Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal

Brian Cox was host of Wonders Of The Solar System on the BBC earlier this year. As I wrote in a previous post, the series was the first I have seen that surpassed Carl Sagan’s COSMOS.

TED (Ideas Worth Spreading) invited Cox to make a talk on exploration. I do not even have to watch it to know that I should post it here.

I cannot imagine that I’ll disagree with it.

OK, so now I have watched it.

Thought you might like to see the original presentation of Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan. I have the audio. The pictures are from NASA. I might be pushing fair use but it’s only a small clip of audio from an hour long program, and I think Carl Sagan (If he were alive today, and witnessing for himself the war on science underway in America) would approve.

Oh and this- Look who just got an OBE (Order of the British Empire)! (Read down aways)

One of the best science blogs out there is Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy. He has a post today about a rumour spreading that Betelgeuse is about to go supernova and will fry us all.

This is really bad news. Not because it’s true.

It isn’t.

Betelgeuse may indeed go supernova in the next 100,000 years but it will not fry us. It’s bad news because every one of us Meteorologists who do weather on TV will get hundreds of emails asking about it. A good 15-20% of these who ask will not even believe us when we tell them it’s not true. We are part of that giant conspiracy you know…

The truth of the matter is really interesting, so read the thoughts of an expert:

The truth about Betelgeuse is here- click to read Phil Plait's blog post.

If you want to know more about astronomy and I highly recommend it. See:

CSI South Pole

Happy Christmas- Buy A Book!

and this free course.

The Spirit Rover on Mars hasn’t been heard from in a few weeks now.

This was expected because it’s winter up there and the sunlight, and the cold, have drained the batteries. It is assumed that Spirit went into hibernation mode as it was designed to do. Hopefully it will wake up in the Spring.

Hopefully.

There are no guarantees and we cannot claim we didn’t get our moneys worth. They were designed for 90 days. They’ve been going for 5 years!!

Now, here is the rabidly cool part.

Before it hibernated, it took pics of where it was parked for the winter. On a slope, so that the solar panels would face south and get a bit more sun.

It took pictures of itself and of the surrounding area. Using newly developed software, NASA created an image of Spirit sitting on Mars from Spirit’s own pictures. The image below shows what you would see standing a few feet from Spirit on Mars! It’s not a simulation. It’s taken by the camera you see on the Rover!

All I can say is DUDE!

Here it is below:

Spirit Rover on Mars. The camera that took the picture is on the white mast. Click the image for a much larger version!

I wonder what is around that bend up ahead….

dan

Being a history and science buff, I have often wondered what the weather and the sky looked like at great moments in history.

Today is one of those dates. At 13 minutes past 10 PM on Friday April 14, 1865, a gunshot rang out in Fords Theatre at Tenth and E street in Washington.

Forty seven years later, almost to the minute, a lookout shouted “ice berg, dead ahead!” on the Royal Mail Ship Titanic.

I’ve been researching the weather on the day Lincoln was shot, on and off, for quite a few years. It was a beautiful spring day that started with some fog and a heavy due. At the moment John Wilkes Booth fired the fatal shot, it was mostly cloudy with temps. likely in the 50′s.

Jim Bishop in the book THE DAY LINCOLN WAS SHOT reports a full moon rising at the time. This is incorrect. The moon was nearly full, but in the gibbous phase.

It IS possible to show the exact position of the stars at the moment the shot rang out in Washington. I used Stellarium to set the date and time along with the location of Washington. The pictures below are where the stars, the moon and the planet were at that moment, when viewed from the street out front of Ford’s Theatre.

The sky over Washington at 10:14 pm Friday April 14 1865. Notice the moon low in the East-Southeast. Click image for a bigger image.

Looking North at 10:14 PM in Washington April 14th 1865. Notice the big dipper high in the sky. Clouds were likely obscuring the stars somewhat at the time. Image from Stellarium.

The Moon phase at the moment President Lincoln was shot. Click image for higher resolution.

The weather for the Titanic’s sinking is well known.

A large polar high was right on top of the ship that night. The sea was described by many witnesses as like glass. It’s thought this had something to do with not seeing the berg until it was too late. Waves would have splashed against the ice berg and made it more visible.

There was no moon that night and the air temperature was a little below freezing. Unfortunately the water was just above freezing.

Below is the sky that was visible at the moment the ship hit the iceberg. Skies were completely clear with no wind.

View of the sky from the position of the RMS Titanic at 11:40 pm local time 14 April 1912. No trees of course. Just ocean, in all directions. Notice the North Star and Big Dipper. The Milky Way was clearly visible in the Northeast.

Cold stars in a cold sea.

Dan