About Astronomy & Space Daily Blogs
Space Blogsfor June 16, 2005
Shai Coggins, About's guide to
Blogs defines them like
this, "The word blog is short for web log (weblog). It is used
both as a noun and a verb. As a noun, a blog is also known as an
online journal or web diary, as well as a content management
system or an online publishing platform. As a verb, 'to blog'
means to write on one's weblog. Essentially, a weblog is a
chronologically organized site with the latest entry appearing
at the top of the page."
Here. we'll try to review some of the most
recent and interesting posts in the world of Astronomy & Space
Cosmic Log - Red, white and blue on Mars
Red, white and blue on Mars: Celebrate Flag
Day with NASA's latest view of a white sun and blue sunset
on the Red Planet.
Astronomy Blog: strudel.org.uk - The Pole
This picture, sent from the Columbia Hills
back to Earth by NASA's Spirit rover on May 19, is one of
several Martian sunset (and sunrise) pictures that help
scientists figure out the composition of the planet's dusty
The blue glow is due to light diffracted by
ice crystals - the same sort of diffraction that makes the
whole daytime sky blue here on Earth.
The pole I am referring to is the North
magnetic pole. Unlike the rotational North pole, the
magnetic poles don't stay in one place. The magnetic poles
are generated in a complex way, by the rotating molten iron
core of the Earth, and have a tendency to move around a bit.
Tom's Astronomy Blog - Meteors From Comets?
The magnetic North pole has been in Canada
for some years but it seems that it has now finally moved
out into international waters, heading in the direction of
Siberia. Far from being upset about the departure of the
magnetic pole from Canada, Larry Newitt, head of the Natural
Resources Canada geomagnetic laboratory in Ottawa takes
solace in the fact that "we're still the closest country to
it." This sentiment was echoed by Carolyn Relf, a geologist
with Indian and Northern Affairs. "As long as Santa's still
in the North, I don't care about the pole," she said.
Dr. Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer from the
SETI Institute and Esko Lyytinen an amateur astronomer, say
comets that breakup, cause most of our meteor showers in a
paper accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal.
The SpaceWriter's Ramblings - What's In A
Name? Caveat Emptor
They discovered a fragment of a lost comet
(D/1819 W1 or Blanpain). The comet was last seen in 1819.
The fragment has survived for 36 orbits and was detected by
the Catalina Sky Survey as a minor planet named 2003 WY25.
Once its orbit was more precisely determined, Jenniskens
traced the object back to that of Blanpain in 1819. They
discovered that a breakup during, or just before Blanpains
return and caused the amazing meteor showers of 1956. The
1956 shower was from the Phoenicids and produced over 100
meteors per hour. It seems the planet Jupiter had steered
the debris into our path.
I just got the Nth spam message this week
telling me how it exciting it is that I can now "officially"
name a star for my dad for Father's Day. Not only am I NOT
excited about it, I'm pretty tired of watching these
companies preying on people's gullibility about how stars
are named. There are several who advertise, using all kinds
of careful language that implies you can name a star for a
loved one, without actually coming right out and saying that
the star names they're charging you for will NOT EVER be
used by astronomers. You have to ask yourself, "If it's so
easy to name a star that some company can convince people to
pay THEM for the privilege of doing so, then why can't I
just go out and name a star myself without paying them?"
Astro Diary - The summer solstice approaches
So that just about wraps up my astronomy
observations until the autumn. With plenty to do on the
field field with gathering crops, taking the fishing boat
out and building up a stack of wood for winter I'm pretty
much exhausted and fast asleep by the time it's dark. The
sun wakes me up in the morning and then it's too light to
see the summer Milky Way...