Geminid Meteor Shower, Source: NASA

The Geminid Meteor Shower doesn’t usually get the full-court press offered to the two other notables, namely the Leonids and the Perseids.  However, recent studies point to an expected increase in meteor shower activity from the Geminids that will continue for the next few decades.  Why? Jupiter’s gravitational influence is going to steadily push more of the stream of ejected material from the extinct comet Phaeton our way over this course of time. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about Phaeton slamming into us, which is now technically just an asteroid.

At worse, about 100 streaks an hour can be expected starting around midnight local time in North America.  Start by finding Orion, look at his arrow-wielding arm, follow it “up” until you reach the constellation Gemini.  That’ll be where it appears the shower is coming from.

What of the prediction of increased shower activity? At they high end, you’re looking at possibly 200 streaks an hour.  Wow!

Source: NASA

Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo (SS2). I'll wait for version NCC-1701.

Perhaps sometime later in my lifetime I will have mustered the gumption, not to mention the cash required to jump onto Virgin Galactic’s tour of outer space.  But for those of you who not only have enough of both but have been one of the first to reserve your seat into one of the first of such rides for the paying public, aside from those willing to fork over $1M for a jouney on the ISS, here’s what your ride will look like.

The rest of us will just have to sit back and drool.

Stellarium (courtesy of Stellarium.org)

Ever wonder what is that third star from the right?  Could that planet be Jupiter or possibly Venus?  Or, are you just planning a stargazing trip to someplace distant sometime in the far off  future and are wondering what you can expect to see?

Then, Stellarium is just for you.

While the free downloadable software (Windows, Mac, Linux) has been around for a while, it still hasn’t hit version 1.0.  As of this article, it’s on version 0.10.2.  Still, despite my best efforts, I could not get the program to crash, and I run an old P4 1.73Ghz PC.  I can only imagine how it will work on a newer computer.

As you can see from the screen shot, Stellarium will give you a view of the night sky, as if you walked outside your home on a clear, dark night.  But, that’s just the beginning.

Aside from helping identify any planetary, nebular, galactic, or stellar object in the night sky, it will draw out the constellations, attach names to objects, and, if desired, sketch the path of the planets as they travel across the elliptic.

Though the benefits are immediate for any amateur astronomer, Stellarium makes for a great learning tool for children and teens.  For example, one concept that can be difficult to fathom involves the relative movement of the planets, stars, and moon with respect to us, and that’s simply because few of us are out at night, every night, observing.

Stellarium makes that easy.  Just launch the program, configure your location (F6 key) and enter the current date/time.  Now turn on planet trails (F4 key).  Then fast forward to midnight, using your mouse to click on the right-most arrow on the bottom menu.  Once you get to around midnight, pause.  Now, to see what the night sky looks like tomorrow, hit the “=” key(equal sign).  Or, keep the button down and watch Stellarium zoom from midnight today to midnight tomorrow to all the midnights from now until when you take your finger off the “=” key.

It’s hard to see everything at once.  But if you’re interested in observing the direct vs. retrograde movement of planets over the course of days, keep your eye on Mars.  Although this movement makes a certain amount of sense in textbooks, there’s nothing quite like taking control of the helm and seeing it happen for yourself.

Stellarium is perfect for amateur or professional astronomers, even those who have telescopes with built-in star maps.  But for those without a telescope, you can consider Stellarium a fine substitute.  Don’t know what I mean?  Power it up, use the arrow keys to navigate to someplace interesting, and hit the page-up button.  You’ll see detail that will rival some of the best amateur telescopes today, allowing you to stargaze from comfort of your living room…or computer lab.

Galileo never had it so good!

Get Stellarium here for free!

The Sun, as of 19 June 2009. Courtesy of the National Solar Observatory/AURA/NSF.

If you’re a geek like me, you’ve kept your telescopic solar filter on the shelf for more years than you care to remember because of the lack of anything of interest on the sun. Well, time to dust it off. At least, if the scientists at the National Solar Observatory have the right idea.

Scientists have observed that solar activity waxes and wanes on an 11 year cycle. Why? Nobody yet knows. But when solar activity increases, all sorts of havoc gets wrecked onto our satellites and telecommunication systems, and at the same time we see a marked increase in aurora activity. For amateur astronomers, as even professional ones I suppose, increased activity means that sunspots are back. And peering at the sun with a telescope fitted with a high-grade solar filter suddenly becomes interesting again.

Getting back, these scientists theorize that movement of the solar jet stream across the sun’s 22′nd degree of latitude is an indicator of the upcoming switch from inactivity to activity.  And, they just noticed the streams make that crossing, 2 years later than normal.  Which means, if they’re right, we should see sunspots within the next few years.

Source: Science

Discovery at the Vehicle Assembly Building in January 2009. Photo courtesy of NASA.

The again-delayed shuttle mission STS-119 is supposed to be special for a number of reasons.  First, three of the would-be astronauts are first-timers, and of those two are former educators.  Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold were both former high school teachers who were elevated to the ranks of Mission Specialists after undergoing NASA’s standard training for all astronauts.  The hope, of course, is to continue to spark the imagination of students everywhere and engage them on an academic level.

But this mission seeks to accomplish much more.  As the 10th-to-the-last shuttle mission ever (unless things change), STS-119 seeks to install the final set of solar arrays onto the International Space Station and fix the failed toilet to tap urine conversion system.

Of course there will be a wealth of on-board science experiments and ISS construction that will ensue over the 14 day mission.  But one interesting bit includes a one-off heat shield tile that will be placed under the left wing.  It will sport an irregular bump of 0.25 inches and will be monitored during re-entry at Mach 15 to understand the heating effects on that tile.  I can’t wait to catch the video on YouTube.

Oh, why is this mission delayed?  Endeavor’s flight in November 2008 was marred by a failure of a hydrogen flow control valve, one of three that adjusts the flow of gaseous hydrogen to fill the void of liquid hydrogen used during assent.  Fortunately, this particular failure was compensated for by the other two and the assent proceeded without a hitch.  But upon landing and an inspection of the valve, engineers were left with answering a basic question: Could this failure have led to catastrophe?

Well, it’s 6 days before the intended launch date of February 27.  And without a firm answer, NASA has wisely decided to postpone the mission.

More to come…

Photo courtesy of NASA. Artist's rendition of Earth's magnetic field.

If you recall, THEMIS is the awful name given to the amazing set of satellites charged with learning about how the solar wind affects Earth’s magnetic field, auroras, and shortages to our power grid.

Without getting into the nitty gritty, late last year initial results indicate that indeed our magnetic field is leaky as previously predicted.  However, what surprised scientists is the finding that more solar particle penetrate Earth’s magnetic field when it’s aligned with the sun’s magnetic field, not against it.

And it’s when the sun’s magnetic field switches orientation that ours tears open, ultimately wrecking havoc yet yielding amazing auroras.  For the science intense, you can go straight to the source.  For those looking for auroras, look no further than here.

Once you’re done, enjoy the pictures that follow.

Photo by Joshua Strang. This image was taken over Alaska, and was voted Wikipedia Commons Picture of the Year for 2006.

Photo courtesy of NASA. This image, taken from the International Space Station in February 2, 2003 shows green and red aurora. Depending on conditions, the ISS can travel through, above, or below aurora.

Photo by Don Pettit, ISS Science Officer in 2003.  Here’s another instance of the ISS going head to head with a green aurora.

Photo by Bud Kuenzli, courtesy of NASA.  This photo, taken over an Alaskan lake captures not just an awesome aurora, but a shooting star and the the Pleiades. You can find the original description here.

Extreme global warming, far, far away. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Most climate experts believe a 3 degree Fahrenheit increase in out planet’s temperature over the next 100 years would spell disaster. 10 degrees would be catastrophic. What about 1000 degrees?

Ursa Major. Photo courtesy of Wikisky.org

There’s a Jupiter-sized planet that orbits a star 190 light years away located in the constellation Ursa Major, or what most of us recognize as the Big Dipper.

The star is actually a binary – the two of which can been seen together with a good pair of binoculars on a clear night.  You can find it by first locating the Big Dipper, than seeking out the front knee of Ursa (the Bear).

Still lost?  Try Wikisky.org.  A web-based star/galaxy map with lots of great astronomic pictures.

While many of the recently discovered extrasolar gas giants orbit very close to their sun, this one follows a highly elliptic orbit.  As the furthest point from it’s sun, it’s about 1 AU away.  But at it’s closest, it’s about 0.03 AU.  Tie that in with a relatively quick orbit of just over 100 days, and the result is extreme global warming and extremely global cooling at very regular intervals.

What’s the significance?  By understanding heating and cooling patterns scientists can better understand how extrasolar planets absorb and shed heat.

Scientists reached these conclusions after observing the planet with the Spitzer space telescope.

Source: NASA.

Oh, say it ain’t so.

At TinySci, we pride ourselves in our deep skepticism of practically everything. Some say this leads only to apathy while others wonder how we can then be passionate about anything. Well if you’ve had a chance to read a few of our posts, you’ll realize that neither is the case. Rather, the skepticism helps bring about a solid case of objectivity.

Which is what I’m thinking is lacking for those NASA administrators who believe they can create a viable, let alone interesting, massively multiplayer online (MMO) game targeted to the teens of tomorrow.

It’s true. Today NASA released a request for proposal (warning: PDF) detailing what they’d like to see in a NASA-based MMO. These virtual worlds would help youngsters, “repair expensive equipment” or even, “tinker with chemical reactions in living cells”. Because, as we all know, the computer is a much better substitute for a pair of pliers, a microscope, and a petri dish.

There’s no word yet on how much NASA’s willing to shell out to make this happen.

In reality (not virtual), I hope this succeeds. More so, that it’s a NASA home run. Or, even better, NASA will actually generate income from charging monthly subscription fees. Because I have a feeling it’ll be a long while before NASA comes up with the several billion required to send one us to Mars, but at $9.95 per month, it may happen sooner than you think.

Or not.

Photo Mash Up: World of Warcraft, NASA

If you listen to NPR, it’s likely you know of Tom and Ray, the automotive geniuses on Car Talk. They’re staring in a new episode of NOVA this Tuesday appropriately titled, “Car of the Future”.  If you don’t listen to Car Talk, you probably aren’t in TinySci’s demographic, so no worries.

They’re reason #1 to watch TV on Tuesday.

Reason #2 is a bit more subdued, but should be stunning nonetheless.  NASA will be broadcasting images of Earth in HD from the International Space Station.  Just tune in to your NASA channel any time from 6am to 8pm and you’ll be treated to what they say are some fantastic views.  As for the commentary…well…

Subtle Hint: You could mute the TV and instead pipe in some music of your choice.  A mellow jazz or blues album would go nicely.

Sources: NOVA, NASA

NASA is trying to change that. With THEMIS.

THEMIS (Get ready: Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) is a fleet of 5 spacecraft launched in February 2007 tasked with the job of studying these auroras. Already, a series of observations has yielded clues to how auroras occur, but THEMIS still has 2 years left in it’s lifespan to provide a better picture.

Still, for now scientists have use THEMIS data to show that there are “ropes” of magnetism that link the earth to the sun, over which streams of solar wind travel and seemingly provide the energy to feed the auroras. And, it appears that the earth’s 23 degree tilt provides a favorable alignment for these ropes, presumably because it’s during the equinoxes that either pole “points” moreso toward the sun than at other times.

I’m not sure what NASA hopes to do once they unravel the great aurora mystery. They say they’re out to help minimize the risks to orbiting satellites. But it seems to me that this study makes for an excuse to get in some springtime camping while brushing up on nighttime photography. Personally, I’d enjoy the latter.

Source: NASA
Photo: National Geographic, Michael Melford

That purchase came about a year ago, when images from Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity beamed back picture after picture of beautiful images, many of which were rendered in 3D for the general public. At the time, I couldn’t justify spending the $2 to get a mail-order set of 3D glasses, so Amazon came to the rescue.

Let’s just say I’m making better use of the glasses now than my son.

Like today, when NASA released a 3D rendered image of Phobos. Here, the moon jumps right off the page with amazing details that are seemingly more pronounced because of the moon’s relatively small size.

Of course, if you already have 3D glasses, you’re set. Otherwise, you can shoot two birds with one stone and try my route, it works!

Source: NASA

At TinySci, it’s only natural for us to get excited about all things small, even if it means, relatively small. In this case, Nikolai Shaposhnikov and and Lev Titarchuk of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center announced the tiniest black hole ever discovered, one weighing in at only 3.8 solar masses. If you were wondering, that translates to approximately 7.6E+30 kilograms, or about 1,270,000 Earths.

I know what you’re thinking: It doesn’t sound quite that small, right?

But compared to the supermassive black hole residing in the center of our galaxy, it would take about 684,000 of these small black holes to pack the same punch as as ours. Plus, a quick and dirty calculation of the event horizon radius (R = 2GM/c²) puts it at approximately 7 miles from the center of the black hole. Which implies, if you were were so daring, you could get awfully close without getting pulled in, though I’m not sure how you’d fare against the barrage of high-energy x-rays.

Source: NASA

Certainly worth another look, NASA sent the probe back and had it fly directly into the path of these geysers, coming to within 30 miles of the surface of the moon.

Amongst other things, Cassini discovered water and other organic compounds. Exactly what compounds, well, it’s too early to tell. Could this mean life on the Saturn moon? Perhaps. Assuming the conditions are just right, Enceladus may be a candidate for harboring primordial life forms akin to what’s found near our ocean-floor hydrothermal vents.

Source: NASA

Their scientists believe that HH 46/47 may be in the midst of developing a wind powerful enough to halt its growing via gravitational disk accretion. Personally, I just like the pic.

Primary Source + Larger Picture: JPL