History-Science-Interesting

20130405_SpaceShip 2 and the moon

SpaceShipTwo glided past the Moon as she came in to land at the Mojave Spaceport after another successful test flight. This was her 24th glide flight and the 6th in-flight test of her patented feathered re-entry system. The flight also successfully verified SS2’s nitrous loading and venting system, another key milestone on the way to her first powered flight.

via Gliding past the Moon | The Planetary Society.

mostly sunnywhen I first woke up it was sunny and looked great out, stayed that easy the whole day, although I didn’t actually get up until after 10am.

Today is national beer day, the day that prohibition ended and they could sell beer again. A whopping 4% stuff. But good all the same.

Today is big day in beer history. Leading up to today, The Cullen-Harrison Act was signed on March 22, 1933. This act was a major step in repealing Prohibition. It allowed for the sale of low-alcohol beer (4% ABV). Cullen-Harrison took effect on April 7, 1933. On this day, beer could flow again. April 6th is referred to as “New Beers Eve,” which saw throngs of people waiting in line until the first beer could flow at 12:01 AM on the 7th.

Just couldn’t get motivated to do much of anything till almost 11 and then just did some laundry and hung out at the hour. Brian and I did finally get the reservations for the camping trip over to Providence Canyon Park, also known as the Little Grand Canyon. N 32.064445 | W -84.921913

Finally, went out the Kroger and got some Mountain Dew and some other stuff. Then went out to the shroom and dropped off the photos for Charlie and had a late lunch. They were celebrating Sahil’s birthday that is tomorrow, s surprise thing. Michelle, Lauryn, Ryan and the rest of the crew here. Lauryn was looking adorable in her little summer dress. It had birds on it.

I released Jorael from his exile, Now he is allowed back in the house, but only till 10pm weeknights and midnight on weekends. Nicki made a comment that it wasn’t much help since he doesn’t get off school until after 9, but honestly it is not my problem. I honestly don’t care if he EVER steps foot in my house again. They were not bashful about taking over the livingroom and the TV the rest of the afternoon/evening though.

I wasn’t feeling well and ended up taking a nap for several hours upstairs and finally did get back down, took back over my TV and got to watch the last of the Season 3 episodes of The Walking Dead. Dam if they didn’t kill off another beautiful lady. First Lori and now Andrea.

NASA / JPL / MSSS / Ed Truthan Curiosity MAHLI self-portrait, sol 177 A total of 64 frames shot by the MAHLI on the end of Curiosity's robotic arm were required for this large mosaic. On sol 177 (February 3, 2013), the rover was sitting at the "John Klein" site, preparing to drill for the first time. Zoom in at lower left and you can see two gray marks on the ground where Curiosity tested out the drill in percussion mode on sols 174 and 176.

NASA / JPL / MSSS / Ed Truthan

Curiosity MAHLI self-portrait, sol 177

A total of 64 frames shot by the MAHLI on the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm were required for this large mosaic. On sol 177 (February 3, 2013), the rover was sitting at the “John Klein” site, preparing to drill for the first time. Zoom in at lower left and you can see two gray marks on the ground where Curiosity tested out the drill in percussion mode on sols 174 and 176.

via Yes, it was once a Martian lake: Curiosity has been sent to the right place | The Planetary Society.

I’m wondering if the asteroid “could” hit the Earth at some time? does it actually pass through the same spot as the Earth’s orbit?

2012da14Photo Credit: NASA

on feb 15/16, a little chunk of rock (45 meters = 150 feet across), known as asteroid 2012 DA14, which has been orbiting around the sun for a long time on a not-quite-circular orbit, will pass close by the earth.

actually, asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass very close to the earth – only 17,200 miles (27,680 kilometers) away, which is closer than the moon’s orbit and even closer than some high-orbiting communications satellites!

but do not worry, asteroid 2012 DA14 will not hit earth.  

Screen-Shot-2013-02-10-at-11Photo Credit: NASA via Calgary Herald

the asteroid will not be visible to the naked eye, but should be visible using binoculars to many people across the planet, if you know where and when to look.  check out satflare.com or http://www.heavens-above.com/ to see if it will be visible where you are.

astropixie: visible asteroid 2012 DA14.

NASA / JPL / UMD

Comet ISON from Deep Impact

Deep Impact observed comet ISON on January 17 and 18, 2013, taking more than 150 photos. The comet was more than 5 AU away from Deep Impact at the time. These were the first space-based observations of comet ISON.

via Venerable Deep Impact spacecraft has photographed comet ISON | The Planetary Society.

Quadrantids meteor showerThe first major shower of 2013 is the Quadrantids meteor shower. This annual shower has one of the highest predicted hourly rates of all the major showers, and is comparable to the two of the most lively, the August Perseids and the December Geminids. This celestial event is active from December 28th through January 12th and peaks on the morning of January 3rd. In relation to meteor showers, the peak is defined as the moment of maximum activity when the most meteors can be seen by the observer.

While the plus side of this annual shower is its ability to produce fireballs, and its high hourly rates, the downside is its short peak. Quadrantids has an extremely narrow peak, occurring over just a few short hours. The Quadrantids are also well known for producing fireballs, meteors that are exceptionally bright. These meteors can also, at times, generate persistent trails (also identified as trains).

Those living in the northern hemisphere have an opportunity to experience a much better view of the Quadrantids, as the constellation Boötes never makes it above the horizon in the southern hemisphere. This is great for those living in North America, much of Europe, and the majority of Asia.

Unfortunately, those of you living in Australia and lower portions of South America will have a difficult time observing the Quadrantids. Observers in higher latitudes will have better gazing conditions, but nevertheless will need to be wary of cloud cover, as conditions are typically cloudy during this time of year.


Artist’s impression of the first planet discovered orbiting the star Alpha Centauri B, a member of the triple star system that is the closest to Earth. The planet was found in 2012 with the HARPS spectrograph on the 3.6-m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.

ESO/L. Calçada/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)
This image is posted under a Creative Commons Attribution license. You may reuse it for any purpose as long as you include the above credit.

First Planet Discovered in Alpha Centauri System

Got to keep this in mind, in 2013 comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) will visit the sun and the earth in Nov & Dec 2013.

Editor’s note: Space blogs are abuzz about the recent discovery of comet C/2012 S1 (ISON), which has the potential to be a bright one late next year. I turned to amateur astronomer Bill Gray to ask for more details and whether I should be getting excited about this comet yet. Here’s what he told me. –Emily Lakdawalla

Comet ISON: 30% chance of awesome, 60% chance of that being wrong | The Planetary Society.

Andromeda, otherwise known as M31, is among our nearest neighbors, “only” 2.5 million light-years away. Its line-of-sight speed has been known for a long time (from Doppler measurements), but until now we didn’t know whether its actual direction of motion is more toward us or more tangential to us.

The answer: Andromeda is coming at us, and will “collide” with the Milky Way in about four billion years. I put the word “collide” in quotes because while the collision will have a dramatic effect on the appearance of both galaxies, physical encounters between stars (and the planets they contain) will be really rare, because there is so much empty space between stars. Our solar system will most likely be unaffected by the collision, and will be having greater problems at that time due to our Sun’s behavior; that’s roughly the same time it’s estimated that the Sun will expand into a red giant.

Artist's views of a night sky transformed by a galaxy merger | The Planetary Society.