Archive for October, 2007
Astrosphere for October 31st, 2007
Happy Halloween everyone. First up, enjoy a triple view of Comet Holmes, captured by ngc3314.
Of course, Halloween is an excuse to write spooky flavoured press releases. Here's one from NASA's Cassini mission about the spooky sounds of the Saturnian system. And this chilling tale of a meteorite… IT Came From Vesta. Astronomy Picture of the Day focuses on the "Ghost Head Nebula". Cosmic Log's Alan Boyle looks at the science of spooks. And finally, Phil Plait has a terrifying image of, of… well, you'll just have to see for yourself.
Thomas Marquart from Apparent Brightness suggests a trick you can use to pare down your RSS feeds to just get the ones you want. I actually do this to just focus on space-related news.
Have you noticed a bright star in the mornings? That's not a star, that's Venus.
Centauri Dreams reconsiders Gliese 581. It's looking less and less Earthlike every day.
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Three New Jupiter-Sized Planets Discovered
You know the science of planet hunting is getting mainstream when there's very little fanfare for the discovery of 3 new extrasolar planets with the size of Jupiter. 3 new planets people! They're named WASP-3, WASP-4, WASP-5, and were discovered by a European team of astronomers using observatories in South Africa and the Canary Islands.
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Detailed Images of Comet Holmes
Late last week, the normally dim Comet 17P/Holmes suddenly blazed into view, increasing in brightness by a factor of a million. Before the eruption you needed a large telescope to see it, and now you can make it out with the unaided eye - even in the light-polluted city skies.
There are now many amateur and professional astronomers turning their gaze towards the newly brightened comet.
Eric Allen has been capturing images for several days, and stitched them together into an animation that shows the expanding coma. Even cooler, he compares it to Jupiter visually, so you can see just how big and bright it has gotten.
UK astronomers tuned in with the powerful Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma, showing the fuzzy coma. They also tucked in an image of the Earth in the bottom corner, for scale.
Astronomers from the University of Montreal captured this image that seems to show that the comet has an actual tail.
Probably the best image I've seen was captured by Mario Motta from the Amateur Telescope Makers in Boston. His image shows what clearly looks like a jet, blasting off one side of the comet.
Still want more images? Space Weather has this enormous photo gallery of images of Comet 17P/Holmes.
Over the next few days/weeks, I'm sure some even bigger telescopes will be joining the fray, so stay tuned.
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Better View of the Damaged Panel
With all that fancy camera equipment, the NASA astronauts took more detailed images of the damaged solar panels on the International Space Station. These are the images NASA engineers will use to figure out what kind of risk the panel faces if it's fully deployed, and what kinds of repairs could be done to minimize the damage. Oh, and the next spacewalk has been delayed to Friday.
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NEW FORUM IS OPEN - “The Voice of Dethklok!”
Hubble Sees Beautiful Carnage
Ahh, another beautiful photograph captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. This time we're looking at two big, beautiful spiral galaxies… tearing each other apart. The large, face-on spiral is NGC 3808, while its dueling partner is the smaller, edge-on NGC 3808A. And between the two is a long today tail of stars, gas and dust, transferring from one to the other.
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An Even More Massive Black Hole
Wait, stop the internet! Remember when I said the most massive black hole had been discovered? Sorry, that record has been broken by an even more "most massive black hole". 16 times the mass of the Sun? Please. This new one raises the bar with a mass of 24 to 33 times the mass of our Sun.
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Drunk Driving……..Need we say more….yes!
Let’s talk about something that I deal with on a nightly basis – Drunk Driving. Does drunk driving make you a criminal? Not on the same level as someone who robs a bank, shoots someone, steals a car, vandalizes property and so on. In fact, that’s something I hear frequently from the drunk driver after I arrest them. “Why don’t you go out and arrest a REAL Criminal”.
My exposure to drunk drivers started when I was driving an ambulance. The death and destruction that I saw was over whelming. Aside from the mess on the roadway, I had and still have the misfortune to see what the aftermath does to a family. In a split second your life can change dramatically. Either by being a victim yourself or by becoming a victim when we knock on your door and deliver the news to you that your loved one is either dead, or critically injured at the hospital.
There are 2 perspectives to cover here. One is towards the drunk driver. The other is towards the victims of drunk drivers. We’ll start with the drunk driver.
Who is the drunk driver? I’m not going to categorize in general who the drunk driver is. I’m not going to tell you it’s a car salesman, an insurance broker, the banker, a cop, a fireman, a doctor, the 17-year-old kid down the street, a housewife, or a school teacher. It’s broad, but it’s simple. The drunk driver is ANYONE who is legally intoxicated by the effects of alcohol, who is operating a motor vehicle upon a highway. (Yes, that includes roadways and in most cases parking lots.) In California you are considered legally intoxicated with a B.A.C. of .08%. In some states the level is .10%. In other states it may be less.
What’s this “point oh-eight” stuff. Look at it this way. On a scale from 1 to 25, you are considered legally intoxicated at 8. In other states 10 is the number where you get popped. In California if you are under 21 years of age and you are at a “1”, you AUTOMATICALLY lose your drivers license for 1 YEAR!
(Some teens think whoopee dooh, no license for a year. It gets worse, because you have to pay a hefty reissue fee to get your license back. Worse yet, your insurance rates WILL triple.
Do you need to know the technical aspects of Blood Alcohol Content? Do you need to know the formula of how many drinks you can safely drink per hour to be able to drive? Do you need to know how fast alcohol burns off in your body? No, No, and No!
I have to laugh at some of those charts that came out a few years ago. If your body weight is so and so, and you consume a) 2-12 ounce beers, or b) 3 ounces of 80 proof liquor, or c) 8 ounces of wine, in a 2-hour period, you may be D.U.I. Of course that’s if you weigh 90 to 110 pounds. If you weigh 200 or more pounds, you’re probably safe for a few more. You don’t need a chart. Everybody’s metabolism is different. Alcohol effects everybody differently! I’ve had disgruntled drunk drivers in custody tell me that “drunk driving laws are a joke, because it doesn’t take hardly anything at all to get up to a .08 level.” And you know what? They’re right!
I’ve “heard it all” over the years. “Officer I only had one drink”. “I haven’t had a drink in hours.” “It’s not me, you don’t smell alcohol on me, my friend spilled a beer on me”, “I’m on pain medication”, “I’m not drunk I’m just tired.” When Cops go to calls, they like 2 and 2 to add up to 4. On a car stop it’s the same thing. 2 and 2 should add up to 4. As soon as you start lying to the Cop the warning signals go off because 2 plus 2 is coming up 8. (As in point-oh-eight!)
Let me tell you what we look for:
Weaving! This is the big one because it’s so obvious to us. Whether it’s gradual weaving within the lane with a gradual drift onto or over the painted lines, or jerky erratic swerving. Weaving is weaving. I usually give a person 3 attempts to straighten out. The 3rd time on or over the line is when my red and blue lights come on. You may have a mechanical problem with your car like play in the steering wheel. You may have been changing a tape or CD, lighting a cigarette, dialing a cell phone, whatever the reason - YOU GIVE US PROBABLE CAUSE TO STOP YOU. And may god help you if you’ve been drinking.
Moving Violations we look for:
Running a stop sign or red signal light.
Stopping on or over the limit line or crosswalk at a stop sign or signal light.
Stopping before you get to the limit line.
Abrupt braking for no reason.
Abrupt acceleration or skidding your tires from loss of traction. (Exhibition of speed)
Wide turns.
Striking a curb.
Speeding. Excessive or minimum speeding, either one can get you stopped.
(Doing 25mph in a posted 45 will get you stopped just as if you were going 65!)
Unsafe passing.
Unsafe turns.
Turning without signaling.
Unsafe lane changes.
NOT WEARING YOUR SEATBELT.
Throwing litter or cigarettes out your window.
Alot more info follows - Plus this is a two part post this week - So look for part two next month:
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