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Monday, August 22, 2011

Geodesy Is Alive And Well… And Splitting Hairs On Planet Earth

Geodesy Is Alive And Well… And Splitting Hairs On Planet Earth:

This view of Earth comes from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard the Terra satellite. Image credit: NASA

When it comes to planet Earth, it’s very important to know if we’re growing or shrinking. While plate tectonics are responsible for major changes in our planet’s outer crust, we need to have accurate measurements of our atmosphere and magnetic fields, too. To make these appraisals accurate, the global science community established the International Terrestrial Reference Frame. (...)
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PICTURES OF NATURE & UNIVERSE PHOTOGRAPHY

Astrophoto: Jupiter Rising by Mindi Meeks

Astrophoto: Jupiter Rising by Mindi Meeks:

Jupiter Rising. Credit: Mindi Meeks

Here’s a photograph of Jupiter taken by Mindi Meeks from Navarre, Florida on July 3, 2011 at around 3 in the morning CST.

“My husband and I were enjoying a quiet evening on our screened-in porch when I noticed a bright star rising in the east. We determined that it was Jupiter, and it was such a lovely sight that I wanted to try to photograph it.”

Mindi captured this photo with a Nikon D5000 camera mounted on a standard tripod with the following settings: 55mm, 15.0s exposure, f/4.5, ISO 1000.

To see more of Mindi’s photos, you can check out her photo blog.

Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Universe Today Flickr group; we select photographs from this group and post them every day. If you don’t want to join Flickr, you can send your images in by email. If you do contribute to the group, or send us photos by email, you’re giving us permission to post them here on Universe Today. To help us out, please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, and/or a little story about it — that would enable us to write a better article about your picture! Make sure you tell us your name, and give us a place we can link to if people want to see more of your work.
PICTURES OF NATURE & UNIVERSE PHOTOGRAPHY

No, NASA is Not Predicting We’ll be Destroyed by Aliens

No, NASA is Not Predicting We’ll be Destroyed by Aliens:

Movie poster from 'Aliens Attack," via getfilm.co.uk

There were some interesting, if not shocking headlines this week regarding a study supposedly put out by NASA, with the articles saying that aliens might come and destroy Earth because of our global warming problems. Headlines such as:

Aliens Could Attack Earth to End Global Warming, NASA Frets (Fox News)

Global Warming Could Provoke Alien Attack: NASA (International Business Times)

NASA: Aliens might destroy us because of our gases, (CNET)

and this one, which started the whole thing:

Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civilizations, say scientists (The Guardian — The subheadline for this article originally said it was a NASA report, but has since been amended)

While the report is real, and one of the authors was a NASA intern, NASA in no way sponsored or endorsed the article, which was basically an enjoyable thought-experiment, and was titled: “Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis.”

(Available as pdf here.)

(...)
Read the rest of No, NASA is Not Predicting We’ll be Destroyed by Aliens (1,006 words)
PICTURES OF NATURE & UNIVERSE PHOTOGRAPHY

Astrophoto: The Milky Way and Venus over Andes

Astrophoto: The Milky Way and Venus over Andes:

The Milky Way and Venus over Andes. Credit: Guillermon Abramson

Guillermo Abramson of Bariloche, Argentina captured this stunning photo of the central region of the Milky Way and Venus over the Andes Mountains on October 24, 2008. Guillermo used a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi camera mounted on a Meade LX10 telescope and took this photo with the following settings: 18 mm, F/3.5, 120 sec, ISO 400.

Can’t get enough of Guillermo Abramson’s photos? You can check out his blog here.

Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Universe Today Flickr group; we select photographs from this group and post them every day. If you don’t want to join Flickr, you can send your images in by email. If you do contribute to the group, or send us photos by email, you’re giving us permission to post them here on Universe Today. To help us out, please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, and/or a little story about it — that would enable us to write a better article about your picture! Make sure you tell us your name, and give us a place we can link to if people want to see more of your work.
PICTURES OF NATURE & UNIVERSE PHOTOGRAPHY

Lanzarote Sun Halo by Astrohans

Lanzarote Sun Halo by Astrohans:

A halo around the Sun, as seen on the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. Credit: 'Astrohans'

A beautiful and colorful halo — a 22 degree ring — as seen on the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, taken by ‘Astrohans” on Flickr. Astrohans posted that circumhorizontal arc is also visible, and that the photo was taken on May 8, 2010 in Playa Blanca, using a Canon EOS 400D Digital.

Halos form when light from the Sun or Moon is refracted by ice crystals associated with thin, high-level clouds (like cirrostratus clouds). A 22 degree halo is a ring of light 22 degrees from the Sun (or Moon) and is the most common type of halo observed.

See more from Astrohans Flickr stream.

Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
PICTURES OF NATURE & UNIVERSE PHOTOGRAPHY

Astrophoto: Aurora Borealis by Tony Cellini

Astrophoto: Aurora Borealis by Tony Cellini:

Aurora Borealis. Credit: Tony Cellini

Who wouldn’t love to see this showcase of colors on a night sky? Definitely worth a click!

It was during a solar maximum in the mid-1990s when Tony Cellini took this nice photo of the Aurora Borelis in Bloomington, Illinois.

“This was one of most intense aurorae I’ve ever seen this far south and the image doesn’t beging to capture its extent. Even during a 1st quarter moon, the green tendrils were visible straight overhead, and the red coloring was very obvious to the naked eye which is unusual from this location.”

If you would like to know how he came up with this photo, Tony also mentioned the camera and settings he used.

“The camera used was a fully manual Pentax K-1000. The lens was a standard 50mm lens to which I threaded a fisheye “converter” that gave an almost 180 degree field of view. The cheap converter is what caused the concentric rings artifact in the center of the photo.”

See more of Tony’s photos at: http://www.dwfoto.com/blogs

Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Universe Today Flickr group; we select photographs from this group and post them every day. If you don’t want to join Flickr, you can send your images in by email. If you do contribute to the group, or send us photos by email, you’re giving us permission to post them here on Universe Today. To help us out, please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, and/or a little story about it — that would enable us to write a better article about your picture! Make sure you tell us your name, and give us a place we can link to if people want to see more of your work.
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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Earth

Earth : "

Planet Earth

PICTURES OF NATURE & UNIVERSE PHOTOGRAPHY

NASA Photos Photography

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the United States government agency responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958.

UFO SIGHTINGS PHOTO PHOTOGRAPHY

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a UFO as "An unidentified flying object; a 'flying saucer'." The first published book to use the word was authored by Donald E. Keyhoe. The acronym "UFO" was coined by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed Project Blue Book, then the USAF's official investigation of UFOs. He wrote, "Obviously the term 'flying saucer' is misleading when applied to objects of every conceivable shape and performance. For this reason the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name: unidentified flying objects. UFO (pronounced Yoo-foe) for short." Other phrases that were used officially and that predate the UFO acronym include "flying flapjack", "flying disc", "unexplained flying discs", "unidentifiable object", and "flying saucer". The phrase "flying saucer" had gained widespread attention after the summer of 1947. On June 24, a civilian pilot named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier. Arnold timed the sighting and estimated the speed of discs to be over 1,200 mph (1,931 km/h). At the time, he described the objects' shape as being somewhat disc-like or saucer-like, leading to newspaper accounts of "flying saucers" and "flying discs". In popular usage the term UFO came to be used to refer to claims of alien spacecraft. and because of the public and media ridicule associated with the topic, some investigators prefer to use such terms as unidentified aerial phenomenon (or UAP) or anomalous phenomena, as in the title of the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).

UFO PHOTO PHOTOGRAPHY

UFO - Unidentified Flying Object An unidentified flying object, or UFO, in its most general definition, is any apparent anomaly in the sky that is not identifiable as a known object or phenomenon. Culturally, UFOs are associated with claims of visitation by extraterrestrial life or government-related conspiracy theories, and have become popular subjects in fiction. While UFOs are often later identified, sometimes identification may not be possible owing to the usually low quality of evidence related to UFO sightings (generally anecdotal evidence and eyewitness accounts). Stories of fantastical celestial apparitions have been told since antiquity, but the term "UFO" (or "UFOB") was officially created in 1953 by the United States Air Force (USAF) to serve as a catch-all for all such reports. In its initial definition, the USAF stated that a "UFOB" was "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." Accordingly, the term was initially restricted to that fraction of cases which remained unidentified after investigation, as the USAF was interested in potential national security reasons and/or "technical aspects" (see Air Force Regulation 200-2). During the late 1940s and through the 1950s, UFOs were often referred to popularly as "flying saucers" or "flying discs". The term UFO became more widespread during the 1950s, at first in technical literature, but later in popular use. UFOs garnered considerable interest during the Cold War, an era associated with a heightened concern for national security. Various studies have concluded that the phenomenon does not represent a threat to national security nor does it contain anything worthy of scientific pursuit (e.g., 1951 Flying Saucer Working Party, 1953 CIA Robertson Panel, USAF Project Blue Book, Condon Committee).