"In the International Space Station's Destiny laboratory, Robonaut 2 is pictured on Jan. 2, during a round of testing for the first humanoid robot in space. Ground teams put Robonaut through its paces as they remotely commanded it to operate valves on a task board.
Robonaut is a testbed for exploring new robotic capabilities in space, and its form and dexterity allow it to use the same tools and control panels as its human counterparts do aboard the station." Photo Credit nasa.gov
"Launched in October 2006, STEREO traces the flow of energy and matter from the sun to Earth. It also provides unique and revolutionary views of the sun-Earth system. STEREO has given us the first view of the entire sun on February 6, 2011 and when coupled with SDO, will give us complete views of the sun's entire surface and atmosphere for the next 8 years."
A Solar Prominence Eruption from SDO (2011 March 7)
One of the most spectacular solar sights is an erupting prominence.
Two weeks ago, NASA's Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamic Observatory spacecraft imaged an impressively large prominence erupting from the surface.
The dramatic explosion was captured in ultraviolet light in the above time lapse video covering 90 minutes, where a new frame was taken every 24 seconds.
The scale of the prominence is huge -- the entire Earth would easily fit under the flowing curtain of hot gas.
A solar prominence is channeled and sometimes held above the Sun's surface by the Sun's magnetic field. A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month, and may erupt in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) expelling hot gas into the Solar System. The energy mechanism that creates a solar prominence is still a topic of research.
As the Sun progresses toward Solar Maximum in the next few years, solar activity like eruptive prominences are expected to become more common.
"Why is this plasma so hot? Physicists aren't sure. What is known for sure is that the Z Machine running at Sandia National Laboratories created a plasma that was unexpectedly hot.
The plasma reached a temperature in excess of two billion Kelvin, making it arguably the hottest human made thing ever in the history of the Earth and, for a brief time, hotter than the interiors of stars.
The Z Machine experiment, pictured above, purposely creates high temperatures by focusing 20 million amps of electricity into a small region further confined by a magnetic field.
Vertical wires give the Z Machine its name.
During the unexpected powerful contained explosion, the Z machine released about 80 times the world's entire electrical power usage for a brief fraction of a second.
Experiments with the Z Machine are helping to explain the physics of Solar flares, design more efficient nuclear fusion plants, test materials under extreme heat, and gather data for the computer modeling of nuclear explosions. "
The Z machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. Operated by Sandia National Laboratories, it gathers data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons. The Z machine is located at Sandia's main site in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
This is the test firing of NASA's new Methane rocket, which could be the key to deep space exploration, because methane is very prominent in space, and could be easily harvested, reducing launch costs.
NASA - Methane engine test fire (http://youtu.be/CjoY_cSmQ70)
ScienceDaily " Its stay on this planet was actually meant to be a very short one. Male twisted-wing parasites (Strepsiptera) usually have a life span of only few hours. However, accidentally a specimen of Mengea tertiara, about the size of an aphid, became preserved for 'eternity': during its wedding flight about 42 million years ago it was caught in a drop of tree resin and subsequently almost perfectly conserved in a piece of amber..."
Anaglyph image in 3D:
3D-reconstruction of the fossilized twisted-wing Mengea tertiaria (Strepsiptera) from approx.
42 million years ago (colon green, musculature red, nervous system yellow).
Insect researchers at german University Jena have reconstructed a fossile conserved in a piece of amber with the help micro-computer tomography.
(Credit: Hans Pohl/University Jena).
First Tweet:
3D TODAY: Extinct Insect Completely Reconstructed in 3-D http://bit.ly/f6X70R
Color CCD imaging poses many unique challenges and frustrations to the astroimager. Despite these difficulties beautifully aesthetic color images are obtainable using a new innovative technique developed by astroimagers
Step by Step Assembly of an LRGB Image using Photoshop 5.5.
Luminance Layering technique can greatly enhance the amateurs ability to successfully produce high quality color CCD astroimages. I hope the above guidelines will help amateurs get started with this new innovative technique.
Have scientists discovered proof our universe wasn't the first?
Article by Carol Pinchefsky
"Other universes have been theorized for years—just about every sci-fi TV show has an episode where characters from the universe next door pop in to wreak havoc on our heroes—but now this theory has been bolstered by photographic evidence..."
This is a pretty easy project. If you're interested in doing it yourself, here are a few pointers to get you started:
Get an amateur radio license. If you're in the United States, you want to get a Technician's license. This will let you run the type of radio we used to track our balloons, an APRS beacon by Byonics.
Paul Verhage's ebook on near space ballooning is very helpful, although a bit out of date.
If you're in the United States, read FAR 101. FAR 101 has all of the regulations that you'll need to follow if you're launching a balloon. Sorry, I don't know the regulations for different countries.
Telemetry is by far the most important part of this project. Send up a good radio, good antenna, and good GPS. Don't compromise on these things.
Weather balloons can be bought from Kaymont.
Hacking cameras is best done with CHDK, check to see if your camera is compatible.
Radar reflectors can either be made or purchased from West Marine
You can get a rough idea of where your balloon is going to land using flight prediction software or just by looking at the wind charts.
You might get caught up looking at the wind charts and weather patterns for high altitudes. It's also important to figure out what your surface winds are at your launch site. Launching is hard if it's windy on the ground.
Don't be afraid to move the launch site or cancel the launch completely if the weather conditions aren't right.
"Locations of key events are labeled in this extreme ultraviolet image of the sun, obtained by the Solar Dynamics Observatory during the Great Eruption of August 1st. White lines trace the sun's magnetic field." Credit: K Schrijver & A. Title.
"The August 1st event really opened our eyes," says Karel Schrijver of Lockheed Martin's Solar and Astrophysics Lab in Palo Alto, CA. "We see that solar storms can be global events, playing out on scales we scarcely imagined before..."Author: Dr. Tony Phillips
" Click the arrow and watch an unusually long filament explode out from the Sun. The filament had been seen hovering over the Sun's surface for over a week before it erupted earlier this month. The image sequence was taken by the Earth-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in one color of ultraviolet light specifically emitted by helium, and another color of X-ray light specifically emitted by iron. The explosion created Coronal Mass Ejections which dispersed high energy plasma into the Solar System. This plasma cloud, though, missed the Earth and so did not cause auroras.
The above eruption and an unusually expansive eruption that occurred in August are showing how widely separated areas of the Sun can sometimes act in unison.
Explosions like this will likely become more common over the next few years as our Sun moves toward Solar Maximum activity. " >> apod.nasa.gov
"This global map shows total consumption by region of photosynthetic plant material as a percentage of the plant material grown by region. Scientists call the plant "supply" net primary production, or NPP, and refer to the "demand" as Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP)."
Sending cheese to space is the cleverest way to give aliens a serious hint about humanity (strategically chosen as not French (I mean the cheese)).
Then referring to Abraham, Zucker & Zucker's movie "TOP SECRET" is simply brilliant as one of the most outstanding movie ever (albeit accidentally).
Toping it with Monty Python will keep us safe from invasion unless some dumb astronomer sends some silly engraving showing how dumb we are...
The Cheese Shop sketch, Monty Python
Articles / Links:
NPR
Article by Mark Memmott.
It Went Where No Cheese Had Gone Before, Thanks To 'Monty Python' "When we heard that a wheel of cheese had been sent into space this week aboard the first ever launch into orbit and return to Earth by a private company, we were curious.."
"Yesterday’s historic launch had a secret payload. It was a payload so secret, SpaceXers made it Top Secret (think Val Kilmer 1984, not official US Government). So what was inside the mystery package?
Photo credit to Chris Thompson of SpaceX.."
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