Author Archives: Tom

Little Janus

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Cassini takes a close look at the Saturn moon Janus during a flyby on March 27, 2012. Click for larger. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

 

Here’s another small moon of Saturn named Janus. Audouin Dollfus discovered Janus on December 15, 1966, quite a discovery considering Janus has a diameter of just 111 miles / 179 km.

Janus and the much more famous moon Epimetheus make for some interesting riddle-fodder: they are co-orbitals. Yes they share an orbit around Saturn. Funny because the difference in semi-major axes is less than either moon’s average diameter. A confusing way to say one moon slowly catches up with the other and when it does it acts to increase the semi-major axis of the moon doing the catching and decreasing the one for the moon being caught up to. Still clear as mud? Well the end result of the dance is the two moons actually sway positions! Cool eh? Here’s a cartoon of the dance (160k).

More on the image from the JPL site.

Space X Launch Delay

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The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft atop the Falcon 9 at the test firing test. Click for larger. Image: SpaceX via RedOrbit.

As you probably know if you’ve read this page, today was to be the demonstration flight to the ISS of the SpaceX Dragon space capsule atop the Falcon 9 rocket.

Last week I mentioned there was a dress rehearsal. Apparently while the rehearsal went quite well, time was needed to review data from the test including some software changes. The delay seems to avoid a potential conflict with a Russian Soyuz carrying three new crew for the ISS. The Soyuz mission is set to launch on May 14 and arrive at the ISS on May 17.

Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations, told Boyle. “The teamwork provided by these teams is phenomenal. There are a few remaining open items, but we are ready to support SpaceX for its new launch date of May 19.”
From redOrbit (share this quote)

SpaceX is saying so far there have been “no issues” during the software review and they are being “extremely diligent.

There is a alternate date in case there is some problem on the 19th.  Let’s hope everything goes smoothly.  I am hoping NASA TV will carry the launch live.

For now the it is expected the launch will be on May 19 at 0455 am EDT / 0855 UTC (if I did my math right).

Once successfully launched, the spacecraft will be extensively test to see that it can move very precisely and safely approach the ISS.  If those objectives are met, then docking with the ISS is next thing and unloading the 1200 pounds of supplies it will be carrying.

If for some reason there is any hesitation on the part of NASA or SpaceX about the way things are going, the mission will be called and a third launch will be in order.

Stellar Homicide

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Nice animation.

This computer simulation shows a star being shredded by the gravity of a massive black hole. Some of the stellar debris falls into the black hole and some of it is ejected into space at high speeds. The areas in white are regions of highest density, with progressively redder colors corresponding to lower-density regions. The blue dot pinpoints the black hole’s location. The elapsed time corresponds to the amount of time it takes for a sun-like star to be ripped apart by a black hole a million times more massive than the sun. (Credit: NASA; S. Gezari, The Johns Hopkins University; and J. Guillochon, University of California, Santa Cruz)

The Galex site has the details.

Video

Last Riddle?

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SOLVED by Ron

I was going to make this a last chance to a bonus riddle but fell a little behind again this week. Hopefully after hitting a pretty large dog bone with a lawn mower and shooting said bone through a living room window and reducing it to thousands of little bits strewn between three rooms, things will start to look up if only by comparison.  I am catching up all the while.

Here’s a pretty easy  (and short) one for you:

So today’s subject was known to the ancients. Our subject was considered to be a bad omen and believe me, it still is today by an increasing number of people.

We can see examples of this all over the solar system.

Does our subject make noise?  Some say yes others say no.  Me?  I like to think yes but if I was to have one of these Kroners for every time I’ve heard it I have none of these.

Noise? I can do noise. Before the name of our subject was coined in the 1620′s, some described it as what you hear here especially sailors and those in Scotland.

Messier 78 from the ESO

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ESO's look at M78. Click for larger. Image: ESO/Igor Chekalin

Wow, one of the nicest images I’ve seen in a while courtesy of the ESO. You can get wallpaper sized versions at the link below:

The ESO press release:

The nebula Messier 78 takes centre stage in this image taken with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, while the stars powering the bright display take a backseat. The brilliant starlight ricochets off dust particles in the nebula, illuminating it with scattered blue light. Igor Chekalin was the overall winner of ESO’s Hidden Treasures 2010 astrophotography competition with his image of this stunning object.
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JUICE

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ESA's JUICE mission. Credits: ESA/AOES

 

ESA sets its vision for future with its selection of a mission today in an announcement.  The mission is the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer or JUICE.  Check it out.

Sounds exciting, hopefully they can pull it off given the economy, which I’d hope would get better eventually.  The mission won’t launch until 2022 and reach Jupiter in 2030 and a lot can happen between now and then.