You are browsing the archive for Ryan Anderson.
27 May 2010
Solar System Tour
The other day, I was reminiscing about things I had done as an undergrad at the University of Michigan and I remembered a website I put together with two of the other officers of the Student Astronomical Society. The site is a tour of the solar system, and I thought to myself: “Hey, I should post that stuff to the blog!” So, starting today, I will be posting pieces of …
26 May 2010
Mars Polar Cap Mystery Solved
If you’ve ever seen a picture of the north polar cap of Mars, you’ve probably wondered why it has those spiral troughs in it. Until recently, you would be in good company: it’s a question that has been plaguing scientists for 40 years. But it has finally been solved! Go check out my new article at Universe Today to find out more!
20 May 2010
The "explorer" analogy and US spaceflight
The other day, the blog Sociological Images had a thought-provoking post about a Canadian ad campaign which invokes the idea of exploration and discovery to promote Canadian tourism. It got me thinking about one of the most common defenses of U.S. space exploration: that it is the natural next step for a nation founded on exploration to start exploring space. So, are we really a nation of explorers if all …
18 May 2010
Big Pictures: Space Shuttle and Mount St. Helens
The Big Picture has been on a roll lately, with two sets of particular interest to planetary and space-types. First, is the feature on the final launch of the space shuttle Atlantis last week: Second, today is the 30th anniversary of the explosive eruption of Mount St. Helens, and there are some amazing photos that show the devastating power of a volcanic eruption:
12 May 2010
Talking lasers on aussie radio
Through a crazy random happenstance, I was just interviewed by a friend of a friend of a friend at Australian radio station ‘triple j‘ for a feature on lasers! We talked all about shooting stuff with lasers, why one might want to do that (other than because it’s awesome) and how the real lab is not quite what people picture. The show is called Hack with Kate O’Toole, and it …
7 May 2010
Going AWOL
Loyal readers, I’m going to be scarce for the next few weeks. I just had a major work setback, courtesy of Microsoft word and my own failure to backup a key file. So, I’ll be frantically working to make up for all the work I just lost. In the meantime, it’s probably going to be quiet here unless there’s something I just can’t not post about. I promised some photos …
2 May 2010
Carnival of Space 152
Welcome to The Martian Chronicles and the 152nd edition of the Carnival of Space! As always, we’ve got a great bunch of space-related posts from across the blogosphere, ranging from life on Mars to the age of the universe to Science Ninjas! I’ll get things started with a pair of posts from right here at The Martian Chronicles. A couple weeks ago I went on a cool geology field trip …
29 April 2010
MarsSed 2010 Field Trip Day 2: Stromatolites, Gypsum and Layers
We started off Day 2 of the field trip by driving up onto the eroded rocks of what used to be the tidal flats of the ancient reef, between the shore and the continental shelf. The closest modern-day analog to the rocks that we visited is the Persian Gulf, where you have an arid climate and deposition on the shelf and down into the deeper ocean basin. In the tidal …
26 April 2010
MarsSed 2010 Field trip – Day 1: Guadalupe Mountains and Evaporites
Hello everyone, I’m back from the MarsSed 2010 meeting in ElPaso! The meeting was great: it was small and focused on sedimentology and stratigraphy on Mars, with lots of room for discussion. Even better, there were plenty of terrestrial geologists attending, and their comments were extremely helpful for me, and probably many other Martians who lack a geology background. After two and a half days of presentations and discussion (and …
19 April 2010
Incoming! Shuttle Re-Entry over the US!
Hello from El Paso! I just arrived at the conference hotel, and as I was checking my email, I learned from spaceweather.com that the space shuttle Discovery will be making a rare type of re-entry tomorrow morning that will take it right over the lower 48 states! Landing is scheduled for 8:48 am EDT, and it takes the shuttle about 35 minutes to traverse the path shown above. Observers in …
