Clipmarks | pokkets's 'space' clips

Mars Pictures From European Spacecraft Are Incredible (PHOTOS)

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:06:02 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Wow!

The European spacecraft in orbit around Mars has sent back these incredible, high-resolution images of the planet's surface. The photos remind us that Mars' past was filled with fast-flowing streams, rivers and oceans.

Tags: space, science, mars, technology, pictures, wow

Thye Largest Star in the Universe ~ Visualized

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:19:16 GMT

clipped by: Tylast
clipper's remarks: Just click the picture & watch! Just have a couple min of patience to watch the pics.

Clip Source: www.techdo.com

But be patient because it’s worth the wait.

Here on planet Earth, we're completely oblivious to the grand scale of things in the universe. Much the way we perceive dust particles as being insignifcant, universally speaking we are not much more than this. The scale of things is mind blowing!

So how small are we really? Click to open an awesome image that explains visually how massive some celestial objects really are. The Largest Known Star might take a bit to load since it’s an animated gif.

The last star is called VY Canis Majoris, a hypergiant star located 5,000 light years from earth and is considered to be the largest star discovered in the universe.

Tags: space, astronomy

'Hundreds of worlds' in Milky Way

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:52:48 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Scientists say there may be many more worlds in our solar system

Rocky planets, possibly with conditions suitable for life, may be more common than previously thought in our galaxy, a study has found.

New evidence suggests more than half the Sun-like stars in the Milky Way could have similar planetary systems.

There may also be hundreds of undiscovered worlds in outer parts of our Solar System, astronomers believe.

Future studies of such worlds will radically alter our understanding of how planets are formed, they say.

New findings about planets were presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston.

Tags: astronomy, space, milky way, galaxies, life, science

New Cosmic Theory Unites Dark Forces

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:34:41 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Space certainly keeps theorists busy. Wonder what would happen if they put those wonderful minds to conspiracy theories.

Clip Source: www.space.com

The two biggest mysteries in cosmology may be one. A new theory says that dark matter and dark energy could arise from a single dark fluid that permeates the whole universe. And this could mean Earth-based dark matter searches will come up empty.

Dark matter, as originally hypothesized, is extra hidden mass that astrophysicists calculate is necessary for holding together fast-turning galaxies. The most popular notion is that this matter is made of some yet-to-be-identified particle that has almost no interactions with light or ordinary matter. Yet it seems to be everywhere, acting as a scaffolding for galaxy clusters and the whole structure of the universe.

On the other hand, dark energy is needed to explain the more recently-discovered acceleration of the universe's expansion. It supposedly exists all throughout space, delivering a pressure that counteracts gravity.

Tags: space

Moon is younger and more Earth-like than thought

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 00:29:42 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

It's a good thing the Moon doesn't have any feelings to hurt. New research suggests it is actually 30 million years younger than anyone had thought, and that it is merely a 'chip off the old block' of Earth rather than being made up of the remnants of a Mars-sized body that slammed into Earth billions of years ago.

That violent impact was thought to have taken place 30 million years after the solar system began to condense from a disc of gas and dust 4.567 billion years ago. The event was thought to have melted the Earth, generating a magma ocean that covered the planet and allowed iron and other metals to sink to its centre, forming a core.

At the same time, the Moon was thought to have coalesced from a disc of molten debris blasted off the Earth and the Mars-sized interloper.

But new research led by Mathieu Touboul of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich suggests that picture is not so simple.

Tags: moon, earth, space, science

Asteroid may hit Mars January 2008

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 05:12:10 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: It's like Mars is a crash test dummy. June 30 is the Centenary of the Tunguska Impact on Earth. It has been called a meteor strike, but the jury is still out on exactly what it was. It was a weird meteor.They only discovered this asteroid in November It'd due on Jan 30 but I don't know where it will be night if it hits.The odds are 75:1, but they are short odds in astronomical terms. At least we wont be in suspense for too long. I was wondering how big a telescope would have to be before it can be seen, but it will probably be easier to see on youtube

Clip Source: www.mail.com

By ALICIA CHANG

Mars could be in for an asteroid hit. A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30, scientists said Thursday.

"These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track ... threatening asteroids," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The asteroid, known as 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November and is similar in size to an object that hit remote central Siberia in 1908, unleashing energy equivalent to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb and wiping out 60 million trees.

Scientists

tracking the asteroid, currently halfway between Earth and Mars, initially put the odds of impact at 1 in 350 but increased the chances this week. Scientists expect the odds to diminish again early next month after getting new observations of the asteroid's orbit, Chesley said.

Tags: mars, asteroid, space, hit

The Great Silence

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 14:49:25 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: His question became famously known as the Fermi Paradox. The paradox is the contradiction between the high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and yet the lack of evidence for, or contact with, any such civilizations.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Are we the lone sentient life in the universe? So far, we have no evidence to the contrary, and yet the odds that not one single other planet has evolved intelligent life would appear, from a statistical standpoint, to be quite small. There are an estimated 250 billion (2.5 x 1011) stars in the Milky Way alone, and over 70 sextillion (7 x 1022) in the visible universe, and many of them are surrounded by multiple planets. The shear size of the known universe is staggeringly and inconceivably vast.

The odds of there being only one single planet that evolved life among all that unfathomable vastness seems so incredible, that it is all but completely irrational to believe. But then "where are they?" asked physicist Enrico Fermi while having lunch with his colleagues in 1950.

Fermi questioned, if there are other advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, then why is there no evidence of such, like spacecraft or probes floating around the Milky Way

Tags: space, fermi

Most Amazing Space Discoveries of 2007

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 22:09:24 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.space.com

Dark Finding

Clip Source: www.space.com

Magellanic Clouds

Clip Source: www.space.com

Today's High: 1,700 degrees!

Clip Source: www.space.com

Mars Fell Over

Clip Source: www.space.com

Catch a Star ... By the Tail

Clip Source: www.space.com

A Ray of Hope

Clip Source: www.space.com

Theory-Busting Black Hole

Clip Source: www.space.com

Cosmic Bullets

Clip Source: www.space.com

Planet-palooza

Clip Source: www.space.com

Death Ray

Tags: space

ET too bored by Earth transmissions to respond

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:36:15 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

Messages sent into space directed at extraterrestrials may have been too boring to earn a reply, say two astrophysicists trying to improve on their previous alien chat lines.

Humans have so far sent four messages into space intended for alien listeners. But they have largely been made up of mathematically coded descriptions of some physics and chemistry, with some basic biology and descriptions of humans thrown in.

Those topics will not prove gripping reading to other civilisations, says Canadian astrophysicist Yvan Dutil. If a civilisation is advanced enough to understand the message, they will already know most of its contents, he says: "After reading it, they will be none the wiser about us humans and our achievements. In some ways, we may have been wasting our telescope time."

In 1999 and 2003, Dutil and fellow researcher Stephane Dumas beamed messages in a language of their own design into space. Now, they are working to compose more interesting messages.

Tags: astronomy, science, et, space, messages

Spitzer Space Telescope

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 05:31:27 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: I saw a story where scientists thought they'd found out where cosmic dust came from. There were no pictures, so I followed the link to the telescope. There was much more to see, so I clipped the telescope. I think it's more of an infra red

Clip Source: www.spitzer.caltech.edu

Spitzer Site
Images, news, and information about the Spitzer mission can be found here.

Astronomers' Site
The Spitzer Science Center is the source for information on observation planning, proposal submission, observer support, and data archives and analysis.

Education and Public Outreach
Learn more about infrared light, astronomy, and the world around us. Spectacular images, fun games, resources for educators, and more!

Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
A site for scientists, with links to all IPAC's missions, archives, and services.

Latest News: 10,000 Earths' Worth of Fresh Dust Found Near Star Explosion

Astronomers have at last found definitive evidence that the universe's first dust -- the celestial stuff that seeded future generations of stars and planets -- was forged in the explosions of massive stars. more...

More Than Your Eyes Can See on Cool Cosmos

Want a clear understanding of what infrared light is an why astronomers use the infrared?

7-minute video,

available

on Cool Cosmos

Tags: spitzer, space, telescope, astronomy, infra red, cloud

The Earth through Rozetta colored glasses

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 05:46:23 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Snapshots of the earth as seen from the comet-chasing Rosetta space probe have revealed the globe in true colour, with Australia clearly shown.

The images were taken last week as Rosetta made its closest approach to earth, before swinging out towards the outer solar system in search of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

At its closest point, Rosetta was 5295 kilometres above the earth's surface.

The narrow-angle camera on the probe's optical, spectroscopic and infrared remote imaging system took the images.

This particular one was taken on 15 November and is a colour composite of the camera's orange, green and blue filters.

Data from the probe's instruments has been received on the ground by the New Norcia station in Western Australia and is available on the European Space Agency website.

In 2014, it is scheduled to rendezvous and orbit 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko before sending down a lander, called Philae, to make the first ever controlled landing on a comet.

Clip Source: www.esa.int

Tags: earth, view, space, rosetta, photo, picture, gravity, assist

Shock Discovery of Ancient Space Invader

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 23:44:12 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead
clipper's remarks: This rock sample contains fragments of the first asteroid ever discovered intact. The brown 'nuggets' in the sample once orbited the Sun, and are probably older than the planets in our Solar System.

Clip Source: www.sciencemuseum.org.uk

Deep in a huge crater, scientists have unearthed an astonishing find - the only preserved fragments of an asteroid ever discovered. We've always thought asteroids vaporised when they hit Earth head-on.

In South Africa an asteroid crater wider than London has surrendered some amazing space secrets - the first fragments of a large asteroid ever found. The impact crater, called Morokweng, formed when a huge asteroid slammed into our planet 145 million years ago.

Until now, scientists thought a large asteroid's energy turned into heat when it hit, vaporising the asteroid and melting the ground to form a so-called melt sheet. But drilling deep into Morokweng's melt sheet has revealed a beach-ball-sized lump of asteroid, along with lots of smaller fragments.

How the asteroid fragments came to be embedded in the melt sheet is a big question; they just should not be there.

Somehow chunks of this asteroid survived the impact.

Meteorites that hit in Antarctica are preserved by the extreme cold

Tags: astronomy, asteroid, geology, history, space

Search for the Intergalactic Origins of Life

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:06:24 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Recent discoveries using The Paranal Observatory located in the Atacama Desert in the northern part of Chile have led astrophysicists believe that carbon-based molecules that once floated in interstellar space were present in the cloud of dust and gas from which our solar system formed, providing the raw materials for life on Earth. These molecules have been observed throughout our galaxy, which is one reason why many believe conditions may also be ripe for life in other parts of the Milky Way, and in billions of galaxies beyond.

By seeking out dusty galaxies – where organic molecules may form in greater abundance – galaxies similar to our own, but at an earlier stage of their evolution, astronomers hope to work out how long these molecules have been abundant in the universe, and therefore how long the conditions suitable for life as we know it have prevailed.

New evidence appears to support the theory that organic molecules are common elsewhere in the universe.

Tags: space, life, carbon, stellar dust, cosmology, universe, science

Time to rejoin space race, say scientists

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:40:51 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Australia is gong to send a rocket to the Sun, and two satellites to monitor climate change. If you're going to join a race, it helps if there is no one else in the race. Everyone else seems to be aiming for the Moon or Mars.l

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Dani Cooper

Australia may gain a National Space Science Institute and send a spacecraft to a fiery death into the sun during the next 10 years, under a proposal by the nation's space scientists.

Australian space scientists plan to send a spacecraft to a fiery death to learn about the sun's corona and the origin of solar winds

The A$100 million national plan also includes the launch of two satellites and a network of measuring instruments to predict and monitor space weather and climate change phenomena in the region

Decadal Plan for Space Science is being drafted for the national space science committee of the Australian Academy of Science and is intended "to build a true presence as a nation for Australia in space for less than A$100 million"

Aurora Australis, the southern lights, are seen during strong geomagnetic events

research into the cosmos and the earth's surface is relatively well funded in Australia

But he says the "science of our solar system" needs to be made a funding priority.

Tags: space, race, rocket, sun, weather, corona, climate, change, launch

We're all Martians?

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 03:54:26 GMT

clipped by: hudgal1
clipper's remarks: I suppose it's POSSIBLE that we evolved from some organic matter that hitched a ride on a flying space rock, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

We could have alien origins, say scientists who sent fossilized microscopic life-forms into space and back inside an artificial meteorite.

he researchers attached the baseball-size rock to the outside of the European Space Agency's Foton M3 spacecraft to test whether biological material could survive the round-trip journey.

Sculpted from stone from the Orkney Islands in northern Scotland, the rock contained fossilized microbes and the molecular signatures of microbes.

"In the bit of rock we got back, some biological compounds have survived,

Preliminary findings suggest that it's possible simple organisms could arrive via meteorites, he said.

Tags: space, mereors, metiorites, life, aliens