Here's a cool video of the Enceladus-flyby compiled using Cassini's latest images. It shows the flyby from Cassini's POV - approach, closest passing and outbound phase: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5PqLPU2VA4
Cassini started sending the data back to Earth few hours ago (around 7:00 pm PDT). Hopefully we'll get to see the first images by thursday morning about 5:00 AM PTD.
Here's an animation of the flyby, you can see the spacecraft's close trajectory and how various instruments in their turn take measurements of Enceladus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pfz1n6tMUg
Well, their dramatic wording is very correct - only about 45% of Mercury's surface has been imaged in detail. This was done 33 years ago by Mariner 10. So over half of the map of Mercury is still blank. It's the biggest unimaged planetary area in our solar system! Next week Messenger will image some of these never-before -seen/imaged areas of the planet (about 30% of it IIRC).
There has been some interesting Earth-based radar observations using Arecibo's radio telescope. These observations give us an idea what to expect to see in the blank areas. Here's a map combined with radar observations. There are also various recent Earth-based optical observations using lucky-imaging techniques, but the images lack detail for accurate mapping.
So to be pedantic the Messenger will take detailed never-before-seen images of never-before-imaged-in-detail and never-before-imaged-at-all -areas of Mercury. In few weeks we'll get a new map of Mercury!
They did. But after centuries of politicizing the project they ran out of bugdet and instead of 42 it came out as number 37. The other super advanced civilization had a competing project, but after their religious fundamantalists came to power they decided it should send a deeply spritual message - voila: a coathanger.
The Tunguska asteroid exploded in the atmosphere, it did not hit the ground and raise dust. If 2007-WD5 hits Mars it will probably not explode in the thin atmosphere but impact Martian soil and raise huge amounts of dust. Martian dust is fine-grained and lightweight, and can raise high in the atmosphere - as we have seen during the dust storms. So I guess the dust plume would not stay localized, and it could mean trouble for the rovers and even for the Phoenix-lander.
On the other hand the impact-crater would be very interesting to probe!
From NASA's Rover Update http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html: "In recent months, rover handlers have been naming local features and targets around Home Plate for deceased members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Because Home Plate is bowl-shaped, scientists have decided to name features on top of Home Plate after things served in bowls. Stay tuned for upcoming yummy descriptions!"
There's this 15th anniversary documentary & book. It is really good, although a bit light on designing and engineering the HST. But the pictures are nice!
Japan, on the other hand, has 34% of it's electical power coming form 53 reactors, of which the majority are breeder reactors (generate their own plutonium for use as fuel in themselves and other reactors), so it seems they're a heck of a lot less fearful of it than the US is
And Japan has a great track record on nuclear safety!
Arrests over Japan nuclear accident "The accident was caused by three workers at the plant who mixed excess amounts of liquefied uranium in steel buckets, setting off a nuclear chain reaction." Two were killed and over 600 exposed to radiation.
Accident at Japan nuclear plant "At least four people have been killed in the deadliest accident to have hit a Japanese nuclear power plant." Five were killed. Kepco, which manages the Mihama plant, has admitted since the accident that it had not properly checked the pipe which burst, fatally scalding five workers, since it was installed in 1976.(here)
Bosses quit in Japan nuclear scandal "Top executives at Japanese electricity producer Tepco are to quit, after the firm admitted possibly having falsified nuclear safety records."
Blaze at Japanese nuclear plant "A fire has broken out at a nuclear plant in western Japan, injuring two people but causing no radiation leak, officials say."
Japan court orders reactor closed "A court has ordered Japan's newest nuclear reactor to be shut down over fears about its safety in the event of an earthquake."
Towards the end of the production, Olivier Coulhon, the first assistant director, had spent so many hours in the darkened studio that his skin had turned a luminous green and his eyes had sunk deep into his Gallic cheeks
Ping Identity exists because we believe that digital identity systems need to first uphold the rights of the identity holder. We exist because market momentum and existing approaches lack the fundamental attributes required to ensure our personal freedoms, choice, privacy and control. We exist because something as personally important to our future ability to communicate, interact and transact in a digital world must never come under the control of single entity, government or corporation.
Russians did not use pencils in space, they used 'Kosmos'-pens, which were designed for zero-gravity. Kosmos-pen looked like a pencil, but did not contain graphite and did not need sharpening.
There's a very good reason not to use pencils in space:
Can you imagine what happens when you write with a pencil in zero-gravity? When you scratch paper with the graphite point you get particles of graphite floating around in your ship. As this dust is condunctive, nasty things can happen when it floats into your electronics. Things get even worse when you sharpen your pencil. (OK, you could design a zero-grav pencil-sharpener, but that's not the point). So next time you go to orbit, don't take your pencil with you.
Kosmos-pen was not flawless either, IIRC you had to lick it's point to write, which wasn't a very good idea as it was poisonous (it contained Cd, IIRC again).
Anyone ever used a Kosmos-pen? Correct me if I'm wrong.
It's essentially a POINT - it has no dimensions. When you see those little squares you actually see a poor (and fast) representation of pixels - pixels themselves are not square or non-square. Pixels won't come in various sizes, they'll still be regular 0-sized points.
Here's a good paper on why it's important to keep in mind the true nature of pixels (by Alvy Ray Smith):
Like in service packs, the Windows 3.51 had around 13 (or more if I remember correctly.) Windows NT4.0 had 6 (the 7th was not released officially.) Windows 2000 now has 2 (and they are releasing SP3 Q1 2002.) There is WindowsXP although there is no SP around (I believe it may be in the alpha stages.) The number of service packs that is released actually decreases due to the maturity of their products.
The reason Win2000 has "only" 2 SPs and NT4 has 6 is not better security, but quite simply the time these products have been on the market. The longer the product's life cycle the more updates you have to make. This really can't be taken as a sign of maturity of *new* products.
Slashdot Mirror
Nice sentiment, but let's see how we feel about it in 50 years when the moon is covered with gigantic advertisements for Pepsi and Budweiser.
Or with CHA
There's an informative video in Nature about the phenomenom and the experiment: http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/x-rays/
They even show how to take x-rays using scotch tape.
Worlds biggest laser online? Cool. What's the IP?
Here's a cool video of the Enceladus-flyby compiled using Cassini's latest images. It shows the flyby from Cassini's POV - approach, closest passing and outbound phase: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5PqLPU2VA4
Cassini started sending the data back to Earth few hours ago (around 7:00 pm PDT). Hopefully we'll get to see the first images by thursday morning about 5:00 AM PTD.
Here's an animation of the flyby, you can see the spacecraft's close trajectory and how various instruments in their turn take measurements of Enceladus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pfz1n6tMUg
Well, their dramatic wording is very correct - only about 45% of Mercury's surface has been imaged in detail. This was done 33 years ago by Mariner 10. So over half of the map of Mercury is still blank. It's the biggest unimaged planetary area in our solar system! Next week Messenger will image some of these never-before -seen/imaged areas of the planet (about 30% of it IIRC).
Here's a current map of Mercury.
There has been some interesting Earth-based radar observations using Arecibo's radio telescope. These observations give us an idea what to expect to see in the blank areas. Here's a map combined with radar observations. There are also various recent Earth-based optical observations using lucky-imaging techniques, but the images lack detail for accurate mapping.
So to be pedantic the Messenger will take detailed never-before-seen images of never-before-imaged-in-detail and never-before-imaged-at-all -areas of Mercury. In few weeks we'll get a new map of Mercury!
They did. But after centuries of politicizing the project they ran out of bugdet and instead of 42 it came out as number 37. The other super advanced civilization had a competing project, but after their religious fundamantalists came to power they decided it should send a deeply spritual message - voila: a coathanger.
Orbit viewer for 2007 WD5: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2007%20WD5;orb=1;cov=0;log=0#orb
Loos like the asteroid could come close to Earth's orbit in 2011. Hope it hits Mars before that!
The Tunguska asteroid exploded in the atmosphere, it did not hit the ground and raise dust.
If 2007-WD5 hits Mars it will probably not explode in the thin atmosphere but impact Martian soil and raise huge amounts of dust. Martian dust is fine-grained and lightweight, and can raise high in the atmosphere - as we have seen during the dust storms. So I guess the dust plume would not stay localized, and it could mean trouble for the rovers and even for the Phoenix-lander.
On the other hand the impact-crater would be very interesting to probe!
Lots of holes in that area. How came they get all the meteors? Not fair.
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-16.630065,-69.230046&spn=0.019491,0.033474&t=h&z=15&om=1
Yummy names?
From NASA's Rover Update http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html:
"In recent months, rover handlers have been naming local features and targets around Home Plate for deceased members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Because Home Plate is bowl-shaped, scientists have decided to name features on top of Home Plate after things served in bowls. Stay tuned for upcoming yummy descriptions!"
Yum. I can hardly wait.
More various astromovies:
e o/vid-02-02.mpg
. html
/ releases/2004/09/video/a
r ch
:]
Lunar Transit by the International Space Station Alpha: http://members.aol.com/mrtsp91/iss.htm
Meteor explodes in Earth's atmosphere:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981123.html
A Martian dust devil passes rover Spirit:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050426.html
Fast moving stars orbiting black hole SgrA* in the Milky Way's center:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001220.html
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/vid
Dynamic rings, wisps and jets of matter and antimatter around the pulsar in the Crab Nebula:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0052/movies
Cat's Eye nebula expanding:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990916.html
Variable stars "twinkling" in globular cluster M3 over a single night:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041012.html
Shock wave of supernova SN1987A creates hot spots in surrounding material:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive
To find more videos try searching NASA's astronomy picture of the day archive: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_sea
I *heart* astronomy
Me too.
There's this 15th anniversary documentary & book. It is really good, although a bit light on designing and engineering the HST. But the pictures are nice!
And someone dug them up.
Japan, on the other hand, has 34% of it's electical power coming form 53 reactors, of which the majority are breeder reactors (generate their own plutonium for use as fuel in themselves and other reactors), so it seems they're a heck of a lot less fearful of it than the US is
:)
And Japan has a great track record on nuclear safety!
Arrests over Japan nuclear accident "The accident was caused by three workers at the plant who mixed excess amounts of liquefied uranium in steel buckets, setting off a nuclear chain reaction."
Two were killed and over 600 exposed to radiation.
Accident at Japan nuclear plant "At least four people have been killed in the deadliest accident to have hit a Japanese nuclear power plant."
Five were killed.
Kepco, which manages the Mihama plant, has admitted since the accident that it had not properly checked the pipe which burst, fatally scalding five workers, since it was installed in 1976.(here)
Bosses quit in Japan nuclear scandal "Top executives at Japanese electricity producer Tepco are to quit, after the firm admitted possibly having falsified nuclear safety records."
Blaze at Japanese nuclear plant "A fire has broken out at a nuclear plant in western Japan, injuring two people but causing no radiation leak, officials say."
Japan court orders reactor closed "A court has ordered Japan's newest nuclear reactor to be shut down over fears about its safety in the event of an earthquake."
Japan's shaky nuclear record
But you're right, they *do* seem a heck of a lot less fearful of it - at least those guys mixing uranium in buckets!
Site's down. Here is the Babelfish translation of slashdot effect:
Forbidden
You don't have by mission ton of ACCESS/mycpu g.htm on this servers.
No, I don't have a ton of access - not even by mission.
Interesting link at the bottom of the page. Explanations welcome.
Towards the end of the production, Olivier Coulhon, the first assistant director, had spent so many hours in the darkened studio that his skin had turned a luminous green and his eyes had sunk deep into his Gallic cheeks
Yea, I know that feeling!
From PingID
The parking lot is full, here.
This is an urban (or 'cosmic'?) legend.
Russians did not use pencils in space, they used 'Kosmos'-pens, which were designed for zero-gravity. Kosmos-pen looked like a pencil, but did not contain graphite and did not need sharpening.
There's a very good reason not to use pencils in space:
Can you imagine what happens when you write with a pencil in zero-gravity? When you scratch paper with the graphite point you get particles of graphite floating around in your ship. As this dust is condunctive, nasty things can happen when it floats into your electronics. Things get even worse when you sharpen your pencil. (OK, you could design a zero-grav pencil-sharpener, but that's not the point). So next time you go to orbit, don't take your pencil with you.
Kosmos-pen was not flawless either, IIRC you had to lick it's point to write, which wasn't a very good idea as it was poisonous (it contained Cd, IIRC again).
Anyone ever used a Kosmos-pen? Correct me if I'm wrong.
NASA omitted one very important little line from the plaque onboard Pioneers.
Alien A: OK. So now we know who they are, where they live, and how big they are.
Alien B: Umm...but where do babies come from?
It's essentially a POINT - it has no dimensions. When you see those little squares you actually see a poor (and fast) representation of pixels - pixels themselves are not square or non-square. Pixels won't come in various sizes, they'll still be regular 0-sized points.
Here's a good paper on why it's important to keep in mind the true nature of pixels (by Alvy Ray Smith):
A Pixel Is Not A Little Square, A Pixel Is Not A Little Square, A Pixel Is Not A Little Square! (And a Voxel is Not a Little Cube)
Like in service packs, the Windows 3.51 had around 13 (or more if I remember correctly.) Windows NT4.0 had 6 (the 7th was not released officially.) Windows 2000 now has 2 (and they are releasing SP3 Q1 2002.) There is WindowsXP although there is no SP around (I believe it may be in the alpha stages.) The number of service packs that is released actually decreases due to the maturity of their products.
The reason Win2000 has "only" 2 SPs and NT4 has 6 is not better security, but quite simply the time these products have been on the market. The longer the product's life cycle the more updates you have to make. This really can't be taken as a sign of maturity of *new* products.
is the moderation here in /.
;-)
Can't critisize a MOVIE without being -1 Flamebait / Troll??? WTF?
This whole discussion should be posted back as a 'Your rights online' -story.
And the movie wasn't too good either.
Or my karma.