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    Category Astronomy/Space

    How Does NASA Study Hurricanes?

    August 16, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology

    image of typhoon dolphin with data overlay

    MTSTAT and CloudSat imagery of Typhoon Dolphin. Credits: Natalie D. Tourville/Colorado State University

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Hurricane Center (NHC) use a variety of tools to predict these storms’ paths. These scientists need a wealth of data to accurately forecast hurricanes. NASA satellites, computer modeling, instruments, aircraft and field missions contribute to this mix of information to give scientists a better understanding of these storms.

    full-color image of hurricane katrina from satellite

    This visible image of Hurricane Katrina was taken on August 29 at 05:16 UTC (1:16 a.m. EDT) by the MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite as it approached landfall in Louisiana. Credits: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team

    “Before we had satellites and aircraft, hurricanes woul...

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    Canadian Co. gets U.S. patent for Space Elevator

    August 15, 2015, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Astronomy/Space

    Company in Canada gets U.S. patent for space elevator

    20 km Space Tower

    This is the present-day realm of creative thinking over space elevators, in the use of a giant tower to carry us to space. Scientists working on space elevators are thinking about materials and designs that can be used to access space as an alternative to rocket technology. A sign of the times is the upcoming Space Elevator Conference 2015 which takes place this month in Seattle.

    Imagine, said The Spaceward Foundation, the space elevator, serving as a track on which electric vehicles called “climbers” can travel up and down carrying about 10 tons of payload. “There are no intense gravity-loads during the trip, no acoustic vibration, no onboard fuel, nor any of the rest of the drama (and cost) associated with rocket launches,” it added.

    Company in Canada gets U.S. patent for space elevator

    Canadian company, Thoth Technology ...

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    Astronomer Creates Music using Star Oscillations

    August 15, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Astronomer creates music using star oscillations

    Astronomers have long known that stars can vibrate like peeling bells. This observation has ushered in an entire sub discipline of astronomy known as astroseismology, in which astronomers attempt to better understand the structure of their charges by studying the way they vibrate. Sheet music for the composition. Credit: arXiv:1507.07307 [physics.pop-ph]

    Astronomer Burak Ulaş, with the Izmir Turk College Planetarium in Turkey has taken his work into a musical dimension, using star oscillations as a source for a musical composition. He describes what he has done along with sheet music and an audio recording of his work to the preprint server arXiv—along with a shout-out to other pioneers in the field, from Kepler to Pythagoras to modern composer scientists Jenő Keuler and Zoltán Kolláth...

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    Astronomers discover ‘young Jupiter’ exoplanet

    August 14, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

     

    One of the best ways to learn how our solar system evolved is to look to younger star systems in the early stages of development. Now, a team of astronomers has discovered a Jupiter-like planet within a young system that could serve as a decoder ring for understanding how planets formed around our sun. The first planet detected by the Gemini Planet Imager is 100 light-years away but shares many of the characteristics of an early Jupiter.

    The new planet, called 51 Eridani b, is the first exoplanet discovered by the Gemini Planet Imager, a new instrument operated by an international collaboration headed by  Professor Bruce Macintosh...

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