Archives for April 2007
Lookback Lab
Published on 30 Apr 2007 at 8:53 pm.
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Filed under college teaching.
This is the last week of the classes at my college. Next week is final exams. For our last laboratory exercise, I like to do something easy and fun (and very easy to grade!).
Some of our labs involve observations, other labs involve lots of computations. So, I thought that I’d do something […]
Burial in Space
Published on 30 Apr 2007 at 12:02 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under space businesses.
In 1982, I went to see the movie Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan in the theater. Like many long time Trekies, I was shocked to find that Spock died in the movie. At the end of the movie was a scene where Spock was given a military funeral reminiscent of a […]
National Donate Life Month
Published on 29 Apr 2007 at 12:03 am.
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Filed under Uncategorized.
Well, here it is the end of April. A friend recently told me that April is National Donate Life Month and asked if I’d mind mentioning that in my blog. So, even though it isn’t one of my usual topics of discussion, I am going to mention it because this is an important […]
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MWC 922 Nebula
Published on 28 Apr 2007 at 8:10 am.
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Filed under nebula, stars.
A team of astronomers led by Peter Tuthill (University of Sydney) and James Loyd (Cornell University) has found a rather remarkable nebula. It looks like a square! In fact, they have nicknamed the nebula the “Red Square.” Well, actually, it isn’t really square, but it sure looks that way in a photograph. […]
Two books by R. M. Meluch
Published on 28 Apr 2007 at 1:04 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under books, science fiction.
Recently, I read two very interesting books by R. M. Meluch, an author that I had not previously been familiar with. The first of these books was The Myriad. I liked it so much that I read the follow-on book Wolf Star, but that book was independent enough that the books could be read […]
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SOFIA Flies!
Published on 27 Apr 2007 at 2:27 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under aeronautics, airborne telescopes, observatories, telescopes.
Visual light is only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. While historically astronomy started with observations of visual light, that really doesn’t see everything that there is to see out there. Many objects emit primarily infrared light, radio waves, X-rays, or any of the other wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. And, a […]
AIMing at Earth
Published on 26 Apr 2007 at 1:10 pm.
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Filed under Earth, atmosphere.
Well, that is an ominous sounding title. No, I don’t mean that alien space battlecruisers are aiming destructor beams at Earth. Rather, I am refering to yesterday’s launch of the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) spacecraft aboard a Pegasus XL rocket.
Almost all of Earth’s clouds form in the troposphere, the lowest […]
