Category: Astrosphere

Sorry for the bloglessness yesterday, I was running another load of stuff to the new house. Now all our stuff’s together again, we just have to cram a house’s worth of belongings into an apartment.

Here’s another astrosphere:

Today’s astrophoto is of Jupiter and its 4 easy-to-see moons. It was taken by forum member Bokmakierie.

First, I’d like to point your browser towards the Carnival of Space #10. I didn’t get an entry in this time around, but it’s still good quality all around.

Becky Ramotowski published her picture of Comet C2006 VZ13 LINEAR

Phil Plait reviews the Transformers to find some bad science and finds the movie surprisingly entertaining.

Daily Galaxy has a story on the Theia Hypothesis. More evidence that the Earth and the Moon were once the same.

I’m still living in boxes, but getting back to some semblance of a routine. But the astrosphere won’t wait.

Today’s photo is the lunar crater Clavius, taken by the incredible Paul f. Campbell. If you want me to feature one of your photographs, post it to the forum, and I’ll probably scoop it up.

And here are the stories for today.

Astroblog has posted a cool picture of the Moon, Saturn and Venus over the course of 4 days. It’s was a difficult shot to make because the sky is a sphere.

Does everything seem familiar? According to Seed Magazine, the Universe may repeat itself every trillion years.

If you’ve listened to Astronomy Cast, you know all good things come from the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.

Bad Astronomy reports on the possibility that Spitzer has seen the first stars ever.

Welcome back to the astrosphere. Sorry for the disruption on Friday and over the weekend. As threatened, my family and I moved back to Vancouver, Canada. My wife is going to be attending nursing school here in the big city. We’re still living in boxes, and I’m laptoping the website from atop my actual lap until our tables and desks arrive. But, I’ve got the Internet going, and that’s all that matters. Oh, and happy Canada Day.

Today’s astrophoto is an occultation of Venus behind the Moon. It comes from Shahriar.D in the forum.

First up, Daily Galaxy has a strange story about the possibility that
early microbial life co-existed with alien life.

Centauri Dreams is reporting on cool exoplanet announcements in Santorini.

Sky and Telescope announced that they’re going to be starting up a blog network on their website. It’s going to be great to see their writers connecting with the community. Welcome.

Astrosp-here and astro there, astro everywhere.

First, the picture. Isn’t that incredible? Today’s astrophoto comes from Filippo Ciferri. He took this and several other pictures from light-polluted Rome if you can believe it.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait debunks a story proposing the Sun came from another galaxy.

Centauri Dreams has an article on the work being done to save the Arecibo observatory. You know, that big dish in the jungle in Contact?

Space.com teaches you how to make a comet. Put that in your cookbook.

Daily Galaxy asks, if we suffered another “K/T” asteroid impact, would humanity survive?

Just give you all a warning, I’m going to be moving back to Vancouver, Canada in 2 days, so there might be a few interruptions. I’ll try to keep it to a minimum.

Today’s astrophoto comes from Paul F. Campbell. It’s a series of pictures of the Moon stitched together into a mosaic.

John Moore has created a detailed poster of the Moon.

Scientific American has an interesting story about Transient Lunar Phenomena. They’re not UFOs, just outgassing on the Moon.

Steinn Sigurdsson reports that a planet has been discovered orbiting a white dwarf.

What’s worse, a fast moving star moving through the Solar System, or a slow moving one? systemic has the surprising answer.

Pamela Gay continues blogging about The Universe on The History Channel. If only we had that kind of budget for Astronomy Cast.

I agree with George Dvorsky on his Sentient Developments blog. If aliens wanted us dead, they’d have done it a long time ago.

I’m running out of clever ways to introduce the astrosphere. Uh… here are some links?

Today’s photograph comes from Chris Schur, and it contains both the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulas. Click this link if you want to see more details, or just a really big version of it.

And here are some stories:

Daily Galaxy is reporting that Einstein was right… again.

Really Rocket Science has a Craiglist ad for a space station.

astropixie wants to you to know about a cool planetary alignment this week.

Jeff Faust has gotten a preview copy of NASA’s strategic communications plan. And now he communicates it to us.

Skepchick Rebecca has a great idea. Record a quick video of yourself demonstrating science and upload it to Youtube.

I hope everyone out there had a great weekend. Here’s what’s happening out in the astrosphere.

Today’s astrophoto is from forum member Perran. It’s a widefield view of nebula IC 1318. Nicely done.

Centauri Dreams has an interesting article about plans to build a giant radio telescope on the far side of the Moon.

Daily Galaxy takes us on a journey to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean to search for mysterious forms of life.

Phil Plait spotlights a new scientific explanation for a mystery that creationists use to discredit the Big Bang.

All right, here’s what’s happening around the astrosphere.

Today’s photo is of the International Space Station and the space shuttle Atlantis, taken by Roger Hintzsche. Roger did this as a 16-second exposure on his camera when the pair passed above his part of the sky. Nice shot Roger.

Do black holes really exist? Bad Astronomy has an article on research that claims everything might work differently than astronomers think.

There’s a cool interview over on Scientific American with Alan Weisman about what would happen if everyone on Earth disappeared.

Centauri Dreams looks at Charles Stross’ approach to spaceflight.

Here’s the latest astrosphere.

Your picture for the day is the trail left by a Cosmos 2369 Rocket body as it passed through the Big Dipper. Nice catch Autoclub.

Emily Lakdawalla from the Planetary Society explains why the Mars Exploration Rovers are lasting so long. Spirit just got a dusting off today.

Stephen Hawking is writing a young-adult science fiction story. How cool is that?

Venus is so bright right now, you can see it in the day.

Space Prizes has news of a new film award for documentaries that shape the long-term future of humanity.

What’s parallax? What’s a parsec? Astroprof explains both.

My good friend Phil Plait was on the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe. Listen to the witty banter.