woodchurch science

the eclipse begins at 2018 gmt, with the moon totally immersed in the shadow of the earth between 2244 and 2358 gmt.
during “totality”, only light that has been filtered through the earths atmosphere reaches the moons surface, making it appear a reddish colour. should be largely cloudless in the northwest tonight so get out there…

astronomers have decided to call what was originally xena or snappily 2003 ub313, ‘eris’. in greek mythology, eris caused a quarrel among goddesses sparking one of the trojan wars. in astronomy circles, eris has also caused strife, forcing scientists to produce a strict definition of the term planet - and has led to pluto losing its planet status that it had held since its discovery in 1930. both eris and pluto (together with the largest asteroid, ceres) are now classified as ‘dwarf planets.

[listen to this blog entry!]

nasa has selected lockheed martin as the prime contractor to design, develop, and build orion, america’s spacecraft for a new generation of explorers.

the orion crew capsule will carry astronauts back to the moon and later to mars. the first flight with astronauts aboard is planned for no later than 2014. orion’s first flight to the moon is planned for no later than 2020.
orion improves on the best features of the apollo project and the space shuttle program, increasing the likelihood of success. orion is being designed to fly to the moon, but could also be used to service the international space station in low-earth orbit. more information together with simulated video clips here

yesterday astronomers agreed (?) to demote pluto and strip it of its planetary status so that the new solar system contains both planets and ‘dwarf’ planets - pluto amongst them. this has upset a lot of people, who have claimed that the vote was hijacked. apparently there were 10000 astronomers eligible but only 424 stayed to vote!

some people are so upset that they have even started selling bumper stickers in support of pluto. you can buy them here!

click here for a bigger version, or here for an enormous version!
the world’s astronomers have concluded two years of work defining the lower end of the planet scale - what defines the difference between “planets” and “solar system bodies”. if the definition is approved our solar system will consist of 12 planets: mercury, venus, earth, mars, ceres, jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune, pluto, charon and 2003 ub313. the three new proposed planets are ceres, charon (pluto’s companion) and 2003 ub313.
in this artist’s impression (above) the planets are drawn to scale, but without correct relative distances.

so there’s a meeting today to decide if our 9th planet is to be downgraded, deleted or left where it is. apparently a bigger lump of rock, though equally far away is up for recognition as a planet with the catchy name of 2003UB313 (it has been nicknamed xena, of warrior princess fame). caltech’s mike brown has a really interesting and easy to understand website about it’s discovery.
if pluto does disappear from the 9, then it’s going to be interesting trying to come up with a mnemonic for our solar system: my very easy method just speeds up naming xena? doesn’t quite work now does it?

the outermost ring of Uranus, discovered just last year, is bright blue, making it only the second known blue ring in the solar system, according to a report this week in the journal science. both blue rings are associated with smaller orbiting moons. you can read more about these findings here or here or even here.

so just what is that amazing material that was used by the stardust comet project to collect space dust? it’s actually made of the same material as glass (silicon oxide) but is 1000 times less dense and is nearly all air (99.8%). it was discovered in california in the 1930s but largely forgotten because there was no use for it. it can be used as an insulating material: an inch thick pane has the same insulating properties as 15 panes of glass and air. read more about the stardust project and aerogel here.

the new horizons mission to pluto takes off today at 1930hrs (weather permitting) on a 9 year mission to pluto. visit nasa’s main site, learn more about the mission at this bbc guide, or read about the whole project at johns hopkins university applied physics laboratory (if you are quick you could see the launch live on their webcam!)

it seems that there are some women being paid to lie in bed for two months! to aid research into weightlessness scientists are studying what happens to the female human body when it’s immobile for weeks on end (they have plenty of data about men, but not so much for women). so some female astronauts are being paid (!) just to lie in bed. great job if you can get it. read more here