On April 23th the most powerful gamma ray burst ever recorded was detected by the Swift telescope. More about can be found here at NASA’s site.
With that type of bursts we look back in time, this time more than 13000 million years, this belongs to the earliest generations of stars in the known Universe. Impressive.
I just stumbled over an article in the “Bad Astronomy” blog, a reply to someone claiming that science is devoid of imagination.
I particularly like the “boiled down” version of the reply :
“Without imagination, science is a dictionary”
since without imagination science (and technology would never have brought us anywhere, certainly we would not be discussing the topic on the Internet.
I have been off the net for a few days, so here is my entry on this : Majel Barrett was the widow of Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek fame, and passed away on December 18 at the age of 76. Her family was there with her. More details at the official homepage.
For me Star Trek was a breakthrough in Science Fiction on TV and gave rise to a new trend – stating social issues in SF on TV. Actually, it was, at the time, the only way of tackling issues as racism, discrimination etc in TV series, by disguising it as “alien versus human” encounters. Majel is best known by SF fans from a multitude of roles in the Star Trek universe, and a single beautiful role in Babylon 5.
While it is sad to see someone pass beyond the Rim we should also remember the things she gave to us , in Star Trek : “Number One” from the original pilot, Nurse Chapel from the original series, Lwaxana Troi in The Next Generation, and the computer voice in all the “new” series, and from Babylon 5 the Lady Morella, seer and a wife of the deceased Emperor of the Centauri Republic.
With Starstuff I will quote the wonderful line she was given by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski : “There is always choice. We say there is no choice only to comfort ourselves with the decision we have already made. If you understand that, there’s hope. If not ..” – Lady Morella, Babylon 5, »Point of no return«
Rest in peace Majel Barrett, and may you meet your Gene in a place where no shadows fall.
NASA has finished listening for the Phoenix Mars Lander, reports Spaceflight Now in *this article*.
It comes due to the Martian Winter fast approaching, the solar panels are unable to keep the batteries charge…. and it is a little tricky to send someone to run a generator or change the batteries. 😉
In a sense it is sad to lose a spacecraft, but Phoenix had done what it was supposed to do, and was operational for 2 months longer than its original 3 months mission. Not bad at all. The Odyssey orbiter appears to continue functioning, so not all is over yet, even if we are unlikely to hear it for some time while Mars passes behind the Sun (from our perspective).
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has detected large glaciers just under the surface of Mars.
This can be very interesting as water supply when (yes, I am optimistic) we send people to Mars – they do not have to bring large supplies of water. Could it be that – with care – the people going there can be self supporting with water supply ? Quite possible.
This is also a sign that Mars has had much more water than it has today. Maybe it even had an atmosphere dense enough to support life, more or less as we know it.
Full story.
This is the kind of thing that can excite me. Imaging a planet 25 light years away in visible light. The Hubble Space Telescope ha done just that.
Around the star Formalhaut Hubble found a ring of dust, corresponding to the Kuiper Belt in our own solar system. an Anomaly in the shape of the ring indicated that the gravitational pull of a planet influenced the ring. The hunt was on.
Two images taken 21 months apart show an object following the star and apparently orbiting Formalhaut in about 870 years.
Before we get too excited, there is no real chance of finding any ET’s in the Formalhaut system. The star is only 200 million years old and burning fast – the life expectancy is only 1000 million years, not enough for life as we know it to develop.
There are indications of further planets around Formalhaut, this time inside the dust ring, but none are observed yet.
More details from ESA’s website
The Indian Moon probe Chandrayaan 1 has successfully entered into its operational orbit about 100km over the surface of the Moon.
On Friday the Moon Impact Probe was released for a crash landing near the Moon’s South Pole. While diving the impactor sent images and telemetry back to the orbiter, those will be relayed back to Earth at a slower pace. The descent took about 25 minutes and the data will be relayed in the next few days.
Instruments are beginning to be activated, and a new chapter in the lunar exploration is beginning.
The probe has already sent some very good images back, see link below.
Full story from
First the Americans and the Russians, then the Japanese and Chinese. Now the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has aimed for the Moon. India is now the fifth country to reach the Moon. Yes, the European Space Agency has done it, too, but that is a consortium of 17 countries, though the size of the population is comparable to that of the USA.
The space craft is “Chandrayaan 1”. The name means “Moon Craft” in the ancient Sanskrit” language of India.
What I like is that the Indians, unlike the Chinese and Japanese, have invited other countries to contribute instruments to the probe. More than half of them are Indian, but NASA has two sensors, ESA has three sensors and Bulgaria has contributed a radiation sensor.
Chandrayaan 1 will help create a map of mineral concentrations all over the Moon, paving the way for the decisions on where to send (manned) expeditions to the Moon.
This and other collaborations is what I think has to be done. Space exploration is expensive, and a single country, however rich, cannot afford to go it alone.
More information :
According to Spaceweather.com we should have the possibilities of seeing some fireballs in the sky the coming nights.
I might have to check for clear skies (not often in The Netherlands) for a while
If everything goes according to plan, the Space Shuttle Endeavour – STS-126 will be launced on 14 November with a comprehensive 15 day schedule to upgrade the International Space Station.
The station currently houses 3 crew members and that is all that is possible at the moment. The Endeavour crew will prepare the station for the 6 person crew it was meant to have from the outset. Also, a repair of the solar arrays is in the program.
The solar array on one side of the station is using more power than anticipated for rotating the array to maximise the efficiency. It turns out that two bearings lack lubrication, and this will be repaired during three space walks.
Back inside, the crew will spend a lot of time unpacking new crew quarters, a new toilet, a new kitchen, a new refrigerator and new exercise equipment, not to mention the science experiments.
In addition to this a new water recycling system will be added, in order to reduce the station’s dependency of Shuttle missions. After all the Shuttle fleet is planned to be retired in 2010.
On top of this, it is good to see the station becoming fully operational at its 10th anniversary. The first module was launched on November 20th 1998, beginning the construction of the station.
If I can find the time, I will listen for the shuttle just after the launch to see if I can catch a few seconds of radio communication, and I will listen for ISS communication during the whole mission – time permitting.
Also, when all this goes on, and if you have a clear sky I recommend all you scifi geeks to go out and see a *real life* space station. Info about visibility can be found at
Seeing a real life space station or space ship beats the fictional one, no matter how good the story is.