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AstroPhoto #1: Goonhilly Down

I’ve always wanted to merge my love of space exploration and my passion for photography. Looking through my collection of pictures I’ve taken through the years, I appear to have quite a few space-related photos, so thought I’d share them between the physics publications and space news articles.

To kick-off this new section of Astroengine, I’ll begin with “Goonhilly Down”. It’s a shot of one of the satellite dishes at the Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall, UK. The photo was taken in 2007, and I generated my own starfield to blend into the shot as its “sky”. I also overlaid an archived image of the comet Hale-Bopp from a NASA photograph. This is in tribute to the amazing achievements of the world’s largest satellite Earth station that is now downscaling operations and moving to another location in the UK…
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A Fun Couple of Days for Writing…

It’s been a flood, a flood I tell you! The last week has been a full-on space news week, especially with the landing of Phoenix on Mars on Sunday. But not only this, we’ve had news from all over the globe and it’s been hard to keep up. Over at the Universe Today we’ve been trying to give a good cross section of topics (with a heavy dose from Mars, naturally), and mine have been pretty eclectic. From Japanese space beer, stunning Very Large Telescope (VLT) images of the iconic Eta Carinae, cool space lasers, hot laboratory lasers and a crazy-spinning asteroid to name a few. It’s just a shame I didn’t have time to write more. So here they are, the last couple of days of articles I’ve written for the Universe Today…
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Daily Roundup: SpaceX are Moving into Cape Canaveral, Colliding Black Holes and Global Warming

Just a quick update on todays articles I’ve posted on the Universe Today: Titan Launch Pad Tower Blown Up at Cape Canaveral (Gallery), Supermassive Black Hole Kicked Out of Galaxy: First Ever Observation, Global Warming is Accelerating Faster than can be Naturally Repaired

For me, the most incredible story was the colliding black hole research to come out of the Max Planck Institute. They have observed a black hole being “kicked out” of its host galaxy during a galactic merger event. Two supermassive black holes collided, causing a huge recoil, ejecting a black hole of several hundred million solar masses into intergalactic space. Stunning science.

Daily Roundup: Jules Verne, Space Sports and Why we Shouldn’t Tamper with Sulphites

It’s been a busy day of article writing at the Universe Today with three articles:

ATV Jules Verne Boosts Space Station to Higher Orbit (Video)
Space Golf and Other Zero-G Sports on the ISS
Potential Global Warming “Fix” Will Damage the Ozone Layer

Also, my recent Soyuz Hard Landing article got picked up by Slashdot and appears to be getting a lot of attention. I hope to write a summary article about the “ballistic re-entry” of the Russian Soyuz descent module on astroengine.com soon, but for now, check it out on the Universe Today…

Cheers! Ian

2009, The International Year of Astronomy Trailer (Video)

In December 2007, the year 2009 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Astronomy. In a bid to increase the awareness of astronomy and our place in the Universe, 2009 will be a year to learn about astronomy as a science and gain a better personal understanding of what we know about the cosmos. Today they released a superb trailer advertising the occasion…
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Astronaut Photographers Take Stunning Pictures of Earth Too

We may have some of the best, high resolution robotic cameras looking down on Earth from orbit, but you can’t beat the human eye for choosing the right shot. This spectacular image is a view of Harrat Khaybar, about 140 kilometres to the northeast of the city of Medina, Saudi Arabia. Old volcanic calderas, deserts and ancient lava flows can be seen. This picture was taken by a member of NASA’s Expedition 16 crew on October 10th, 2007, but has only just been released as part of the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment. We pay so much attention studying the Martian landscape and peering into galactic cores, sometimes it’s nice to turn the lenses around and see the complex geology of Planet Earth. There’s a lot more pictures where this one came from…
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Human Space Exploration: Essential for our Survival

So what is the point of exploring space anyway? We have famine, disease and disaster here down on Earth, why the hell should we direct funds toward manned exploration of the Solar System and beyond? The answer is far from simple, but my personal answer is: to explore the undiscovered…
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Daily Roundup: Space Station Dumps its Refuse and Three Black Holes Collide

In a quiet event, with no ceremony or sending off party, the Russian Progress 28 supply module was released from the International Space Station on Monday to fall to Earth as a fireball. On board, all the waste and unwanted equipment from the stations astronauts. The Progress module was launched in January to deliver food, water and other supplies, and with its usefulness at an end, the charred remains of the spaceship now sit at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean… Such a sad story for poor old Progress 28…
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Daily Roundup: SpaceShipTwo, A Guy Tries to Sue the LHC and Orbs Falling to Earth

In a quick roundup of today’s articles on the Universe Today, I’ve covered the three articles (I got a special chuckle out of the LHC post):

I found the first article especially interesting – two identical orbs falling to Earth in Australia and Brazil? Check it out.

Also, an earlier article “13.73 Billion Years – The Most Precise Measurement of the Age of the Universe Yet“, has totally surprised me and hit the front page of Digg.com with 700+ Diggs so far (as of Saturday). Plus it’s had about 11,000 hits so far, so I’m really chuffed with that one.

More are on the way…

Daily Roundup: Astronomy and Physics in the Arctic is More Popular than You Think

Svalbard has always had a special place in my heart. Way back in 2002, I spent a life changing five months living in this magical part of the world. Whilst I wouldn’t say it was easy, it was definitely something I will remember for the rest of my life. This is what the Arctic does to you, it embeds itself into your memory and imagination, and I had the amazing fortune to study up there as a student.

Suddenly, two stories come along involving the research being carried out (quite literally) on top of the world; I couldn’t resist talking about the important work currently being carried out up there…
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