You are browsing the archive for Ryan Anderson.
26 March 2009
Excuses
Just a word to say that I do plan on blogging LPSC, but (clearly) I’m not going to be able to keep up with daily posts. I’m still taking notes, and I’ll post them when I have some more time. Part of the problem is that I’m staying at the conference hotel, which is nice enough that you have to pay to use their internet, and the conference internet is …
24 March 2009
Give MSL a Real Name!
The voting has begun to give the Mars Science Laboratory a genuine, non-acronym name! There are nine potential names, and NASA is asking the general public to submit their votes this week. So go vote and help take part in the next Big Mission to Mars!
Carnival of Space #95
The Carnival of space is up over at Orbitalhub! Why are you still here? Go check it out!
LPSC 2009: Day 1
Unfortunately I missed the earliest sessions today because I had to drive down to Johnson Space Center to get a badge. I am going to be working there for four weeks after LPSC and another five weeks later in the summer, characterizing rock samples and shooting them with a laser, so I needed a badge to be able to do that work. I got back to the conference just in …
22 March 2009
Cosmos on Hulu!
I just heard the other day that the entire Cosmos series is available for free on Hulu now! Carl Sagan inspired many of today’s astronomers, and making the series available ensures that his influence will continue to last. Take a look, and share the link with your friends.
Blogging LPSC 2009
Greetings from Texas! With the Arizona field trip over, today I hopped on a plane to Houston for the 40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. It will be going on all this week, starting on Monday and I will do my best to post my more interesting notes here. LPSC is a great conference, with the latest news from all aspects of planetary science, and a special focus on more …
The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest
(This is the final day of a week-long field trip in Arizona. Get caught up with days 1,2,3,4,5, 6) Friday was the last day of the field trip, and we spent it at the Petrified Forest national park. We were there to study the colorful clays and river deposits, but we began the day with an unexpected bonus: our guide, Bill Parker, is a paleontologist at the park, and he …
20 March 2009
Grand Falls and Sand Dunes
(This is day 6 of a week-long field trip in Arizona. Get caught up with days 1,2,3,4,5) Today we visited Grand Falls and the nearby dune field. Grand Falls is especially interesting because it combines many of the processes that are active in shaping planetary surfaces. The falls are the result of a huge lava flow pouring into the ancient canyon of the Little Colorado river, filling the canyon and …
19 March 2009
Meteor Crater, Walnut Canyon, and Red Mountain
(This is day 5 of a week-long planetary geology field trip to Arizona. Get caught up with days 1,2,3,4) Today was a long and awesome day. We started out at meteor crater, the youngest and best preserved impact crater on Earth! Our guide today was Shaun Wright, a colleague from the Hawaii field workshop, among other places. He showed us infrared images of the crater taken from an airplane and …
18 March 2009
The Grand Canyon
Today we visited the Grand Canyon. If you haven’t been there before, there is no way to convey what it is like. It is the only place I’ve ever been with a view that literally took my breath away. John Wesley Powell, a one-armed civil war veteran and geologist wrote extensively about his pioneering voyages through the canyon and summed it up quite well: “The glories and the beauties of …
