A meteor shoots past the Milky Way. Image by L.Brumm Photography and Design.

Space.com has an excellent guide about the best way to observe meteor showers; dress warm; after midnight; be patient). The Lyrid meteor shower is on this week.

To take good photos of a shower you’ll need to do long exposures or get lucky. Details on the photo above here.

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2012. How to Watch a Meteor Shower, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in Natural WorldNo Comments » - Tags: art and science, astronomy, meteors, photography, space

This wonderful image explores how different groups of people see (and think about) astrobiology.

Image by Julia DeMarines ᔥ Pale Blue Blog.

ᔥ Pale Blue Blog

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2012. What Astrobiologists Do, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in Natural WorldNo Comments » - Tags: astrobiology, careers, science, space

Just in time for our physics test — on electromagnetism — the Sun has had a Coronal Mass Ejection of charged particles that is heading toward the Earth.

[The Coronal Mass Ejection] is moving at almost 1,400 miles per second, and could reach Earth’s magnetosphere – the magnetic envelope that surrounds Earth — as early as tomorrow, Jan 24 at 9 AM ET (plus or minus 7 hours). This has the potential to provide good auroral displays, possibly at lower latitudes than normal.

– Fox, 2012: M8.7 Solar Flare and Earth Directed CME from NASA.

The Earth's magnetic field deflects charged particles around the planet, although some do get redirected down toward the poles, making the arouras. (Image from NASA's Spaceplace).

A Coronal Mass Ejection has about 100 billion tons of electrons, protons and other particles (NASA Cosmicopia, 2011), usually ionized, that would bombard the Earth and the atmosphere if we weren’t protected by the Earth’s magnetic field.

Most of the ions are deflected around the Earth but some get focused down toward the poles. At the poles, these ions hit nitrogen and oxygen molecules (that make up 98% of the atmosphere), exciting many of them. Excited atoms and molecules give off light. The light shows created are called the auroras.

Aroura australis, as seen from the International Space Station.

I like the second video they post because, at the end, there is a splatter of interference from all the charged particles affecting the detector.

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2012. Solar Flare, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in Natural World, PhysicsNo Comments » - Tags: electromagnetism, physics, space

Suspected gypsum vein on Mars. Image taken by the Opportunity Rover. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU.

NASA thinks their rover has found veins of gypsum on Mars. If they have, it will be an excellent indication that there was once standing water on Mars — gypsum is usually precipitated in evaporating lakes — and will excite the search for life on Mars.

What gypsum veins on Earth look like: white gypsum veins from Somerset, UK. Image by Ashley Dace. (via Wikipedia)

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2011. Gypsum on Mars, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in Natural WorldNo Comments » - Tags: biology, exploration, extra-terrestrial life, geology, mars, space

Artist's rendering of Keppler 22b, a planet 600 light years away that is in the habitable zone of its solar system. Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech.

The Voyager 1 spacecraft is rapidly approaching the space between the stars, where the Sun’s solar wind is pushed back by the interstellar magnetic cloud.

Voyager approaches interstellar space -- an artist's rendition. Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

How far will it go? The spacecraft have enough power to last until 2020, when it will be about 20 billion kilometers from the Sun (it’s now about 17.8 billion km away). In 40,000 years it will drift “within 1.6 light years … of AC+79 3888, a star in the constellation of Camelopardalis” that’s about 17.6 light years away.

Consider the 40,000 years it will take Voyager to travel 17.6 light years, and the distance to Keppler 22-b, a recently discovered “Earth-like” planet that’s about 600 light years away.

Keppler 22b's orbit and size compared to Earth's. Image via NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech.

Keppler 22-b is in the liquid water zone of it’s solar system: far enough away from its sun that water on its surface will not just boil away from the heat, yet close enough that the water does not just freeze solid instead. Liquid water is a key necessity for all life as we know it.

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2011. Beyond Interstellar Space: Finding Earth-Like Planets, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in Biology, Natural World, Physics1 Comment » - Tags: exploration, extra-terrestrial life, space, space science

A cluster of galaxies, each with millions, or billions or trillions of stars. This ridiculously awesome image (think about it) was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (via Space Telescope).

The galaxy cluster MACS J1206. Galaxy clusters like these have enormous mass, and their gravity is powerful enough to visibly bend the path of light, somewhat like a magnifying glass.

These so-called lensing clusters are useful tools for studying very distant objects, because this lens-like behaviour amplifies the light from faraway galaxies in the background. They also contribute to a range of topics in cosmology, as the precise nature of the lensed images encapsulates information about the properties of spacetime and the expansion of the cosmos.

–NASA, ESA, M. Postman (STScI) and the CLASH Team: Hubble image of galaxy cluster MACS J1206

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2011. A Galactic Cluster, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in Natural WorldNo Comments » - Tags: astronomy, gravity, space

National Geographic has a cute little game that lets you create a two-dimensional solar system, with a sun and some planets, and then simulates the gravitational forces that make them orbit and collide with each other. The pictures are pretty, but I prefer the VPython model of the solar system forming from the nebula.

The models starts off with a cloud of interstellar bodies which are drawn together by gravitational attraction. Every time they collide they merge creating bigger and bigger bodies: the largest of which becomes the sun near the center of the simulation, while the smaller bodies orbit like the planets.

This model also comes out of Sherwood and Chabay’s Physics text, but I’ve adapted it to make it a little more interactives. You can tag along for a ride with one of the orbiting planets, which, since this is 3d, makes for an excellent perspective (see the video). You can also switch the trails on and off so you can see the paths of the planetary bodies, note their orbits and see the deviations from their ideal ellipses that result from the gravitational pull of the other planets.

I’ve found this model to be a great way to introduce topics like the formation of the solar system, gravity, and even climate history (the ice ages over the last 2 million years were largely impelled by changes in the ellipticity of the Earth’s orbit).

National Geographic’s Solar System Builder is here.

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2011. Build Your Own Solar System: An Interactive Model, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in Natural World, Physics, Technology, videoNo Comments » - Tags: geomod, gravity, interactive model, modeling, physics, science, scientific method, solar system, space, vpython

Water is necessary for life as we know it, which is why the search for life on other planets and moons in the solar system has been focused first of all on finding water. NASA now reports signs of water on Mars. Salty water perhaps, and even now there is no direct evidence that it is water and not some other fluid, but this is the first evidence of there being liquid water on Mars today.

The video above explains, and the BBC has a good article.

Citing this post: Urbano, L., 2011. Signs of Water on Mars?, Retrieved May 19th, 2012, from Montessori Muddle: http://MontessoriMuddle.org/ .
Attribution (Curator's Code ): Via: ᔥ Montessori Muddle; Hat tip: ↬ Montessori Muddle.

Posted in Natural World, videoNo Comments » - Tags: extra-terrestrial life, life, mars, space, video