David Reneke

Dave Reneke's

'WORLD of SPACE and ASTRONOMY'

Weird, Wild & Breaking News Stories in Space and Astronomy from around the World 24/7 delivered free every week with regular updates as they happen.

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Here’s a selection of Astronomy/Space related stories you may find interesting. Be sure to sign up for your own copy of Astro Space News. I absolutely do not disclose your address to anyone! There is no cost and no obligation for this service. Anyone can subscribe by completing the opt in form just over there on the right … see it, do it now! We work 24/7/365 to report the most relevant ‘Astro-Space’ news back to you … virtually as it breaks. Bookmark this page and check back regularly.

For The Media

If you are interested, an interview with astronomer, writer, educator and public lecturer representing Australasian Science Magazine and Editor of Astro Space News, Dave Reneke(Astro-Dave) can be arranged by contacting Dave by Phone/Fax(02) 65 85 2260 Mobile: 0400 636 363 or email Dave for an instant reply to davereneke@gmail.com. David is well experienced talking to the media and presents information in an easy to understand, up to date and informative manner. Interviews can be on any subject, tailored to your requirements.

               LETTERS TO DAVE

Your letters are welcome on any subject covered by the scope of this newsletter or any aspect of astronomy/space in general. All letters requesting help or advice will be answered personally by me.

Dear Dave

You may be able to help me…

Last Monday 2nd Aug at approximately 10.55am I was looking up towards the sun (northerly) at strong blue sky and a very interesting longish white cloud moving easterly across the sun. I was in Springwood a southern suburb of Brisbane. There were some lovely bits of textural detail like a rough slightly relief surface bit like a land mass you might see from a plane window, except this was white relief. Almost like looking at a land mass upside down. Then I noticed quite a lot of iridescent colour coming through in different areas in the cloud formation, it was the colour of NZ pauer shell. 

It seemed to last for about 10minutes while the cloud was traversing across the sun, would this be the sun refracting off water particles in the cloud mass? Or something more exoteric to do with the Solar flares? It certainly was beautiful to watch and I managed to get a glimpse photo on my camera which I have attached, but of course the colour isn’t an intense.I would love to know more about this rare opportunity that I had the privilege of being in the perfect place at the perfect time!

Warm regards, Janelle B

Hi Janelle

Thanks for an interesting pic. From what I've found out for you it seems you've spotted something pretty rare for your part of the world. They are caused by icy/watery particles. The can usually only be seen when the sun is just below the horizon. Their iridescent colouring, often described as 'mother-of-pearl', is caused by sunlight passing through ice crystals in the atmosphere. Have a look at these two sites for comparison pics. Iridescent Bands   Rare 'mother-of-pearl' clouds sighted in Antarctica – Australian Antarctic Division

Dave

Hi Dave!

Glad you got to meet Dr. Aldrin. I have known him since 1989 and he always has a lot of good material to present to anyone who will listen. Thank You for your trip invitation to New Zealand. Wish I could attend. Have never observed the southern constellations in person. I would be honored if you would consider adding me to your Facebook friends list. My scientific field is minerals and gemstones. I would like to follow your comments on Facebook. Are you on "Twitter" too? Thank You for your time in reading this.

Best Regards from Tom G. in La$ Vega$, Nevada

Hi Tom

Good to have you along and I'd be happy to add you as a friend.. and just did! Yes, I was impressed with Buzz Aldrin and have a lot of respect for him after all he went through. It would be good to have you on our NZ astronomy trip next year. I hear the bookings are starting to come in already.

Dave

Hi Dave

Here’s one for next week, a listener question. What’s the name of our universe? We know the name of our galaxy but what about the universe? Talk next week.  

Mary-Lou Stephens Afternoons Presenter - ABC Coast FM Gold and Sunshine Coast

Hi Mary-Lou

What a goooood question… never had that one before. The answer is…. It’s called ‘The Universe’ because the Universe encompasses EVERYTHING THERE IS.

Regards

Dave 

Dear Dave,

Thank you for your wedsite and FaceBook page. I have a keen interest in the night sky, and spend time every morning and evening gazing at brilliant Venus, Southern Cross, and the other stars that shine very brightly from my home at Blackmans Bay, 12 km south of Hobart Tasmania. I grew up in the Huon Valley in Southern Tasmania, at a town called Franklin  Since 1836 my family have lived in the same place for 7 generations. I grew up in the hills which are the back drop to the town, and are the foothills of the internationally recognised amazing South West Wilderness of Tasmania.

What I remember very clearly about living where our very rundown 100 year old house was located, was the absolute density of darkness at night especially during the winter months. Those dreaded street lights did not exist in the hills behind Franklin. When it was overcast and without the moon I am not exaggerating in stating that you could not see 2 metres in from of you. We had the scariest times as kids walking around the norrow gravel roads telling ghost stories. We often layed for hours on our backs on the lush grass in the paddocks and gazed into the brilliant starry skies. We had compertitions searching the skies for satellites, to see who could spot one first, and gazing at the stars and planets was an awe-inspiring experience. To imagine how far away and how big space is always made us feel (it's hard to explain the feeling exactly), but I would have to say AWE-STRUCK. The night sky just shone,  I remember my dear dad taking us all outside to look at the brilliant Aurora, or better know back then as 'The Southern Lights'. I have seen many amazing 'shows' the Sthn lights put on for us. The best way to describe the sight is similar to the sunrays streaming through clouds especially near to sunrise and sunset. Also at times it would be like waves of light moving through the sky from south to north. As we didn't have a camera when I was a child don't have any pictures of the Southern Lights.

My friends and colleagues always ask me what the weather is going to do, so they can make their plans. I mention that because if my father had not been a ol' timer nature observer, I possibly would not have had such an appreciation for the night sky. My wife and I have had the blessed experience of witnessing 2 'Fire Balls'. One was in Summer of 1990 on a beach in Tasmania. I remember the day being a Saturday and time was 12.30am, as it was unusually hot and sticky so we went for a walk on the beach.We walked slowly hand in hand when suddenly the night became as midday for what seemed like a few seconds and I looked east and there was an amazing brilliantly bright aqua-blue/ green light with a long tail. Suddenly we could see dozens of people everywhere for miles, as if it was midday. We often talk about this. It was truly an amazing experience. I called the planetarium and asked about this event, and I was advised that it's less that a once in a lifetime experience.

Well, in July 2005 my wife and I were sitting on the balcony in Blackmans Bay at 11.30 and we saw the same thing. This time the whole place didn't light up as if day as much as the previous experience, but this Fire Ball went much further through the sky and for a much longer distance. I would say the tail was 5 to 8 times the width of the Southern Cross standing upright, as the Southern Cross was right above the 'Fire Ball' as fortunately we were staring at it at the time the Fire Ball hit. How blessed and lucky we were. I called the planetarium the next day and apparently 1 other call had been received. So this is 2 I have seen and consider myself very privileged and blessed by the creator of our great universe. There was an article in the Mercury newspaper about this event the following day. All I can say is what I use a my motto 'If You Aren't Out There Looking There Is So Much That Is Being Misses Out On' My 16y/o daughter has become so envious of all my experiences of shooting star, and my constant ravings about the brilliance of Venus etc that she now often comes on a 4 to 5am walk with me. Fortunately in South Tassie the skies are usually very clear, especially in the earlier hours of the mornings. 

Dave, here are some pics. The moon was the eclipse a month or 2 ago, there is one of the moon and Venue (the Mercury Newspaper had a much better on a few months ago) 

Mark Thorp
Blackmans Bay Tasmania 

Excellent report mark, thanks for sharing all those sightings and family history with us. Take care and keep lookin' up!

Dave

From me to me

Well, that is a good start to my day’ - I’ve already been informed that (for the tenth time this month, (aren’t I lucky) I’ve won the British Tobacco lottery £12,000,000 ( I don’t smoke and didn’t ‘t buy a ticket.. aren’t I really lucky!!)

And, just now somebody overseas has died and left me an estate of €100,000,000 (I don’t know them but they selected me to inherit the dough) AREN’T I LUCKY???

Astro-Dave

    Why do we always see the same side of the Moon from Earth? 

The Moon always shows us the same face because Earth's gravity has slowed down the Moon's rotational speed. The Moon takes as much time to rotate once on its axis as it takes to complete one orbit of Earth. Simple, isn’t it? (Both are about 27.3 Earth days.)  In other words, the Moon rotates enough each day to compensate for the angle it sweeps out in its orbit around Earth.

Gravitational forces between Earth and the Moon drain the pair of their rotational energy. We see the effect of the Moon in the ocean tides. Likewise, Earth's gravity creates a detectable bulge on the Moon. Eons from now, the same sides of Earth and Moon may forever face each other, as if dancing hand in hand, though the Sun may balloon into a red giant, destroying Earth and the Moon, before this happens.

            Last week's question: 

"What is the opposite of 'opposite?" Answer: Same     Winners: Listed here  www.facebook.com/AstroDave

Try your hand at this week's  teaser: 

"Who Was Australia's First (Australian born) Astronaut?"

Email in your answers to davereneke@gmail.com          Also at my FaceBook FanPage' . www.facebook.com/AstroDave

THIS WEEK'S TOP STORY

Did Jupiter Devour A Massive 'Super Earth?'

Last summer a massive mystery object struck Jupiter and disappeared into its opaque atmosphere. Now, research led by Shu Lin Li of Peking University in China has revealed that billions of years ago Jupiter’s core might have been vaporised in huge collision with a planet up to ten times the size of Earth.

Computer simulations showed that the incoming rocky body flattened when it hit the gas giant’s atmosphere before drilling into the giant’s core with the energy of the collision vaporising much of the the planet's core.

Jupiter, which is more than 120 times bigger than the Earth, has an extremely small core that weighs just two to 10 Earth masses, while Saturn's comes in at 15 to 30.

These vaporised heavy elements would then have mixed with the hydrogen and helium of the gas giant's atmosphere, leaving only a fraction of the gas giant's former core behind.

This could explain not only why Jupiter's core is so small, but also why its atmosphere is richer in heavy elements compared with the sun, whose volatile  composition is thought to mirror that of the nebula that gave birth to the solar system's planets.

These vaporised heavy elements, reported New Scientist, would then have mixed with the hydrogen and helium of the gas giant’s atmosphere, leaving only a fraction of the gas giant’s former core behind, which could explain not only why Jupiter’s core is so small, but also why its atmosphere is richer in heavy elements compared with the Sun, the scientists said. Study co-author Douglas Lin at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told New Scientist that the super-Earth might have grown into a gas giant itself one day if it had not collided with Jupiter.

“It may very well have been on its way to becoming a gas giant, but lost the race and got gobbled up.” Saturn has a similar overabundance of heavy elements in its atmosphere and the scientists believe this could also be due to impacts by rocky objects smaller than Earth that decelerated and broke up before they could reach Saturn’s core. Jupiter and Saturn are thought to have begun life as rocky worlds with the mass of at least a few Earths. Their gravity then pulled in gas from their birth nebula, giving them dense atmospheres.

“It’s an interesting explanation of why you might have a variety of core masses in giant planets,” said William Hubbard of the University of Arizona in Tucson. “It’s a very useful contribution.” The new findings help clarify the evidence that the solar system's birth was a violent and chaotic business, with perhaps five of its eight extant planets having suffered impacts by other planet-sized objects, and the rest by objects not much smaller. Giant collisions are thought to have spawned Earth's moon, blasted away the outer layers of Mercury, reshaped Mars's northern hemisphere and knocked Uranus onto its side.

Smash-ups may also have led Neptune to acquire a moon and slowed Venus's spin rate.

Daily Galaxy

MORE ASTRO SPACE NEWS

Big Astronomy Night This Week In Port Macquarie

Thank you! We keep getting rave reviews from the many people who are now discovering the only way to have a great astro night in Port Macquarie away from the glare of the CBD and surrounds! Yuk, who wants that!!!!! Last week was a good one… clear skies, lots of interest and plenty of avid astro nuts ready to listen to Dave's talk. We have easy access, no crowding, toilet facilities and more!!!

Now, If you are fan of star gazing, astronomy or "The Big Bang Theory," or are looking for an excuse to cuddle with your honey under the stars, Wednesday night, August 18 is the evening for you in Port Macquarie. To celebrate the emergence of 5 planets in the sky at the same time we are putting on a special astronomy and space show 'Discovering the Universe' this Wednesday night at 6.45pm. You’ll be amazed at what you see and hear!

Suitable for those with little or no knowledge of astronomy, you’ll learn how the universe was created. You’ll discover the wonder and beauty of stars, star clusters, galaxies, and black holes – and hear about the latest discoveries in space and astronomy… you’ll even get to hold a real meteorite! PLUS much more!

                          Just for coming along we’ll give you:

             * FREE Star map and space fact sheet
             * FREE 2 Astro/space magazines worth $18
             * FREE What’s in the Night Sky’ guide
             * FREE Astronomy & space info sheets*

             * * FREE DVD giveaway through the night

PLUS … Win a fabulous astronomy triple DVD set in our ‘Astro Raffle’ – which drawn on the night. The telescope Viewing & Laser Guided Sky Tour to Follow. You will not hear or see anything like this anywhere in the world, we promise. Why settle for dry presentations you see running everywhere else when you can experience the exuberance Dave gives in his unique lectures.

People are telling us we have the best astronomy night in the region, bar none – and that's gratifying.  A highlight of the evening will be a laser guided tour and telescope viewing of the night sky in the resort grounds after the talk, weather permitting. It’s on every Wednesday night at 6.45pm. Admission is $6 per person or just $20 for a family of four in the conference room. Bookings at the front office or just turn up on the night. proceeds go to the running of our Outreach programs and Community education programs.

We now have a top range of astronomy products for sale including exclusive DVDs, Astronomy Yearbooks, Star maps, CD-Roms for kids, Posters, Telescope buyers guides, Telescopes, E-Books, etc etc and and our new line, astronomy starter packs for adults and kids. We continue to run out of stock on these so be quick. Get out under the stars at the Village Resort, 288 Hastings River Drive Port Macquarie. General public welcome. Bring the kids too, there are activities they can get involved in OK? All welcome.  You won't be sorry you came ! Enquiries: davereneke@gmail.com Mobile: 0400 636 363

Move to Space or Face Extinction, says physicist Stephen Hawking

Humans: It’s time to abandon Earth or face extinction. It could be the plot of a summer blockbuster, but this prediction isn’t science fiction. It’s a glimpse of the future, according to famed British scientist Stephen Hawking.

"I see great dangers for the human race," he said in an interview with global forum Big Think. "There have been a number of times in the past when its survival has been a question of touch and go."

Hawking, an award-winning physicist, says humans must evacuate our home planet within the next two centuries and expand into space to survive.

"I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space," he said. "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million."

Hawking, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom last year, has recently voiced many concerns about the future of life on Earth.
In April, he spoke pragmatically about his fear of aliens in an interview for the Discovery Channel.

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said. "Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach."

But Hawking says he is still hopeful for the future of humanity."I'm an optimist," he told Big Think. "We have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space."

New York Daily News

The Galaxies of the Universe Appear to Negate Big Bang Theory

The prevailing Big Bang Theory predicts that all galaxies should be evenly distributed on the outer rims of the initial expanding explosive force. But in contradiction to the standard theory, ancient galaxies orbit the Milky Way.

There are nearby galaxies over 13 billion years in age as well as and ancient fully formed galaxies located over 13.1 billion light years distant from the Milky Way. Galaxies move in the wrong directions and at different speeds, with galaxies colliding into one another from every conceivable direction.

Throughout the known, Hubble length universe, hundreds of millions of galaxies have clumped together, forming super clusters and a series of great walls of galaxies which are separated by vast voids of empty space.

Several of these elongated super clusters have formed a series of walls, one after another, spaced from 500 million to 800 million light years apart, such that in one direction alone, 13 Great Walls have formed with the inner and outer walls separated by less than 7 billion light years.

Some recent theories estimate that these galactic walls may have taken from 80 billion to 100 billion, to 150 billion years to form.  Millions of galaxies over one hundred million light years across, moving in the same direction, have penetrated the center of the local super cluster of galaxies located in the vicinity of the Centaurus and Hydra and constellations.

Another anomaly is the Coma cluster at the center of the CfA2 Great Wall. It is one of the largest observed structures in the Universe, containing over 10,000 galaxies and extending more than 1.37 billion light years in length.

In there attemps to rationalize these glaring anomalies, the prevailing theory has posited "dark energy" to explain why a created universe did not spread out uniformly at the same speed and in the same "spoke-like" directions as predicted by theory. With the addition of as yet unproven dark energy or a "great attractor" the "Big Bang universe slows down, then suddenly speeds up, then slows down, then accelerates. with different regions all moving at different velocities and different directions." 

Daily Galaxy

Tumbling Boulders Leave Trails On The Moon

There's probably a great story in this image, if only someone was there to witness it as it happened! This is an image from Moon Zoo, the citizen science project from the Zooniverse that asks people to look at images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and search for craters, boulders and more. 

Pic: Images from Moon Zoo showing trails from tumbling boulders in the Montes Alpes/Vallis Alpes region on the Moon. Credit: NASA/LRO/Moon Zoo.

And often, the Zooites find some very interesting features on the Moon, like this one and the ones below that include tracks from rolling, bounding, tumbling and sometimes bouncing boulders.

Then the task for the scientists is to figure out what actually happened to get these boulders moving — was it an impact, are the bould

er on the bottom of a hill, or was it some other unknown catalyst? As Zooniverse founder Chris Lintott says, "The Moon has its own landscape that is really quite dramatic, so it’s a world well worth exploring."

Why look for tumbling boulders? Moon Zoo scientist Dr. Katie Joy gave this explanation:"One of the main reasons we are asking Moon Zoo users to search for scars left behind by tumbling boulders is to help support future lunar exploration initiatives. Boulders that have rolled down hillsides from crater walls, or massifs like the Apollo 17 landing site, provide samples of geologic units that may be high up a hillside and thus difficult to access otherwise by a rover or a manned crew vehicle.

If mission planning can include traverses to boulders that have rolled down hills, and we can track these boulders back up to the part of hillside from where they have originated, it provides a neat sampling strategy to accessing more geological units than would have been possible otherwise… Thus we hope to use Moon Zoo user data to produce a map of known boulder tracks (and terminal boulders) across the Moon."

Funnel Cloud Hangs Over Launch Pad

It looks like the proverbial 'Sword of Damocles' doesn't it? A funnel cloud appeared over the Kennedy Space Center on Friday, hanging over the space shuttle's launch complex and triggering warning sirens.

The funnel dropped from a pop-up thunderstorm just before 1:30 p.m. EDT, but the swirling cloud never touched down on land or in the Atlantic Ocean offshore KSC.

It appeared over launch pad 39B as viewed from the KSC press site near the Vehicle Assembly Building. Tornado sirens at the space center blared for a few minutes as the funnel drifted near the beach. The warning horn cut off as the funnel dissipated and moved out of the area.

The cape has to be prepared for any weather changes that can happen without notice. besides weather, wildlife also play havoc with many launches.

Photo: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

Moving Part Of Space Station To An Asteroid

A room on the International Space Station could ultimately be converted and detached to carry astronauts on their next great adventure, to an asteroid, NASA scientists say. The space station's Tranquility module, known as Node 3, could be repurposed as the main living space for humans headed to a nearby asteroid, NASA officials said.

The node could be connected to two space exploration vehicles and have add-on inflatable modules. "There's no new ideas under the sun," said Brian Wilcox, a roboticist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. He said NASA "Blue Sky" group had focused on repurposing technologies for new missions during a brainstorming session this year.

Pic: This NASA concept image shows the International Space Station's Tranquility module (also known as Node 3) at the center of two exploration spacecraft that could be sent to visit an asteroid.

The space station is slated to operate through at least 2020, which roughly coincides with the earliest likely launch date for human exploration of an asteroid. In April President Barack Obama set a 2025 goal for a manned mission to an asteroid.
The Node 3 module is one of the newer rooms on the International Space Station. It is nearly 24 feet (7.3 meters) long and 15 feet (4.5 meters) wide, about the size of a small bus.

Node 3 was delivered by a NASA space shuttle in February and currently is home to the Cupola observation deck, a seven-window dome that gives astronauts a panoramic view of space to operate the outpost's robotic arm. The module also is home to much of the space station's life support equipment and some astronaut bedrooms, berths about the size of a phone booth. But for the asteroid mission concept, Node 3 could be detached and outfitted with two space exploration vehicles, each having a pressurized cabin that could typically carry two astronauts (or four in an emergency).

Inflatable structures similar to those proposed by space hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow also could launch within existing rockets and expand the usable living or working quarters. The interior of the node would see major makeovers. A spinning centrifuge device installed within the node might create artificial gravity to help astronauts stave off muscle and bone loss, Wilcox said. The space station currently does not have such a device.

MSNBC

NASA Webb Telescope… Will Delays Be Forgotten? 

Construction of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, shown in a NASA rendering, has been hurt by delays and cost overruns. (NASA)
When it works, and if it works, the James Webb Space Telescope could revolutionize astronomy by peering so deep into space that scientists soon could study the dawn of time.

But construction of NASA's next big telescope has been so hurt by delays and cost overruns that even its staunchest champion in Congress reached a breaking point.  Senator Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland, all but ordered NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden to assemble a panel of outside experts to ensure the Webb project doesn't break its latest promise: a 2014 launch on a $5 billion budget.

"We like the concept of the Webb, but I tell you, we're not in the overrun business," said Mikulski, who chairs the Senate subcommittee with oversight of NASA's budget.  NASA agreed to form the panel and placed veteran engineer John Casani in charge.

Even so, keeping the Webb on track won't be easy. Already, the telescope is at least $1.5 billion over budget and three years behind schedule, thanks to poor financial planning and knotty engineering problems, according to government watchdogs. And further delays and cost overruns are possible. Just last year, Mikulski had to secure an additional $75 million to keep Webb workers on the job as part of the $787 billion stimulus plan passed by congressional Democrats.  The budget-busting hasn't happened in a vacuum either.

An upcoming report from the National Academies is expected to underscore concerns that American astronomy doesn't get the funding it needs — a situation exacerbated by the Webb telescope. "When Webb bleeds, the rest of space science hemorrhages," said Michael Turner, one of the report's authors and a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago.  Smaller robotic missions have suffered because of cost overruns with Webb, Turner said. But the project has been kept alive by expectations about what it can do and the need to replace the popular Hubble Space Telescope, which could end operations as early as 2014.

"It's been a long wait, and it's been very expensive. But when it is launched and operating, people are going to forget the wait and how much it cost, and they are going to go gaga about the discoveries," he said.  It can take billions of years for the light of distant stars to reach Earth. As designed, the Webb can see so far into space that it essentially can look back in time.  This quirk in physics will enable Webb scientists to learn more about the events that immediately followed the big bang, a cosmic explosion that scientists think created the universe more than 13 billion years ago.

"We are aiming to see the realm between 250 million years after the big bang to about 400 million years afterward," said Jonathan Gardner, a top Webb scientist. Hubble can only see within 800 million years of the big bang. "The James Webb is designed to find the first galaxies that formed in the early universe," Gardner said. Specifically, the Webb and its 21-foot infrared mirror will test the theory that the first galaxies were disorganized and composed of "very large, very bright and short-lived stars," he said.

Instruments onboard the Webb also will help scientists learn more about the chemical makeup of early stars and how elements formed and later dispersed throughout the universe. "This is all about 'Where did we come from? What is our place in the universe?' " Gardner said. "Sometimes science and religion are addressing the same question in different ways."  But before that happens, NASA and its international partners need to make sure it works.

Unlike Hubble, which orbits 350 miles above Earth, NASA plans to station the Webb telescope about 1 million miles away in what's known as a Lagrange point — a cosmic neutral ground where the tug of the Earth and sun even out so that objects in such a spot stay almost stationary.  That way, scientists can focus the Webb's mirror in one direction — deep space — while employing a shield that can block sunlight and keep its temperature-sensitive instruments from getting too warm.

Getting those pieces to work has been difficult, however, and a 2006 report by the Government Accountability Office identified several potential problems. The telescope must be compressed to fit aboard the European Ariane 5 rocket that will launch it, so a key concern was whether the Webb can safely unfold its origamilike mirror and shield once it reaches space.

"If program officials follow the current plan, the maturity of key technologies may not be adequately tested prior to program start," noted the report. "In addition, it appears the program will not have sufficient funding resources to ensure the program's success."  Since then, NASA officials said they have addressed — if not necessarily solved — these problems.  Geoff Yoder, NASA's deputy astrophysics director, said the Webb underwent a major design review this spring and that the appraisal found no "showstoppers" that could kill the project, including difficulties with the shield and mirror.

"That doesn't mean everything is completely done," he said. But he said it's a necessary step to ensure that the Webb works once it gets into space because its distance from Earth means there's no way astronauts could fix it.  "This is something that is a complex, integrated system," he said. "I think the team, technically, is doing a hell of a job."  He deflected most questions about cost and schedule until after the independent team led by Casani finishes its review, probably sometime this fall.

In the meantime, University of Chicago's Turner said the rest of the astronomy community will be rooting for the Webb to succeed — not just because of what it could do, but also so it no longer acts as a millstone on other projects.  "If we had to do it over again, would we do it differently? Of course," he said, referring to NASA's decision to rely too heavily on experimental technologies when designing the Webb. "But we're not building Model T's here."

Orlando Sentinel 

Ambitious Survey Spots Stellar Nurseries

ESO’s VISTA telescope has begun a new survey of the Magellanic Cloud, and this spectacular image of the Tarantula Nebula is a taste of great things to come from this near-infrared scan of the more interesting galaxies in our neighborhood. This panoramic near-infrared view captures the nebula itself in great detail as well as the rich surrounding area of sky.

"This view is of one of the most important regions of star formation in the local Universe — the spectacular 30 Doradus star-forming region, also called the Tarantula Nebula," said the leader of the survey team, Maria-Rosa Cioni from the University of Hertfordshire. "At its core is a large cluster of stars called RMC 136, in which some of the most massive stars known are located."

VISTA Magellanic Cloud Survey view of the Tarantula Nebula. Credit: ESO/M.-R. Cioni/VISTA Magellanic Cloud survey. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

VISTA is a new survey telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, and is equipped with a huge camera that detects light in the near-infrared part of the spectrum, revealing a wealth of detail about astronomical objects that gives us insight into the inner workings of astronomical phenomena. Near-infrared light has a longer wavelength than visible light, fortunately, it can pass through much of the dust that would normally obscure the views that our eyes can see. This makes it particularly useful for studying objects such as young stars that are still enshrouded in the gas and dust clouds from which they formed.

Another powerful aspect of VISTA is the large area of the sky that its camera can capture in each shot. The VISTA Magellanic Cloud Survey is one of six huge near-infrared surveys of the southern sky that will take up most of the first five years of operations of VISTA.This project will scan a vast area — 184 square degrees of the sky (corresponding to almost one thousand times the apparent area of the full Moon) including our neighboring galaxies the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. 

The end result will be a detailed study of the star formation history and three-dimensional geometry of the Magellanic system.“The VISTA images will allow us to extend our studies beyond the inner regions of the Tarantula into the multitude of smaller stellar nurseries nearby, which also harbor a rich population of young and massive stars," said Chris Evans who is part of the VMC team. "Armed with the new, exquisite infrared images, we will be able to probe the cocoons in which massive stars are still forming today, while also looking at their interaction with older stars in the wider region.”The wide-field image shows a host of different objects.

The bright area above the centre is the Tarantula Nebula itself, with the RMC 136 cluster of massive stars in its core. To the left is the NGC 2100 star cluster. To the right is the tiny remnant of the supernova SN1987A (eso1032). Below the centre are a series of star-forming regions including NGC 2080 — nicknamed the “Ghost Head Nebula” — and the NGC 2083 star cluster.

Universe Today

Will the  LHC Reveal the Existence of a Parallel Universe?

One of the most fascinating discoveries of our new century may be imminent if the Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva produces nano-blackholes. According to the best current physics, such nano blackholes could not be produced with the energy levels the LHC can generate, but coud only come into being if a parallel universe were providing extra gravitational input.

Versions of multiverse theory suggest that there is at least one other universe very close to our own, perhaps only a millimeter away. This makes it possible that some of the effects, especially gravity, "leak through," which could be responsible for the production of dark energy and dark matter that make up 96% of the universe.

At a recent CalTech roundtable conference on the possible impact of the LHC on physics, Neal Weiner of New York University, who is a proponent of the existence of forces as well as particles on the dark side, said that until recently our theories about dark matter were driven by ideas about particle theory rather than data. “Ultimately we learn that perhaps it has very little to do with us at all,” Dr. Weiner said. “Who knows what we will find in the dark sector?” 

A huge volume of space that includes the Milky Way and super-clusters of galaxies is flowing towards a mysterious, gigantic unseen mass named mass astronomers have dubbed "The Great Attractor," some 250 million light years from our Solar System. The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are the dominant structures in a galaxy cluster called the Local Group which is, in turn, an outlying member of the Virgo supercluster. Andromeda–about 2.2 million light-years from the Milky Way–is speeding toward our galaxy at 200,000 miles per hour.

This motion can only be accounted for by gravitational attraction, even though the mass that we can observe is not nearly great enough to exert that kind of pull. The only thing that could explain the movement of Andromeda is the gravitational pull of a lot of unseen mass–perhaps the equivalent of 10 Milky Way-size galaxies–lying between the two galaxies. Meanwhile, our entire Local Group is hurtling toward the center of the Virgo Cluster at one million miles per hour.

The Milky Way and its neighboring Andromeda galaxy, along with some 30 smaller ones, form what is known as the Local Group, which lies on the outskirts of a “super cluster”—a grouping of thousands of galaxies—known as Virgo, which is also pulled toward the Great Attractor. Based on the velocities at these scales, the unseen mass inhabiting the voids between the galaxies and clusters of galaxies amounts to perhaps 10 times more than the visible matter.

Even so, adding this invisible material to luminous matter brings the average mass density of the universe still to within only 10-30 percent of the critical density needed to "close" the universe. This phenomena suggests that the universe be "open." Cosmologists continue to debate this question, just as they are also trying to figure out the nature of the missing mass, or "dark matter." It is believed that this dark matter dictates the structure of the Universe on the grandest of scales. Dark matter gravitationally attracts normal matter, and it is this normal matter that astronomers see forming long thin walls of super-galactic clusters.

Recent measurements with telescopes and space probes of the distribution of mass in M31 -the largest galaxy in the neighborhood of the Milky Way- and other galaxies led to the recognition that galaxies are filled with dark matter and have shown that a mysterious force—a dark energy—fills the vacuum of empty space, accelerating the universe's expansion. Astronomers now recognize that the eventual fate of the universe is inextricably tied to the presence of dark energy and dark matter.The current standard model for cosmology describes a universe that is 70 percent dark energy, 25 percent dark matter, and only 5 percent normal matter.

We don't know what dark energy is, or why it exists, or if it even does exist. On the other hand, particle theory tells us that, at the microscopic level, even a perfect vacuum bubbles with quantum particles that are a natural source of dark energy. But a naïve calculation of the dark energy generated from the vacuum yields a value 10120 times larger than the amount we observe. Some unknown physical process is required to eliminate most, but not all, of the vacuum energy, leaving enough left to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe.

A new theory of particle physics is required to explain this physical process.

Daily Galaxy

Amateurs Fling Their Gadgets to Edge of Space

A ride to the stratosphere and back has now become a rite of passage for smart-phones. Space enthusiasts are attaching devices such as the Motorola Droid, G1, HTC Evo and Nexus One — not to mention an array of digital cameras — to weather balloons or rockets, then sending them high into the stratosphere and beyond.

Photo: A Google G1 phone gets ready to head into the atmosphere, surrounded by members of the Noisebridge hacker space. Credit: Mikolaj Horbyn, Andrew Gerrand, Christie Dudley.

With integrated GPS systems, cameras and fast processors, smartphones are computing devices available to all. That’s why space enthusiasts are turning to them to do things that would have otherwise required custom components or a number of specialized devices.

“What you are seeing is a grass-roots initiative to reach for the stars,” says Bobby Russell, founder of Quest for Stars, a nonprofit organization that works with high school students to promote science and technology.Driving the interest of hobbyists are the latest crop of smartphones and even digital cameras because the devices are cheap and fairly rugged. “Now, it's all there off-the-shelf for the taking,” says Russell. “So why reinvent the wheel?”

Wired

"The Earth Strain" -Spreading Life To The Stars

When the Apollo 11 astronauts splashed down in the Pacific they were immediately whisked off into quarantine, spending three weeks in a rather unglamorous steel shell for fear that they'd contracted lethal space-plagues.

A recent paper by Professor Cockell of the Open University points out that the flow of life is more likely to be FROM the vast dirty ball teeming with billions of organisms TO the utterly dead space rocks. Who could have guessed?

The idea is that hardy hitchhikers on our interplanetary probes could face alien ecosystems with "The Earth Strain", and they won't even have a rugged team of determined scientists to find a cure. Never mind that anything capable of surviving extended exposure to cosmic rays would have to be King Hardcore of the microorganic kingdom.

One problem with this viewpoint is that it talks about the spread of Terran life as 'contamination', which is like describing painting as 'contaminating' a pristine canvas. In case you haven't noticed we haven't actually found any life anywhere yet, and if we can bring some to a habitable location then it's not just a good idea – it's our duty.

In a vast, cold universe we aren't just "Keepers of the Sacred Flame" of life, we are the bloody flame, and like Prometheus before us we must share this infinitely precious resource (hopefully without the subsequent eagle/liver unpleasantness). There are life-capable habitats out there that just haven't lucked into the right chemical sequence to get the party started. Bacteria from Earth could be the only trigger needed, the difference between waiting for lightning to strike and using a match.

If we do find alien life then by all means avoid contaminating them with the War-of-the-Worlds-ending common cold, but that's no problem. If there's one thing we've learned from our history of space flight it's that destroying our craft before they get somewhere is easy. It's preventing the damn things from exploding that's the trick.

One objection will be the "What's so great about life anyway?" crowd, demanding to know what right we have to spread it. Luckily these nihilists are usually too overcome with ennui and can be safely ignored. Another will be the cries that we should not play God, that the seeding of life is His right alone. To which the only reasonable response is "If we can do it with a tank of fuel and a jar of goo and He doesn't stop us, then we're fairly sure He doesn't mind."

Daily Galaxy

What is the Space Shuttle's True Legacy?

As the final flights of the Space Shuttle draw near, already some of us are awash in nostalgia for the winged beast, not withstanding its ruinous cost. For nearly a majority of Americans now living, there has never been an American spacecraft other than the Shuttle. 

Generation after generation have been born and grown to adulthood with the Shuttle missions flying, in many respects, transparently in the background, part of routine life.

For millions all over the world, for some who love and for many who hate America, the Space Shuttle and its astronaut crews flying daring missions have become symbols of the American nation-an iconic self-image of who Americans like to think they still are: adventurers, risk takers, explorers. In times of triumph as well as moments of darkness.

But it is more than memories and nostalgia: can we now see the Shuttle in its historical context? Can we properly evaluate the unique role it has placed in the U.S. space program? Can we begin to assess its true legacy? And, most importantly, how to apply "lessons learned" to the next generation of government-owned or privately operated orbital spacecraft. Looking back across the nearly four decades since President Richard M. Nixon made establishment of the "Space Transportation System" a national goal in January, 1972, the Shuttle design, shaped by political and budget limitations, looks truly incredible.

From a 12-foot cone weighing 10,000 pounds, America moved in a single leap to a reentry vehicle 122 feet in length and 78 feet tall weighing 200,000 pounds, capable of carrying 50,000 pounds of cargo to orbit and back. The early Shuttle missions – satellite deployments, retrievals and repair – are missions that could never be approved in today's risk averse culture (and some of which were banned following the Challenger accident).

The operations cost of the Shuttle system, devoid of space tugs and orbital maneuvering vehicles, soared along with the machine's flights. But on missions flying Spacelab modules and Spacehab units, the orbiter came close to achieving its storied promise as a space-going truck. Until the Columbia accident, the administration of Sean O'Keefe was trying to assess how much longer to fly the Shuttles, and what level of upgrades to approve and fund (think SLEP I and II). It was conceivable that NASA might keep the Shuttles flying well past 2020.

After Columbia, O'Keefe got Presidential approval to end the Shuttle era with "completion' of the ISS- a flexible designation. Bounded by the sacrosanct CAIB requirement of recertification much past 2010, the outlines of retirement were emerging as Discovery returned to flight five years ago this summer. It is also clear that the series of commercial and government replacements for the entire Shuttle system is to be some form of capsule-and-booster system, the Sierra Nevada HL-20 notwithstanding. And with the political battle needed to add just one more flight to the existing manifest, the Space Shuttle era is ending in political disarray and uncertainty.

SpaceRef

Don 't Believe Everything They Hear

History shows even the best scientists got it wrong at times. Sometimes brilliant people come up with really stupid ideas…

Take William Herschel for example, genius astronomer from England. He was born in 1738 and died in 1822. He discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 and two of its moons, Oberon and Titania in 1787. He also found two of the moons of Saturn, Mimas and Enceladus, in 1787. The king of England was so impressed that he gave him money to build the largest telescope in the word at that time.

It was huge, 40 feet long with a 48 inch mirror and he called it "leviathon." Anyway, after all he had done he probably made a fool of himself by claiming all planets had intelligent life and that the sun also had life. He said that a huge cloud that was very, very hot protected the people on the sun. How wrong can you be?

Then there was Percival Lowell, a rich Bostonian who was very much involved in astronomy. He read an article by an Italian astronomer named Schiaparelli who claimed that he saw canals on Mars.  Well, it didn't take Lowell long to go to Flagstaff, Ariz., and build a new observatory with a large scope.

He too, thought we saw canals and drew pictures of what he thought he saw. Again, wrong. But he really had many people believe him. Another theory down the drain. Just like the so-called face on Mars. I had some interesting arguments on this one. Of course, it was nothing but light causing those facial features. Later close-up pictures by various craft proved without a doubt that it was not a face carved by aliens.

How about Halley's comet in 1910? During that year, the comet came within 14 million miles of earth. Astronomers told the public that earth would actually pass through the tail of the comet. A New York Times article said that a gas was discovered in the tail of the comet called "cyanogen," a by product of cyanide.

Wow, did this cause a panic! All because a French astronomer named Flamarion said that this gas would impregnate the earth and that it would probably wipe us out. Responsible astronomers did their best to tell people that he was wrong but the damage was done. Hundreds of greedy, no goods made a fortune selling gas masks and pills to ward off the gas. People bought them like crazy, even though they were worthless. Halley's comet came and went and all still were alive.

Now we have the Mars Hoax back again…… Use your common sense.

Contributor- Gene Evans 

Creationism vs Evolution

There was a recent press report that many school graduates still have very little understanding of our solar system or the place of our solar system and our galaxy in the universe. I recently saw a Hubble Telescope photograph of a distant spiral galaxy aligned about at right angles to our line of site. 

The photo can be seen and enlarged at the site http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2010/24/image/a

The blurb accompanying the photo is shown at the end of my comments. I wonder if a few minutes in a science period say once a week showing an item such as this with a brief explanation would serve to reduce the ignorance mentioned above.

For example one comment could be, "The light that the Hubble telescope captured for the photograph left the individual stars in the galaxy about the time the coal in the Sydney started to accumulate in a large swampy area and long before the sands which form the sandstone of the Sydney hills and the Blue Mountains started to arrive where they now are". Of course we do not know the current situation of the galaxy photographed.

ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

A long-exposure Hubble Space Telescope image shows a majestic face-on spiral galaxy located deep within the Coma Cluster of galaxies, which lies 320 million light-years away in the northern constellation Coma Berenices.

The galaxy, known as NGC 4911, contains rich lanes of dust and gas near its centre. These are silhouetted against glowing newborn star clusters and iridescent pink clouds of hydrogen, the existence of which indicates ongoing star formation. Hubble has also captured the outer spiral arms of NGC 4911, along with thousands of other galaxies of varying sizes. The high resolution of Hubble's cameras, paired with considerably long exposures, made it possible to observe these faint details.

NGC 4911 and other spirals near the centre of the cluster are being transformed by the gravitational tug of their neighbours. In the case of NGC 4911, wispy arcs of the galaxy's outer spiral arms are being pulled and distorted by forces from a companion galaxy (NGC 4911A), to the upper right. The resultant stripped material will eventually be dispersed throughout the core of the Coma Cluster, where it will fuel the intergalactic populations of stars and star clusters.

The Coma Cluster is home to almost 1,000 galaxies, making it one of the densest collections of galaxies in the nearby universe. It continues to transform galaxies at the present epoch, due to the interactions of close-proximity galaxy systems within the dense cluster. Vigorous star formation is triggered in such collisions.

Galaxies in this cluster are so densely packed that they undergo frequent interactions and collisions. When galaxies of nearly equal masses merge, they form elliptical galaxies. Merging is more likely to occur in the centre of the cluster where the density of galaxies is higher, giving rise to more elliptical galaxies. This natural-colour Hubble image, which combines data obtained in 2006, 2007, and 2009 from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys, required 28 hours of exposure time.

 Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore.

ABC-TEACHING-SCIENCE Digest for Saturday, August 14, 2010.

DID YOU KNOW?

* The microwave oven was invented by accident, when Percy Spencer found that his chocolate bar had been melted by an experiment he was running on radar systems. He immediately started experimenting successfully on microwaved popcorn.

* One kilogram of butter stores as much energy between its atoms as the same quantity of TNT.
Men are six times more likely to be struck by lightning than women.

* IBM's ASCI white supercomputer, the fastest computer in the world, weighs as much as 17 elephants and can do in one second what a calculator would take 10 million years to do.

Image Of The Week

Revolutionary Robonaut 2 Readied at Rocket Ranch

Robonaut getting ready for launch. The payload for the next shuttle mission, STS-133 was on full display at Kennedy Space Center's Space Station Processing Facility, including the mission’s “7th” crew member – Robonaut (or R2 as he is known to his friends). A media event on Aug. 12 showcased elements that Discovery is scheduled to lift to orbit on Nov. 1, 2010 at 4:33 p.m. EDT. (I'll be in the crowd watching it lift off.)

Without a doubt the star of the show was R2 himself. The mostly-white android looked every bit the science-fiction meets science-fact as the imagery we have all seen on television and the internet have made him out to be. Robonaut 2 had originally been designed to only be a technology demonstrator, but engineers wanted to see how the system would operate in space and he was given a seat on the flight (albeit way in the back). 

R2 was not the only horse at this rodeo however; NASA also had other flight hardware elements on display that will roar into orbit this fall. One of these was the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) that will be transported to the space station in Discovery’s payload bay (with R2 nestled inside). The PMM is in actuality the modified Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module (MPLM) and when the mission is completed the PMM will be left attached to the station. Space Shuttle Discovery will carry Space Exploration Technologies’ (SpaceX) DragonEye (DE) relative navigation sensor on this mission.

It is expected that this sensor will be installed about half a month later than originally planned due to a failure in the laser rod that was detected during testing. This item however was not on display at this event. STS-133 could possibly be Discovery’s final flight (it has been mentioned that if there is an STS-135 – that Discovery might fly that mission). It will mark the 35th time that one of NASA’s orbiters has traveled to the orbiting laboratory. The crew consists of Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt, Tim Kopra and Nicole Stott.

Northern Galactic – Southern Galactic

Members Images

Northern Galactic and Southern Galactic International was established to commemorate the United Nations International Year of Astronomy in 2009 and was officially launched in November 2008.

In partnership Northern Galactic and Southern Galactic International aims to gather together research and discoveries in the areas of optical and radio astronomy, astrophotography, planetary studies, and space atmospheric sciences as a service to the interested public.  Our service is available to all astronomers and scientists throughout the world. Northern Galactic also makes available for its Members its own Research Grade 406mm/16" RCOS Carbon Truss Telescope for a Low Annual Subscription Fee.

MEMBER PHOTO - SHEVILL MATHERS

Bottoms up! Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Venus, Mars…

While the Perseid meteor shower has been putting on quite a show, there's an awesome "no telescope needed" eye-catching apparition that only requires a clear western skyline. If you haven't been watching the planets – Mercury, Saturn, Venus and Mars – line up like clockwork, then don't despair. You have a few more days yet! While the uniformed all-too-often see "signs of bad portent" in a planetary alignment, the rest of us know this is a perfectly normal function of our solar system called a conjunction.

This is a simple positional alignment as seen (usually from Earth's viewpoint) from any given vantage point. The world isn't going to end, the oceans aren't going to rise… and Mars is darn-sure not going to be the size of the Moon. All alignments of at least two celestial bodies are merely coincidental and we even have a grand name for what's happening – an appulse.When planets are involved, their near appearance usually happens in the same right ascension. They really aren't any closer to each other than what their orbital path dictates – it just appears that way. In the same respect, there is also conjunction in ecliptical longitude.

But, if the planet nearer the Earth should happen to pass in front of another planet during a conjunction it's called a syzygy!One thing is for sure… You don't have to be a syzy-genius to simply enjoy the show and the predictable movements of our solar system. Just find an open western skyline and watch as twilight deepens. Tonight the Moon will be directly south of Venus and over the next couple of days the planetary alignment will gradually separate as brilliant Venus seems to hold its position, while Mars, Saturn and Mercury drift north. Enjoy the show!

Because just like the yearly Mars/Moon Myth?It happens like clockwork…Many, many thanks to the incredible Shevill Mathers for providing us with this breathtaking photo. (Do you know just how hard it is to get a shot like that without over or under exposing? I dare you to try it…) Every fox has a silver lining!

Universe Today

IN THE SKY THIS MONTH 

AUGUST 2010

Dave Reneke

Churchill Ordered UFO Coverup, Documents Suggest
FOXNews
And an alien spaceship "20 times the size of a football field" is among the string of bizarre UFO sightings. The huge craft was reported to the military …

Ceiriog Valley pair 'saw UFO' on the way to pub
BBC News
A 1974 "UFO incident" in the Berwyn Mountains, dubbed the Welsh Roswell, was dismissed as an earthquake and a meteor combining, offical files show. …

UFO files: dozens of Cold War sightings 'mainly Russian jets'
Telegraph.co.uk
RAF jets were scrambled to investigate UFOs spotted on radar systems about 200 times a year during the Cold War, the secret files show. …

UFO Traffic Report: August 6, 2010
Examiner.com
The UFO Traffic Report for August 6, 2010, includes selected cases from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database. You can read more details …

Tim Tebow Haircut Looks Like a UFO – Photo
CMR
It appears to be a rookie initiation rite, but the fact is, I can't decide if he looks more like Friar Tuck or a UFO. I'm kind of leaning toward UFO right …

Edinburgh today: Leith lending circle setting up and UFO spotting
The Guardian
Edinburgh was something of a hotspot for reported UFO sightings according to Ministry of Defence files. News or views to share? Recommendations for what to …

Film inspired by 1942 Los Angeles 'UFO battle' coming in 2011
Tucson Citizen
03, 2010, under Life, UFOs The film Battle: Los Angeles is inspired by an actual UFO event that occurred on February 25, 1942. Before director and starring …

China “3 suns” UFO: UFOs Or Hoax?
Ghost Theory
The news reports this morning were flooded with headlines of a new Chinese UFO photograph that has recently surfaced. Dubbed the “3 suns” UFO photo, …

Britain releases UFO documents
UPI.com
5 (UPI) — British fighter jets were scrambled more than 200 times each year during the Cold War to investigate UFO reports, Ministry of Defense documents …

FEATURE STORY

Net Guru Wants to Colonise Mars

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral . Photo: AP

An internet guru is now focusing on colonising other planets. The fresh-faced 39-year-old man, in a dark T-shirt and jeans, is talking about travelling to Mars. ''It would be a good place to retire,'' he says in all seriousness. Normally, this would be the time to smile politely and humour a space nerd's unlikely fantasies. But this man needs to be taken seriously for one compelling reason: he already has his own spaceship.

Elon Musk is a brilliant entrepreneur who made a fortune from the internet and has invested vast amounts in building his own private space rocket company, SpaceX. Far from crazy, Musk is the real-life inspiration for the movie character Tony Stark, the playboy scientist hero of the Iron Man franchise.

There are some similarities. Outside the SpaceX plant in the baking southern California sun, Musk's sexy electric sports car sits in a reserved parking space (he co-founded Tesla, the firm which makes the vehicle), resembling the sort of motor Stark would drive. Musk is also engaged to the beautiful English actress Talulah Riley, star of St Trinian's and St Trinian's 2, and he used to get thrills from flying his own private military jet fighter.

Pic: Rocket man … Elon Musk. Photo: Bloomberg

What's more, like Stark, Musk is on a mission to save the world. But while Stark's aim was to battle evildoers and achieve world peace, Musk's mission is a little grander. He wants to secure our future by turning the human race into a spacefaring people able to colonise other planets. It's the only way, Musk believes, we can be saved, either from destroying ourselves or from some outside calamity.

To put it mildly, Musk thinks big and takes the long view. ''It's important that we attempt to extend life beyond Earth now,'' he says. SpaceX is Musk's attempt to do that. Its headquarters are within earshot of the runways of Los Angeles International airport.

The factory floor has been organised into an assembly line to make space rockets, part of a process of wresting the future of space travel out of the hands of government bodies, such as NASA, and into the hands of private businesses. Using its hyper-efficient Merlin engines, SpaceX has successfully flown its first rocket, Falcon 1, into space, where it put a satellite into orbit. Then it flew the much bigger Falcon 9 rocket earlier this year. Now the company is working on Dragon, a space capsule that will sit on top of a Falcon 9 and deliver cargo – and then, hopefully, astronauts – to the International Space Station. 

That is stunning stuff. SpaceX is not even a decade old. Yet it is doing things in space some countries with their own national space programs have not yet achieved. ''When we launched the initial rocket actually leaving the launch pad, that was awesome,'' Musk says. ''Getting into orbit was when a lot of people thought, OK, it's real. That's something that South Korea tried a couple of times and they failed. Brazil tried three times and they failed … only a few countries have succeeded.''

SpaceX is not alone. A raft of private firms have joined in a new space race. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, is building a suborbital rocket called the Blue Origin New Shepard. John Carmack, the man behind video games Doom and Quake, has his eyes on a lunar landing. Virgin Atlantic boss Richard Branson is aiming to initiate space tourism with his Virgin Galactic project. Yet SpaceX is the most advanced and ambitious. It has won hundreds of millions of dollars worth of business contracts for future voyages. Incredibly, however, SpaceX does not feel like a huge operation. It defeats the received wisdom only major world powers, or gigantic corporations such as Boeing, can set their sights on leaving Earth. SpaceX feels like a dotcom company.

In fact, SpaceX's Silicon Valley-style culture springs from Musk's background as one of the most successful figures to emerge from the internet. His interest in technology began early. He bought his first computer at the age of 10 in Pretoria, South Africa, the son of a Canadian model and a South African engineer. Musk taught himself to write computer programs and sold his first commercial software – fittingly, a space game called Blastar – when he was 12. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with two degrees before winning a place in 1995 at Stanford as a graduate student. He stayed there for two days before fleeing to start his first internet company, Zip2, which produced publishing software. In 1999 he sold it for more than $US300 million and co-founded X.com, which eventually turned into PayPal. It was sold to eBay in 2002 for $US1.5 billion.

''When I was in college there were three areas that I thought most would affect the future of humanity. Those were the internet, the transition to a sustainable energy economy, and space exploration and ultimately extending life beyond Earth and making it multi-planetary.'' For Musk, the best way to achieve the third goal was to popularise space travel and make it affordable. He investigated the science behind rocket launching and concluded there was no real reason why it was so expensive. He believed the space industry was dominated by inefficient government bodies.

He was right. SpaceX's Merlin engines are beautifully engineered and powerful, but simply made. They run on highly refined kerosene that costs less than petrol. The rockets they power are also simple. They have fewer stages (where one bit of the rocket separates from the other) than their rivals and are mostly re-usable. Thus they can put cargo into space for a fraction of the cost. The Dragon module is also a throwback, resembling something from the '60s. Musk has discovered being a celebrity has a dark side. He went through a painful divorce from the Canadian author Justine Musk, with whom he has five children.

The split generated its fair share of media attention, not least because Justine blogged extensively about the epic legal tussles over the terms of their settlement. Through it all is the desire to colonise Mars. Musk insists his most powerful Falcon 9 rockets could already launch missions to Mars if assembled in Earth's orbit. ''One of the long-term goals of SpaceX is, ultimately, to get the price of transporting people and product to Mars to be low enough and with a high enough reliability that if somebody wanted to sell all their belongings and move to a new planet and forge a new civilisation they could do so.''

It is tempting to dismiss it as a flight of fancy. Except, behind him on SpaceX's factory floor, Musk's nascent fleet of space rockets are being built.

Guardian News & Media

                HISTORY KEYS

Celestial Kings, Queens, Heroes and Maidens of the Night Skies

Greek mythology is a huge source of star names and constellations where many heroes and heroines are immortalized in the night skies. An African queen, chained princess, giant hunter, not one but several Greek heroes, a virgin, two Argonauts and their dismantled ship, a disabled charioteer, herdsman, archer, three healers and a snake handler are some of the more colorful characters that make up western astronomy’s official 88 constellations.

Orion the Giant Hunter

Fancying himself a ladies man, Orion relentlessly pursued strongman Atlas’s seven daughters, the Pleiades. Despite his advances he never won their affections: the maidens, clearly disinterested, managed to escape his clutches. This did not deter Eos the Dawn however who fell head over heels in love with him at first sight. To this day she still blushes in the early morn remembering their nightly dalliances much to the disapproval of Helios her brother (the Sun).

Snake Handler and Healer

Often portrayed holding a python in his hands (the constellation Serpens), Ophiuchus is associated with the healing god Asclepius. Besides this hero two other healers feature in the night skies – Centaurus the centaur and Chiron the wounded healer also a centaur represented by Sagittarius the Archer.

Revered for his teachings, Chiron’s students read like a Who’s Who of Greek heroes, including such greats as Asclepius, Ajax, Aeneas, Achilles, Heracles and Jason. Party animal of the Zodiac, Chiron indulged in all sorts of pleasures often to excess, especially alcohol and drugs.

The Flying Horseman, African Queen and her Chained Princess

Perseus son of Zeus is best remembered for his flying horse Pegasus (also a constellation) and for beheading Medusa, the snake-haired Gorgon goddess. Carrying her decapitated head in a bag, he flew to rescue the chained princess Andromeda. Daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and queen of Ethiopia she was chained to a rock by the sea by her own parents to appease a monster sent to ravage their kingdom. All because the queen had slighted the sea god Poseidon (Nereus) by boasting that she and her daughter were more beautiful than his daughters the Nereids.

Like all good love stories this damsel in distress married her hero soon after. Her mother on the other hand was not as fortunate, the gods punishing Cassiopeia for her insolence by placing her upside down in the heavens. Much to her relief she sometimes appears upright when the W-shaped asterism turns to look like an 'M'.

How Stars Got Their Names

Castor and Pollux are two of Gemini’s brightest stars. Twin brothers of Helen of Troy and sons of Zeus they booked a berth on the Argo to accompany Jason in search of the Golden Fleece. Once a huge complete constellation known as Argo Navis (the Ship Argo) is now dismantled and divided into four separate constellations: Carina (the Keel), Puppis (the Stern), Pyxis (the Compass) and Vela (the Sails).

The Virginal Cereal Goddess

The only female figure among the Zodiac constellations, Virgo represents all of the earth goddesses – Astraea, Ceres, Demeter, Ishtar and Isis. It is from the Roman goddess Ceres that we obtain the word cereal. As harvest-goddess she is often depicted holding an ear of wheat in her hand marked by the brilliant white star Spica.

Hercules the Goddesses’ Own Hero

Hercules is better known as Heracles whose name means ‘Glory to Hera’, wife of Zeus and Olympian goddess. His exploits are many and is best remembered for his ‘Twelve Labours’. It is from his duty to the goddess and in her honor that we have the word hero.

Auriga The Charioteer and Boötes The Herdsman

Often portrayed as carrying a kid goat on his shoulder this disabled charioteer like his father the lame god Hephaestus had a talent for making military tools, including his chariot. Equally inventive Demeter’s son, Boötes is credited with inventing the plough.

Some say he is Arcas or Arcturus, son of Zeus and Callisto. Curiously this constellation’s yellow-orange star is also called Arcturus which means ‘guardian of the bear’. Not surprising when you consider his mother was changed into a she-bear by jealous Hera. Zeus placed her in the heavens to protect her after she was almost killed by her son when he was out hunting.

Given the preponderance of Greek heroes one might expect to see Zeus in the night skies. Although not an official constellation some believe he is Taurus in disguise. That he once changed into a bull to ravish Europa makes complete sense. It's interesting to note that the ancient Babylonian, Egyptian and Indian civilizations also placed their Supreme Creator in this region of the night skies.

 Munya Andrews

Story Opportunities from Australasian Science, July 2010

The True Believers
Are we pre-programmed to believe in weird and wonderful things that lack any significant scientific basis, and are some of us more likely to believe than others?

Climate Change or Natural Variability? 
Meteorological records since the 1950s reveal a decrease in rainfall that is consistent with anthropogenic climate change, but a different picture emerges when looking at records since 1900.

Microbe Genes Could Curb Livestock Burps
The DNA sequence of a microbe that produces methane in ruminants provides a target for vaccines and other drugs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock.

The Biggest Losers 
New evidence tightens the noose on humans as the decisive factor in the extinction of the last of the megafauna in Australia and North America.

It’s a Wiggly, Wiggly Universe
A map of the Universe as it existed six billion years ago is close to completion, and may provide new insights into the physics of dark energy.

A?Matter of Taste
Newborn babies will smile when they first taste sucrose and wrinkle their noses at the bitter taste of quinine. What is the adaptive significance of such innate responses to taste?

The Young Visionaries
Early-career scientists are using goggles that mimic common eye diseases to teach primary school children about their vision research and the importance of eye care.

Evidence for Indigenous Australian Agriculture
The assumption that indigenous Australians did not develop agriculture is highly contestable, with a body of evidence revealing that they developed food production systems and in some cases lived in large villages.

The Hazards of Synthesis
Synthesis of knowledge from different disciplines is underused in research and has hazards for practitioners.

Australasian Science is dedicated to Australian and New Zealand science, providing a unique local perspective on scientific developments and issues that other science magazines can’t match. Check out the latest issue NOW: http://www.australasianscience.com.au/

For school & institution rates please contactGuy Nolch (Editor/Publisher) at Control Publications on 03 9500 0015. Fax: (03) 9500 0255 Email science@control.com.au    Please cite AUSTRALASIAN SCIENCE MAGAZINE as the source of these stories.

Events

Call for Papers

10th Australian Space Science Conference

27th to 30th September 2010

It is our pleasure to invite you to submit an abstract for the 10th Australian Space Science Conference (ASSC), to be held in Brisbane at the University of Queensland. This will be the fourth ASSC jointly sponsored and organized by the National Committee for Space Science (NCSS) and the National Space Society of Australia (NSSA). This year the Australian Space research Institute (ASRI) is also helping. The ASSC is intended to be the primary annual meeting for Australian research relating to space science. It welcomes space scientists, engineers, educators, and workers in Industry and Government.

This year's ASSC will run in conjunction with the NCSS's workshop on implementing Australia's first Decadal Plan for Space Science, which will shortly be published. This one-day workshop will discuss the Plan and Government's responses, better link the scientific community and associated stakeholders in Government and industry, and start implementing the Plan's recommendations. This year, there will also be a dedicated session to showcase ASRI research, as well as others on space technology and engineering more generally, plus a dedicated session for Australian government units with interests and expertise in space.

 Complete details of all registration rates and details of accommodation will be available in early July. There are now less than 3 weeks remaining for abstract submission, as the deadline of July 11 approaches! The proceedings for peer-reviewed papers from the 2009 conference are now available to view at URL: http://www.nssa.com.au/9assc/downloads/9assc-proceedings-lores.pdf Please make the conference known to your colleagues. We hope that you will attend. You may email asscconference@nssa.com.au for more information. Wayne Short, Co-Chair, National Space Society of Australia Iver Cairns, Co-Chair, National Committee for Space Science, University of Sydney

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