Technomaly » space

Why Are Space Strawberries A Thing We’re Talking About?

Asterios Kokkinos — Sat, 08 May 2010 14:00:19 +0000

In today’s edition of, “Why Is This A Thing We’re Talking About?”, we take a look at Space Strawberries, which is now a thing that we are apparently talking about.

Why are we talking about this thing? Well, PopSci reports that the Seascape Strawberry Plant can produce strawberries with as little as 10 hours of light a day, which is important, as interstellar grow lights consume lots of power – the shorter the amount of light they need, the better. The Seascape also produces gigantic berries, large enough to satisfy even the fattest of astronauts.

Finally, these plants produce berries up to six months after flowering, meaning long periods of berry growth for our brave astromen.

PopSci reports that lettuce, radishes and tomatoes are all likely to be on the interstellar menu, due to their hearty ability to grow in space. Will strawberries be amongst those disgusting, boring plants? Only time will tell. But yes, yes they will.

This is Asterios Kokkinos, for “Why Is This A Thing We’re Talking About?”

Source & Photo Source: PopSci

Giant Space Hand!

J. Matthew Zoss — Mon, 03 May 2010 18:21:26 +0000

The hand of God? An alien breaching the walls of our galaxy? The giant space hand you see here is actually pulsar PSR b1509-58.This neutron star spins seven times per second and is relatively young by pulsar standards – the light of the supernova that caused it would have first reached our planet about 1,700 years ago.

The Space Hand is located about 17,000 light years away from the constellation Circinus and is approximately 100 light years long. According to NASA, the “low energy X-rays are in red, medium energies in green, and high energies in blue. The pulsar itself is in the bright central region.”

Source: NASA via Gizmodo

SETI Founder Wants Off-World Alien Listening Post

J. Matthew Zoss — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:35:40 +0000

At the recent TED 2010 conference, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) founder Frank Drake proposed that humanity needs to do more to search for alien intelligences. His latest suggestion is that we move the search for intelligent life into the very depths of space where another species might be found. According to Drake, mankind should establish a listening post about 82 billion kilometers off-planet.

The upshot of this deep-space listening post is that electromagnetic signals to and from this listening post would be easier to detect, thanks to the amplifying “gravitational lensing” effect of our sun. We would therefore be able to receive signals from further away from Earth, as well as send friendly signals deeper into space. However, the downside of this plan is establishing the listening post in the first place. At current space travel speeds, it would take a spacecraft literally hundreds of years to reach the 82 billion kilometer location.

Source: New Scientist

Astronauts Twitter From Space, It’s Still Boring

Asterios Kokkinos — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:00:24 +0000

@astro_mike: tell the astronauts planet earth says hi!

The space shuttle Endeavour takes off today, carrying with it a crew that will deliver and install the Tranquility node to the International Space Station. Also going with them are their Twitter accounts – Astronaut Mike Massimino (@astro_mike) will be accepting tweets down at mission control at the Kennedy Space Station and beaming them up to astronauts, who’ll respond to questions about the mission.

While that may not technically be tweeting from space, don’t worry – last month, astronaut T.J. Creamer – a.k.a. @astro_TJ – sent tweets to followers directly from the internet connection at the International Space Station. On January 22nd at 3:38 PM EST, the first space tweet was sent out. The message?

“We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station—the 1st live tweet from Space!”

See? I told you astro-twitter would be as boring as regular twitter. Why not just tweet what you had for lunch today while you’re at it, guys? It’s as simple as writing “@earth: ate even more food from tubes!”

Obama’s Budget Proposal Funds NASA, Cuts Moon Landings

J. Matthew Zoss — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:21:47 +0000

On February 1, President Obama unveiled his new budget proposal. Not found in its pages was funding for a Department of Socialism. On the other hand, an increase for NASA was included. The space agency would receive an additional $6 billion over the next five years, but funding for return trips to the moon.

According to the budget draft, NASA’s Constellation program, which “was planning to use an approach similar to the Apollo program to return astronauts back to the Moon 50 years after that program’s triumphs,” would be canceled. An independent panel found that the program was behind schedule and over-budget, and the Obama budget proposes turning over much of future space exploration to the private sector.

The new funding, which would increase NASA’s operating budget to $19 billion in 2011, would refocus the agency towards general science and away from space exploration. As long as I can still get my freeze-dried ice cream and Tang, I’m okay with that.

Source: Associated Press

Supermassive Black Holes ‘Waltzing’ Through Space

Nick Upton — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:28:13 +0000

An image of the galaxy COSMOS J100043.15+020637.2. The tidal tail of stars, gas, and dust shows that this galaxy recently merged with another galaxy, which brought two supermassive black holes into this galaxy. (NASA/ASA)

Our galaxy will soon (3 billion years) get into the universal dance party and join the other 33 known galaxies containing a pair of supermassive black holes — we will, of course, be annihilated.

Scientists with Berkeley unveiled new research showing that the phenomenon is actually much more common than once thought.

The numbers “show that dual supermassive black hole systems are much more common than previously known from observations,” Dr. Comerford, a postdoctoral researcher in astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley, said via press release.

Researchers spotted the dancers by watching redshifting (traveling away) light and blueshifting (traveling away from the black hole) at the center of neighboring galaxies. Just as the Kepler probe spots a gap between the sun and orbiting planets, Berkeley researchers saw a gap between the celestial giants.

The two black holes pull against each other and tug at nearby stars, making a huge mess of the galaxy but also making for a very interesting glimpse into the depths of our universe.

Via Berkeley’s Department of Astronomy.