Orbiting Frog » Asides

Life from Venus Blown to Earth

ttfnRob — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:39:14 +0000

“Prof Chandra Wickramasinghe and Dr Janaki Wickramasinghe claim Venus’s clouds contain chemicals that are consistent with the presence of micro organisms.”

These two are from Cardiff’s centre for Astrobiology and the elder of the two has singlehandedly given the field a bad name over the past twenty years.

The whole concept of this idea is that life form in clouds on Venus and blew to Earth on a wind. Why it isn’t simply to postulate it formed here and just stayed, I don’t know.

I once had a lecture from Chandra Wickramasinghe in which he drew scatterplot with two points on it and then joined them with a straight line. This, he said, was evidence of a trend. That was it for him and me.

BBC NEWS | Wales | South East Wales | Life from Venus blown to Earth?

Sunshine on a Rainy Day

ttfnRob — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:09:54 +0000

Ah here I am in ever-so sunny Aix in the south of France. I’m blogging from my iPhone right now because I’m by the pool and too comfy to go and find my laptop. I’m also testing out the Wordpress app from the App Store.

The skies here are big and clear and even these early Perseids look amazing. Getting the telescope out later for some real sightseeing.

Astronomy iPhone App in Store

ttfnRob — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:22:26 +0000

Was just looking through the App Store on iTunes and found an astronomy application for the iPhone/iPod Touch called Starmap [iTunes link]. It will be fun to play with this tomorrow when I can actually install any of these apps. Why Apple has let me browse (and buy) these things a full day before I can even use them, I don’t know.

Starmap costs $11.99 or £6.99.

Carnival of Space 61

ttfnRob — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:39:32 +0000

Mang is hosting his first Carnival of Space this week. I’d like to highlight the 10 Reasons Why China is Good for Space post from 21st Century Waves and an unusual take on some old bricks from Robert Pearlman of collectSPACE.

Carnival of Space 61

Sarkozy: Spaceman

ttfnRob — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:18:53 +0000

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s well-known admiration for all things American now extends to space exploration. Speaking to the BBC, a senior official involved in French space policy said that it was time to shake up the European Space Agency and make it more like NASA by giving it a new, politically-led direction. The French take over the rotating presidency of the European Union on 1 July and are planning to make space policy a key area for reform.

Sarkozy is looking for UK support to bolster his ideas. He wants to lead Europe into space in a way that doesn’t leave it trailing the likes of Indian, China and Japan.

Personally, i think he could do it. This guy is crazy enough and arrogant enough to get it done.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | France plans revolution in space

UK Physics Teacher Shortage

ttfnRob — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:48:43 +0000

“Almost one in four secondary schools in England no longer has any specialist physics teachers, a survey suggests.”

BBC NEWS | Education | Physics teacher shortage warning

Carnival of Space 60

ttfnRob — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:26:28 +0000

It doesn’t seem that long ago I hosted my first Carnival and that was number 40. Now the Carnival gets a bus pass as it turns 60. Hosted by Slacker Astronomy, this Carnival uses a lovely method for displaying the posts: transpose the emails that were sent in to Fraser at Universe Today. What fun. I feel exposed as a fraud for not knowing that this was going to be the 60th Carnival…

Slacker Astronomy » Carnival of Space No. 60

Martian Skies

ttfnRob — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:04:19 +0000

With thanks to Jason, here is an awesome page about atmospheric effects on Mars, including this great dust devils animation. Mars has a rich atmosphere and this is the first planet for which we are really starting to understand the climate.

I can see why everyone loves Mars these days. Planets are just cool. Poor old Pluto…

Martian Skies – The Big Picture – Boston.com

Home Made Plasma, Country Wife

ttfnRob — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:38:57 +0000

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tat8BH6kMcE 351 291]

Here is a short science experiment at home. They guy seems to be showing us how to create a plasma inside our microwaves (please be very careful if you actually want to try it). The video is hilarious though for the reaction of the guys wife/girlfriend at the very end.

YouTube – Home Made Plasma

Carnival of Space 59

ttfnRob — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:44:46 +0000

This week’s Carnival is up so get over there and get reading!

Also found this image via the Carnival which I rather liked.

Jodrell Bank Future Improving

ttfnRob — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:05:22 +0000

The future of eMerlin, a crucial upgrade to the world-famous Jodrell Bank observatory, in Cheshire, is starting to look brighter.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Jodrell Bank future looks better

A Universe Made of Maths

ttfnRob — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:50:43 +0000

According to Dr. Tegmark, “there is only mathematics; that is all that exists.” In his theory, the mathematical universe hypothesis, he updates quantum physics and cosmology with the concept of many parallel universes inhabiting multiple levels of space and time. This is a cool idea.

read more | digg story

Your Life and the Age of the Universe

ttfnRob — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 07:51:57 +0000

A peculiar little way of visualising your own brief existence with that of the whole universe: in pixels. Illustrates the point nicely.

read more | digg story

Where are the Sunspots?

ttfnRob — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:30:33 +0000

Universe Today is reporting what I have seen other sites reporting on over the past few days: a lack of sunspots. It seems there is “a small worry” that something untoward may be afoot with the current lack of magnetic activity on the Sun two years after Solar minimum.

Where are the Sunspots? Are we in for a Quiet Solar Cycle? | Universe Today

Carnival of Space 58

ttfnRob — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:59:45 +0000

The 58th Carnival is up and it is being hosted by Universe Today, who of course operate and run the Carnival on behalf of the community. It’s a good collection. Go and check out Ethan’s three-part series on the Natural history of the Universe on the ‘Stars with a Bang’ blog, amongst other highlights. I’ll not give you a direct link, since you’ll be heading to the Carnival anyways, I’m sure

Carnival of Space #58 | Universe Today

Astronaut At Work

ttfnRob — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:16:26 +0000

Astronaut Ron Garan works on assigned tasks during the last scheduled spacewalk of the STS-124 mission specialist. During the six-hour, 33-minute spacewalk, Garan and fellow astronaut Mike Fossum exchanged a depleted Nitrogen Tank Assembly for a new one, removed thermal covers and launch locks from the Kibo laboratory, reinstalled a repaired television camera onto the space station’s left P1 truss,and retrieved samples of a dust-like substance from the left Solar Alpha Rotary Joint for analysis by experts on the ground.

Busy day!

Phoenix Descends

ttfnRob — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:34:08 +0000

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuYMOWyawe8 351 291]

YouTube – Phoenix Descends – a video from Bad Astronomy which I rather enjoyed.

Plutoids

ttfnRob — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:32:47 +0000

Stuart has the lowdown on the agreed name for a certain type of object that orbits beyond the distance of Neptune. Formerly an icy dwarf planet-type thing, now they shall be known as ‘plutoids’.

Urgh.

A Case of the Plutoids | Astronomy Blog

A 6,000 Mile Telescope

ttfnRob — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:15:16 +0000

May 22 marked a live demo of the first four-continent, Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations.

“VLBI uses multiple radio telescopes to simultaneously observe the same region of sky. Essentially creating a giant instrument as big as the separation of the dishes. VLBI can generate images of cosmic radio sources with up to 100 times better resolution than images from the best optical telescopes.”

They are using the whole Earth as a container for a very, very big radio telescope. Hopefully there will be some very interesting results out of this arrangement in the near future.

Arecibo joins global network to create 6,000-mile telescope

IYP2008

ttfnRob — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:13:25 +0000

Just a nice little post from Pamela Gay about how IYA might sound to someone who really cares about, well potatoes perhaps.

Star Stryder – 2008 The Year of the Potato

A Visit to the Sun

ttfnRob — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:12:42 +0000

Cool, check out Solar Probe Plus. A (really) heat resistant craft that could dive into the outer layers of the Sun’s atmosphere. Its very sci-fi – as all the cool ideas are. Space tourism to the sun in 50 years, would be my conservative estimate.

read more | digg story

Improbable Research

ttfnRob — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:10:20 +0000

I have been featured by Improbable Research for my Chinese Satellite Debris tracking Google Earth gizmo. I don’t seem to be able to leave a comment on the page, but I’d like to point out that I did, as the author suggests, create a similar file for the US spy satellite that was shot down. However the satellite was in a lower orbit and there are currently only 12 trackable fragments remaining at time of writing, so you don’t see much.

Improbable Research – One into many

50 Breathtaking Aerial Photos

ttfnRob — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:19:32 +0000

Images of the Earth from space are always beautiful. Some of these are not quite in that category but on the whole this collection of stunning images is. This is a great collection, well worth a look.

read more | digg story

Binocular Astronomy

ttfnRob — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:04:07 +0000

Nice short post over at the 433rd about how sometimes a telescope isn’t what you need: a great pair of binoculars will do. Mang’s Bat Page: Binocular Astronomy

Phoenix Has Trouble with its Oven Door

ttfnRob — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:02:06 +0000

The first sample of Martian dirt is not yet in the testing oven on Phoenix. The reason is unclear, but the lander will today try to shake loose the soil and see if it has helped. After teasing us all with ‘trial digs’ this is frustrating.

read more | digg story

Throw Me a Link

ttfnRob — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:47:24 +0000

For a while now, I have been watching my Technorati rank gradually improve. I set myself what felt like a lofty goal of a technorati authority of 100. I am currently at 99. If you’ve ever wanted to throw me a link then now’s the time. All links to any post on Orbiting Frog help. I wanna break that barrier!

Of course after I achieve it I will need to set myself a new goal of 1000 (I’m logarithmic) which will be even harder to get. Hmm…

Looking for Aliens That Can Easily See Earth

ttfnRob — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:59:36 +0000

Astronomers are suggesting a new approach for finding advanced alien civilizations: look in the areas of the sky where the aliens would have the easiest time detecting us. This Wired post, echoing what has been mentioned elsewhere this week, gives a quick summary.

read more | digg story

Carnival of Space 57

ttfnRob — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:40:47 +0000

Out of the Cradle hosts this week’s Carnival of Space (the 57th carnival so far). Go and take a look, browse, leave some comments and maybe even find some new RSS feeds for your daily digestion.

On Dark Energy and Car Keys

ttfnRob — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:48:00 +0000

A nice piece from the New York Times about dark energy, what it is and why its interesting. Dark Energy is a bit like big money being spent on studying gravity waves: its bothers me. If you don’t get that reference you obviously don’t read my blog hard enough – get to work!

read more | digg story

5 Gigapixel Spitzer Image of the Milky Way

ttfnRob — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:27:14 +0000

From Digg: The result of over 800,000 individual images collected by the Spitzer Space Telescope, it is the largest, highest-resolution, and most sensitive infrared picture ever taken of the Milky Way (and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future).

read more | digg story