Cosmic Rays Hit Space Age High

Source - NASA Science News for September 29, 2009

NASA spacecraft are measuring record-high levels of cosmic rays--a side-effect of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. The cosmic ray storm appears to be intensifying, say researchers, and the peak may be yet to come.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/29sep_cosmicrays.htm?list894285

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Are We Alone for 09/28/09 - Aloha Astronomy

Are We Alone - Aloha Astronomy

From Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the view of the cosmos is spectacular. Giant black holes, distant galaxies, and extrasolar planets have all been uncovered by the massive telescopes that perch on this volcanic cone.

Join the astronomers who use the Keck Telescopes to peer at objects so far away, their light started out before Earth was born.

Also discover how the new Thirty Meter Telescope will dwarf even the massive glass eyes now in place, and why some of the world’s most important astronomical discoveries are being made in the Aloha State.

Plus, why the building of telescopes on the volcano is controversial to some native Hawaiians.

Guests:

• Charles Blue – Science writer, Thirty Meter Telescope Project
• Richard Ellis – Astronomer, California Institute of Technology
  
• Koa Rice – Hawaiian culture consultant
• Julian Christou – Adaptive optics scientist, Gemini North Telescope
• Ashley Yeager – Outreach manager, Keck Telescope
• Taft Armandroff – Director of the W. M. Keck Telescope

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.

Meteorite Impacts Expose Ice on Mars

Source - NASA Science News for September 24, 2009

Fresh meteorite impacts are exposing underground ice on Mars. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is beaming back must-see photos of the process at work.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/24sep_martianice.htm?list894285

Check out our RSS feed at http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml

Water Molecules Found on the Moon

Source - NASA Science News for September 24, 2009

Using instruments on three separate spacecraft, scientists have discovered water molecules in the polar regions of the Moon.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/24sep_moonwater.htm?list894285

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MESSENGER Set for Final Flyby of Mercury

Source - NASA Science News for September 23, 2009

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is set to make its third and final flyby of the planet Mercury on Sept. 29th. The encounter is expected to produce hundreds of images of previously unseen terrain and confirm the strange elliptical shape of Mercury's equator.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/23sep_mercuryflyby3.htm?list894285

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Equinox Sunspots

Space Weather News for Sept. 22, 2009: http://spaceweather.com

NEW SUNSPOTS: In a year when the sun has been utterly blank 80% of the time, the sudden emergence of two large sunspots in a single day is a noteworthy event. Today is such a day. NASA satellites and amateur astronomers are monitoring a pair of growing sunspots, both apparently members of long-overdue Solar Cycle 24. The emergence of these active regions is not enough to end the deepest solar minimum in nearly a hundred years, but they do represent a significant uptick in solar activity. Check http://spaceweather.com for images and updates.

SEPT. EQUINOX: Today, Sept. 22nd at 2118 UT (5:18 pm EDT), the sun crosses the celestial equator. This event marks the beginning of autumn in the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern hemisphere. It's also the beginning of aurora season around the poles. Happy equinox!

School Kids Track LCROSS

Source - NASA Science News for September 21, 2009

Using a colossal radio telescope in the Mojave Desert, school kids around the world are helping NASA track the LCROSS spacecraft as it heads for a crash landing on the Moon.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/21sep_gavrt.htm?list894285

Space Shuttle Discovery and a Farside Sunspot

Source - Space Weather News for Sept. 20, 2009: http://spaceweather.com

BE ALERT FOR THE SPACE SHUTTLE: Space shuttle Discovery is flying across the United States today atop a specially modified NASA 747 airliner. The trip is necessary because at the end of its last mission Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California and must now be returned to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Sky watchers along the flight path (particularly in Texas, Louisiana and Florida) should be alert for the extraordinary sight of a spaceship flying through blue sky on top of an airplane. Check http://spaceweather.com for details.

FARSIDE SUNSPOT: NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft is tracking an active region over the sun's eastern horizon that could be a large, new-cycle sunspot. We can't yet see it from Earth, but the sun's rotation is turning the region toward us, and it could pop into view as early as Sept. 21st. Readers with solar telescopes should monitor the sun's eastern limb for developments. Images and updates may be found at http://spaceweather.com

Are We Alone for 09/21/09 - Skeptic Check: Waking the Dead

Are We Alone - Skeptic Check: Waking the Dead

The undead, those mindless shambling specters from the grave, are enjoying a cultural (if not literal) resurgence, in films, books, and through strange, urban “zombie crawls.”

Discover the unearthly appeal of these reanimated beings and why playing dead may mirror the real social alienation of our digital lives. Also, how mathematicians use “zombie attacks” to model real disease epidemics, such as swine flu.

Plus – another case of life in suspension: the promise and peril of cryonics.

And, Phil Plait’s vacationing brains swallow a hoax moon-landing-hoax story.

It’s Skeptic Check… but don’t take our word for it!

• Jim Yount – Chief Operating Officer, American Cryonics Society
• Robert Smith? – Mathematician, University of Ottawa
• Dan Vado – President of SLG Publishing, San Jose, California
• Edward Martinez – Makeup specialist, Hayward, California
• Phil Plait – Keeper of the skeptical website badastronomy.com and author of Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .
• Brendan Riley – Assistant professor of English, Columbia College, Chicago

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.

In Search of Dark Asteroids (and Other Sneaky Things)

Source - NASA Science News for September 15, 2009

NASA is set to launch a sensitive new infrared telescope to seek out sneaky
things in the night sky -- among them, dark asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/15sep_ninjaastronomy.htm?list894285

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Are We Alone for 09/14/09 - Seeing Stars and Planets

Are We Alone - Seeing Stars and Planets

It’s hot, too darn hot! And bright, too darn bright! But over-the-top photon flux doesn’t stop scientists from studying the sun. And solar eclipses are an ideal time for observing our favorite nuclear reactor. Discover what it was like to observe totality during the 2009 China solar eclipse.

Plus, how a star is born … the latest from the NASA Kepler mission to seek Earth-like planets … and, planet-hunter extraordinaire Mike Brown discovers the tenth planet: an icy body beyond Pluto.

Guests:

• Jay Pasachoff – Astronomer, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts
• Betsy Barton – Astronomer, University of California, Irvine
• Mike Brown – Planetary Astronomer, California Institute of Technology
• Jon Jenkins – SETI Institute scientist with NASA’s Kepler Mission

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.

NASA Selects Target Crater for Lunar Impact

Source - NASA Science News for September 11, 2009

In search of water, NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is on a collision course with the Moon. Today NASA announced exactly where the impact will take place.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/11sep_lcrosstarget.htm?list894285

Check out our RSS feed at http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml

NASA Releases Spectacular First Images from Rejuvenated Hubble

Source - NASA Science News for September 9, 2009

Today, astronomers declared the Hubble Space telescope a fully rejuvenated observatory with the release of spectacular new images and data from four of its six operating science instruments.

FULL STORY AND IMAGES at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/09sep_hubbleimages.htm?list894285

Check out our RSS feed at http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml

Double Flyby Alert

Source - Space Weather News for Sept. 8, 2009: http://spaceweather.com

DOUBLE FLYBY ALERT: On Tuesday, Sept. 8th at 3:26 p.m. EDT, space shuttle Discovery undocked from the International Space Station (ISS). The two spaceships are now circling Earth side by side, forming a pair of bright lights in the night sky. Check http://spaceweather.com to see if you are favored with a double flyby of your hometown before Discovery returns to Earth on Thursday.

DON'T MISS THAT FLYBY: Would you like a call when the ISS is about to fly over your area? Sign up for SpaceWeather PHONE: http://spaceweatherphone.com

Are We Alone for 09/07/09 - That's Cosmic!

Are We Alone - That's Cosmic!

ENCORE EPISODE - What makes up the universe? Lots of tiny particles with strange names: bosons, leptons, quarks and neutrinos. But physicists think there are more members to be discovered in this particle zoo.

From strange particles to dark matter to vibrating strings, find out why you have to think small to understand the physics of the universe.

Plus, other cosmic connections: is SETI a religion?

Guests:

• Murray Gell-Mann – Physics Nobel Laureate, Professor Emeritus – California Institute of Technology, Distinguished Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Brian Greene – Mathematician and physicist, Columbia University, author of The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory and, most recently, Icarus at the Edge of Time
• Lisa Randall – Physicist, Harvard University, author of Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions
• David Wilkinson – Theologian, University of Durham, U.K.

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Are We A Blog?, the companion blog to the radio show.

Are Sunspots Disappearing?

Source - NASA Science News for September 3, 2009

The sun is in the pits of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. Weeks and sometimes whole months go by without even a single tiny sunspot. Are sunspots disappearing? Experts discuss the question in today's story from Science@NASA.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/03sep_sunspots.htm?list894285

Check out our RSS feed at http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml

Geomagnetic Megastorm

Source - Space Weather News for Sept. 2, 2009: http://spaceweather.com

GEOMAGNETIC MEGASTORM: Northern Lights swept over Cuba and Hawaii. Telegraph offices caught fire. Earth's magnetic field shook for nearly a week. That's what happened 150 years ago today when our planet experienced a shocking "geomagnetic megastorm." Could it happen again? Today's story on http://spaceweather.com explores the possibilities.

VANISHING MOONS OF JUPITER: Tonight, Sept. 2nd and 3rd, for the first time in many years, the moons of Jupiter are going to disappear. At least that's how it will seem when Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto line up in front of and behind the giant planet. A casual look through a backyard telescope will show no moons at all. The 2-hour vanishing act begins at 9:43 p.m PDT on Sept. 2nd (4:43 UT on Sept. 3rd). Check http://spaceweather.com a sky map, animations and more information.