Author: Robert Zimmerman

Three years of Solar Dynamics Observatory images of the Sun — in three minutes.

2:17 pm

Three years of Solar Dynamics Observatory images of the Sun — in three minutes.

I’ve posted the video below the fold. It’s quite cool.

Note that these images cover the period when the Sun was ramping up to what was hoped to be a strong solar maximum, when SDO was being designed and built. And though the Sun does appear to be active in these images, it is actually far less active than it has been for solar maximums going back at least a century.

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A rocket reveals a fundamental truth about America

12:29 pm

Yesterday, Orbital Sciences successfully completed the first test launch of its Antares rocket, developed, designed, and built in less than five years under a commercial contract with NASA to provide cargo to the International Space Station. The launch went like clockwork, perfectly, with no hitches at all, something that is quite remarkable for a new rocket on its first launch. Kudos to the engineers at Orbital Sciences for a job well done!

Besides demonstrating the skill of Orbital Science’s engineers, however, this successful launch illustrated in stark reality a fundamental fact about the culture of the United States that continues to allow it to stand out from the rest of the world, even as a large percentage of the present generation of Americans are doing their darndest to try to destroy that culture. Moreover, that fundamental cultural fact is basic to human nature, not just the United States, and if we recognize it, it will provide us all the right framework for what to do and not to do in trying to maintain human societies, both here on Earth as well as in the future in space.

In order to understand the true significance of Orbital Sciences’s success yesterday with Antares, however, we must first review the capabilities of the world’s launch industry. I am not going to list all the rockets capable of putting payloads into orbit, only those that are successfully competing for business in the open commercial market.
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“This nation of sheep is indeed begetting a government of wolves, and as a result we are all witnessing the death of liberty.”

9:15 am

“This nation of sheep is indeed begetting a government of wolves, and as a result we are all witnessing the death of liberty.”

And then there’s this: “Why does evil make liberals stupid?” Key quote:

This piece in The Atlantic is a good exemplar of the mushy liberal commentary that has proliferated in recent days. Authored by one Megan Garber, it is titled: “The Boston Bombers Were Muslim: So?” Before taking a close look at Ms. Garber’s article, let’s advise The Atlantic not to put away that headline. It could come in handy so often. “The Cole Bombers Were Muslim: So?” “The Embassy Bombers Were Muslim: So?” “The First World Trade Center Bombers Were Muslim: So?” “The September 11 Bombers Were Muslim: So?” “The Madrid Bombers Were Muslim: So?” “The London Bombers Were Muslim: So?” “The Shoebomber Was Muslim: So?” The Underwear Bomber Was Muslim: So?” “The Fort Hood Shooter Was Muslim: So?” “The Beslan Child-Murderers Were Muslim: So?” “The Times Square Bomber Was Muslim: So?”

We could keep this up for a very long time, but let’s move on to Ms. Garber’s soulful meanderings.

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All systems are now go for the first launch of Antares at 5 pm (Eastern).

1:43 pm

All systems are now go for the first launch of Antares at 5 pm (Eastern).

We have liftoff. All is nominal. The first stage has shut down and separated after operating perfectly. The fairings protecting the dummy payload have separated perfectly, which for Orbital is a big deal, as they have had problems with fairing shrouds on previous launches with other rockets.

The second stage engine has ignited, as planned. All is nominal, as the launch director keeps saying.

The second stage engine has shut down, as planned. Antares is in orbit. After a 90 second pause the dummy payload has separated, as planned.

A perfect launch. The United States now has two companies capable of putting cargo and payloads into orbit at reasonable prices. The competition continues to heat up.

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An detailed analysis of the tumbling of the asteroid Apophis, detected by radar observations in January, suggests it will be easier to predict the asteroid’s orbit in the future.

10:15 am

The sky isn’t falling: A detailed analysis of the tumbling of the asteroid Apophis, detected by radar observations in January, suggests it will be easier to predict the asteroid’s orbit in the future.

The gentle but persistent nudging [of the Yarkovsky effect] arises when sunlight is absorbed by a rotating object and then reradiated as heat in some other direction. In particular, if Apophis were spinning retrograde (opposite the way Earth does), then over time its orbit would change in a way that increases the chance of impact in 2036. But now we can rest easy, because Apophis appears to be tumbling as it orbits the Sun. That’s the conclusion reached by a team of telescopic observers who monitored the asteroid’s light curve as it passed near Earth in January. Apophis is spinning around two axes at the same time, implying that any Sun-warmed surfaces are radiating heat in all directions, not just one in particular.

It is very difficult to measure the Yarkovsky effect, thus making it very difficult to precisely calculate the orbits of many near Earth asteroids. In the case of Apophis, however, it appears the astronomers have gotten a good handle on the problem.

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A Russian spacewalk on ISS today.

10:06 am

A Russian spacewalk on ISS today.

What is especially interesting about this spacewalk is its participants, Pavel Vinogradov and Roman Romanenko. Vinogradov at 59 years old is the oldest person to do a spacewalk. It is his seventh EVA. Roman Romanenko meanwhile is following in the footsteps of his father, Yuri Romanenko, who spent three months in space in the late 1970s on Salyut 6 followed by a ten month mission on Mir in 1987. As far as I can remember, this makes Romanenko the first second-generation astronaut in history.

Update: a reader has noted that Richard Garriott was the first second generation astronaut, beating Romanenko by one year. See the comments.

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Hubble has taken a spectacular close-up image of the Horsehead Nebula.

9:46 am

A horsehead of another color: Hubble has taken a spectacular close-up image of the Horsehead Nebula.

Also, if you want to find out exactly how powerful Hubble is in comparison with both ground-based and other space telescopes, check out the video provided by this press release for the new images by the Herschel Space Telescope of the Horsehead Nebula that were also released today. Herschel, which works in the far-infrared, produces good data and information that Hubble cannot, but its imagery cannot compare.

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Using Kepler astronomers have found a solar system with five terrestrial-type planets, with two in the habitable zone.

11:23 am

Eden? Using Kepler astronomers have found a solar system with five terrestrial-type planets, with two in the habitable zone.

Using observations gathered by NASA’s Kepler Mission, the team, led by William Borucki of the NASA Ames Research Center, found five planets orbiting a Sun-like star called Kepler-62. Four of these planets are so-called super-Earths, larger than our own planet, but smaller than even the smallest ice giant planet in our Solar System. These new super-Earths have radii of 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, and 1.9 times that of Earth. In addition, one of the five was a roughly Mars-sized planet, half the size of Earth. …

The two super-Earths with radii of 1.4 and 1.6 Earth radii orbit their star at distances where they receive about 41% and 120%, respectively, of the warmth from their star that the Earth receives from the Sun. The planets are thus in the star’s habitable zone; they have the right temperatures to maintain liquid water on their surfaces and are theoretically hospitable to life.

Theoretical modeling of the super-Earth planets, Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f, suggests that both could be solid, either rocky–or rocky with frozen water.

This is big news. Additional info can be found here and here.

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Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Wednesday he fears a “train wreck” as the Obama administration implements Obamacare

11:30 am

Idiot: Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Wednesday he fears a “train wreck” as the Obama administration implements Obamacare.

Baucus was one of the key architects of Obamacare and voted for it, along with every other Democrat in Congress. That he is only now discovering what a bad law it is is just further proof that he should fired.

The real question is whether the voters will fire him. After the last election I have my doubts.

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The American Communist Party has sued the Democratic Party for stealing their platform.

12:01 am

Heh. The American Communist Party has sued the Democratic Party for stealing their platform.

“They stole our entire platform, rebranded it ‘progressive’, and claimed it as their own,” declared a CPUSA spokesperson at a press conference in San Francisco. “And we communists say, not so fast! Not in this country anyway, where we still have property rights and the rule of law, thank God! Actually, let me rephrase that…”

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A union is calling for the repeal of Obamacare.

3:18 pm

The house of cards begins to fall: A union is calling for the repeal of Obamacare.

Our Union and its members have supported President Obama and his Administration for both of his terms in office.

But regrettably, our concerns over certain provisions in the ACA have not been addressed, or in some instances, totally ignored. In the rush to achieve its passage, many of the Act’s provisions were not fully conceived, resulting in unintended consequences that are inconsistent with the promise that those who were satisfied with their employer sponsored coverage could keep it.

These provisions jeopardize our multi-employer health plans, have the potential to cause a loss of work for our members, create an unfair bidding advantage for those contractors who do not provide health coverage to their workers, and in the worst case, may cause our members and their families to lose the benefits they currently enjoy as participants in multi-employer health plans.

But don’t worry, come the next election this same union will continue to support the same Democratic politicians that gave us Obamacare, because party partisanship is far more important than common sense and rational leadership.

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Because its FAA test flight permit will expire on May 23, SpaceShipTwo’s first powered flight has to occur by then and be supersonic.

11:00 am

The competition heats up: Because its FAA test flight permit will expire on May 23, SpaceShipTwo’s first powered flight has to occur by then and be supersonic.

What is unclear to me is how the expiration of this permit could affect future flights. Does Virgin Galactic have to get a new permit to continue test flights? What about the tourist flights that are supposed to follow?

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