Category: astro stuff

Curiousity

Post author By Alex
Post date August 6, 2012
No Comments on Curiousity

I should be in bed. I should be in bed. I don’t care. Curiosity is going to land so soon! We’re going to have a science lab on Mars!

If you’re not watching, YOU SHOULD BE.

On a day that’s been marked with tragedy and horror, we still do wonderful things. Humans built an amazing piece of technology and have slung it to another planet where it’ll land, and we’ll learn. Not for profit or posturing or attack, but because we want to know.

We’re going to be okay.

0014: “We’re receiving heartbeat tones, everything looks good.” People are clapping. Curiosity is about to wake up. I know we shouldn’t anthropomorphize, but it’s hard to not.

0017: Everything we’re hearing is out of the past. Darn you 14 minute delay! Darn you light speed, for being too slow!

0023: Two minutes to entry!!!!

0025: Started guided entry, we’re in the atmosphere! More applause!

0026: WE ARE PROCESSING DATA FROM ODYSSEY! Good old satellite!

0029: Parachute has deployed! Curiosity is decelerating!

0030: High fives! Curiosity is down to 90 m/s.

0031: Thank goodness for Odyssey!

0031: POWERED FLIGHT! SHE’S FLYING!

0032: Down to 10m/s, sky crane has started.

0032: TOUCHDOWN ON MARS! CURIOSITY IS ON MARS!

So much cheering, hugging, clapping. I am just CRYING. Humans are fucking awesome. We built an amazing machine and slung it at another planet, and watched it land with another machine we built.

0035: PICTURES!

First picture, a thumbnail, blurry with dust. The dark shadow is Curiosity’s wheel. ON THE SURFACE OF MARS.

0039: Another picture!

High resolution camera! That’s the surface of Mars! She’s landed!

Humans are fucking awesome, guys. We’re awesome.

Here’s the one picture I missed:

Curiosity is casting a shadow in the afternoon sunlight! Go forth, brave little rover!

ETA at 0105: Raw images will be here.

Tags astro stuff, people don't suck

It’s a Bad Universe out there

Post author By Alex
Post date July 23, 2010
No Comments on It’s a Bad Universe out there

Finally! Phil Plait’s sooper sekrit project has been revealed! He’s been talking about this (or rather, annoyingly not talking about it other than to say that there’s a secret project) for months and I’ve been dying to know what it’s about. It looks like a lot of fun, sort of a Mythbusters with more focus on the science.

This makes me really, really wish that I had cable. Maybe I can talk Mike in to it.

I’m very entertained by the little trailer. I’m not sure if my favorite bit is Mutant!Phil shooting lightning out of his eyes at the UFOs, or Phil just saying “oh god” when he’s apparently being taken on some crazy maneuver in a jet.

(Phil has now posted about his project on his blog.)

Tags astro stuff, tv

astro stuff planetary geology

The canyons of Mars

Super cool post over at Phil Plait’s blog in regards to an oblique view of an exposed section in the Gale Crater on Mars, courtesy of NASA. This is some exciting stuff if you’re a sed/strat nerd like me. Outcrops are the bread and butter of any geologist – unless you’ve got the money to drill cores or shoot seismic, subsurface geology is inferred from outcrops – and this one looks quite beautiful.

I just wish NASA would tell us a little more:

Layers near the bottom of the mound contain clay and sulfate minerals that indicate wet conditions. Overlying rock layers contain sulfates with little or no clay, consistent with these layers forming in an environment in which water was evaporating and Mars was drying out.

Since of course I’m immediately dying to know what sorts of clays, and which sulfate minerals. I’m thinking that when they’re talking about sulfates consistent with Mars drying out, it’d be sulfate evaporites like gypsum, barite, or anhydrite. Which then allows my fevered imagination to bring forth images of the Paradox Formation in eastern Utah and Colorado.

Of course, I have to stop myself from getting carried away here. The Paradox Formation is in places thousands of feet thick and covers an enormous area, which is what allows it to have such a profound tectonic effect on the landscape. Looking at that outcrop, I’m having a hard time getting a sense of just how thick the evaporites would be, but probably not that much. But what it does say, about the existence of water on the surface of Mars in the past, is pretty huge. And of course – letting my imagination run just a little wild here – opens the possibility of more evaporite deposits lurking under the surface, and bigger ones, and somewhere out there, one of the salt tectonic guys is going, “squee!”