The Augustine report has landed on the president’s desk. The basic summary? Constellation will work and be cost effective, human exploration of the solar system is not an overly expensive proposition, use of private enterprise for launch is a bonus… Let’s do this, sir.
50 Years of Space Exploration (via Adam Crowe)
Every space mission of the last 50 years on one map.
October 11–December 13: Out of This World
Art and science lovers alike with enjoy Hearst Art Gallery’s new exhibit featuring the beautiful landscapes of our solar system. Out-of-this-world special events include a lecture by author and astronomer Andrew Fraknoi (October 11) and a stargazing and meteor shower watch (November 17). Hearst Art Gallery, 1928 Saint Mary’s Rd., Moraga, $3, (925) 631-4363 (via Top Tickets: October 7-13 - Best Of Editor Picks - October 2009 - contra costa)
reblogged from: The Urania Project
APOD: 2009 September 23 - CoRoT Satellite Discovers Rocky Planet
Explanation: How similar is exoplanet CoRoT-7b to Earth? The newly discovered extra-solar planet is the closest physical match yet, with a mass about five Earths and a radius of about 1.7 Earths. Also, the home star to CoRoT-7b, although 500 light years distant, is very similar to our Sun. Unfortunately, the similarities likely end there, as CoRoT-7b orbits its home star well inside the orbit of Mercury, making its year last only 20 hours, and making its peak temperature much hotter than humans might find comfortable. CoRoT-7b was discovered in February by noting a predictable slight decrease in the brightness of its parent star. Pictured above, an artist’s depiction shows how CoRoT-7b might appear in front of its parent star. The composition of CoRoT-7b remains unknown, but given its size and mass, it cannot be a gas giant like Jupiter, and is very likely composed predominantly of rock. Future observations will likely narrow the composition of one of the first known rocky planets discovered outside of our Solar System.
reblogged from: The Urania Project
Joseph Turner’s “The Moon aged 9 days” taken with the Great Melbourne Telescope, 1 September 1873.
Several space missions have already used ion engines, including NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, which is en route to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, and Japan’s spacecraft Hayabusa, which rendezvoused with the asteroid Itokawa in 2005. But a new engine, called VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket), will have much more “oomph” than previous ones. That’s because it uses a radio frequency generator, similar to transmitters used to broadcast radio shows, to heat the charged particles, or plasma.
reblogged from: this world, then the fireworks
in-circles: New Astronomy1 (via Woolgathersome)
reblogged from: Tarry here a while and merry be.
40, inspired by the 40th anniversary of the moon landing (via Mark.Weaver)
