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5 November 2008
Second Enceladus "Skeet Shoot" Successful
On Halloween, Cassini flew by the south pole of Enceladus again, and snapped some stunning high-resolution photos from an altitude of ~1,700 km. To give you an idea of the resolution, here’s a comparison. First, a view of Enceladus from the recent flyby with a resolution of about 12 meters (40 feet) per pixel. Next, a view of the earth at a comparable scale. It’s a Landsat 7 image, so …
3 November 2008
Vote Adama in '08
Can’t decide who to vote for? (hint: Obama) Courtesy of io9, here are some sci-fi alternatives to the current candidates. Adama ’08!
1 November 2008
Mercury in Color
Check out this true color and exaggerated color view of Mercury, taken by MESSENGER during the recent flyby! In one of my classes on Thursday, we were speculating about why Mercury craters seem to have such long rays on the fresh craters. Our conclusion was that it’s probably just the higher gravity. Mercury is small but very dense, so it’s surface gravity is greater than the moon’s. So with equivalent …
29 October 2008
NaNoWriMo
“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.” – Leonard Bernstein Starting on Saturday, I will be participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an annual activity in which insane writers attempt to complete a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. The rules are that you can plan as much (or as little) as you want beforehand, but the page must …
26 October 2008
The Science of Chandrayaan: Part 2
Last time I described the Indian-made instruments on the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. But the mission is a huge international collaboration, and there are six more instruments to talk about made by countries around the world. Let’s take a look: An X-ray image of the moon. Chandrayaan-1 X-Ray Spectrometer (C1XS) – “Wait a second!” I hear you saying. “Didn’t you talk about an x-ray spectrometer last time?” Well, yes, but x-rays have …
24 October 2008
Big Picture: Enceladus
Check it out, The Big Picture is featuring views of Saturn’s moon Enceladus today! I have a soft spot for Enceladus because when I was in NASA academy, we chose to come up with a mission concept to Enceladus. Go check out the stunning photos!
New President of the Planetary Society!
I just found out that the Planetary Society has selected a new president: none other than my adviser, Jim Bell! I was wondering where he was earlier this week… I guess I’ll have to start addressing him as Mr. President. 🙂
23 October 2008
The Science of Chandrayaan
By now you’ve probably heard that India successfully launched its first moon mission yesterday (Oct. 22, 2008). But what will it do at the moon? Let’s take a look at the scientific payload and find out! This will be a 2-part post, starting with the five instruments made by the Indian space agency (ISRO), followed by six more made by countries around the world. Most of my information comes from …
21 October 2008
Massive Crystals: The coolest thing I've ever seen.
Really, that’s all I said for like 5 minutes after seeing this picture for the first time: Those are PEOPLE, for scale. Here’s another pic, just to put you in a little more awe: These are the largest crystals yet to be found on Earth, with some reaching over 30 feet in length! As reported in NG, The Cueva de los Cristales is located 1000 feet below ground in the …
