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Exoplanet news Part 2: Exosaturn!

Phil Plait — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:03:24 +0000

[I'm trying to catch up with all the news that's been released this week while I was off lecturing in Texas. This is Part 2 of a few articles just about exoplanets. Part 1 was posted earlier.]

Astronomers have found one of the most interesting exoplanets yet: one with a very extended ring system!

[That's an artist's impression of the system; click to encronosate.]

The planet was discovered with the SuperWASP (Wide Angle Search for Planets) telescopes — a UK project that employs low-magnification but very sensitive cameras which can observe large areas of the sky at the same time. It orbits a young star called 1SWASP J140747.93-394542.6, which is 420 light years away. The star’s youth — 16 million years — indicates that the rings are probably the leftover remnants from when the planet formed.

The planet and its rings were discovered using the transit method: looking for small dips in starlight as a planet passes directly between us and the star. This is how the vast majority of exoplanets are found. Usually, when you graph the brightness of the star over time, the dip in ...

Mild Doctor Who series 5 spoilers

Phil Plait — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:00:02 +0000

MILD SPOILERS FOR THE NEW DOCTOR WHO. If you want to remain Whoally pure, then go away.

T
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I just got word that the new series of Doctor Who will start on BBC America here in the States on April 17. All I know about the UK premier is that it’ll be around Easter (I may know more next week). The BBC confirms that the first three episode titles will be The Eleventh Hour and The Beast Below, both by Steven Moffat, and Victory of the Daleks by Mark Gatiss. Guest stars include Alex Kingston (River Song is back!), Sophie Okonedo, and Tony Curran.

Yay!

NextGen suborbital researchers meeting

Phil Plait — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:00:54 +0000

This is pretty cool: the Lunar and Planetary Institute is planning a meeting about the use of suborbital flights. It’ll cover research, passengers, public outreach, the whole schmeer.

The Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference will be held right here in Boulder on February 18 – 20, 2010. The speakers lining up are pretty good: my friend (and Apollo expert) Andy Chaikin will talk about passenger flight, former Shuttle commander Rick Searfoss, Pluto probe New Horizons chief guy Alan Stern, and people from NASA and the FAA will be there too.

If you want to participate (I suspect some space gurus read this blog…) then there is a November 12 deadline. Hurry!

I’m very interested in the use of space and near-space, so I’ll probably wind up going too. I don’t know what the future of space exploration will hold any more than the next space enthusiast does, but I’m pretty sure this will be playing a big role in it.

Don’t forget to bang bigly tonight!

Phil Plait — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:15:28 +0000

Reminder: Wil Wheaton will be on The Big Bang Theory tonight! I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch tonight since I’m traveling, but I’m hoping.
And folks: if you comment below, PLEASE DON’T POST SPOILERS. Mmmmkay?

Constellation Urion

Phil Plait — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:21:51 +0000

A lot of people sent me notes via email and Twitter saying they were out watching the Shuttle and the ISS pass by in the sky last night when Discovery did something very odd and disturbing: there was a flash and then an expanding halo of light around the Shuttle.

My first thought when I read this was that it was an orbital maneuver — a rocket firing — or maybe a meteor coincidentally near the same spot in the sky, but it turns out to be neither: it was a waste liquid dump, when the astronauts empty waste tanks before landing the Orbiter. SpaceWeather.com has the details, including a very cool picture.

I was out last night twice to see Discovery and the ISS, but didn’t see the Orbiter either time (I think the predictions I was using were off due to the imminent landing), so I missed the show. Oh well. I imagine more pictures will turn up pretty soon, though, so keep your eyes open.

Discovery has a landing opportunity at 19:05 Eastern time (23:05 GMT) today — they’ll make the de-orbit burn at 17:59 if the weather holds up — and then another opportunity about ...

Tweeting the NAS

Phil Plait — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:08:31 +0000

On Tuesday, June 23 (tomorrow!), I’ll be in DC to talk about how the internet and social networks have changed the way we communicate science. The cool thing is, the talk will be at the very prestigious National Academy of Sciences!

The NAS has always been interested in science communication, but the advent of teh toobz has obviously changed the game. A lot of voices advocating reality are rising now that were unheard before, and the web is their (our!) medium. So they asked me to come and talk about this to the staff, and, even better they’ve opened this to the public. Matt Nisbet has scheduling details; my talk is at 12:30 – 1:30 at the NAS building (500 Fifth Street, N.W. DC).

It’s RSVP only, so if you are in the area and want to attend, contact Olive Schwarzschild at oschwarz "at" nas "dot" edu.

Hubble Shuttle launch live coverage

Phil Plait — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:25:56 +0000

I am now covering the Shuttle launch live on Twitter using my BA News feed. Launch is scheduled for 14:01 Eastern time (18:01 GMT) today! You can also watch on NASA TV.

Eight decades for my mom

Phil Plait — Sat, 02 May 2009 16:39:56 +0000

I don’t usually put personal stuff on this blog for a lot of different reasons, but today is a rare exception.

You see, today is my mom’s 80th birthday.

She’s been a huge influence on me. Of course, your parents are supposed to be, for better or worse, but in this case I’m going with better. My parents were really great about encouraging my siblings and me to pursue the lives we wanted (including letting me keep my giant 10″ Newtonian telescope in the corner of the living room for years — visitors thought it was a water heater), and that resulted in all of us going after unusual or non-standard careers. And, come to think of it, all of us have made major career changes at some point in our lives; I consider that to be a positive aspect since it meant we were unsatisfied with the way things were going and, rather than settle, we went off in new directions to find what it was we wanted.

My oldest brother is an electrical engineer has a degree in computer science and now runs a computer and networking consultant business in Atlanta. My other brother’s the chief engineer for construction in ...

Shuttle lands Saturday

Phil Plait — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:14:48 +0000

The Space Shuttle Discovery is due to touch down in Florida at 13:43 Eastern time Saturday! As usual, I’ll try to live Tweet it (on my new BA News account). The mission was pretty successful, with the installation of a new truss and solar panels that has given the Space Station full power capacity, as well as bringing up a new crew member and taking one away. The one big glitch was a pin installed upside-down in an equipment platform, which NASA hopes to get fixed soon.

Remember, you can watch the landing on NASA TV (and if you have it, the cable station HDNet commonly shows them live in HD too).

In other Shuttle news, Atlantis rolls out to the pad Tuesday! When it launches (scheduled for May 12) it’ll be heading to perform the last servicing mission on the Hubble Space Telescope.

ISS Node 3: Colbert clause

Phil Plait — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:03:47 +0000

I am getting swamped with notes from folks saying that the new node to be put on ISS next year will be named "Colbert".

But it’s not that simple.

As you may recall, NASA opened up a contest to name Node 3, a connecting module to be put on the International Space Station next February. The name "Serenity" (awesome!) was doing very well, and then my arch-enemy Stephen Colbert started asking his Nation to send in votes.

Next thing you know, there were 230,000 votes for "Colbert", 40,000 more than for "Serenity". But this is not over, because NASA was smart in the original contest. Check out Contest Rule #4:

NASA will take into consideration the results of the voting. However, the results are not binding on NASA and NASA reserves the right to ultimately select a name in accordance with the best interests of the agency, its needs, and other considerations. Such name may not necessarily be one which is on the list of voted-on candidate names. NASA’s decision shall be deemed final.

I’ll watch Colbert tonight, and I’m sure he’ll claim victory. But that clause means NASA doesn’t have to use the winning entry! ...

Rapping about astrobiology

Phil Plait — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:33:15 +0000

Going through my YouTube subscriptions today I stumbled on a video that’s pretty interesting: a guy rapping about astrobiology.

I am not an aficionado of rap — I don’t think ABBA ever did it, did they? — but I kinda like this one despite the sometimes awkward lyrics (his accent is cool, too). His use of the sounds of moving across the radio dial is clever, and how many rap songs do you know that reference Frank Drake and Carl Sagan?

Two weeks to Doomsday… reading

Phil Plait — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:45:15 +0000

My book, Death from the Skies!, comes out in less than two weeks.

Woohoo!

Death from the Skies!, coming very soon.

I’ve added a countdown clock in the sidebar of the blog (go ahead, take a peek), as well as links to order it, and a couple of blurbs (one’s from my Close Personal Friend ™ Adam Savage). The clock assumes it goes on sale midnight October 20, but that’s close enough. Assume a bin size of one day.

I have some things I’m doing to promote the book. I’ll be writing some blog posts geared toward it over the next two weeks; so expect a wee bit more doom-and-gloom (but in a fun way!): more gamma-ray bursts, meteorites, solar events, and exponentially expanding collapses of the false quantum vacuum.

Also, I’m doing some press events. Here’s the list so far:

October 21: I’m doing a live interview at Denver’s KUSA (Channel 9) at 12:20 or so p.m. October 21: I drive back home, and then I’ll be at the Boulder Bookstore that night at 7:30 to give a short presentation with a dramatic reading from the book. I’ll have a meteorite to show people, too. October ...

NASA has hired pest control! Woohoo!

Phil Plait — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:57:24 +0000

I get email…

CONTRACT RELEASE: 23-08

NASA AWARDS LANDSCAPING MAINTENANCE, PEST CONTROL CONTRACT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA has selected S.C. Jones Services, Inc., of Dillwyn, Va., to provide grounds maintenance and pest control services at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

The new firm-fixed price contract begins on Oct. 1, 2008. It has a one-year base period and four, one-year option periods. The maximum value of the contract is approximately $13.5 million.

S.C. Jones Services will provide grounds maintenance and pest control services in support of all areas of Kennedy.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Pest control and lawn maintenance are important. Seriously — have you experienced the bugs in Florida? The ants there are amazingly invasive. I suspect alligators may be considered a pest, too…* But somehow a press release on those contracts seems a little weird. Maybe there is some contractual thing going on here, or a government law saying they must announce all contracts over some value.

Well, whatever. I for one welcome our new ant-control overlords.

*Hmmm, tourists may be included in this category as well.

Dragon*Con

Phil Plait — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:22:43 +0000

In just a few short hours I’ll be on a plane winging my way to Dragon*Con 2008 in Atlanta. Woohoo! D*C is a huge con, with 40,000+ fans of scifi, comics, fantasy, and other flights of fancy. I’m going as part of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, but I’m also participating in the Skeptic Track (talks and panels about critical thinking) as well as Space and some science fiction. Kevin Grazier and I will be rehashing our Science of Science Fiction panel we did at Comic Con, for example.

If you’re in the Atlanta area and want to go, check out the Skeptic track schedule, or the more complete schedule listed in the pocket guide. Skepchick has more, and there’s a Star Trek track I’d like to see, too.

Loads of stars will be there, too, including Nathan Fillion, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, James Hong (indeed!), and a gazillion others. Skeptics attending include Michael Shermer, Richard Saunders, Randi, and a bunch more too. My friends astronomers Bill Keel and Pamela Gay will be in attendance too.

This will rawk. Oh baby.

I went to D*C ...

Comments are back on

Phil Plait — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 00:12:57 +0000

Folks–

Thanks for being patient. As far as I can tell, the move to the new server has worked, and it was only marginally painful (though I still have some behind-the-scenes work to do).

It is possible that some people may still see the blog from the old server, until their network catches up with the new location . That usually happens in a few hours, so I’m hoping it’s over. But if you post a comment, and the next day it’s gone, that may be the culprit.

And now, back to the regularly posted astronomy/critical thinking/humor ranting. Well, in a coupla hours.

Migrating to a new server

Phil Plait — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 22:04:48 +0000

Loyal readers (and if you’re new, or not loyal, you can read this too):

Big changes are afoot at Bad Astronomy. I have some plans that will improve the website and blog considerably over the next few weeks, and by improve I don’t mean "make crappy like the ‘improved’ Coke, or the way the cereal manufacturer have ‘improved’ Cocoa Puffs by making them whole grain, which removes any hint of flavor".

No, things will get better. The first step in this process is to move Bad Astronomy to a new server that gives me more disk space, more bandwidth, and more freedom in general. That move is happening in the next few minutes after I post this. Because for a while the site will exist in two places (until the domain name servers catch up), I am shutting off commenting to the blog. This is temporary; it’ll be back on by Thursday evening Pacific time if all goes well. I hope no one minds.

In the end, you shouldn’t notice any difference at all. The blog and main site will always work, but you won’t be able to post comments for a few hours.

So bear with me please! And if you see ...

Introducing the Bad Astronomy Blog

Phil Plait — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 00:33:41 +0000

So, it’s come to this.

Perhaps it’s been too long coming. If you’ve read the site, you know I have a lot to say, maybe too much. There’s a boatload of astronomy out there, Bad and Good, and not enough time to write up whole pages about it. Plus, sometimes I just think of stuff (the bane of the thinker), and I might want to make a short, pithy comment for the Curious Masses out there.

So here you go. The BABlog. I may have a contest later on how to pronounce that. In my head, it kinda comes out “blah blog”. Anyway, it was either this or do a podcast, and a podcasting friend of mine told me how much effort a ‘cast would be. So now I’m blogging, because I’m nothing if not least effort.

The next entry will have actual content. I promise. Until then, welcome, and take an hour or two to poke around the main Bad Astronomy site.