tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60848876139332872952011-04-21T16:56:22.944-04:00<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.comBlogger371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-30782271563122429812008-03-07T07:15:00.001-05:002008-03-07T07:24:09.085-05:00

I've moved! I am now blogging at:http://martianchronicles.wordpress.com/

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-32950506642807690882008-02-21T13:13:00.001-05:002008-02-21T13:14:41.824-05:00

Check it out, the pentagon has released a video of their destruction of a dead spy satellite:

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-58125019511036041362008-02-18T08:04:00.002-05:002008-12-09T20:16:02.618-05:00

In a NASA press release yesterday, two teams of astronomers announced complimentary research that suggests that earth-like planets around sun-like stars may be common.The first team used the Spitzer space telescope to survey a bunch of sun-like stars of varying ages. They were looking for evidence of dust kicked up by the collision of planetesimals. Planets form in a disk of debris around their

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-79158406951042430412008-02-17T10:02:00.003-05:002008-02-21T13:20:33.018-05:00

I collect quotes. To see the full collection, check my website. Yesterday, while reading some short stories by Ray Bradbury, I came across two passages that I thought I would share. The first is often partially quoted and it was nice to finally see it in its full context. It, like much of Bradbury's best writing, is almost like poetry:"What are we? Why, we are the miracle of force and matter

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-39790465021172808582008-02-17T09:42:00.002-05:002008-02-17T09:47:15.203-05:00

The Ithaca Sciencenter recently unveiled three potential designs for stamps commemorating Carl Sagan and his work as a science popularizer, scientist, and activist. See the Cornell Chronicle for the full story.

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-9545960821431680702008-02-15T09:49:00.001-05:002008-02-15T09:50:55.564-05:00

Neil Tyson shows Colbert how to become an astrophysicist.

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-58634610545741956772008-02-15T08:48:00.003-05:002008-12-09T20:16:02.756-05:00

If you haven't heard yet, here's the deal: a week or so ago, it was announced that the spy satellite USA 193 is disabled and will come streaking down to earth in a fireball some time in March. Needless to say, that could be cool to see, but it could also be dangerous.Now the twist: MSNBC reports that the pentagon is going to blast the satellite with a missile before it re-enters to "minimize the

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-34423543377065825762008-02-14T08:32:00.002-05:002008-12-09T20:16:03.046-05:00

Since it is Valentine's Day, I thought it would be fitting to post some spacey valentine images. Of course, the Bad Astronomer beat me to the punch, but I have one more to add. A Rose by any other Name...This one is an image of a reflection nebula taken by the Spitzer infrared space telescope. It was also, incidentally, taken by my first research advisor, Tom Megeath.

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-7069507060495764012008-02-07T08:54:00.000-05:002008-12-09T20:16:03.376-05:00

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is set for launch in 5 hours and 50 minutes, assuming the weather holds. Check out the NASA site for updates.UPDATE: Atlantis launched successfully and is on its way to the International Space Station!

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-46569344242549738702008-01-30T23:09:00.000-05:002008-01-30T23:25:47.371-05:00

Earlier today, NASA had a press conference discussing the MESSENGER spacecraft's flyby of Mercury. It hasn't been very long since the data were acquired, and the excitement of the scientists on the panel was tangible. The results are still being interpreted, and some of them are very puzzling. The most exciting result (in my opinion) was this image:Nicknamed "The Spider", this crater is about 40

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-5767085876456085582008-01-17T18:39:00.000-05:002008-01-17T18:44:15.159-05:00

There has been some news lately about a signal detected at Arecibo that was reported to be potentially from extraterrestrial intelligence. Unfortunately, it appears that E.T. is not calling us, it was just that the reporter who wrote the story was lacking in any form of intelligence, terrestrial or otherwise. Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy has the details.

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-70628524555316861452008-01-16T11:15:00.001-05:002008-01-29T20:57:47.502-05:00

The Messenger spacecraft just did a flyby of Mercury and has returned the first of what are sure to be many spectacular images. In the upper right hand side of the planet, there is a large, roughly circular, lighter toned area. This is the Caloris basin, so named because it is the point on Mercury that faces the sun when the planet is at perihelion. Before this image, the best pictures of

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-14144211608935722502008-01-14T11:45:00.000-05:002008-01-14T11:51:17.923-05:00

Well, it looks like Mars is not going to be hit by the asteroid that was causing a buzz a few weeks ago. Here's a cool animation showing the decreasing uncertainty in the asteroid's path as more data was gathered.In other news, on January 13, a 27 meter asteroid passed by earth at about the distance of the moon. Check it Out.

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-52907261256834806742007-12-29T11:20:00.000-05:002007-12-29T11:30:30.930-05:00

Or, put another way, the chances of impact on Mars are 1 in 25.Bad Astronomy and the Planetary Society Blog have more information.

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-42462873610323162302007-12-22T09:54:00.000-05:002007-12-22T10:37:13.113-05:00

NASA just put out a press release announcing the possibility that an asteroid 164 feet (50 meters) across may slam into Mars next month. Based on the uncertainties in its trajectory, scientists are giving it a 1 in 75 chance of impact. The asteroid is traveling at about 30,000 miles per hour. If it hits Mars, the impact would release as much energy as three million tons of dynamite, and would

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-34114096450008272112007-12-18T11:37:00.000-05:002007-12-18T11:52:10.807-05:00

The Astronomy Picture of the Day website just put up their choices for Astronomy Picture of the Year 2007. Believe it or not, my personal favorite is not a photo of Mars. It's of the spectacular Comet McNaught from last January:

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-67623791845000579152007-12-16T00:11:00.000-05:002007-12-16T00:19:49.440-05:00

(Image Credit: NASA)Picture a world where the year is 5 earth-days long, and the sun never rises or sets, but remains fixed directly overhead. The cloud tops on the sunlit side of the planet are thousands of degrees, and are made of vaporized minerals and metals. Iron smog and wisps of quartz are shunted from the scorching daylit side to the perpetually dark night side, which glows a dull red,

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-63636210379784020322007-12-15T09:58:00.000-05:002007-12-16T00:17:47.734-05:00

There has been a recent movement among science blogs and activists to organize a science debate for the presidential candidates. This is, in my opinion, an excellent idea. It would not have to be like a science test, nobody expects candidates to be scientists, but we should expect them to be in touch with reality, and to understand how science affects policy. As our society becomes more reliant

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-70444175809746686262007-12-12T12:44:00.000-05:002007-12-16T00:21:49.602-05:00

In this recent "deck pan" of the Spirit rover, the solar panels are so covered in dust that they blend in almost perfectly with the surrounding dusty martian surface. All that dust means that the rover has less power to work with every day. With martian winter approaching in a few weeks, the Rover team has been working nonstop trying to drive Spirit to a location where the solar panels will be

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-70308604362585753632007-12-05T00:26:00.000-05:002007-12-16T00:17:33.655-05:00

Once finals are over, I will make a few honest-to-goodness posts, where I actually write a lot about something interesting. For now, enjoy this cartoon I found, and the Sagan quote that expresses the same idea but with a somewhat different tone..."I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-9851876217282323132007-11-29T00:06:00.000-05:002007-12-16T00:19:49.441-05:00

After years of studying astronomy, I am not often shocked by those "scale of the universe" demonstrations that you often see, but I just came across a really impressive one (click it to see the original page with slightly larger images):

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-59464529742729380142007-11-28T07:58:00.000-05:002007-12-16T00:18:25.912-05:00

So, I recently came across this article about a guy who is making cars ridiculously fuel efficient while increasing horsepower. Check it out:Goodwin leads me over to a red 2005 H3 Hummer that's up on jacks, its mechanicals removed. He aims to use the turbine to turn the Hummer into a tricked-out electric hybrid. Like most hybrids, it'll have two engines, including an electric motor. But in this

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-16628128651761080212007-11-26T09:56:00.000-05:002007-12-16T00:17:33.655-05:00

I have been a total delinquent so far when it comes to making actual blog posts. I have lots of ideas for things to post here, but I haven't had time to sit down and write them up. Maybe later this week? Maybe.In the mean time, please enjoy this thanksgiving parody of Apollo 13. Apparently it was put together by some employees at Johnson Space Center, and rumor has it that Gene Kranz himself now

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-83807416578676921952007-11-20T08:54:00.000-05:002007-12-16T00:20:43.919-05:00

Via the blog framing science, here's an excerpt from an interview on point of inquiry of Neil deGrasse Tyson discussing his strategy for communicating science in a sound bite:GROTHE Do you think that mass media, going that route, do you think it undercuts your science education agenda because you have to speak in sound bites, you have to reduce it down to the simplest terms for the widest appeal

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-10632001115291640082007-11-15T08:03:00.000-05:002007-12-16T00:21:49.603-05:00

Comet Holmes, the comet that suddenly brightened by a factor of several million a few weeks ago, has now expanded to a diameter of 1.4 million kilometers. That's bigger than the sun! Of course, its nucleus is still tiny, it's the coma, the cloud of gas around the nucleus that is so huge. Check here for more information.

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-56349986605105299992007-11-14T07:51:00.000-05:002007-12-16T00:21:49.603-05:00

I'm a sucker for pictures of the earth from space, as you may have guessed from this blog's title image. So I had to point out these awesome pictures of earth setting over the moon taken by Japan's Kaguya spacecraft. Also, last week JAXA released a sample of the first HDTV transmission from the moon, taken by the same spacecraft.I got the heads-up on both of these press releases from the Bad

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-5846221468069242122007-11-10T08:04:00.000-05:002007-12-16T00:18:17.190-05:00

Note: The following is a rant on a topic outside my area of expertise. Please correct me if I have my facts wrong!I was riding the bus back from campus yesterday when I overheard two Cornell students in the midst of a heated discussion. Their disagreement came about because, although they were both in favor of supporting sustainability and the environment, one of them couldn't believe that the

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-73881181982223758982007-11-10T07:45:00.000-05:002007-12-16T00:21:49.603-05:00

Alan Stern, the Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, and Jim Green, the director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, recently made a very welcome announcement to the Mars community. After a lot of work from everyone involved, the cost issues with both the descent imager MARDI and ChemCam have been resolved and the two instruments will be flying on MSL!MARDI is a

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-59527140967493056652007-10-31T09:01:00.000-04:002007-12-16T00:21:49.604-05:00

Emily Lakdawalla has posted a really excellent summary of the landing site workshop in a long, but more coherent, post than the three that I made. Check it out.

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-16181472410674224892007-10-30T21:06:00.001-04:002007-12-16T00:20:02.947-05:00

Here's an excellent video that I found during a break in proposal writing, courtesy of the excellent blog Pharyngula. It takes an argument that is commonly used to support intelligent design and turns it around to support evolution instead!

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-86416161753223821422007-10-30T16:27:00.001-04:002007-12-16T00:21:49.604-05:00

In the spirit of Halloween, NASA created this page where you can listen to audio representations of data from various solar system missions. Some of them, particularly Saturn's aurora, really do sound like they belong on a haunted house's playlist:Spooky Sounds

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-12692814847888320192007-10-28T13:51:00.000-04:002007-12-16T00:17:33.656-05:00

On November 6 I will be taking my Qualifying exam, and my proposal for the NSF fellowship is also due, so for the next week or so, I won't be able to make any very long posts.In the meantime, check out this YouTube video of James Blunt singing on Sesame Street, brought to my attention by Inkycircus. If only more celebrities went out of their way to educate children about geometry... if nothing

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-89680404510993080412007-10-26T12:47:00.000-04:002007-12-16T00:21:49.604-05:00

What a day! We began with a series of highly anticipated presentations about potential landing sites with evidence for salts, sulfates and clays – all types of minerals typically formed in water-rich environments that are favorable in terms of habitability. The first presentation was on some new, unusual sites with strange, featureless spectra. Normally a featureless spectrum is nothing to

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-83866602026924850412007-10-24T20:50:00.000-04:002007-12-16T00:21:49.604-05:00

Today was a marathon of landing site presentations, ranging all over the martian globe, and targeting just about every potentially water-related feature on mars. The day began with a continuation of the topic from yesterday: layered craters. Geologists love looking at layers because, like the pages in a history book, we can read them and learn about the planet's past. It gets tricky though,

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-33843103742410756592007-10-24T01:58:00.000-04:002007-12-16T00:21:49.605-05:00

Today was the first day of the 2nd Mars Science Laboratory landing site workshop in Pasadena. We began bright and early by cramming into the conference room and reviewing the goals of the mission, the goals of the meeting, and some of the constraints that we need to keep in mind as we decide on a landing site.The mission science goals are to assess the past and present habitability of Mars by

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-63852626547684134612007-10-19T09:49:00.001-04:002007-12-16T00:17:05.407-05:00

Last week, the Pentagon issued a report urging research into space-based solar power. I sincerely hope that they follow through with this: space-based solar power could solve our energy problems forever while simultaneously providing the much-needed economic justification for space exploration.Space-based solar power works by placing satellites with huge solar arrays into geosynchronous orbit, so

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6084887613933287295.post-13243540919079083132007-10-18T22:11:00.000-04:002007-10-19T09:45:07.814-04:00

My goal for this blog is to create a place where the latest science news is not only available, but understandable, accessible and exciting. My training is in the physical sciences, so I will likely write more about astronomy than biology and more about earth science than social science. But, at the same time, this is a blog and not a peer-reviewed journal, so you can expect me to stray from my

Ryan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08412298883483564206noreply@blogger.com0