NextBigFuture.com hosts the latest Carnival of Space.
I’ll add this bonus link about O’Neill in-space habitat colonies: What will it take to set up colonies in space? – Bbc.
Space Advent Calendars
Check out these two holiday season advent calendars. They both will display a beautiful new space picture for each day till Christmas:
- 2013 Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar – In Focus/The Atlantic
- 2013 Holiday Calendar – PhotoBlog/MSNBC
First day of The Atlantic calendar:
This year’s first image: A composite image of visible-light observations by
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, combined with infrared data from
the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona to assemble a
dramatic view of the well-known Ring Nebula….continue
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, combined with infrared data from
the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona to assemble a
dramatic view of the well-known Ring Nebula….continue
First day of the PhotoBlog/MSNBC calendar:
The Mars Color Camera for India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, also known as Mangalyaan,
captures an image of Africa, Arabia, India and other parts of Asia on Nov. 19
during its Earth-orbiting phase, from an altitude of
almost 43,500 miles (70,000 kilometers).
“Sepideh” – A film about a young Iranian women seeking to go to space
The documentary Sepideh (Break of Dawn) is about a young woman in Iran seeking to becom an astronaut : Iranian woman’s dreams about space travel take shape in Danish documentary – Payvand Iran News
Danish filmmaker Berit Madsen has directed a documentary about Sepideh Hushyar, a young Iranian woman who dares to plan for her future as an astronaut. The documentary entitled Sepideh (Break of Dawn) was screened at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) on Monday. It was filmed by Iranian cameraman Mohammadreza Jahanpanah.
Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American who dreamed of going to space as a youngster in Iran and did in fact find a way to go to space, appears in the film.
Ben Allison “The Stars Look Very Different Today”
The NPR All Things Considered Sunday show included an interview with musician and composer Ben Allison about his latest album, which was influenced by space sci-fi of the 1970s:
The ISON story continues
The latest on comet ISON:
NASA Investigating the Life of Comet ISON
After several days of continued observations, scientists continue to work to determine and to understand the fate of Comet ISON: There’s no doubt that the comet shrank in size considerably as it rounded the sun and there’s no doubt that something made it out on the other side to shoot back into space. The question remains as to whether the bright spot seen moving away from the sun was simply debris, or whether a small nucleus of the original ball of ice was still there. Regardless, it is likely that it is now only dust.
Comet ISON comes in from the bottom right and moves out toward the upper right, getting fainter and fainter, in this time-lapse image from the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. The image of the sun at the center is from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Image Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/SDO/GSFC
Comet ISON, which began its journey from the Oort Cloud some 3 million years ago, made its closest approach to the sun on Nov. 28, 2013. The comet was visible in instruments on NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, and the joint European Space Agency/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, via images called coronagraphs. Coronagraphs block out the sun and a considerable distance around it, in order to better observe the dim structures in the sun’s atmosphere, the corona. As such, there was a period of several hours when the comet was obscured in these images, blocked from view along with the sun. During this period of time, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory could not see the comet, leading many scientists to surmise that the comet had disintegrated completely. However, something did reappear in SOHO and STEREO coronagraphs some time later – though it was significantly less bright.
http://youtu.be/kcROVqmF9SY
Comet ISON is shown approaching the sun and curving away from it in this movie containing imagery from both NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory and the joint ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory from November 2013. ISON dims dramatically as it streams away from the sun.
Image Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/STEREO/GSFC
Whether that spot of light was merely a cloud of dust that once was a comet, or if it still had a nucleus – a small ball of its original, icy material – intact, is still unclear. It seems likely that as of Dec. 1, there was no nucleus left. By monitoring its changes in brightness over time, scientists can estimate whether there’s a nucleus or not, but our best chance at knowing for sure will be if the Hubble Space Telescope makes observations later in December 2013.
Regardless of its fate, Comet ISON did not disappoint researchers. Over the last year, observatories around the world and in space gathered one of the largest sets of comet observations of all time, which should provide fodder for study for years to come. The number of space-based, ground-based, and amateur observations were unprecedented, with twelve NASA space-based assets observing over the past year.
Related Links:
For more information on Comet ISON: www.nasa.gov/ison
To download recent ISON imagery: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/CometISON.html