tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81006242008-07-22T16:42:33.844-06:00Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comBlogger533125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-84553169229934106622008-07-22T15:45:00.004-06:002008-07-22T16:42:33.866-06:00

Image Credit: Contours: ESA/ XMM-Newton/ EPIC (adapted from A. Read et al.), Background: SSS Most of the time, the stars and galaxies that we astronomers look do not change much, if at all, over a human lifetime. So, our only hurry in looking at a star is to do it before somebody else does. If the weather is bad or the telescope breaks, we can come back another night, or even another year,

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-84417259936991574942008-07-21T08:58:00.003-06:002008-07-21T09:22:25.366-06:00

Image Credit: NASA 39 years ago, humankind took its first tentative steps into the cosmos when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin walked on the surface of the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission. (Their moonwalk, while only 2.5 hours long, started about 11pm EDT on July 20 and finished in the early morning of July 21, so there is some ambiguity in the "date" of the moonwalk.

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-12360991315499171002008-07-18T08:54:00.003-06:002008-07-18T09:38:16.735-06:00

Credit: D. Linder / EPOXI / NASA The video above shows a very unique view of the Earth/moon system. It was taken by the EPOXI Mission, the name of NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft's new mission (now that it's completed its mission to explore Comet Tempel 1). The spacecraft turned its onboard camera toward the Earth in late May when it was 31 million miles away from Earth, and it captured (

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-84750644540077574832008-07-17T09:22:00.003-06:002008-07-17T09:52:05.255-06:00

These days I am working on a fairly boring paper that I intend to publish in one of our professional astronomy journals. The reason it is boring is because it is about nothing. Or, at least, it is about us looking for something and not finding it. A couple months ago, my colleagues and I announced that we has seen variations in the light of a special type of white dwarf star. This

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-12582673565801614612008-07-16T07:53:00.001-06:002008-07-16T08:33:29.048-06:00

Image Credit: NASA We're going back to the moon. It may be 15 or 20 years until we get there, but NASA is headed that direction. Many people, including a lot of astronomers, are opposed to this new lunar exploration. It will be very expensive, and we aren't sure what the point of the exploration is. A colleague of mine once argued that we astronomers should be pushing NASA to build a

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-24448550915891823362008-07-15T09:03:00.004-06:002008-07-15T09:31:39.396-06:00

Image Credit: McDonald Observatory This summer, two of our fellow postdoctoral researchers here in the Astronomy Department at the University of Texas at Austin are moving on to bigger and better things. Justyn Maund (left), who studies supernovae, or the explosions of stars, has accepted the Tycho Brahe fellowship at the Dark Cosmology Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark. Seth Redfield (

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-54740123564716821262008-07-14T08:06:00.006-06:002008-07-14T11:23:47.018-06:00

This weekend I was flipping through TV channels, when I stumbled across a show in progress that was discussing the interaction of the mineral magnetite in meteors with Earth's magnetic field and the aurora. I thought that this seemed like a pretty complicated subject to be discussing on TV, but I've seen more complicated things. And I'd missed the start of the show, so I didn't really know what

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-41522104788387209192008-07-10T07:45:00.003-06:002008-07-10T09:13:38.592-06:00

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and L. Bedin (STScI) Sometimes in astronomy we come across a really odd object. And the hard part is knowing whether the object is telling us something fundamental about physics and astronomy, or whether the object is just unique, or some combination of those. Today's example is based on a new Hubble Space Telescope press release (that I was griping a bit about

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-81921596736815584162008-07-09T08:14:00.003-06:002008-07-09T12:21:16.124-06:00

Press releases on scientific discoveries are sometimes "embargoed," meaning that the press is given materials in advance, but only on the condition that the findings not be released before a given date (often the date of a press conference or publication of a magazine). Nature, one of the most prestigious scientific journals, is extraordinarily strict; at one point, they requested that

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-65367813377317564942008-07-07T08:09:00.002-06:002008-07-07T08:30:07.232-06:00

Image Credit: John Deering / Creators Syndicate, Inc. / Hosted by Comics.com Three weeks is a long time to be away from one's desk. Over that time, I've visited family in California and Illinois, helped facilitate a high school science teacher's continuing education workshop at McDonald Observatory in west Texas, and observed with the Keck Telescope on the Big Island of Hawaii. No wonder I

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-19646057464694297672008-06-30T10:01:00.005-06:002008-07-10T09:10:40.400-06:00

Image Credit: CERN The "Doomsday Supercollider" sounds like some bad B-movie plot, or something that Indiana Jones or James Bond might be out to stop. But, in fact, it is a horrible misnomer for one of the most exciting physics facilities to come along in decades, the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC (picture above). For years, news stories have been circulating (including one on CNN today!)

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-63344517206920613092008-06-30T09:58:00.002-06:002008-06-30T10:00:14.379-06:00

Yesterday evening I got home from the teacher continuing education workshop at McDonald Observatory, and today I am at the airport, ready to fly to Hawaii to use the Keck telescopes. It will be a fun trip, but I'll be ready to come home.

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-64609177636995614782008-06-28T09:14:00.003-06:002008-06-28T09:22:46.961-06:00

After two very cloudy and stormy nights, we finally had some nice weather for our workshop participants last night. Above is a picture of Saturn I took with my point-and-click camera at the start of the night. I felt bad that we closed down a little early. It looked like some thunderstorms were coming in, and with 20 people standing outside on top of a mountain, I just didn't feel

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-91335212165994751382008-06-28T09:10:00.001-06:002008-06-28T09:13:10.624-06:00

Participant Jesse Whitaker explores the properties of light. Here with another special report from the McDonald Observatory "Age of the Milky Way" teacher continuing education workshop is participant Dan Maloney: Day 2 Summary – Yesterday was another very informative day for the teacher workshop. The group was led by our mentor teacher Jody through several classroom activities. The first was

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-34332742573474026292008-06-26T10:40:00.003-06:002008-06-26T10:56:40.260-06:00

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm helping to run a science teacher continuing education workshop at McDonald Observatory this week. I've invited our participants to be guest authors. Today's guest is Daniel Maloney, a teacher in Troy, NY. Day 1 Summary – Our first day at the McDonald Observatory was very exciting. Our day began with staff and participant introductions. We immediately went to work

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-47929172007217332432008-06-25T15:44:00.002-06:002008-06-25T15:55:29.165-06:00

Yesterday I survived my 8-hour drive from Austin to McDonald Observatory for the 2008 version of our teacher continuing education workshop. It was a gorgeous drive, with thunderstorms building in the distance, lots of sunshine, and very empty roads. Today our teachers arrived, 14 high school science teachers who braved $4/gallon gas to drive and learn a little astronomy. We got them into

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-61656767095054983152008-06-24T09:33:00.002-06:002008-06-24T09:36:59.653-06:00

After a much-needed vacation last week, I arrived home yesterday afternoon just in time to do some laundry and prepare for our annual teacher workshop at McDonald Observatory. In the next several days, I'll blog their experiences (and maybe even get some guest bloggers). For now, I need to hop in the car and drive across Texas.

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-62828220395331132312008-06-24T09:12:00.003-06:002008-06-24T09:27:45.212-06:00

In the last week, several posts (mostly old ones) had spam comments posted. I think I've deleted most of these, but let me know if I've missed one. Further, maybe it's now a good time to put into writing my (previously unspoken) comments policy. I haven't had any trouble beyond the occasional spam, but for posterity: I retain the right to change the method of posting comments, to change this

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-42450149809627873902008-06-16T11:51:00.002-06:002008-06-16T11:53:07.321-06:00

I'll be on vacation for the rest of the week, so you'll have to manage without me for a few days. See you next week!

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-14062825999246728462008-06-16T11:35:00.002-06:002008-06-16T11:51:00.961-06:00

After years of uncertainty, cancellations, reinstatements, and delays, the shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Telescope for the last time is finally next on the list. On Saturday, the space shuttle Discovery landed after another successful mission to the International Space Station. It will be another four months until the next space shuttle launch, when Atlantis is sent on her last (

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-15493883998297092522008-06-13T07:14:00.003-06:002008-06-13T07:50:10.188-06:00

Image Credit: Alan Stern, Marc Buie, NASA and ESA Just when it seemed like the issue of whether Pluto is a planet or not was fading away, it was re-opened by the very body that demoted Pluto in the first place. Earlier this week, the International Astronomical Union (or "IAU" for short), the "ruling body" of astronomy world wide, announced that objects like Pluto shall henceforth be known as

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-25791349600912186332008-06-12T08:03:00.005-06:002008-06-12T09:20:14.528-06:00

Image Credits: NASA / CBS Yesterday, NASA launched a new telescope into orbit, The Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST. I've been hearing about the preparation of this mission for at least a decade, so it is great to see it underway! My congratulations to the team. But why would astronomers want to look at gamma rays? And don't we already have telescopes looking at gamma rays?

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-53355217596395914612008-06-11T16:01:00.002-06:002008-06-11T16:16:51.762-06:00

Today was not a good day for my blog. The first post was erased when I hit a wrong button combination, and the second one would not post because of some intermittent trouble at Blogger. Probably just some of those tubes of the Internets were stuffed up. But, in spite of my troubles, it was a good day for the folks at NASA. The space shuttle left the space station after a successful mission (

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-50208654564292695722008-06-11T15:57:00.001-06:002008-06-11T15:57:13.348-06:00

testing to see if posting is working.

Professor Astronomyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05295911342339870253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8100624.post-91885313204203926502008-06-09T10:01:00.003-06:002008-06-25T15:44:15.240-06:00

People don't come to me for advice on social networking, and for good reason. There are deep sea sponges that are more outgoing than I am. But astronomy is becoming more and more accessible through online networking, and I learned about several such endeavors while at the American Astronomical Society meeting last week. So, here is a completely incomplete list of a few options for a few

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