Category Archives: Astronomy

Astronomy

Comet ISON moving closer

The comet C/2012 S1, or ISON as it is called, will pass close to the sun this November. The big question is whether it will put on a big show for the unaide eyes of everyone or just be visible to those looking through telescopes. At the moment is it is showing off for those watching it through such aids: Green light for ISON: Comet blazes in stunning shots – PhotoBlog

The comet was discovered on September 21, 2012 by Vitali Nevsk of Vitebsk, Belarus and Artyom Novichonok of  Kondopoga, Russia.

Here is a blog dedicated to the comet: WAITING FOR ISON. It offers lots of resources about this big dirty snowball.

Here are some Hubble images of comet Ison from April 10, 2013:

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Astronomy, Space films and videos, Space Radio

Jodie Foster narrates documentary on the Very Large Array radio astronomy observatory

Here’s a documentary video (embedding not allowed) about the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). The video is narrated by Jodie Foster, who was seen at the VLA in the movie Contact: Beyond The Visible: The Story of the Very Large Array – Vimeo

Created in 2013 as the new interpretive film for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) public Visitor Center, this 24-minute production explores the synergies of technology and human curiosity that power the world’s most productive radio telescope. Narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Jodie Foster (star of the film “Contact,” which was based on the novel by Carl Sagan and filmed at the VLA), the program depicts many of the people whose diverse efforts enable the VLA to be a cutting-edge resource for astronomers and humanity worldwide.

For more information about the VLA, where we welcome visitors at no charge, visit public.nrao.edu. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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Astronomy, Exoplanets, Science and Technology

Video: The Colossus telescope and the search for exoplanets with advanced tech civilizations

This SETI Institute talk combines two amazing developments of our day – the discovery of exoplanets and the development of giant telescopes. Jeff Kuhn of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii gives an excellent presentation (suitable for a wide audience) about The Colossus Project: Designing an optical/IR instrument to detect life outside the solar system:

This talk describes an effort to detect life, and even conduct a planetary census, in our cosmic neighborhood. I’ll describe some results from the Colossus group, an interdisciplinary science and engineering team, working to show how telescopes much larger than the TMT or EELT could be built today by relaxing some of the astronomical requirements of current “world’s largest telescope” projects.

Astronomy, Education, Space Science

So where exactly is Voyager 1 with respect to the Solar System?

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A reader points to this discussion of where the Voyager 1 spacecraft is with respect to our solar system, the heliosphere , the Oort cloud, and interstellar space, a topic on which recent reports may have left some people confused:  What’s the deal with Voyager 1? – The Maddow Blog

Has Voyager 1 left the solar system? from The Rachel Maddow Show on Vimeo.

 This plot is particularly helpful:

This artist's concept shows NASA's Voyager spacecraft against a backdrop of stars.
You Are Here, Voyager: This artist’s concept puts huge solar system distances in
perspective. The scale bar is measured in astronomical units (AU), with each set
distance beyond 1 AU representing 10 times the previous distance. Each AU is equal to
the  distance from the sun to the Earth. It took from 1977 to 2013 for Voyager 1 to reach
the edge of interstellar space. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech