Clipmarks | ColoradoRight's 'explore' clips

Saturn's "UFO Moons"

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:53:22 GMT

Two of Saturn's small moons look eerily like flying saucers, new observations by the Cassini spacecraft reveal. The moons, which lie within the giant planet's rings, may have come by their strange shape by gradually accumulating ring particles in a ridge around their equators.

The Voyager spacecraft discovered the moons, called Pan and Atlas, in the early 1980s.

Both moons have a flattened shape, being wider than they are tall. But their uncanny resemblance to UFOs only became clear recently, when Cassini viewed them with its powerful cameras.

Tags: space, science, explore, saturn, planet, planets, voyager, cassini

Million Light Year Long Particle Beam Found

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:49:02 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight
clipper's remarks: Remarkable

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

An intergalactic particle beam stretching for more than a million light years is the longest ever seen.

The jet they saw is nearly 1.5 million light years long, twice the length of the previous record holder. If this jet sprang instead from the centre of the Milky Way, it would loom over us like a skyscraper and would stretch halfway to the Andromeda galaxy.

It is unusual in other ways too. Jets usually come in fairly well-matched pairs, pointing in opposite directions. The new jet's counterpart, however, appears much shorter. That could be because the apparently shorter jet is pointing away from us - so light from its far end might not have had time to reach us yet.

Interestingly, the radio waves emitted by the newly discovered jet are strongly polarised, revealing a powerful magnetic field wrapped around the jet.

Tags: space, explore, science, particle, galaxy

Soviet & Eastern Bloc Retro-Futuristic Graphics

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:58:11 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight
clipper's remarks: Some really interesting visions of the future from 50 years ago.

Clip Source: www.darkroastedblend.com

collection of the most inspiring & hard-to-find retro-futuristic graphics.

artwork from rather unlikely sources: Soviet & Eastern Bloc "popular tech & science" magazines, German, Italian, British fantastic illustrations and promotional literature - all from the Golden Age of Retro-Future (from 1930s to 1970s)

"Lunar Unicycle" by Frank Tinsley, 1959

Tags: space, explore, technology, future, soviet, ussr, eastern bloc, graphics, stars

Hundreds of Black Holes Found

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:45:09 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2007) — Astronomers have unmasked hundreds of black holes hiding deep inside dusty galaxies billions of light-years away.

This image, taken with Spitzer's infrared vision, shows a fraction of the black holes, which are located deep in the bellies of distant, massive galaxies (circled in blue). (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique)

For decades, a large population of active black holes has been considered missing. These highly energetic structures belong to a class of black holes called quasars. A quasar consists of a doughnut-shaped cloud of gas and dust that surrounds and feeds a budding supermassive black hole.

Tags: space, explore, science, technology, astronomy, cosmology

Moonlet Belt Discovered in Saturn's Rings

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:38:44 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight

Clip Source: www.colorado.edu

A narrow belt harboring moonlets as large as football stadiums discovered in Saturn's outermost ring probably resulted when a larger moon was shattered by a wayward asteroid or comet eons ago, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder study.

The team calculated that there likely are thousands of moonlets ranging in size from semi-trailers to sports arenas embedded in the "A" ring's thin moonlet belt that circles the planet. At about 2,000 miles across, the belt of moonlets is only about 1/80th the diameter of Saturn's total ring system, which at roughly 155,000 miles across would stretch about two-thirds of the way from Earth to the moon.

Tags: space, technology, explore, saturn

Orion Nebula May Be Closer Than It Appears

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:12:40 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight
clipper's remarks: Still a very long, long, long ways away!

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Closer Than We Thought
The Orion Nebula, seen here in an image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, is 10 to 20 percent closer to Earth than has long been thought, according to new measurements made by the Very Large Baseline Array.

Tags: space, explore, nebula, telescope, measurement

Pictures for Proposed Mars Landing Sites

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:02:26 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight
clipper's remarks: This satellite also is designed to be a communications uplink for earth transmission as well as providing visual data for landing other explorers.

Clip Source: www.networkworld.com

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter this week sent back high-resolution images of about 30 proposed landing sites for the Mars Science Laboratory, a mission launching in 2009 to deploy a long-distance rover carrying sophisticated science instruments on Mars.

The images reveal features as small as a desk. The orbiter has sent back some 26 terabytes of data, equivalent to about 5,000 CD-ROMs.

NASA said that ultimately the orbiter's telecommunications systems will also establish a crucial service for future spacecraft, becoming the first link in a communications bridge back to Earth, an "interplanetary Internet" that can be used by numerous international spacecraft in coming years.

The orbiter also carries an experimental navigation camera. If it performs well, similar cameras placed on orbiters of the future would be able to serve as high-precision interplanetary "eyes" to guide incoming landers to precise landings on Mars

Tags: space, explore, technology, satellite, mars, nasa

New Information on Saturn's Moons

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:50:58 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Cassini has continued to survey Saturn and its moons - with startling results. In the case of Iapetus, it has helped solve - or at least partly solve - a 300-year-old scientific mystery. Astronomers had noted the little moon darkened and lightened as it moved round Saturn but couldn't work out why.

Now Cassini has helped provide the answer. Dark, organic-rich material is splattering the face of Iapetus as it orbits Saturn, like a car whose windscreen is sprayed with water from other cars on a rainy day.

In addition, Cassini radar images have shown that both poles of Titan are pitted with hydrocarbon lakes, one of them larger than Lake Superior, Earth's largest freshwater lake.

Finally, last week Nasa and Esa revealed images from Cassini which confirmed that jets of fine, icy particles are spraying from Saturn's moon Enceladus and originate from a hot 'tiger stripe' fracture that straddles the moon's south polar region.

Tags: space, technology, explore, science, saturn

International Space Station - $130 Billion wasted and counting

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:10:51 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight
clipper's remarks: I support the space program and manned exploration of space. But the ISS has devoured so many billions by now, and our only plan for it once it is complete is to close it down. Why keep building it if it can't/won't be used? Let's get back to the moon and setup some permanent bases.

Clip Source: spacecynic.wordpress.com

For those who don’t know the backstory, allow me to set the wayback machine to the early 1990s, when Dan Goldin told the “big lie”…

In an impassioned attempt to save the ISS from cancellation in Congress, some pretty bogus claims were made about the value of ISS to industry, and more specifically that industry was so itching to use this amazing facility (which had already cost over $10 billion without any hardware even launched yet…) that NASA was promising over 30% of the costs would be covered by industry.

Of course, as the costs escalated and those pesky bean counters started looking at TOTAL life cycle costs, the price tag for ISS had shot up to almost $100 billion by the time it would be completed. Knowing that industry would never pony up $30 billion for this orbiting locker room, the claim was modified to mean “30% of operating costs”.

for those who read the linked Wired article, note that the cost of ISS has been moved up again, now at $130b and counting.

Tags: space, technology, explore, space station, shuttle

Self-Sufficient Space Habitat Design Released

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:19:29 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight
clipper's remarks: However, the 20-30 year timeframe to actually get a functioning model seems daunting.

Clip Source: www.cosmosmagazine.com

SYDNEY: Australian-led scientists have designed a new space habitat that might one day allow astronauts on the Moon or Mars to be 90 to 95 per cent self-sufficient.

The development of such as system could save billions of dollars in shuttle trips to re-supply lunar or space colonies and brings closer the vision of a human habitat on Mars.

Devised by an international team of 30 space scientists, Luna Gaia would be a 'closed-loop' environment, meaning that almost all material within the system is recycled with very little need for input from outside sources. The current design caters for a team of 12 astronauts under isolation for up to three years.

The proposed system, is unlikely to be up and running any time soon. Chartres estimates it will be another 20 to 30 years before the funding for the set-up and the practicality of providing the space for plant growth in a spacecraft is realised.

Tags: space, explore, hardware, transportation, ecology, recycle, habitat

Science Finds the Perfect Breast

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:41:07 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight
clipper's remarks: And every non-gay man in the world would like this research job.

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Whether small or large, pert or pendulous, they all have their admirers.

But there is one type of breast that most approaches perfection, a cosmetic surgeon claims.

The model mammary apparently has a nipple that points slightly skywards, and an upper half just a bit smaller than the bottom half.

Patrick Mallucci spent many hours poring over photos of topless models in lads magazines and tabloid newspapers to formulate his theory.

Mr Mallucci said: "I studied a wide variety of photographs of the most popular topless models to work out the various proportions they had in common and what made those particular features attractive.

"The ideal is a 45 to 55 per cent proportion - that is the nipple sits not at the half-way mark down the breast, but at about 45 per cent from the top."

Tags: science, cosmetics, surgery, women, men, explore

Cave Entrances Found on Mars

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:13:27 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight
clipper's remarks: Martian spelunkers sign up now.

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Sept. 21, 2007 — Get out your Martian spelunking gear: NASA has found what appear to be seven cave entrances on Mars.

The Mars Odyssey spacecraft relayed images of the dark, nearly perfectly circular features ranging in diameter from 328 to 820 feet.

"Their thermal behavior is not as steady as large caves on Earth that often maintain a fairly constant temperature, but it is consistent with these being deep holes in the ground."

The holes, which the researchers have dubbed the "Seven Sisters," are at very high altitudes on the planet, on a volcano named Arsia Mons near Mars' tallest mountain. They probably formed as underground stresses around the volcano caused spreading and faults that opened spaces beneath the surface.

Tags: space, explore, mars, technology

Russia Plans Moon Base by 2035

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 23:23:09 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight
clipper's remarks: I personally believe that porcine animals will sprout appendages allowing said creatures to generate low pressure pockets allowing for the temporary resistance to the pull of gravity before we see any bases on the moon - regardless of country.

At least until after the nuclear war taht is coming

Clip Source: www.cbc.ca

Russia plans to send a manned mission to the moon by 2025 and establish a permanent base shortly thereafter, the head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos said Friday.

"According to our estimates, we will be ready for a manned flight to the moon in 2025," Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov told state news agency RIA Novosti. A station that could be inhabited could be built there between 2027 and 2032, he said.

Tags: space, explore, russia, us

Four Month Mars Simulation Mission in Artic Ends

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:18:16 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

What happens when you stick nine scientists and engineers in a remote simulated Martian habitat and leave them there for 100 days? That is what a group of space scientists were trying to find out. Their space habitat (the size and shape of an expected martian abode) is located near a crater on Devon Island above the Arctic Circle in Canada.

Crew Commander Melissa Battler, a Canadian geologist, commented in her blog that one of the biggest challenges of shifting to Martian time was not when to fall asleep (which they had no trouble with) but when to eat! "Several of us were hungry very frequently during our first 10 days of Mars Time, but our bodies seem to be adjusting now." Melissa adds that the extra 39 minutes does make a difference, "[you] feel like [you're] getting more work done."

Tags: space, explore, environment

Safe Flight Voyagers

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:24:25 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight
clipper's remarks: Its astonishing that these things are still working and sending back data. My car from 1977 is a pile of scrap by now I'm sure.

Clip Source: www.space.com

NASA's two Voyager spacecraft are celebrating three decades of flight as they careen toward interstellar space billions of miles from the solar system's edge.

Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 launched on Sept. 5, 1977. Both spacecraft continue to return information from distances more than three times farther away than Pluto, where the sun's outer heliosphere meets the boundary of interstellar space.

Voyager 1 currently is the farthest human-made object at a distance from the sun of about 9.7 billion miles (15.6 billion kilometers). Voyager 2 is about 7.8 billion miles (12.6 billion kilometers).

"The continued operation of these spacecraft and the flow of data to the scientists is a testament to the skills and dedication of the small operations team," said Ed Massey, Voyager project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Tags: space, explore, nasa