Archives for May 2008
The smallest super-earth?
Published on 31 May 2008 at 1:34 pm.
7 Comments.
Filed under extrasolar planets.
Recently Christophe Lovis of Switzerland’s Geneva Observatory presented preliminary findings of work done with the European Southern Observatory’s High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) in which he reported several dozen extrasolar planet candidates. One extremely interesting point in this report is that these planets were all much smaller than Jupiter. The way […]
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The movie Pi
Published on 30 May 2008 at 4:23 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under science fiction.
I am an avid scifi fan. But, I think of science fiction as more than just aliens and spacecraft. In fact, I sometimes rather just like fiction that incorporates science. Of course, by that reasoning, TV shows such as CSI would count as science fiction, since they are heavy in the trappings […]
Carnival of Space 56
Published on 29 May 2008 at 4:13 pm.
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Filed under blogging.
This week, Darnell Clayton is hosting the Carnival of Space at the Lifeboat Foundation Blog. He’s calling the Carnival of the Space Geeks. As you can imagine, an awful lot of the entries are related to the recent Phoenix landing on Mars.
So, go check out the carnival and read all of the interesting space related […]
Names in Space
Published on 28 May 2008 at 12:12 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under public science.
Well, I am now on Mars. Or, at least my name is on Mars. Early last year, I wrote about a program sponsored by the Planetary Society to send names to Mars aboard the Phoenix Lander on a special DVD, “Messages from Earth.” Now that Phoenix is safely on the ground (it […]
Sols on Mars
Published on 27 May 2008 at 12:48 am.
7 Comments.
Filed under Mars, time.
The Phoenix has been on Mars for one sol. Its nominal lifetime is 90 sols. So, what’s this “sol” thing that we keep talking about when we talk about Mars and the landers on its surface?
Put simply, a sol is a Martian day. Mars rotates a bit slower than Earth, so a […]
Phoenix is on Mars!
Published on 26 May 2008 at 12:18 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Mars.
The Phoenix Mars lander is down and initial data seems to show that the landing went very well, indeed. After landing, the spacecraft sent back telemetry showing that it had landed flat. It is within 1/4 to 1/3 of a degree from horizontal, indicating an extremely flat landing site (what we expected). […]
Landing Phoenix
Published on 25 May 2008 at 2:00 pm.
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Filed under Mars, space exploration.
In a few hours, the Phoenix will land on Mars. The chosen landing site is far into the northern plains. This is farther from the equator than any other spacecraft has successfully landed on Mars. Of course, that doesn’t mean that it can’t safely be done, just that it hasn’t been done […]
