This morning at 4am EST on the International Space Station, an Ammonia leak alarm went off, leading the crew to perform an emergency evacuation from the American capsule of the ISS. All of the astronauts are currently safe and secure in the Russian capsule of the ISS. The hatch between the two capsules has been sealed, and any non-essential equipment has been powered down. Mission Control is in the process of assessing whether the alarm was the result of an actual leak or a malfunction, though recent reports from NASA TV suggest that the alarm was due to computer glitch...
A vast number of Galaxies in the Universe have a central black hole that is incredibly massive. The Black Hole at the centre of the Milky Way, dubbed Sag A*, is estimated to have a mass as high as three Million Suns. We generally can’t see black holes, but when they start to pull in matter from surrounding gas and dust clouds, the material forms a disk around the star. This accretion disk can heat up to incredible temperatures and emit X-rays and other high energy light, allowing us to see where the black holes are. Sometimes the light from...
For Christmas I was given a green 200 mW laser! A couple of AAA batteries later and the laser can point out any star or object in the night sky, with the beam clearly visible the entire way up to infinity. Its the epitome of an Astronomer’s toolkit, at least in my eyes, and it got me thinking about all the amazing things you can see in the sky right now. It also makes me feel like I’m brandishing a light saber, and sadly it’s about as close as I’ll ever get. First off, Venus is back in the evening...
Saturday Morning, 4:47am, Launch: Confirmed. SpaceX launched another successful resupply mission to the International Space Station this morning. The successful launch comes in the wake of the Orbital Sciences Antares rocket explosion back in late October, and is the fourth mission as part of a 12+ Mission contract with NASA worth 1.6 Billion dollars. The Dragon capsule is expected to rendezvous with the ISS early Monday morning, where Astronauts will use the Canada arm to grab it and connect. The capsule will remain connected to the ISS for more than four weeks as ISS astronauts unpack supplies and repack completed experiments...
The Hubble Space Telescope’s just had its 25th Anniversary of bringing us the greatest Astronomical images the world has ever seen. To celebrate, the Hubble team revisited one of Hubble’s most iconic images by pointing the cameras at the Eagle nebula once more. The image, dubbed the ‘Pillars of Creation’ show columns of star forming gas and dust, where the proverbial ‘magic’ happens. But let’s begin with the old image, taken in 1995, so we can compare the differences between then and now. And now the newest image. Quite a striking difference. Like a fine wine, Hubble has only gotten...
When I became a Masters student, a big part of the reason I liked the supervisor I had was that she studied M31: The Andromeda Galaxy. Since I was young I was obsessed with finding this galaxy in a telescope, and I will never forget the night I first found it. Seeing that strange fuzzy patch, photons that had travelled for 2.5 Million years through space, it was my first ever experience with ‘time travel’. Consequently, it makes sense that I am excited about a recent Hubble release: the highest resolution photo of the Andromeda Galaxy Ever taken. Let’s start...
A lot of the data that comes from Space can be called art. Though if you’ve ever seen raw Astronomical data, it’s anything but. It takes a talented artist to bring out the detail in the photo and make it truly beautiful! In the case of large missions like the Cassini Spacecraft, there are a plethora of scientists and artists alike making the most of the data. Especially with Cassini, I always get the feeling it’s a professional photographer taking the photos. The lighting, composition, and other photographic buzzwords are all exceptional, as if it was staged by someone saying...
You might think simulating the entire Universe is difficult, and it is, but not for the reasons you would think. The Physics is actually somewhat straightforward. We know the math behind star formation, Gravity, and fluid dynamics, and throwing in a few other effects is not too bad. The hard part is finding a computer powerful enough to do the calculations in a reasonable amount of time. Think about it. Imagine having a universe of 100 Billion ‘particles’ used for a simulation. Each particle has a starting point, and that it pretty easy to do. But then for every...
You may know that the Universe is much more complex than we know. If you look at nearly anything in a different wavelength of light, new details can pop up that you’d never expect. Astronomers today use all the wavelengths of light to study the Universe. Even the most seemingly boring objects can come to life in different wavelengths. As a prime example, take the Moon. Now I don’t find the Moon boring at all, in fact it’s quite interesting and has a lot of influence on the Earth, so its fun to talk about. But when we look at...
I really need to start doing this some day. As you watch the night time movements, remember that the stars are not moving, but the Earth is in fact turning with the camera (and all of us) on it. Feel the motion of the Earth. Also there’s a mind-shredding guitar solo near the end. And have a safe and Happy New Year’s Eve!
