Month: October 2012

The supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way is about to get a snack.

6:16 pm

The supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way is about to get a snack.

Update: The recently launched NuStar telescope in July detected its first flare from the central black hole (which by the way is called Sagittarius A* and is pronounced Sagittarius A-star). If the gas cloud produces any fireworks as it whips past the black hole in the coming year then NuStar should see it.

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An Italian court has convicted seven earthquake scientists of manslaughter for their failure to properly warn the public prior to the L’Aquila earthquake.

1:22 pm

An Italian court has convicted seven earthquake scientists of manslaughter for their failure to properly warn the public prior to the L’Aquila earthquake.

The court also sentenced the men to six years in prison, which is two years more than the prosecutor recommended.

The more I have read about this case, the less I have been in sympathy with the scientists. While it is absurd to expect any scientist to be able to precise predict the occurrence of an earthquake, in this case some of the individuals convicted had issued statements that actually go against basic earthquake science in order to give the public a false sense of safety. They claimed that the increased level of seismic activity suggested a reduction in the risk of an earthquake, when all research actually indicates the exact opposite.

Some additional details here.

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The filmmaker who made the anti-Islamic movie falsely blamed by the Obama administration for the Libya attack has now been in jail for a month.

9:51 am

Freedom of speech is so 20th century: The filmmaker who made the anti-Islamic movie falsely blamed by the Obama administration for the Libya attack has now been in jail for a month.

The movie had nothing to do with the Libya attack. And even if it caused the riots in Egypt, who cares? I thought there was something called the First Amendment, a law to protect the speech rights of U.S. citizens. Yet, Barack Obama and his entire administration have done everything they can to blame the movie, not their own foreign policies, while going out of their way to squelch this man’s freedom.

But remember those binders!

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Engine problems on a Delta 4 rocket launch two weeks ago could delay the launch of the Atlas 5 rocket scheduled to lift the X-37B on its next mission.

8:52 am

Engine problems on a Delta 4 rocket launch two weeks ago could delay the launch of the Atlas 5 rocket scheduled to lift the X-37B on its next mission.

Don’t ask me why the military would delay an Atlas 5 launch because of problems on a Delta 4. It seems to be left over caution from the 1960s, when no rocket was reliable and they were trying to figure out how to do it. Now, it simply seems silly.

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The first analysis of the water from Lake Vostok, buried deep under the Antarctic icecap, has shown no evidence of life.

10:20 pm

The first analysis of the water from Lake Vostok, buried deep under the Antarctic icecap, has shown no evidence of life.

Bulat and his colleagues counted the microbes present in the ice sample and checked their genetic makeup to figure out the phylotypes. They counted fewer than 10 microbes/ml — about the same magnitude they would expect to find in the background in their clean room. And three of the four phylotypes they identified matched contaminants from the drilling oil, with the fourth unknown but also most likely from the lubricant.

The scientists note that this is a preliminary result. Further drilling for new deeper samples will take place in 2013.

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Orbital Sciences has delayed the first demo launch of its Cygnus cargo capsule until March 2013 at the earliest.

10:16 pm

Orbital Sciences has delayed the first demo launch of its Cygnus cargo capsule until March 2013 at the earliest.

The schedule for Antares itself has not been delayed. Launchpad tests are still scheduled to begin next week, with the first engine test set for early November, and the first launch of Antares set for December.

They don’t explain the reason for the Cygnus delay. I suspect they simply decided to be realistic. It was always unlikely that the first Cygnus launch would follow only a month after the first Antares launch, especially if there are any kinks in that launch.

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“This is the election where black folk sit down and say ‘NO MORE!’ and we stay home.”

4:13 pm

“This is the election where black folk sit down and say ‘NO MORE!’ and we stay home.”

Read the whole article. It is detailed, and I think gives an accurate portrayal of the present political attitude of the black community. And this is in Chicago. Blacks might not be ready to vote Republican, but they apparently are finally beginning to realize that the Democrats aren’t their saviors.

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The mysterious shiny particles uncovered by Curiosity’s scoop are from Mars, not the rover.

4:00 pm

The mysterious shiny particles uncovered by Curiosity’s scoop are from Mars, not the rover.

After last week’s plastic encounter, Curiosity’s science team worried the new particles might be man-made. Since they turned up in scoop holes, however, the granules must have been buried in the subsurface. They likely came from larger minerals that broke down. They might also represent the product of some geological soil process that generates a bright but unknown mineral.

These are not the same mysterious objects first seen when the rover began science operations. Those particles were on the surface, and looked like bits of plastic that might have come off the rover or its descent stage.

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A Texas judge is expected to rule today on whether cheerleaders have the right to quote the bible at high school football games.

11:25 am

A Texas judge is expected to rule today on whether cheerleaders have the right to quote the bible at high school football games.

And if he rules they can’t, I say they should go ahead anyway, as they have the right to express themselves no matter what a judge says.

Update: The judge has ruled in favor of the cheerleaders.

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Blue Origin has successfully tested its new hydrogen/oxygen rocket engine.

9:27 am

The competition heats up: Blue Origin has successfully tested its new hydrogen/oxygen rocket engine.

This would be the second new American rocket engine since the 1980s, following SpaceX’s Merlin engine. That it uses hydrogen/oxygen is also significant, as these fuels provide the highest ratio of power to weight. (As far as I remember, the shuttle was the only other spacecraft to use hydrogen/oxygen.)

Post corrected. Thanks Paul!

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The science team for New Horizons is considering shifting the spacecraft’s Pluto flyby away from the planet to avoid orbital debris.

9:20 am

The science team for New Horizons is considering shifting the spacecraft’s Pluto flyby away from the planet to avoid orbital debris.

“We’ve found more and more moons orbiting near Pluto — the count is now up to five,” Stern said. “And we’ve come to appreciate that those moons, as well as others not yet discovered, act as debris generators populating the Pluto system with shards from collisions between those moons and small Kuiper Belt objects.”

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Laura Branigan – Forever Young

6:01 pm

An evening pause: Laura Branigan (1957-2004)

Some are like water some are like the heat
Some are the melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later they all will be gone
Why don’t they stay young?
It’s so hard to get old without a cause
I don’t want to perish like a fading horse
Youth’s like diamonds in the sun
And diamonds are forever
So many adventures couldn’t happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams waiting out of the blue
We’ll let them come true

Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?
Forever and ever

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Kepler reveals our Sun might be more variable than we imagine

5:13 pm

More exoplanet news: The problems of Kepler.

The article outlines the status — both good and bad — of Kepler in its hunt for Earthlike exoplanets.

I have already reported on Kepler’s failed reaction wheel. It no longer has a backup and needs every reaction wheel it has to keep it pointed in so precise a manner. Thus, the loss of one more wheel will shut the telescope down.

However, I had not been aware that the scientists now need more than twice as much time, eight years instead of three, to do their work, because they have discovered that sunlike stars are far more variable than expected. To quote the article,
» Read more

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