http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/astronomy/ en-us Tue, 5 Jan 2010 00:34:21 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2420978/posts WASHINGTON — The list of known exoplanets in the galaxy just got bigger, thanks to the first observations of NASA's Kepler space telescope, which found five new lightweight worlds orbiting distant stars. "I would like to announce today the discovery of five exoplanets by Kepler," said Kepler science director William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., here today at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Space.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2420978/posts#comment Tue, 5 Jan 2010 00:34:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2418549/posts What's a Blue Moon? The trendy definition of "blue Moon" as the second full Moon in a month is a mistake. by Roger W. Sinnott, Donald W. Olson, and Richard Tresch Fienberg A rising full Moon lights the scene in The Fishing Party, painted by Fitz Hugh Lane after a visit to the coast of Maine in August 1850. That month contained a Fruit Moon, according to the Maine almanac's rules. Recent decades have seen widespread popular embrace of the idea that when a calendar month contains two full Moons, the second one is called a "Blue Moon." The unusual... Sky & Telescope http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2418549/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:29:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414737/posts The mysterious chancel ceiling at St. John's Anglican Church in Lunenburg, N.S., was reconstructed in 2004 after a fire three years earlier. While locals now know what the star pattern represents, they don't know who originally designed it, or how. (CBC)Parishioners at one of Canada's oldest Anglican churches will be puzzled by an enduring enigma when they gaze heavenward this Christmas.The chancel ceiling at St. John's Anglican Church in Lunenburg, N.S., has a special pattern of gilded stars on it, and while locals now know what it represents, they have yet to find out who originally designed it, or how.The... cbc news http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414737/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:41:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414278/posts December 23, 2009: The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery. "Using data from Voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system," explains lead author Merav Opher, a NASA Heliophysics Guest Investigator from George Mason University. "This magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together and solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all." The discovery has implications for the future when the solar system will... Science@NASA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414278/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:42:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2412570/posts AnalysisMany balk at this element of the Nativity story, but historical and astronomical evidence tends to corroborate it. By Michael J. MillerDuring a 2007 BBC radio interview, the archbishop of Canterbury deconstructed elements of the Nativity story. “Stars simply don’t behave like that,” Rowan Williams said. Asked about the existence of three wise men, he replied, “It works quite well as legend.”But years ago Father Walter Brandmüller, president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, published an essay applying the historical-critical method to the question of the Nativity story. (The essay is reprinted without cumbersome footnotes in Light and Shadows: Church... Catholic World Report http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2412570/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:31:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410686/posts What the rings would look like from different cities and latitudes across the world. It's interesting to imagine how it would effect culture throughout time. It would have influenced religion, mythology, navigation, etc.. Creator - Roy Prol SONG- Schubert's Ave Maria Sung by Barbara Bonney YouTube http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410686/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:24:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2392593/posts I just found this video to be interesting and enjoyable. Enjoy. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2392593/posts#comment Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:33:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2410952/posts "Everyone loves a good road movie, whether it's Hope and Crosby or Fonda and Hopper. But the scope of those films pales in comparison to the ground covered by the Hayden Planetarium's new video, The Known Universe. The video starts in Tibet and zooms out through time and space until it shows well, the entire known universe. The video, created for the new Rubin Art Museum exhibit Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, uses over a decade of data collected by researchers at the planetarium. Called the Digital Universe Atlas, the data encompasses the... PopSci http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2410952/posts#comment Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:11:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2409753/posts Astronomy experts are appealing for witnesses to an extremely rare fireball believed to have blazed across the morning sky. The spectacular sight, which star-gazers claim happened just before dawn on Monday, is being attributed to a massive meteor shower currently taking place over the northern hemisphere. "The fireball is really very special and unusual," Astronomy Ireland chairman David Moore said. Google http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2409753/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:34:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409377/posts (CNN) -- Astronomers announced this week they found a water-rich and relatively nearby planet that's similar in size to Earth. While the planet probably has too thick of an atmosphere and is too hot to support life similar to that found on Earth, the discovery is being heralded as a major breakthrough in humanity's search for life on other planets. "The big excitement is that we have found a watery world orbiting a very nearby and very small star," said David Charbonneau, a Harvard professor of astronomy and lead author of an article on the discovery, which appeared this... CNN http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409377/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:40:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2407892/posts Astronomers announced today the discovery of at least four — and as many as six — planets orbiting two nearby stars. These planets are relatively low mass, ranging from 5 to 25 times the mass of the Earth. For comparison, Jupiter is over 300 times more massive than the Earth, and Uranus 15 times our mass. Three of these extrasolar planets orbit the nearby star 61 Virginis, which is only about 28 light years away (that’s a stone’s throw in galactic terms). 61 Vir has been a target for planet hunters for some time because it’s very much like our... Discover http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2407892/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:40:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2406014/posts The Big Dipper -- part of Ursa Major in astronomy -- may be one of the most recognized features of the night sky, but that doesn't mean it can't stand an occasional improvement. A team from New York's American Museum of Natural History, NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, Caltech, and the University of Cambridge in England reports that Alcor, the bright star that forms the bend in the dipper's "handle," has a dim red dwarf star orbiting it. They've put out this very pretty image, in which Alcor is renamed Alcor A, and its newly-found satellite star is called Alcor B.... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2406014/posts#comment Sat, 12 Dec 2009 11:16:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2404256/posts I was watching a movie several minutes ago (in West Palm Beach, FL) and saw out my window (facing east)a large shining object quickly plunge from the sky. It freaked me out a bit. Did anyone out there see it? I saw one similar back around 1990-1992 and years later saw it on Discovery as it was captured on video. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2404256/posts#comment Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:29:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2403384/posts Mumbai: A feasibility report done by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has established that India has the capability to go on a mission to Mars, said former ISRO chariman, G Madhavan Nair. He was speaking during the last day of the international symposium on "science and technology at the frontiers" at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) on Saturday. DNA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2403384/posts#comment Wed, 9 Dec 2009 02:09:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2403365/posts NASA is gearing up to release $50 million in economic stimulus money to fund technology development for commercial crew transport to the International Space Station and any other low-Earth-orbit (LEO) destinations that may show up. Avaitaion Week http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2403365/posts#comment Wed, 9 Dec 2009 01:49:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2401252/posts Is all this space travel worthwhile? Will it really contribute to our civilization or our touchingly naive way of life? Will it even lift our spirits? I cannot be sure about the first two, as I feel these might be permanently floating somewhere out there. But I have some space-sourced spirit lifting to share. Japan's Sapporo Breweries, the entity that brings you those large silver tins of beer to complement your rainbow roll, announced this week that it is launching space beer. cNet http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2401252/posts#comment Sun, 6 Dec 2009 00:32:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402578/posts The current treatment of young-age creationists in the scientific community and society at large is unfair and unwise. Scientists and philosophers of science, including old-age creationists and naturalists, should respect youngage creationists as legitimate contributors to science. Young-age creationists offer to the current origins science establishment a competing rational viewpoint that will augment fruitful scientific investigation through increased accountability for scientists, introduction of original hypotheses and general epistemic improvement... Journal of Creation http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402578/posts#comment Tue, 8 Dec 2009 03:30:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2399944/posts Massive supernova produced rainbow of elements for months. Bang! The collapse of a massive star created a previously unseen type of supernova.NASA Astronomers have watched the violent death of what was probably the most massive star ever detected. The supernova explosion, which lasted for months, is thought to have generated more than 50 Suns' worth (1032 kilograms) of different elements, which may one day go on to make new solar systems. The explosion — dubbed SN2007bi — was spotted as part of a digital survey to hunt for supernovae at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California. One supernova in... Nature News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2399944/posts#comment Fri, 4 Dec 2009 04:42:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2398881/posts It took humans thousands of years to explore our own planet and centuries to comprehend our neighboring planets, but nowadays new worlds are being discovered every week. To date, astronomers have identified more than 370 “exoplanets,” worlds orbiting stars other than the sun. Many are so strange as to confirm the biologist J. B. S. Haldane’s famous remark that “the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.” There’s an Icarus-like “hot Saturn” 260 light-years from Earth, whirling around its parent star so rapidly that a year there lasts less than three days. Circling... National Geographic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2398881/posts#comment Thu, 3 Dec 2009 00:57:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2397322/posts A new NASA study of a Martian meteorite that made headlines 13 years ago strengthens the original claim that the rock contains evidence of life on ancient Mars. Researchers at the Johnson Space Center used advanced electron microscopes that weren't available in 1996 to re-examine the magnetite crystals on the meteorite. The meteorite, called ALH84001, was blasted from the surface of Mars 16 million years ago, scientists say, and is thought to have landed on Earth 13,000 years ago. An American scientist found it in Antarctica in 1984. CBC News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2397322/posts#comment Tue, 1 Dec 2009 02:10:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2397360/posts The new research may help explain why large galaxies tend to have super-massive black holes at their cores. Astronomers have long wanted an answer to the chicken-and-egg question of what comes first, a super-massive black hole or the stars surrounding it. A new observation of a far away object five billion light years from Earth may now help to solve the riddle. The object is a quasar, a powerful source of energy believed to mark the location of an active giant black hole. Nothing that gets close enough to a black hole can escape its powerful gravity. However, material swirling... The Telegraph http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2397360/posts#comment Tue, 1 Dec 2009 03:20:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2393074/posts Scientists from Northern Illinois University and Nasa's Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston found dozens of valleys, shown in red, after using new software to analyse images of the surface and create the most accurate map to date. The valleys, first spotted in 1971, were caused by a network of rivers more than twice as extensive as previously mapped, pictured right. The new map shows water channels in a belt between the equator and mid-southern latitudes. Experts say this is consistent with heavy rain, and the presence of an ocean covering most of Mars's northern half. "It would also explain... London Evening Standard http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2393074/posts#comment Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:28:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2393942/posts A nondescript sign along an anonymous road east of Dallas announces the location of bustling and urbane Caddo Mills Municipal Airport (former home of Southwest Soaring, phone number now obscured by time or paint). A passing traveler might overlook the large white hangar with the doors wide enough to admit the reaching wings of delicate glider planes. Sapce Travel http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2393942/posts#comment Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:15:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2393000/posts I'm getting to be a broken record here, but I can't stop looking at these photos from the Enceladus flyby. This first one I put together from two of the south polar plume images – you can see all four of the tiger stripes, and the plumes issuing from them, in this wide shot. I mosaicked two images, matching their levels, rotated them 180 degrees to put "ground" at the bottom and "sky" at the top, and filled in a little of the background in the corner at lower right to fill out the whole image. Enceladan south polar vents... Planetary.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2393000/posts#comment Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:52:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2393087/posts BOULDER, Colo. – Call it Operation: Plymouth Rock. A plan to send a crew of astronauts to an asteroid is gaining momentum, both within NASA and industry circles. Not only would the deep space sojourn shake out hardware, it would also build confidence in long-duration stints at the moon and Mars. At the same time, the trek would sharpen skills to deal with a future space rock found on a collision course with Earth. In Lockheed Martin briefing charts, the mission has been dubbed "Plymouth Rock – An Early Human Asteroid Mission Using Orion." Lockheed is the builder of NASA's... space.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2393087/posts#comment Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:42:37 GMT