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Saturday, October 23, 2010
National Art Education Association - University of Idaho Student Chapter
University of Idaho students regularly present workshops at the Idaho Art Education Annual Conference, attend the national conference, and have sponsored a variety of workshops for the local community and the university.
The NAEA consists of over 22,000 art educators from every level of instruction: early childhood, elementary, secondary, college and university, administration, and museum education. Anyone and everyone concerned about quality art education in our schools can join the National Art Education Association; this includes publishers, manufacturers of art materials, parents, students, retired teachers, and those participating in arts councils and schools.
NAEA is a non-profit, educational organization dedicated to promoting art education through Professional Development, Service, Advancement of Knowledge, and Leadership. There are NAEA members from throughout the United States and twenty-five foreign countries.
To support and improve art education programs in our schools, NAEA pursues a policy of Education, Communication, and Empowerment. The NAEA produces and distributes national goals for quality art education and provides expertise, professional training, and tools which enable members to effect change on their local levels.
Freshman Information
Get to know other freshmen interested in a teaching career by joining the Freshman Interest Group for K-12 Education
How Parents Can Enhance Their UC San Diego Student’s Education
Parents and family members of UC San Diego students know the value of a good education. And they are aware that UCSD is one of the nation’s most accomplished research universities, widely acknowledged for its local impact, national influence and global reach.
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| UC San Diego students tutor at charter schools in our district, including The Preuss School on the UCSD campus. |
“At UC San Diego, we educate our students in the hope that they will grow into thoughtful, productive citizens so that we may one day place the care of our world into their capable hands,” notes Steven Adler, Warren College Provost, professor of Theatre and chair of the campus Council of Provosts. “But to do the job properly, we must rely on the generosity of UC San Diego parents.”
With higher education’s share of state revenue declining each year (only 12 percent of UC San Diego’s total budget is from the State of California), many families choose to support the Parents Fund as a way to enhance students’ educational experiences. Gifts of any size to the Parents Fund help maintain and strengthen UC San Diego’s Student Affairs programs, and also offer a pool of flexible dollars to each of the university’s six colleges— Revelle, John Muir, Thurgood Marshall, Warren, Eleanor Roosevelt and Sixth—to provide essential complements to classroom instruction.
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| Parent support to UC San Diego can positively impact students today, and in the future. |
Paul Volberding, M.D., and his wife Molly Cooke, M.D., appreciate the stellar education that our campus offers. Although both have been faculty members at UC San Francisco for over 30 years, two of their children are UC San Diego alumni. They are particularly pleased that UCSD helped their son, Benjamin, and daughter, Emily, take the next steps toward careers they love. “UCSD is a resource for scholars and scientists all over the world,” adds Dr. Volberding. “Supporting UC San Diego was an easy decision because the whole family feels it is their home. We are honored to be able to give back.”
Following is just a sampling of the many ways in which the UC San Diego Parents Fund helps students build leadership qualities, learn organizational skills and teamwork, as well as develop a lifelong affinity for stretching the mind and exploring the world.
- Model United Nations: Model UN members take on the role of diplomats and form delegations to attend conferences where student delegates debate international issues, give speeches, draft resolutions, form political alliances and resolve international conflicts from the perspective of their assigned country.
- Muir College Musical Ensemble: An annual production, this is the only musical on the UC San Diego campus that is performed and produced entirely by undergraduate students from all six colleges. The cast of actors and actresses is supported by a 15-piece orchestra and a production team of 20. This April, the ensemble will present the Cole Porter gem Kiss Me, Kate.
- Partner in Education: Colleges partner with charter schools in our district, including The Preuss School on the UCSD campus and Gompers, which provide a college prep education for motivated low-income middle and high school students. UC San Diego students are actively recruited to staff and tutor at these schools.
- Revelle in Rome: Scholarships offer a unique opportunity for students to study and explore Rome. This five-week summer session features two courses taught by UC San Diego History Department chair and professor John Marino, plus site visits in Rome and weekend trips to the countryside and Florence.
- And there’s more: Free newspapers including the San Diego Union-Tribune and New York Times for students, campus symposiums, free bike loans, artist-in-residency programs and so much more are made possible through the generosity of parent and family giving through the Parents Fund.By Judy Piercey
Friday, September 17, 2010
Herscel takes first image
Herschel takes its first image of the Whirlpool galaxy, M51.
Herschel launched just one month ago and is the largest infrared space telescope ever flown.
Big planet, small star
One of the smallest stars in the Galaxy has been found to have a planet orbiting it that is six times more massive than Jupiter. This gas giant is as far from its star as Mercury is from our Sun, but because the star is so small, it is like a scaled down version of our own Solar System, with the planet where Jupiter would be. This raises the possibility that there could be even more planets that are rocky like Earth even closer to the star.
The star in question is a red dwarf called VB 10. For a time it was one of the smallest stars known to exist. Red dwarfs are the most common type of star in the Galaxy, and are the coolest.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Cassini finds Titan clouds hang on to summer
Cloud chasers studying Saturn's moon Titan say its clouds form and move much like those on Earth, but in a much slower, more lingering fashion.
Their forecast for Titan's early autumn -- warm and wetter.
Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have monitored Titan's atmosphere for three-and-a-half years, between July 2004 and December 2007, and observed more than 200 clouds. They found that the way these clouds are distributed around Titan matches scientists' global circulation models. The only exception is timing -- clouds are still noticeable in the southern hemisphere while fall is approaching.
As summer changes to fall at the equinox in August 2009, Titan's clouds are expected to disappear altogether. But, circulation models of Titan's weather and climate predict that clouds at the southern latitudes don't wait for the equinox and should have already faded out since 2005. However, Cassini was still able to see clouds at these places late in 2007, and some of them are particularly active at mid-latitudes and the equator.
Titan is the only moon in our solar system with a substantial atmosphere, and its climate shares Earth-like characteristics. Titan's dense, nitrogen-methane atmosphere responds much more slowly than Earth's atmosphere, as it receives about 100 times less sunlight because it is 10 times farther from the sun. Seasons on Titan last more than seven Earth years.
Scientists will continue to observe the long-term changes during Cassini's extended mission, which runs until the fall of 2010. Cassini is set to fly by Titan on June 6.
MJ funeral may be bigger than Elvis
Michael Jackson's funeral is expected to be even bigger than Elvis Presley's in 1977, when 75,000 fans lined the streets of Memphis. If that happens, Jackson's funeral will become the biggest the entertainment world has seen.
Jackson's coffin was being kept under armed guard to deter fans from discovering its secret location. Jackson's funaral is expected to take place on Wednesday or Thursday at Forest Lawn cemetry in Los Angeles.
Following the funeral may be public service , expected to claim a global audience . Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor and Sir Paul McCartney are expected to be among mourners. Mourners are also likely to include Liza Minnelli , Jackson's former wife Lisa Marie Presley, Britney Spears , Justin Timberlake and Madonna. Jackson was raised as a Jehovah's witness who are forbidden from following funeral customs that are mentioned in Bible, including rowdy wakes and alcoholic toasts.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
The mystery of the missing sunspots explained
An unusually slow-moving solar jet stream buried deep inside the Sun is causing the lack of sunspots and low solar activity, say scientists from the National Solar Observatory (NSO).
The Sun usually follows a fairly regular pattern, cycling through an 11 year period of magnetic intensity – during which, characteristic behaviour such as sunspots, flares and corona mass ejections are typical – followed by 11 years of relative quiescence. At present, the Sun is in a phase of extreme quietness when it should have been displaying more signs of activity, a mystery that has been confounding scientists over the last year.
Ammonia on Saturn's moon
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has revealed the presence of ammonia on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus.
If there is an underground ocean on Enceladus, then ammonia would be vital to it. Ammonia acts as an antifreeze, allowing water to remain liquid at temperatures as low as –97 degrees Celsius . This is the first time that scientists have found ammonia on an icy satellite of a giant planet.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Moon mission picture of 1969 goes missing
The world is getting ready to celebrate next month the 40th anniversary of historical Apollo 11 flight which is the first manned mission to moon and the officials of Tata Institute Of Fundamental Reasearch (TIFR) at Colaba are trying to find out a priceless picture that is missing from their office.
The picture was autographed and presented to TIFR by the three astronauts Neil Armstrong , Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins who were the first humans to land on the surface of moon. The picture was the size of an A3 size paper placed in the director's office in TIFR and used to attract a lot of visitors.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
New black hole found
A new black hole more than 500 times the mass of Sun has been discovered using ESA's XMM-Newton space telescope.
No water ice found in Japanese lunar mission
Japanese Selene lunar orbiter have failed to detect any signs of water in permanently shaded craters around the South pole of the Moon.
Although the Japanese lunar orbiter found no ice it did find a crater much deeper than other lunar craters of a similar diameter and internal temperatures that could support ice delivered by comets over billions of years.
It has also returned beautiful images of the Earth and Moon as the 40th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing by Apollo 11.
First orbital launch attempt by South Korea
South Korea's space agency has announced it will attempt to fly its first satellite launcher this week.
The rocket's design and construction has cost about $400 million.
The new rocket, made from Russian and South Korean parts, could lift off as soon as Aug. 11 from the new Naro Space Center at the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, about 300 miles south of Seoul.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Fermi solves the mystery of gamma ray pulsars
A pulsar is a highly magnetised rapidly spinning neutron star , the dense core remaining aftera supernova explosion.
NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope solves the mystery of previously unidentified gamma-ray sources. Fermi has now uncovered 16 pulsars based on their high energy gamma rays alone.
Fermi can 'feel' the gamma-ray pulsations gives important information about the mechanism behind the emissions. Radio pulsars emit narrow beams of radio waves that sweep around like a lighthouse beacon, bathing the Earth in radiation to enable detections. If the radio beam misses the Earth, the pulsar cannot be detected by radio telescopes, but FermiÕs ability to detect so many radio-quiet gamma-ray pulsars indicates that the gamma-rays are emitted in a beam that is wider and more fan-like than the radio beam.
Red giant star Betelgeuse is shrinking
Orion’s red supergiant Betelgeuse has been steadily shrinking over the last 15 years.
Betelgeuse is so big that if placed in our Solar System it would extend to the orbit of Jupiter. But thanks to long term monitoring by Berkeley’s Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI) at Mt Wilson, measurements of the star’s diameter reveal the giant to be shrinking. Over the last 15 years, the star has shrunk by more than 15 percent, equivalent to the same diameter as the orbit of Venus.
Despite its diminished size however, there is no evidence to suggest that the star is dimming. But we do not know why the star is shrinking.
Since the star’s size depends on the wavelength of light used to measure it, it is difficult to compare measurements. Tenuous gas in the outer regions of the star emits light as well as absorbs it, which presents a challenge in determining the edge of the star.
Cosmic blobs and Galaxies
Cosmic blobs are immense reservoirs of hydrogen gas located in the early Universe. Black holes and star formation have been observed in cosmic blobs.
The glow of cosmic blobs in optical light had remained a mystery for the astronomers but with the help of telescopes such as Chandra X-ray Observatory,Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble they have found that the source of power is coming from growing supermassive black holes and from newly forming stars.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Endeavour arrives at Space Station
Endeavour has arrived at the International Space Station for its construction mission that will install an external science deck to complete Japan's Kibo facilities, pre-stage critical spare parts for the outpost and replace aging batteries in the power grid.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Earth gravity and solar eclipse
A team of Chinese scientists is planning to conduct a once-in-a-century experiment on July 22, the day of the total solar eclipse, which would test the controversial theory that gravity drops slightly during a total eclipse.
According to a report in New Scientist, geophysicists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences are preparing an unprecedented array of highly sensitive instruments at six sites across the country to take gravity readings during the total eclipse due to pass over southern China on July 22.
The results, which will be analyzed in the coming months, could confirm once and for all that anomalous fluctuations observed during past eclipses are real.
The first sign that gravity fluctuates during an eclipse was in 1954, when French economist and physicist Maurice Allais noticed erratic behaviour in a swinging pendulum when an eclipse passed over Paris.
Pendulums typically swing back and forth as a result of gravity and the rotation of the Earth. At the start of the eclipse, however, the pendulum's swing direction shifted violently, suggesting a sudden change in gravitational pull.
In the run up to July's eclipse, Chinese researchers have prepared eight gravimeters and two pendulums spread across six monitoring sites.
At over five minutes, the event will be the longest total solar eclipse predicted for this century.
Cosmic rays accelerated by exploded stars
Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have shown that cosmic rays from the Milky Way are very efficiently accelerated in the remnants of exploded stars.
Cosmic rays are extremely energetic particles – mostly protons – moving at close to the speed of light. They originate from outside our Solar System and are constantly bombarding the Earth’s atmosphere at a rate of some 100,000 per square metre per second.
Shuttle Endeavour finally launched
Shuttle Endeavour finally roared to life and blasted off Wednesday on its sixth try, rocketing away through a hazy sky toward a Friday rendezvous with the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center.
Multiple pieces of foam insulation fell from the ship's external tank during the early moments of flight, but it was not immediately clear whether the shuttle's fragile heat shield suffered any significant damage.
With commander Mark Polansky and pilot Douglas Hurley at the controls, Endeavour's three main engines ignited in staggered sequence and throttled up to full thrust, followed seconds later by ignition of the shuttle's twin solid-fuel boosters at 6:03:10 p.m. EDT.
Friday, June 11, 2010
President Obama hails successful Hubble repair
President Barack Obama called the crew of the shuttle Atlantis late Wednesday and congratulated the astronauts on the successful overhaul of the Hubble Space Telescope. He also promised to name a new NASA administrator soon, although he provided no clues as to who might get the nod.
Shuttle Endeavour launch on sunday postponed
NASA on Sunday postponed the launch of space shuttle Endeavour for the day due storms near Kennedy Space Center.
NASA will next try to launch the shuttle on Monday at 6:51 p.m.
Endeavour's launch was postponed twice last month because of a liquid hydrogen leak.
Endeavour, carrying seven astronauts and a key component for Japan's Kibo science laboratory, is to head to the International Space Station for a 16-day mission. Five spacewalks are planned for the crew after the shuttle docks.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Indian moon mission saved
India's only satellite Chandrayaan -I orbiting moon came close to overheating and failure but scientists improvised to save it.
Last month the satellite lost a critical instrument called the star sensor. The sensor helps the $80-million satellite stay oriented so its cameras and other recording equipment are constantly aimed at the lunar surface. Without the sensor , the mission is useless.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) team used other systems such as an antenna mechanism and gyroscope to make sure that satellite was " looking at the moon". Now, the mission is safe and the systems are working.
Chandrayaan is scheduled to last two years. Scientists hope that Chandrayaan project will boost India's capacity to build more efficient rockets and satellites.
Monday, May 31, 2010
NGC 6280 Nebula
NGC 6820 is an emission nebula that surrounds open cluster NGC 6823 in the constellation Vulpecula.
Emission nebulae are clouds of high temperature gas. The atoms in the cloud are energized by ultraviolet light from a nearby star and emit radiation as they fall back into lower energy states (in much the same way as a neon light). These nebulae are usually red because the predominant emission line of hydrogen happens to be red .
Velpecula is a faint constellation in the northern sky.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Comet crystals feel the heat
Since comets formed out in the cold depths of the Solar System, the existence of materials in them that must have been created in high temperatures has been a real puzzle, until now. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has observed the infrared signature of tiny silicate crystals, of the type found in comets, being created in the planet-forming disc around a young star called EX Lupi, in the constellation of Lupus.
The stellar outbursts occur when the growing young star accumulates a large amount of mass from the dusty, gaseous disc that is spinning around it. Each outburst sends a flash of heat permeating through the disc. At the distance the crystals were seen at, the temperature reached 725 degrees Celsius (about 1,000 kelvin), enough to thermally ‘anneal’ the silicate dust.
The stellar outbursts occur when the growing young star accumulates a large amount of mass from the dusty, gaseous disc that is spinning around it. Each outburst sends a flash of heat permeating through the disc. At the distance the crystals were seen at, the temperature reached 725 degrees Celsius (about 1,000 kelvin), enough to thermally ‘anneal’ the silicate dust.
Young pulsar shows its hand
small, dense object only twelve miles in diameter is responsible for this beautiful X-ray nebula that spans 150 light years. At the center of this image made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is a very young and powerful pulsar, known as PSR B1509-58, or B1509 for short. The pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star which is spewing energy out into the space around it to create complex and intriguing structures, including one that resembles a large cosmic hand. In this image, the lowest energy X-rays that Chandra detects are red, the medium range is green, and the most energetic ones are colored blue. Astronomers think that B1509 is about 1,700 years old and is located about 17,000 light years away.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Something has struck Jupiter
Following up on a tip by an amateur astronomer that a new dark "scar" had suddenly appeared on Jupiter, on 20th July, 2009 between 3 and 9 a.m. PDT (6 a.m. and noon EDT) scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., using NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility at the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, gathered evidence indicating an impact.
New infrared images show the likely impact point was near the south polar region, with a visibly dark "scar" and bright upwelling particles in the upper atmosphere detected in near-infrared wavelengths, and a warming of the upper troposphere with possible extra emission from ammonia gas detected at mid-infrared wavelengths.
It could be due to the comet but the scientists are not sure .
Fireworks in Helix nebula
Image taken by Subaru Telescope shows comet -shaped knots lighting up the Helix nebula.
A nebula is cloud of gas and dust in space. Some nebulas are regions where new stars are being formed, while others are the remains of dead or dying stars. Nebulas come in many shapes and sizes. There are four different types of nebulas- planetary , reflection, emision and absorption nebulas.
Helix nebula is located about 710 light years from Earth and was first planetary nebula in which knots were abserved.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Mars orbiter imagery boosts Curiosity rover's life search
NASA and university scientists reviewing data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) say evidence is growing that the planet harbored life in its past or that Martian microbes exist now.
They say their views are based on the growing body of data on the diversity of water related minerals discovered by MRO. It is also supported by findings from other spacecraft such as Europe's Mars Express orbiter and NASA's Phoenix lander and twin Mars rovers.
The MRO data is being used to narrow the best sites to locate life related evidence, while also being safe enough for the Mars Science Laboratory rover "Curiosity" set for launch in 2011.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Venus nicknamed as Earth twin
Venus and Earth both share a similar size, gravity and bulk composition and hence, sometimes it is nicknamed as Earth's twin. But with a thick cloak of sulphuric acid clouds and a surface pressure nearly one hundred times that of Earth , makes it less hospitable than Earth. Venus once possessed Earth-like oceans, which evaporated into space to leave a barren landscape.
Venus is a big planet, being heated by radioactive elements in its interior. Some areas in Venus appear to be composed of darker rock , which shows relatively recent volcanic flows.
Both Russia and America sent probes to Venus during the 1970s and 80s – Venera and Pioneer, respectively – that sampled rocks made of basalt. Basalt is formed from cooling lava erupted by volcanoes, and, as is the case on Earth, where magma up-wells along ocean ridges to make new oceanic crust.
The new map of Venus reveals lighter coloured and older rocks with characteristics similar to Earth's granitic continents. Granite is created when basaltic rocks are forced down into the fiery interior of the planet by the process of plate tectonics, which builds and destroys the Earth's crust in an endless cycle. Water combines with the basalt to form granite and the mixture is reborn through volcanic eruptions.
According to the planetary scientists if there is granite in Venus then there must have been ocean in the past.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Former astronaut Charles Bolden picked to lead NASA
Nineteen years after helping launch the Hubble Space Telescope, Charles F. Bolden Jr., a former combat pilot, Marine Corps major general and veteran space shuttle commander, has been selected by the Obama administration to serve as the space agency's next administrator. Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator for policy and plans and a space policy advisor to the Obama campaign, will serve as Bolden's deputy.
These talented individuals will help put NASA on course to boldly push the boundaries of science, aeronautics and exploration in the 21st century and ensure the long-term vibrancy of America's space program," Obama said in a statement Saturday.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Exotic dust in comet trail
Comet dust caught in the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere and scooped up by a NASA aircraft had been found to contain grains of dust dating back to before our Solar System formed. Dust like this is worth its weight in gold for telling us about the original conditions in the solar nebula that formed the planets.
The dust is from comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup, which last passed through the inner Solar System in 2002. A year later, Earth itself passed through the trail of the comet, and the NASA aircraft climbed to catch the dust. It was then handed over to a consortium of UK, US and German astronomers who found various chemical treasure troves, including in one dust particle four grains of silicate material that date back to before the formation of the Sun.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Solar wind tans young asteroids
Unlike human skin which is damaged by prolonged exposure to sunlight over a lifetime, an asteroid's surface is aged in the first instances of its life.
Of course, the time scales of the exposure are much different: for an asteroid the damage is done over a period of one million years, but this is still a very short timeframe compared with the 4.6 billion year age of the Solar System itself.
New observations conducted using ESO's New Technology Telescope at La Silla and the Very Large Telescope at Paranal, astronomers have shed some light on this mystery. The astronomers looked at freshly exposed asteroid surfaces (caused by the collision of two asteroids) and noticed that they change colour in less than a million years.
The charged, fast moving particles in the solar wind damage the asteroid's surface at an amazing rate.The solar wind contains highly energetic particles that bombard the exposed surfaces of asteroids, eroding the molecules and crystals on the surface and rearranging them into different configurations with distinct colours and properties.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Friday landing for Endeavour
The Endeavour astronauts tested the shuttle's re-entry systems today before packing up for the trip back to Earth Friday to close out a 16-day space station assembly mission. There are no technical problems of any significance, but forecasters are predicting a slight chance for rain and thunderstorms near Endeavour's Florida runway at the 10:48 a.m. EDT landing time.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Gigantic bubbles boiling on the surface of star Betelgeuse
Giant star Betelgeuse shed the equivalent mass of the Earth every year but how do it does is not properly understood. Using state of the art imaging techniques, astronomers have revealed a vast plume of gas and gigantic bubbles boiling on the surface of star Betelgeuse. The new technique will provide clues to how they shed the mass?
The images show that the whole outer shell of the star is not shedding material evenly in all directions, which may be due to either large scale gas motions caused by heating, or because of the star's rotation. Betelgeuse's atmosphere is bouncing vigorously up and down in bubbles that are as large as the supergiant star itself, and could be responsible for the ejection of the massive plume into space.
Betelgeuse is the nearest star to Earth.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
A galaxy : Stephan Quintet
Stephan's Quintet is a compact group of galaxies discovered about 130 years ago and located about 280 million light years from Earth.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Never before seen photo shows Neil Armstrong face
An amazing never before seen photo of Neil Armstrong showing his face through his space suit visor has come to light on the 40th anniversary of the first manned Moon landing.
It shows Armstrong's face in clear view as he walks across the lunar surface.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Is there a life in Universe ?
Glycine , an amino acid which is a fundamental building block of life has been found in a comet.
This is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet.
Glycine, has been identified in the samples returned from comet Wild 2 by NASA's Stardust mission.
Comets have long been thought to hold the secrets of our solar system's history and play an important role in delivering the building blocks of life to Earth.
The discovery of glycine in a comet supports the idea that the fundamental building blocks of life are prevalent in space, and strengthens the argument that life in the Universe may be common rather than rare.
Fermi explores high energy “space invaders”
New details of high energy particles detected by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope were revealed on 4th May, 2009 at the American Physical Society meeting held in Denver.
Since its launch last June Fermi has discovered a new class of pulsars, probed gamma-ray bursts and watched flaring jets in galaxies billions of light years away.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Astronauts test re-entry systems for Friday landing
The Atlantis astronauts tested the shuttle's re-entry systems early Thursday and began packing for landing Friday, weather permitting, to close out a successful mission to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope. The flight plan calls for a de-orbit rocket firing at 8:49:16 a.m. Friday, setting up a landing on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:00:31 a.m. A second landing opportunity is available one orbit later, at 11:39:18 a.m.
With no major technical problems in orbit, the only question mark is the weather, with forecasters predicting a broken cloud deck at 4,000 feet, crosswinds above 15 knots and a chance of thundershowers within 30 nautical miles of the runway, all violations of NASA's landing weather flight rules.
High winds and torrential rains rumbled through the area overnight as severe thunderstorms lashed Florida's Space Coast. There is a 50 percent chance of heavy rain, high winds and thundershowers all day Thursday and more of the same expected overnight and Friday.
But the astronauts have conserved power and now have saved enough hydrogen and oxygen to power the ship's electricity producing fuel cells through Monday. As a result, NASA is not staffing backup landing sites Friday. If the weather or some other issue blocks the two available landing opportunities, the crew will stay in orbit an extra day and try again Saturday.
Monday, May 3, 2010
200 Custom Postcards Printing Giveaway from UPrinting
The contest: Win 200 Custom Postcards Printing Giveaway from UPrinting.com
What is this all about ?
Uprinting is a leading online printing company that provides high quality printing at the most affordable prices and are sponsoring this chance for you to win 200 "Custom Greeting Cards "or "Custom Post Cards" .
How to win the contest ?
To win the contest you need to leave a comment at the end of this post, describing what you would use the free custom greeting cards and/or custom postcards for. That’s all ! I will choose the 2 winners at random. Please be sure to include your name and email address so that I can contact you if your name is chosen.
To win the contest you need to leave a comment at the end of this post, describing what you would use the free custom greeting cards and/or custom postcards for. That’s all ! I will choose the 2 winners at random. Please be sure to include your name and email address so that I can contact you if your name is chosen.
The Details of the contest
(2) PRIZE WINNERS WILL RECEIVE 200 Custom Postcards (choose your size: 4x6, 4.25x6, 5x7"); 14pt gloss or matte, 13 pt uncoatedFull Color on both sides (4/4)Shipping must be paid by Winner. Offer Valid for UNITED STATES SHIPPING ONLY. The contest will end by 31st August and i will announce the winner shortly after.
(2) PRIZE WINNERS WILL RECEIVE 200 Custom Postcards (choose your size: 4x6, 4.25x6, 5x7"); 14pt gloss or matte, 13 pt uncoatedFull Color on both sides (4/4)Shipping must be paid by Winner. Offer Valid for UNITED STATES SHIPPING ONLY. The contest will end by 31st August and i will announce the winner shortly after.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Space shuttle Endeavour launch postponed by leak
Launch of the shuttle Endeavour, grounded by a gaseous hydrogen leak during fueling Saturday, is off until Wednesday at the earliest, NASA officials say. But because of the already planned launch of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite Wednesday, the shuttle team could be delayed to June 20, the last day this month Endeavour can be launched.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Details of our Milky Way
Enjoy the breath taking portrait of our Milky Way in detail.
The image spans the region of sky from the constellation of Sagittarius to Scorpius. The very bright and colourful feature towards the right of the image are the Rho Ophiuchi and Antares regions. Darker areas such as the Pipe and Snake nebulae also stand out.
The dusty lane of our Milky Way runs obliquely through the image, punctuated with bright, reddish nebulae including the Lagoon and the Trifid nebulae. A supermassive black hole is at the centre of our galaxy.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Moon bombing to probe water
Monday, April 12, 2010
Homeschooling and High School
Parents thinking about homeschooling in the early years and then sending them off to the local high school for their last four years may want to rethink that strategy.Drew Gamblin, a 16 year old gifted student, desires to go to the local public high school after being homeschooled. He hopes to experience "the memories" and graduate with his peers. Gamblin is being held back, however, because
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Student Education-NASA poised to stop work on shuttle extension option
Facing a tight budget, a 2010 deadline to end space shuttle operations and a lack of concrete political support to fund additional flights or stretch out the current manifest, NASA managers are meeting this week to discuss the impact of ending efforts that have been keeping open the option of extending the shuttle program past the current deadline.
Complicating the picture for NASA planners, there is a very real possibility that one or two of the final shuttle missions currently envisioned will slip into the October-December 2010 timeframe, i.e., the first quarter of fiscal 2011. There is no money in NASA's projected 2011 budget for any shuttle operations beyond $300 million or so intended for retirement activities.
As a result, NASA now plans to terminate work that kept open the option of a shuttle extension when the current legislation expires at the end of the month.
As a result, NASA now plans to terminate work that kept open the option of a shuttle extension when the current legislation expires at the end of the month.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Advice for Aspiring Homeschooler
Crunchy Con author and BeliefNet blogger, Rod Dreher, had a reader write to him seeking advice regarding homeschooling. A reader writes to say that his five year old came home from public school kindergarten with a flyer alerting parents that the kids are about to have a whole week of "Just Say No to Drugs" education. It shocked him that kids as young as this are being subjected to this sort of
Friday, April 9, 2010
Student Education-Evidence found of lake on Mars
A long, deep canyon and the remains of beaches are perhaps the clearest evidence yet of a standing lake on the surface of Mars, say scientists.
Images from a camera called the High Resolution Imaging indicate water carved a 50 kilometre long canyon.
The presence of water on Mars is widely accepted. The Mars Phoenix mission last year found frozen water on the surface of Mars, and there is also evidence that water may still seep to the surface from underground.
Planetary scientists have also seen what could be the shores of giant rivers and seas, but some of the formations could also arguably have been made by dry landslides.
The researcher says that this is the first unambiguous evidence of shorelines on the surface of Mars.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Student Education-Water molecules on Lunar surface
NASA scientists have discovered water molecules in the polar regions of the moon. Water molecules are greater than predicted , but still relatively small.
Hydroxyl, a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom, also was found in the lunar soil.
NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3, instrument reported the observations. M3 was carried into space on Oct. 22, 2008, aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. Data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, or VIMS, on NASA's Cassini spacecraft and the High-Resolution Infrared Imaging Spectrometer on
NASA's EPOXI spacecraft contributed to confirmation of the finding. The spacecraft imaging spectrometers made it possible to map lunar water more effectively than ever before.
The M3 team found water molecules and hydroxyl at diverse areas of the sunlit region of the moon's surface, but the water signature appeared stronger at the moon's higher latitudes.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Student Education-Amazing Enceladus Images
Image of plume from far away.
In my previous post Happy Halloween from Cassini Spacecraft Team i mentioned about Cassini spacecraft going to the Moon of Saturn, Enceladus on 2th November, 2009.
Cassini has captured some amazing images of the plumes shooting from Enceladus , they are simply the raw images.
The objective of Cassini is to analyse the particles in the plume with the instruments that can detect the mass , size, charge, speed and composition.
These are the first images of the plume and are amazing.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Student Education-Hardball on Homeschooling
Last night, MSNBC's Chris Mathew's announced his litmus test for Republican candidates and wrongly stereotyped homeschoolers in the process. In a post election round-up he posed this question to Club for Growth President, Chris Chocola, after Chocola talked about the limited role of government: MATTHEWS: Last question—here‘s my litmus test—are you pushing home schooling? CHOCOLA: We don‘
Monday, April 5, 2010
Student Education-A Christmas gift from Hubble Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope has produced a lot of images and hence the The Big Picture at The Boston Globe is doing an advent calender to countdown the days until Christmas.
Until Christmas every day you can see a new image by Hubble Space Telescope . The images are awesome.
Until Christmas every day you can see a new image by Hubble Space Telescope . The images are awesome.
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