tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81006242009-07-04T14:11:10.413-05:00In this blog, I discuss astronomy, current news in the science, and the day-to-day life of an astronomer. Are you curious about space and how the science of astronomy is done? If so, read the Professor Astronomy Blog.Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comBlogger731125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-84656504548504418702009-07-02T09:16:00.003-05:002009-07-02T10:40:42.918-05:00

Illustration credit: Heidi SagerudWhen reading about scientific discoveries, it is always important to remember Professor Astronomy's Discovery Law: The last person to discover something gets the credit. Yesterday, a news story was released on a nice bit of research that is "the first solid evidence of a new class of medium-sized black holes." Only many other astronomers who have claimed to

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/07/discovery-of-new-class-of-black-holes.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-38676254184795656572009-06-30T17:54:00.006-05:002009-06-30T18:34:19.748-05:00

In our formal education as astronomers, we take courses on physics. We take courses on astronomy. We learn to perform research at the heels of our advisers. We devise and execute a research project. Then we are awarded our doctorate and unleashed on the world, supposedly ready to study the deepest secrets of the universe. But there are some things we aren't taught or trained in, and yet are

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com1http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/06/preventing-failures-in-communication.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-87177762927219575802009-06-29T20:14:00.002-05:002009-06-29T21:04:16.483-05:00

In yesterday's post, I presented a (somewhat too heavy, perhaps) parable about a guy who refused to pay the dollar cost of necessary repairs on his favorite car. In the end, his miserliness and pig-headedness not only cost him his car, but took out his friend's beloved car as well. The analogy I want to draw is with the current debate in the U.S. Congress about the Waxman-Markey bill, the

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/06/dont-put-off-until-tomorrow-what-you.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-51320846556362818182009-06-28T18:09:00.000-05:002009-06-28T18:10:43.191-05:00

Today I tell a parable, and tomorrow I'll give my meaning behind it. We're going to follow the adventures of two normal American guys, Clark and Bob. Clark and Bob are good friends, and both have always wanted to own a high-end sports car. They save up their money, and when they have enough, they go to the dealer to buy the newest hot thing. The sports car comes with a new type of German

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/06/parable-of-bob-and-ultrameister-3000.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-30533325496544523012009-06-23T09:46:00.004-05:002009-06-23T11:02:14.258-05:00

Several times a year, news stories come out about how the government is "wasting" money on science projects that are "stupid." I'll admit, at first glance, these projects can seem silly, and perhaps some of them are. But many aren't. Let's look a little closer. Last week, news came out on a $423,500 study funded by the National Institutes of Health on "why men don't like to wear condoms."

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com1http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/06/in-defense-of-wasteful-science.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-42098131004666838802009-06-22T09:23:00.004-05:002009-06-22T09:44:27.087-05:00

As I've mentioned before, the white dwarf research group of which I'm a member collaborates with local citizen scientists, primarily the Central Texas Astronomical Society, CTAS. Their current president, Dean Chandler, has helped us through some thorny instrumental problems, and many of their members (including Dean and Willie Strickland) have helped us with observing, both at our McDonald 2.1-

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/06/more-citizen-science-in-news-central.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-16335611079933738142009-06-20T13:08:00.003-05:002009-06-20T13:45:03.124-05:00

I listen to several different podcasts as I'm commuting to and from work, and when I'm driving around town. Normally I am only half-listening; there's only so many discussions of the economy I can stand before I'm irrecoverably melancholy.But today, on my way back from taking the recycling in (my apartment complex doesn't recycle anything), I heard something to the effect of, "When you think

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com1http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/06/speaking-of-teenagers.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-49926153222007017052009-06-18T13:22:00.006-05:002009-06-18T17:39:19.291-05:00

A few minutes ago, the Hubble Space Telescope's Public Affairs Office tweeted that a mystifying problem has arisen with the Hubble's new Science Instrument Command and Data Handler (SI C&DH) that was installed during last month's repair mission. For the gory details, you can read their press release here. But, in short, the SI C&DH is a computer that runs the science cameras; it controls the

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com1http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/06/hubble-space-telecopes-new-computer-is.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-68261936589023822792009-06-16T10:00:00.003-05:002009-06-16T10:00:07.104-05:00

One of the great things about astronomy is how interested the public is in what we do. Whether it be pretty Hubble pictures, the Big Bang, black holes, or aliens, it seems that just about everyone always has lots of questions to ask. What many people don't realize is that you don't need a space telescope or a PhD to participate in astronomy research. "Citizen scientists" (often called amateur

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com2http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/06/participate-in-astronomical-science.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-24355053142013586142009-06-15T11:50:00.002-05:002009-06-15T12:12:35.833-05:00

I am returning tomorrow from vacation. In the meantime, here's a continuation of guest author Joel Green's discussion on his work in star and planet formation. Joel will be writing more in the future as his time allows. Anyone familiar with the beautiful artist conceptions of the Milky Way might picture our galaxy as a spinning ceiling fan of stars, with the outer edges of the arms trailing

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/06/building-planets-part-2.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-20710600483410604272009-06-08T11:59:00.001-05:002009-06-08T11:59:00.963-05:00

Artist’s conception: EX Lupi builds its planetary system out of its cirumstellar disk. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC) Note: I'm away on vacation right now. This blog post was authored by my friend and colleague Joel Green, a postdoc at the University of Texas at Austin. I’m in planet construction. When I’m out at a bar, I see that people in the real world have business cards.

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/06/building-planets.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-53526776439923087592009-06-08T09:21:00.002-05:002009-06-08T09:30:04.427-05:00

Discover Magazine and Celestron are sponsoring Capture the Universe, an astrophotography contest; Phil Plait, a.k.a. the Bad Astronomer, is the judge of this venture. The main rules: your images must be taken on Celestron equipment, and the due date is June 30 (of course there are more). Prizes include new telescopes! More details and links to the full rules, prize list, and entry forms can

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/06/astrophotography-contest.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-76314303891429861802009-06-03T11:42:00.002-05:002009-06-03T13:40:31.340-05:00

This past weekend, I was working on a telescope proposal at a nearby coffeehouse, and a couple of young folks (high school, I think) were at the next table over, working together on a research project. I won't mention the topic, because that isn't important and would be distracting, but it was science-related, and I have some knowledge of the area. I overheard much of their work, because they

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/06/need-for-critical-thinking.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-81585489335768042402009-06-02T12:21:00.002-05:002009-06-02T12:23:41.504-05:00

I'm off today for two weeks of vacation in the great American West. It's my first real vacation (i.e., not visiting extended family) in about two years, and a much-needed respite. Blogging will be spotty until mid-June. I'm trying to round up a few guest articles, and will post some pictures now and then as time and internet access allow. In the meantime, keep looking up!

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/06/vacation.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-33410307884561208662009-05-28T10:15:00.005-05:002009-05-28T10:58:24.855-05:00

Image Credit: McDonald Observatory The past few years, I've blogged about a continuing-education workshop I help facilitate at McDonald Observatory. We have 15 high school teachers from across the country who spend five days learning about stellar evolution and white dwarfs and four nights using our 30- and 36-inch telescopes. The 2009 version of this workshop is coming up in early July, and

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com1http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/05/request-for-observing-suggestions.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-58122652553343423422009-05-27T09:11:00.004-05:002009-05-27T09:51:01.812-05:00

Image Credit: MPIfR (click on the picture for a full and extensive list of credits) Supernovae are powerful explosions that end the lives of the most massive stars in the Universe. At their peak, supernovae can outshine an entire galaxy. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, we've seen supernovae in galaxies billions of light-years away. Since massive stars end their lives as supernovae (those

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/05/messier-82-conducts-covert-test-of.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-43354105959360377512009-05-26T22:38:00.002-05:002009-05-26T22:49:48.530-05:00

The blog site 3 Quarks Daily has announced a new blog writing prize. For their first go-around, they are awarding prizes for science blogging! If there's a scientific blog entry (from, say, this blog, or any other blog) that you think is worthy of recognition, please feel free to nominate it! Rules are listed here; primarily, it needs to be an entry written on or after May 25, 2008, and

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/05/oooh-pick-me-pick-me.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-85191358866669665252009-05-26T20:45:00.002-05:002009-05-26T22:36:09.630-05:00

This weekend I relaxed and caught up on some recreational reading, finally getting through my stack of magazines from April. Now I know why the magazines in so many doctors' waiting rooms are so old; it takes the doctors months to get around to reading them in the first place. In the April issue of Scientific American, there is an article by Timothy Clifton and Pedro Ferreira pondering if dark

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/05/copernican-principle.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-36510745079451203912009-05-20T09:38:00.003-05:002009-05-20T10:31:05.412-05:00

The Hubble Space Telescope has been released back into its own orbit after five grueling spacewalks to perform final repairs. With two new instruments, two repaired instruments, new gyroscopes, new batteries, new pointing equipment, and new insulation, our astronauts have given Hubble the best possible chance for a long continuing career. This shuttle mission has been fun to watch. I don't get

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/05/another-tremendous-job-by-our.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-52097470237597037482009-05-17T19:21:00.004-05:002009-05-17T19:40:50.546-05:00

Today, our astronauts on the space shuttle proved their worth yet again by successfully repairing the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, or STIS, during a long, frustrating, and ultimtely rewarding spacewalk. During the eight-hour marathon, astronauts Mike Massimino and Mike Good had to physically rip a handrail off of Hubble to get at the instrument, had to remove 111 screws that were

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com1http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/05/agony-and-ecstacy-of-space-walking.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-86940708113273752862009-05-17T09:31:00.002-05:002009-05-17T10:14:18.084-05:00

In the last two days, the astronauts on the shuttle Atlantis have continued to make successful repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope. They've added a new spectrograph (more below), replaced all six of the Hubble's gyroscopes, replaced one of the two battery packs, and opened a camera that was never meant to be opened in space and replaced four circuit boards (more on this also below). The

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/05/hubble-repairs-keep-on-coming.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-18790503846351367922009-05-15T08:17:00.005-05:002009-05-15T09:14:41.251-05:00

Yesterday, in the first space walk of the Hubble Servicing Mission 4, astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel replaced Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), thus aiding in the succession of a nearly royal line of cameras. These cameras are some of Hubble's workhorse instruments, and are responsible for many of the pretty pictures you've seen

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/05/hubbles-wide-field-camera-is-dead-long.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-8085581478179487942009-05-14T08:41:00.003-05:002009-05-14T09:42:19.388-05:00

With all eyes on the shuttle's final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, many of you probably have not heard of today's other giant space news: the launch of the European space telescopes Herschel and Planck. The single Ariane 5 rocket containing both satellites launched successfully at 9:12am EDT this morning, and the latest news is that both satellites successfully separated from

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/05/herschel-and-planck-launch.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-32662894542860487652009-05-12T09:56:00.002-05:002009-05-12T10:56:07.287-05:00

After yesterday's safe launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, the orbiter is spending today and part of tomorrow chasing down Hubble. I used to wonder why the shuttle always takes a few days to track down the Hubble, the International Space Station, or other satellites. There's no physics reason why we couldn't launch a rocket directly from Florida to rendezvous with Hubble or the space station

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/05/chasing-down-hubble.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-68180529790990780442009-05-08T09:39:00.003-05:002009-05-08T10:18:21.369-05:00

Image Credit: NASA If all goes on time, the space shuttle Atlantis will launch Monday at 2pm EDT on NASA's fifth and final mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. In the primary sign that this is a government operation, the mission is known as "Servicing Mission 4", because Servicing Mission 3 was split into two separate visits, 3A and 3B. Whatever. Anyway, you can follow the mission

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.com0http://blog.professorastronomy.com/2009/05/hubble-here-we-come.html