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Astroengine Featured on the Geologic Podcast #106!

From now on, I will listen to Prince’s “Sexy Mother F*cker” with great affection…

I mentioned I had listened to the Geologic Podcast the other day to hear George Hrab’s rendition of the awesome “Occasional Songs For The Periodic Table“.

It was strange, as I remembered chatting to George about that when I was ordering my n^th beer at the AAS party in January, but I thought nothing more of it until I was idly chatting about something on Twitter. Like so many micro-blogging conversational experiences, I have no idea what we were talking about or how we got onto the topic of the Periodic Table and I remembered my drunken chat with George. At that moment, like a flash of enlightenment, @MsInformation pointed me in the right direction so I could listen to that particular song. It was in fact a series of songs compiled into one epic feature. This is one of the many reasons why I love Twitter, I can think without needing to think.

To my complete surprise, earlier today @MsInformation (I really should ask for Ms Information’s name…) dropped me a message to say I was featured on ~~today’s~~ yesterday’s (Thursday’s) Geologic Podcast. Happily surprised about this turn of events, I navigated to the podcast site, intrigued by the warning, “I hope you won’t be offended.”

I certainly was not offended, more extremely flattered and very, very entertained! You could say I’m a huge fan of the Geologic Podcast, and not just because I was featured, but because it is bloody fantastic! In episode 106, there’s everything from cows urine, “Religious Moron of the Week” to some great views from the maestro himself George Hrab, featuring Ms Information. I love George’s strong opinions and unwavering wit, so be sure to check it out.

Warning: Some of the content of the Geologic Podcast is not suitable for minors, might not be suitable for work (depending on whether you work in a hospital or a brothel – the latter will probably be fine), but it will certainly give you tough love in the sceptical thought department!

Listen into Episode 106 (March 5th, 2009) of the Geologic Podcast »

Thank you George and Ms Information!

Ceres: Life? Pluto: Not So Much

The dwarf planet soap opera continues…

The dwarf planet Ceres. Fuzzy (NASA/Hubble)

Could the dwarf planet Ceres maintain life? Possibly, says a scientist from a German university. According to new research, this ex-asteroid (who did a deal with the IAU to sell out Pluto, trading in its asteroid status to become a dwarf planet, at the expense of Pluto being demoted from being a planet. Obviously) may have harboured microbial life near geothermal vents in hypothetical liquid oceans (I emphasise hypothetical). Not only that, but Ceres’ chilly microbes could have been kicked into space by meteorites, spreading life throughout the Solar System. Forget Mars (you’re looking too hard), forget Europa (a moon? With life? Pah), the new giver of life could be Ceres, the dwarf planet we know next to nothing about.

Then there’s Pluto. Not much chance of life there either (although it would be fun to speculate, there is methane there after all), but the hard-done-by newly-christened dwarf planet has a rather bizarre atmosphere. Its temperature profile is upside down. Oh, and Pluto has just been reunited with its planetary status… in Illinois only (because a governor really does know more about planets than 400 members of the International Astronomical Union).
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Did Gravitational Waves Ring a Bell in 1987?

Gravitational waves generated by a binary system (MIT)

The hunt for gravitational waves continue, but unfortunately all gravitational wave hunters around the world are churning up nothing. Just noise. Could it be that this consequence of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity is horribly flawed? Probably not. Still, the search for these elusive waves has foxed physicists for many years. It has even come to the point that the laser interferometers used in an attempt to detect the tiny (and I mean TINY) changes in distances (as when the gravitational wave passes through us, space-time experiences a minuscule compression or expansion) have become so precise, the director of Fermilab thinks a German-UK gravitational wave detector is starting to detect the quanta of space-time itself.

However, do you ever get the feeling that we might be trying too hard? What if gravitational waves have already been detected? Say if these notoriously difficult ripples in space-time were detected over 20 years ago without using a laser interferometer? It turns out that an overlooked scientist may have found the answer to the gravitational wave problem by using nothing more than some aluminium bars and a well-timed supernova…
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Occasional Songs For The Periodic Table – by George Hrab

George Hrab dominates the periodic table. Credits: Univ. Virginia/Geologic Records

When I heard that George Hrab had turned the Periodic Table into a musical opportunity, I had mixed feelings. The mixed feelings were of excitement to hear what George had come up with, and those of fear of revisiting my science class woes. You see, I hated chemistry at school… and college. You can probably imagine my horror when my chemistry nemesis came back to haunt me in my Masters year of university (I’d avoided it expertly during my undergrad years); I’d have to learn the thing for a key spectroscopy course! Bugger…
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Scientists Create Synthetic Life… Now What?

You talk about synthetic life like it's a bad thing - Tricia Helfer in BSG — *You talk about synthetic life like it's a bad thing* - Tricia Helfer in BSG

Say if you’re in space, searching for life, what do you look for? That’s simple. You look for something that resembles life on Earth; whether that be single-celled amoeba or a Star Trek-style humanoid with a lumpy head and webbed feet.

That’s life we know and understand (with some sci-fi comedy thrown in). What if there are some other unimaginable creatures that may not fit into our understanding of How Things Work™? This is a very real problem NASA has been faced with ever since the agency started sending probes to Mars and spacecraft beyond the Solar System itself. Deep space missions (like the Voyager and Pioneer probes) have intelligent life forms in mind (i.e. ones that can read, hear and interpret the Leonardo da Vinci Vitruvian Man; so it would be nice if ET also has an appreciation for fine art), but our intrepid Mars rovers and landers that have been pestering the Red Planet since the 1960s are looking for the basic building blocks of life, plus evidence of past or present life. So far, there’s been a lot of rocks turned over, yet no sign of extraterrestrial life.

Therefore, scientists at a very early stage defined “life” as a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution so we can focus on finding life we know and understand. To boost this understanding a little further, wouldn’t it be great if we could create our own evolving soup of chemicals?

Now, it seems, this has become a reality. Scientists in a Florida lab have created a beaker filled with synthetic life…
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Here’s One We Didn’t Discover Earlier

The 1998 archive Hubble image of HR 8799 after image analysis - one of the star's exoplanets have been resolved (NASA/HST) — The 1998 archive Hubble image of HR 8799 after image analysis - one of the star's exoplanets have been resolved (D. Lafrenière et al., ApJ Letters)

What’s just as exciting as directly imaging an exoplanet in a new observing campaign? To discover an exoplanet in an old observing campaign.

Like so many significant astronomical discoveries, archival images of the cosmos provide a valuable tool to astronomers. On its most basic level, astronomers can compare new images with images taken by the same (or different) observatory months, years or decades ago. This method can lead to the discovery of planets, asteroids and comets (when comparing two pictures of the night sky, a celestial object appears to move relative to the background stars). However, a new technique to analyse archived Hubble data in the search for exoplanets, has just revealed one of three known exoplanets orbiting the star HR 8699. The image in question was captured in 1998, when astronomers thought HR 8799 was an exoplanet-less star…
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Tune into Paranormal Radio Tonight (at 9pm EST)

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Tune into Paranormal Radio tonight to listen to Captain Jack and myself discuss… something. I think we are going to chill out and Jack will discuss the current goings on in the world of the paranormal, I’ll discuss my sceptical opinion of it all, we’ll expand the myth and bring some more common sense to the world. It’s a perfect marriage of open minds and sceptical thought, often ending up with a beer and a chat about something completely unrelated to science or UFOs. Always a giggle. Jack is an awesome host, so I’m sure tonight will be great fun. Also, we’ll be going live over the Seattle and Austin airwaves!

Listening into Paranormal Radio is the same deal as listening into Astroengine Live, so be sure to tune in!

Listen to WPRT Radio using the Paranormal Radio player. Or, pick up the podcast feed to activate your favourite audio software.

When Cosmic Rays Attack: The MRO in Safe Mode

I always get concerned when I hear about one of our invaluable robotic explorers switching into safe mode. This time, it is the turn of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) that re-booted itself after an “event” in Mars orbit. It seems likely that a direct cosmic ray hit could be to blame…
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China Really Didn’t Fake It (Part Deux)

Left: The reflection in Zhai's visor shows a three-row array attached to the spacecraft. Right: The reflection from Zhai's wrist mirror shows the same array, only closer. They are not studio lights (CCTV)

Remember all that conspiracy theory nonsense that was kicked up after the Chinese space walk last year? It would appear that people are still pointing fingers, accusing the Chinese space agency of being very handy with water tanks and computer animation, simulating Zhai Zhigang dangling above the (fake)Earth as he waves his flag in (fake)space. This is even after thorough analysis by the likes of professional sceptic* Phil Plait and myself (proto-professional sceptic), where the conclusion was reached that… um… China did indeed do the EVA. I’d also argue it would probably be even more difficult to pull off a stunt like the conspiracy being proposed than to get into space in the first place!

Anyhow, why am I repeating a chewed shoe of a conspiracy theory when we already know China successfully carried out a successful spacewalk on September 27th, 2008? An eagle-eyed reader of Astroengine has come forward with some additional evidence supporting one of my arguments against one of the conspiracy claims. Always nice to back up arguments with proof isn’t it?

*Yep, that is the proper spelling before you send me a message telling me otherwise. UK = “sceptic”, US = “skeptic”. So there.
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One Giant Leap… into Obscurity? Not Quite

Forget Bush’s “Vision For Space Exploration”, is it about time for some common sense?

When NASA had purpose: Buzz Aldrin on the Moon (NASA)

Just in case you were wondering about what NASA is supposed to be doing, you’re not alone. On Monday, Buzz Aldrin, Feng Hsu and Ken Cox submitted a scathing draft letter proposing a radical change to ex-President Bush’s 2004 Vision for Space Exploration, stating that “post-Apollo NASA” has become a “visionless jobs-providing enterprise that achieves little or nothing,” in the field of re-usable, affordable or safe space transportation. The authors also call into question that logic of returning to the lunar surface. Tough words, but are they right?

As it turns out, only yesterday (Wednesday) the word from the White House was that the US will still be returning to the Moon in 2020, regardless of the short-falls of Bush’s 2004 Vision…
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