A recent paper shows that methane was found in Mars' atmosphere. They also found that the amount of it varies with the seasons. This is a significant advance in the search for microbial life on Mars. Methane normally disappears from Mar's atmosphere over the course of only a few years.
These findings show that something is replenishing methane in Mars' atmosphere. The process that is replenishing Methane could either be biological or geological. Since methane is such a simple molecule to make there are many possible sources, but there is always that chance it could be biological.
Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, has a great blog post explaining the "Mars methane media mess". I have to disagree with Phil about NASA's headline for the finding: "Methane Discovery Reveals Mars is Not a Dead Planet." NASA uses the term "dead", meaning that there is no change occurring. It has for quite awhile and will continue to use it because it attracts readers to look further into the subject.
Monday, January 19, 2009
One year of writing the What's Up? column for the Journal Pioneer
My last article, about the International Year of Astronomy, marks one year of me writing for the Journal Pioneer. I've compiled a list of my first 12 columns from my first year of writing for the Journal.
Here are the first twelve in chronological order:
Here are the first twelve in chronological order:
- There are Sister Storms Brewing on Jupiter : Feb. 2008
- Life in the Universe : March 2008
- Galactic Collisions - Milky Way and Andromeda : April 2008
- Galaxies, Dwarfs, and Hobbits : May 2008
- The Telescopes Opens Up the Universe : June 2008
- Dwarfs Hiding in the Sky : July 2008
- Life - and Death - Among the Stars : August 2008
- Eyeing up Stellar Oddballs : September 2008
- Hubble Opened a Door to the Stars : October 2008
- Space Isn't So Empty After All : November 2008
- A New Brightening Source of Pollution : December 2008
- The International Year of Astronomy : January 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
What's Up? The International Year of Astronomy!
Welcome back to What's Up?
New Year's day was a special one this year. As you counted down the last few seconds until 2009, hopefully you were aware that there was a leap second added at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This leap second was the 24th leap second was added since 1972 to make up for the Earth's slowing rotation. Without leap seconds our clocks would not be adjusted to where the sun is in the sky. Imagine this growing difference when it starts to add up to a few hours!
An interesting start to what is hopefully a great year, because this year is the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009). It marks the 400th anniversary of the first time a telescope was used to look up at the sky. This was done by Galileo Galilei when he heard that Hans Lippershey, a Dutch optician, had created a device that could magnify distant objects. Galileo discovered many things very quickly after looking up, such as Saturn's rings, Jupiter's four biggest moons, the phases of Venus and Mercury, as well as many other discoveries that showed everything in our solar system does not orbit the Earth.
All across the world 135 countries are participating in IYA2009, hosting various events throughout the year to raise awareness about astronomy's contributions to culture, science, our day-to-day lives, and to show just how interesting it really is.
2005 was the International Year of Physics. It went almost unnoticed by the general public. Only a pair of eyes are needed to view the night sky while physics can require a lot of theoretical mathematics and mind-bending concepts. It is hoped that IYA2009 will be the exact opposite and be a great success, since it could inspire hundreds of thousands of amateur astronomers across the globe.
A few of the major goals of IYA2009 are to increase scientific awareness and literacy, promote widespread access to new knowledge and observing experiences, provide gender and racial equality among scientists, and provide a modern image of science and scientists (science doesn't have to be stale and boring).
You can find the IYA2009 website at "http://www.astronomy2009.org/" or the Canadian IYA2009 site at "http://www.astronomy2009.ca/."
Throughout the year, make sure to keep your eyes and ears open for any events happening here on the Island hosted by either the Athena Community Astronomy Club or the Charlottetown Astronomy Club. There will most likely be some special meetings and viewings where you can get the opportunity to look through a telescope at the beautiful night sky.
If you do get out to take a look up at the sky, with a telescope or simply your eyes, here is what you can look for in this month's sky.
To start the month off is the Quadrantid meteor shower on Jan. 3. The Quadrantid meteor shower can produce upwards of 100 meteors per hour but are seldom observed because the shower only lasts a few hours. To view them just get comfortable (if that is possible in the cold), lean back, and look up between 2am and sunrise. If you trace back to where the meteors come from you will see that most of them appear to radiate from somewhere near the handle of the Big Dipper.
The full moon occurs on Jan. 10 and will become new again on Jan. 26.
The best time to catch Mercury will be early in the month. Look low in the western horizon about half an hour after sunset. There will be a very bright "star" near the horizon, that's Jupiter. Mercury will be hiding just below Jupiter. This elusive planet will be best visible on Jan. 4 but should be visible a few days before and after that date.
Venus will appear at its highest position this month on Jan. 14 in the southwestern sky after sunset. It will be the second brightest object in the night sky, the brightest being the moon.
Until next month, just look up!
Hey Kids...
Astronomers that study gravity have figured out that they can use PlayStation 3's for their computer simulations. They hooked up sixteen PlayStation 3's together to run their simulations of "gravity waves". Gravity waves are ripples in the space around us and were predicted by Einstein. If these simulations were run on a supercomputer it would cost $5000 just to run it once! Read more about this by searching "black holes PlayStation 3" at www.UniverseToday.com. PlayStations aren't just great for games, they're great for science too!
New Year's day was a special one this year. As you counted down the last few seconds until 2009, hopefully you were aware that there was a leap second added at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This leap second was the 24th leap second was added since 1972 to make up for the Earth's slowing rotation. Without leap seconds our clocks would not be adjusted to where the sun is in the sky. Imagine this growing difference when it starts to add up to a few hours!
An interesting start to what is hopefully a great year, because this year is the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009). It marks the 400th anniversary of the first time a telescope was used to look up at the sky. This was done by Galileo Galilei when he heard that Hans Lippershey, a Dutch optician, had created a device that could magnify distant objects. Galileo discovered many things very quickly after looking up, such as Saturn's rings, Jupiter's four biggest moons, the phases of Venus and Mercury, as well as many other discoveries that showed everything in our solar system does not orbit the Earth.
All across the world 135 countries are participating in IYA2009, hosting various events throughout the year to raise awareness about astronomy's contributions to culture, science, our day-to-day lives, and to show just how interesting it really is.
2005 was the International Year of Physics. It went almost unnoticed by the general public. Only a pair of eyes are needed to view the night sky while physics can require a lot of theoretical mathematics and mind-bending concepts. It is hoped that IYA2009 will be the exact opposite and be a great success, since it could inspire hundreds of thousands of amateur astronomers across the globe.
A few of the major goals of IYA2009 are to increase scientific awareness and literacy, promote widespread access to new knowledge and observing experiences, provide gender and racial equality among scientists, and provide a modern image of science and scientists (science doesn't have to be stale and boring).
You can find the IYA2009 website at "http://www.astronomy2009.org/" or the Canadian IYA2009 site at "http://www.astronomy2009.ca/."
Throughout the year, make sure to keep your eyes and ears open for any events happening here on the Island hosted by either the Athena Community Astronomy Club or the Charlottetown Astronomy Club. There will most likely be some special meetings and viewings where you can get the opportunity to look through a telescope at the beautiful night sky.
If you do get out to take a look up at the sky, with a telescope or simply your eyes, here is what you can look for in this month's sky.
To start the month off is the Quadrantid meteor shower on Jan. 3. The Quadrantid meteor shower can produce upwards of 100 meteors per hour but are seldom observed because the shower only lasts a few hours. To view them just get comfortable (if that is possible in the cold), lean back, and look up between 2am and sunrise. If you trace back to where the meteors come from you will see that most of them appear to radiate from somewhere near the handle of the Big Dipper.
The full moon occurs on Jan. 10 and will become new again on Jan. 26.
The best time to catch Mercury will be early in the month. Look low in the western horizon about half an hour after sunset. There will be a very bright "star" near the horizon, that's Jupiter. Mercury will be hiding just below Jupiter. This elusive planet will be best visible on Jan. 4 but should be visible a few days before and after that date.
Venus will appear at its highest position this month on Jan. 14 in the southwestern sky after sunset. It will be the second brightest object in the night sky, the brightest being the moon.
Until next month, just look up!
Hey Kids...
Astronomers that study gravity have figured out that they can use PlayStation 3's for their computer simulations. They hooked up sixteen PlayStation 3's together to run their simulations of "gravity waves". Gravity waves are ripples in the space around us and were predicted by Einstein. If these simulations were run on a supercomputer it would cost $5000 just to run it once! Read more about this by searching "black holes PlayStation 3" at www.UniverseToday.com. PlayStations aren't just great for games, they're great for science too!
Happy belated birthday, Spirit and Opportunity
Opportunity looking back on how far it's gone in its long 12km trek to Endeavor crater (not shown). If all goes well, Opportunity will probably make it to Endeavor in about a year or so.
The Mars rovers Spirit celebrated its fifth year on Mars on Jan. 3/08. Opportunity landed a few weeks later. Although Opportunity has one seized up wheel and has to drive backwards while Spirit constantly struggles with its dust coated solar panels, they both continue to operate and continue to collect scientific data. Their greatest achievement to date is collecting the evidence to confirm that Mars was once coated with large quantities of water in the past. As of Jan. 3/08, Spirit has been on Mars 1333 sols (Martian days) and Opportunity has been on Mars 1313 sols. Keep up to date on what Spirit and Opportunity are doing at the Mars Exploration Rover Mission website.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
MacBook / MacBook Pro ideas
Here's a few ideas that I came up with for the next generation of MacBooks / MacBooks Pros.
- Intel Quad Core Processors
- Same case thickness with more room for key travel.
- Don't have keys touching screen when case is closed
- Larger Hardrive
- faster hardrives
- faster GPU
- USB 3.0 ports
- More sensitive wi-fi receiver
- Better batteries (9 cell instead of 6 cell for the regular MacBooks, 12 cell for the MacBook pros)
- 3G in the MacBook Pros
- More Bass in the speakers (too much Treble)
- support for multi-touch finger swipes in iTunes, Control Panel, smoother and more responsive in iPhoto, integrate into Microsoft Office
- Higher definition displays for the MacBook Pros (at least!) 720p?
- allow for dimmer screen brightness and brighter screen brightness so it is possibly to use them at night without burning your eyes out or so you can use them at day without having to shade the screen from glare
- make the MacBooks and MacBook Pros lighter
- HD DVD support and make the DVD drive a bit faster
- allow for more RAM in MacBook and MacBook Pros (8GB for Pros)
- make 4GB minimum in MacBook Pros
- make the WHOLE trackpad clickable instead of just the lower 75% of it.
- 2.0 megapixel webcam instead of 1.3 megapixels
- include a cleaning solution for cleaning the MacBook / MacBook Pros glossy displays - they are really fingerprint magnets and it can really ruin the beautiful glossy effect
- backlit keyboard on all MacBook / Pro / Air models
- swapable hardrive slot in MacBook pro 17"
Monday, December 8, 2008
What's Up? - A new brightening source of pollution
Welcome back to What's Up?
During the last Athena Community Astronomy Club meeting one of our club members gave a presentation on light pollution. It's a very important issue and it must be brought to attention.
Light pollution is the brightening of the sky caused by excessive light being emitted from streetlights and other (mostly) man-made lighting. This has been a growing problem ever since the beginning of the industrial era.
Just by looking at a picture of the Earth taken at night (above image - NASA) it's easy to tell that a lot of light is shining upwards. Anyone who lives in or near a large city is very unaware of the many stars that are hidden by the bright city lights. Many people have never seen more than a handful of stars in their lifetimes and have never seen the beauty of the Milky Way.
Astronomers aren't the only ones that have a problem with light pollution. All this extra light can affect people's sleeping cycles and cause a loss of sleep. Medical research suggests that excessive light can cause an assortment of adverse health effects such as increased headache incidence, worker fatigue, increased levels of stress, increase anxiety, and possibly other unknown effects.
Animals are also affected by light pollution. It can confuse animal navigation, change relations between predator and prey, alter competitive interactions, and change animal physiology. Migrating birds can be confused by lights on tall building and other structures. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have estimated that four to five million birds die per year because they are attracted to the lights. This can simply be prevented by turning out lights during migration periods.
When sea turtles hatch from eggs in nests on beaches they head away from the dark outline of dunes and vegetation. When there is artificial lighting they don't know which direction to move in and either die on the beach or get eaten by other animals. Baby seabirds can also be confused by lights as they move out of their nests and fly out to sea.
Lighting used to deter criminals from entering buildings are often enabling criminals. Inadequately placed lighting can remove shadows that would be cast by the criminal and create glare that can hide criminals from sight. Glare from streetlights can also be a hazard to motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
All of this light that is pointed in any direction other than down is wasted. Over-illumination, the excessive use of light, is another cause of light pollution. The U.S. Department of Energy claims that about two million barrels of oil worth of energy are wasted every day (based on the U.S. consuming 50 million barrels of oil per day) because of over-illumination.
Prevention of light pollution can be very simple. Instead of installing incandescent or mercury-vapor bulbs that are currently very popular, low pressure sodium lights can be installed. Low pressure sodium lights are up to ten times more efficient than incandescent light bulbs and low pressure sodium lights are only directed downwards and are shielded so that no light escapes upwards. It also emits only one colour of light which is easy to remove from astronomer's images using computer software. By using less electricity there will be less pollution and money can be saved.
Better shielding (above right versus above left that has very little shielding) for other types of lights can be installed at anytime and can greatly reduce light pollution.
To learn more about light pollution on the web, go to www.darksky.org. Also check out Earth Hour at www.earthhour.org and learn more about this yearly event that raises awareness of light pollution and global warming.
While we can still see through the light pollution, lets take a look at what's up this month.
The moon will be full on Dec. 14 which will shrink to a new moon by Dec. 27.
Venus and Jupiter will be nearby each other low in the western horizon at the start of the month. Venus is the brilliant yellow star-like object. Jupiter is also brilliant but not quite as bright. They will be the two brightest objects in the night sky other than the moon. Moving further into the month, Venus will climb higher into the sky while Jupiter creeps lower and lower towards the horizon. They will be best viewed shortly after sunset.
Mercury will make a brief appearance near the end of the month. It will appear slightly below Jupiter in the western sky. Mercury will be best on Dec. 29 but can be viewed for a few days on either side of that date.
Mars will be heading near the sun and it will be hidden during the month.
At the same time Saturn will be rising in the night sky at about 1 a.m. Saturn will be a dull yellow colour and won't be anything special to look at with the naked eye. If you have the opportunity to use a telescope it will be an entirely different story. The rings will be close to being edge-on to our line of sight. They will appear like a thin golden band around this gaseous planet. By early September 2009 the rings will be perfectly edge-on for the first time in 14 years and disappear from sight since they are so thin.
Until next month, just look up!
Hey Kids...
Last month a large space rock flew into the Earth's atmosphere and exploded! This was a very special event because most space rocks are just pebble sized. They burn up in the atmosphere and create a little trail as they burn up – you may know these as shooting stars. This big space rock is guessed to have weighed 10 tons! It may sound huge but most of it burned up on the way down. A few small pieces have been found in Saskatchewan near a little pond. This may have been the brightest shooting star in Canada in the last 10 years and was completely unexpected. Keep looking up, you never know what you may see!
During the last Athena Community Astronomy Club meeting one of our club members gave a presentation on light pollution. It's a very important issue and it must be brought to attention.
Light pollution is the brightening of the sky caused by excessive light being emitted from streetlights and other (mostly) man-made lighting. This has been a growing problem ever since the beginning of the industrial era.
Just by looking at a picture of the Earth taken at night (above image - NASA) it's easy to tell that a lot of light is shining upwards. Anyone who lives in or near a large city is very unaware of the many stars that are hidden by the bright city lights. Many people have never seen more than a handful of stars in their lifetimes and have never seen the beauty of the Milky Way.
Astronomers aren't the only ones that have a problem with light pollution. All this extra light can affect people's sleeping cycles and cause a loss of sleep. Medical research suggests that excessive light can cause an assortment of adverse health effects such as increased headache incidence, worker fatigue, increased levels of stress, increase anxiety, and possibly other unknown effects.
Animals are also affected by light pollution. It can confuse animal navigation, change relations between predator and prey, alter competitive interactions, and change animal physiology. Migrating birds can be confused by lights on tall building and other structures. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have estimated that four to five million birds die per year because they are attracted to the lights. This can simply be prevented by turning out lights during migration periods.
When sea turtles hatch from eggs in nests on beaches they head away from the dark outline of dunes and vegetation. When there is artificial lighting they don't know which direction to move in and either die on the beach or get eaten by other animals. Baby seabirds can also be confused by lights as they move out of their nests and fly out to sea.
Lighting used to deter criminals from entering buildings are often enabling criminals. Inadequately placed lighting can remove shadows that would be cast by the criminal and create glare that can hide criminals from sight. Glare from streetlights can also be a hazard to motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
All of this light that is pointed in any direction other than down is wasted. Over-illumination, the excessive use of light, is another cause of light pollution. The U.S. Department of Energy claims that about two million barrels of oil worth of energy are wasted every day (based on the U.S. consuming 50 million barrels of oil per day) because of over-illumination.
Prevention of light pollution can be very simple. Instead of installing incandescent or mercury-vapor bulbs that are currently very popular, low pressure sodium lights can be installed. Low pressure sodium lights are up to ten times more efficient than incandescent light bulbs and low pressure sodium lights are only directed downwards and are shielded so that no light escapes upwards. It also emits only one colour of light which is easy to remove from astronomer's images using computer software. By using less electricity there will be less pollution and money can be saved.
Better shielding (above right versus above left that has very little shielding) for other types of lights can be installed at anytime and can greatly reduce light pollution.
To learn more about light pollution on the web, go to www.darksky.org. Also check out Earth Hour at www.earthhour.org and learn more about this yearly event that raises awareness of light pollution and global warming.
While we can still see through the light pollution, lets take a look at what's up this month.
The moon will be full on Dec. 14 which will shrink to a new moon by Dec. 27.
Venus and Jupiter will be nearby each other low in the western horizon at the start of the month. Venus is the brilliant yellow star-like object. Jupiter is also brilliant but not quite as bright. They will be the two brightest objects in the night sky other than the moon. Moving further into the month, Venus will climb higher into the sky while Jupiter creeps lower and lower towards the horizon. They will be best viewed shortly after sunset.
Mercury will make a brief appearance near the end of the month. It will appear slightly below Jupiter in the western sky. Mercury will be best on Dec. 29 but can be viewed for a few days on either side of that date.
Mars will be heading near the sun and it will be hidden during the month.
At the same time Saturn will be rising in the night sky at about 1 a.m. Saturn will be a dull yellow colour and won't be anything special to look at with the naked eye. If you have the opportunity to use a telescope it will be an entirely different story. The rings will be close to being edge-on to our line of sight. They will appear like a thin golden band around this gaseous planet. By early September 2009 the rings will be perfectly edge-on for the first time in 14 years and disappear from sight since they are so thin.
Until next month, just look up!
Hey Kids...
Last month a large space rock flew into the Earth's atmosphere and exploded! This was a very special event because most space rocks are just pebble sized. They burn up in the atmosphere and create a little trail as they burn up – you may know these as shooting stars. This big space rock is guessed to have weighed 10 tons! It may sound huge but most of it burned up on the way down. A few small pieces have been found in Saskatchewan near a little pond. This may have been the brightest shooting star in Canada in the last 10 years and was completely unexpected. Keep looking up, you never know what you may see!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
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