ultraviolet radiation. The region is on the edge of a dark molecular cloud that is an incubator for the birth of new stars.
The high-energy radiation blazing out from clusters of hot young stars already born in NGC 2074 is sculpting the wall of the nebula by slowly eroding it away. Another young cluster may be hidden beneath a circle of brilliant blue gas at center, bottom.
In this approximately 100-light-year-wide fantasy-like landscape, dark towers of dust rise above a glowing wall of gases on the surface of the molecular cloud. The seahorse-shaped pillar at lower, right is approximately 20 light-years long, roughly four times the distance between our Sun and the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.
The region is in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite of our Milky Way galaxy. It is a fascinating laboratory for observing star-formation regions and their evolution. Dwarf galaxies like the LMC are considered to be the primitive building blocks of larger galaxies.
This representative color image was taken on August 10, 2008, with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Red shows emission from sulfur atoms, green from glowing hydrogen, and blue from glowing oxygen.

Jupiter

Ran across some stunning images of Jupiter and her moons on the Boston Globe web site today.

Water Water Everywhere!

They found water on the moon (care of Nat'l Geo). So, by my amateur calculations, we have water on Earth, Jupiter's moons, Mars and the Earth's moon. Only life on Earth though, unfortunately.

Anyway, back to the moon. They JUST discovered water molecules embedded in volcanic glass beads that were brought back from the moon by the Apollo missions in the 60s and 70s. Pretty startling stuff, especially because it throws a wrench in astronomers' long held theory that the moon was formed 4.5 billion years ago by a planet colliding with earth. For that to happen, the explosion would have reached a certain temp (that of molten solids) and would have vaporised the molecules that form water. So, the debate rages.

For some cool facts on the Moon, go here.

Ice? wOOt!

The Mars Rover discovered water ice on the surface of Mars. This is one of the biggest discoveries in the history of the space program I would have to imagine. Start here at the LAist for the story, including why I used wOOt in the title.

Slave to my Television

Uh oh. Looks like the coolest government org wants me to sit transfixed in front of the TV pondering mystical space-related concepts and my place in the universe...

NASA to Broadcast Earth Views in High Definition Television
HOUSTON — Since humans first flew in space, nothing has captivated astronauts more than the view of home out the window of their spacecraft. In honor of Earth Day, April 22, NASA will make those views available to people here on Earth with an event highlighting imagery taken by astronauts and the science behind it.
For the first time ever, NASA Television will air a special hour-long broadcast of views of Earth taken in High Definition, or HD, by astronauts on past space shuttle and International Space Station missions.

The special HD broadcast will air between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. EDT on Friday, April 18, and replay at the same time on Monday, April 21. It will air every hour from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22.

The Friday HD broadcast will feature a silent version of the Earth views. The broadcasts on Monday and Tuesday will include a discussion of the views by Dr. Justin Wilkinson, a scientist with the Crew Earth Observations Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The footage also will air on standard NASA TV during regularly scheduled Video File broadcasts. For technical information on how to receive the special broadcast in high definition, and for NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit NASA TV.

So, if anyone is aching to see what the world looks like from space on a ridiculously oversized HDTV, you know where to find me. link to Gizmodo