Geobulletin alpha

Party with the planets this Memorial Day: See the closest gathering of any three planets until 2021 

As you celebrate this upcoming Memorial Day weekend, take some time to appreciate an interesting sight in the sky — the gathering of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter low in the west-northwest at dusk. Right now, you notice Jupiter setting in … Continue reading

May 1 to May 15 Most Popular 

Why Natural Gas Cars are Selling Slowly What is Sunstone? Natural Gas Could Kill Fuel Diversity Large Hurricane on Saturn Who Becomes Dominant After a Mass Extinction? Diamond Dust over Saskatoon The Bone

And the ScienceSeeker Award for best physics, astronomy, or earth science post goes to… 

…me, apparently. Even though I didn’t know I’d been nominated until I was notified on Twitter: Congrats to @Allochthonous for “Best Physics, Astronomy, or Earth Science Post”: http://t.co/em4cxUTWcl about 11 hours ago via webReplyRetweetFavorite @SciSeeker ScienceSeeker Check out the announcement … Continue reading

Spaced 

Today is the day that Expedition 35 return from the International Space Station. Later tonight they will climb into the docked Soyuz capsule, and perform a re-entry back to Earth, bringing to an end a truly phenomenal period of public … Continue reading

The Atmospheres of Exoplanets 

In just the past few years astronomers have discovered over 800 exoplanets. Now they are working on methods to evaluate their

Wind Deposits Three Miles Thick? 

“A roughly 3.5-mile high Martian mound that scientists suspect preserves evidence of a massive lake might actually have formed as a result of the Red Planet’s famously dusty atmosphere, an analysis of the mound’s features suggests.” Quoted from the Princeton University press

Potential Satellite Collision 

“NASA scientists don’t often learn that their spacecraft is at risk of crashing into another satellite. But when Julie McEnery, the project scientist for NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, checked her email on March 29, 2012, she found herself facing this precise situation.” Quoted from the NASA video

Seeing Stars with James Wooten: May 2013 

Jupiter is now lower in the west at dusk. Face west at dusk and look for the brightest thing there (unless the Moon is also there), as Jupiter outshines all other stars we ever see at night. It appears slightly … Continue reading

Large Hurricane on Saturn 

“NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn’s north pole. [...] The hurricane’s eye is about 1,250 miles wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on

170000000 Pieces of Space Junk 

“Since 1957, more than 4,900 space launches have led to an on-orbit population today of more than 22,000 trackable objects, with sizes larger than 10 cm. Approximately 1,000 of these are operational spacecraft. The remaining 94% are space debris, i.e. objects which no longer serve any useful purpose. [...] In addition, an estimated 700,000 objects

More Planets in the Habitable Zone 

“NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered two new planetary systems that include three super-Earth-size planets in the “habitable zone,” the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water.” Quoted from the NASA press

A 30 Meter Optical Telescope on Mauna Kea? 

The University of Hawaii at Hilo has received a permit to construct a $1.3 billion telescope with a 30-meter aperture on the summit of Mauna

The Rains of Saturn 

“A new study tracks the “rain” of charged water particles into the atmosphere of Saturn and finds there is more of it and it falls across larger areas of the planet than previously thought.” Quoted from the NASA press

Windows to the Interior of Europa 

“The surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa exposes material churned up from inside the moon and also material resulting from matter and energy coming from above.” Quoted from the NASA press

Mars Drilling Site 

“This image shows the first holes into rock drilled by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, with drill tailings around the holes plus piles of powdered rock collected from the deeper hole and later discarded after other portions of the sample had been delivered to analytical instruments inside the

A Star That Can Bend Light 

“NASA’s Kepler space telescope has witnessed the effects of a dead star bending the light of its companion star. The findings are among the first detections of this phenomenon.” Quoted from the NASA press

Does Europa Have the Chemistry of Life? 

“Life as we know it needs liquid water, elements like carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur, and it needs some form of chemical or light energy to get the business of life done. [...] Europa has the liquid water and elements, and we think that compounds like peroxide might be an important part of the energy

Seeing Stars with James Wooten: April 2013 

Jupiter is now lower in the west at dusk. Face west at dusk and look for the brightest thing there (unless the Moon is also there), as Jupiter outshines all stars we ever see at night. Saturn shifts from morning … Continue reading

Reflect, refract, get the facts! Join us for a telescope class April 6 at the George Observatory 

Scope out your new telescope at one of our informative telescope classes. Our refracting/reflecting scope class April 6 at 3 p.m. will teach beginner astronomers how to set up their ‘scopes, as well as some star formations to look for. … Continue reading

Light from the Big Bang 

“Animation depicting the ‘life’ of a photon as it travels across space and time, from the very early universe to the Planck satellite.” Quote from the NASA/JPL video