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Comment by Shine on October 31, 2010 at 1:20pm

Am I the only one that sees a big blue heart in the image below? Dark Matter just wants to be our friend!

Comment by Sydni Moser on October 12, 2010 at 12:07am

New evidence that Mars may have once had an Earthlike atmosphere

Mars's thin atmosphere is now about 95% carbon dioxide, but when the planet's atmosphere is only 1/200th the size of Earth's, that doesn't mean very much. Now deeply buried minerals reveal Mars once had nearly Earth-like levels of carbon dioxide.

One of the best ways to reconstruct Mars's ancient atmosphere is to examine the mineral composition of the planet's interior miles below the surface. The types of minerals buried down below can reveal the gases that were abundant on the surface when they first formed eons ago, and lots of carbonate minerals are evidence of extensive carbon dioxide.

Obviously, we can't yet mine the Martian interior to bring up mineral samples, but impact craters bring up these deeply buried minerals, and we're able to inspect what's there using probes and satellites. The Leighton crater, near Mars's Syrtis Major volcano, has turned up the biggest deposit yet of carbonate minerals. All previous findings had been relatively small, but this is the best find yet to demonstrate that Mars was once rich in carbon dioxide on a scale far greater than what the planet is today. For more, you can check out the original paper over at Nature.

[Nature Geoscience]

http://io9.com/5661250/new-evidence-that-mars-may-have-once-had-an-...

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on October 4, 2010 at 4:39pm

120 trillion miles away! Holy Frickin' Cow! It's amazing we can even see that far.

Comment by Zack on October 1, 2010 at 3:05am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581_c

Comment by Bill on September 12, 2010 at 11:28pm

Michel, don't I know it!

An astronomer I talked to told me that a fixation with an infinite universe borders on religion, all evidence points to the contrary, but that I shouldn't worry, because cosmologists set the bar very high for insanity.

Comment by Bill on September 12, 2010 at 9:18pm

Last night I got to play with the 30" telescope at Fremont Peak. Conditions were fantastic!

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on September 8, 2010 at 7:14pm

Detecting Extraterrestrial Volcanism
A recent study by members of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has been getting a lot of attention - one where it was suggested that we are very close to the ability to detect volcanic eruptions on extrasolar (not in our solar system) planets with 30 light years. This comes from our increasing ability to detect chemical compounds and elements in atmospheres of distant worlds, so theoretically if we detect large amounts of sulfur dioxide that might come and go in atmosphere of these planets, it could be from a volcanic eruption.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on August 30, 2010 at 2:50pm

Video: 30 Years of Asteroid Discoveries



This animation using data from observatories and amateurs around the world plots the positions of all the known asteroids in the solar system in 1980, and adds new ones as they are discovered. The pace and patterns of asteroid discovery give a neat visual illustration of the history of solar system exploration.

New asteroids appear in flashes of white, to make them easy to pick out. The final color codes for how close the object comes to Earth: Asteroids that cross Earth’s orbit are shown in red, “Earth approachers” that come to 1.3 times the Earth-sun distance are yellow, and all others are green. The bunches of new asteroids follow Earth in its orbit, usually in the region directly opposite the sun (that is, in the Earth’s night sky). Some clusters appear on the line between Earth and Jupiter, the side effects of surveys looking for Jovian moons.

In the mid-1990s, the pace of discovery picks up, showing the results of automated sky surveys. By 2001, the area just outside the orbit of Mars is filled in by a bright green ring of asteroids, and it keeps getting denser.

The beginning of 2010 brings a new pattern of discovery, with new asteroids fanning out on either side of the Earth. This new pattern is thanks to the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer, an infrared space telescope that is expected to find hundreds of new asteroids by seeking their heat rather than their light.

According to the YouTube notes, “Currently we have observed over half a million minor planets, and the discovery rates snow no sign that we’re running out of undiscovered objects.”

The video was created using the ‘astorb.dat‘ data created by astronomer Ted Bowell of the Lowell Observatory and colleagues.

CORRECTION: The original version of this article attributed the data to the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. It actually came from observatories all over the world, and was compiled by the Minor Planet Center and the Lowell Observatory.

Video Credit: CORRECTION: Scott Manley / Armagh Observatory / YouTube syzyg

Comment by Sydni Moser on August 28, 2010 at 7:13am

Season 2 of Sci Fi Science Debuts on September 1st on The Science Channel!
Michio Kaku
August 24, 2010

I am proud to announce that the second season of "Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible," debuts next Wednesday, Sept. 1, at 9 pm, on the Science Channel (check your local listings for details). It was a pleasure working for six months with the Science Channel to produce 12 exciting episodes that I am sure will fascinate and educate the audience. Here are a sample of the new technologies and fantastic sci-fi concepts we explore in the second season: ** Terraforming Mars. Within this century, will it be possible to turn this barren planet into a new Garden of Eden? We interview some of the world's top scientists who think so.

Read more about it in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy group HERE:

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on August 27, 2010 at 12:15pm

@DG: I litterally fell asleep watching your link on Gravity's inexistence. Couldn't understrand half of what he was saying (was it English?) (Was I too tired?) (Does it make sense?)...

Don't ask me. That stuff is way over my head. I just found it interesting and wanted to share it. I was not endorsing or condemnig his theory. But yes, that was English. I didn't think his accent was that strong.

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