The Funky Craters of Mars

A menagerie of strange divots (NASA/HiRISE/Univ. of Arizona) As 2011 draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on my absenteeism from Astroengine. But it’s not my fault, I’ve been typing like a madman for these guys. But that’s enough excuses, 2012 promises to be a huge year for space, and if I get my time management skills back up to scratch, there will be a whole lot more of the blogging thing going on over here too. So to kick things off I thought I’d share a cool slide...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on November 24th, 2011

What Do You See When SETI&...

A comparison between an observation of the sun using the ATA's 2.75 GHz band (left) and SOHO's 195A filter. Both are near-simultaneous observations on Oct. 1, 2009 (Saint-Hilaire et al., 2011). And no, “aliens” isn’t the answer. The Allen Telescope Array (ATA), located near Hat Creek, California, isn’t only used by the SETI Institute to seek out signals from extraterrestrial...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on November 19th, 2011

Exoplanet Count Tops 700...

An artist's impression of a lone exoplanet transiting its parent star. There are now 700 confirmed alien worlds orbiting other stars (ESO) On Friday, the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia registered more than 700 confirmed exoplanets. Although this is an amazing milestone, it won’t be long until the “first thousand” are confirmed. There are now more than 700 confirmed exoplanets...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on November 19th, 2011

Some Galaxies Die Young...

Some galaxies undergo a rapid star formation phase, losing stellar gases to intergalactic space, others choose to recycle, thereby extending their star forming lifespans (NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)) It sounds like an over-hyped public service announcement: If you don’t recycle, you’ll die a premature death. But in the case of galaxies, according to three new Science papers based on...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on May 22nd, 2011

When an Astrophysicist Nee...

Stars of the Northern Hemisphere, Ashland Astronomy Studio Imagine the scene: I’m having a romantic walk on a clear night with my wife along the beach. We see a brief flash of light and Deb says, “Hey, a meteor!” I then proceed to tell her that most meteors are actually no bigger than a grain of sand and they originate from comets, even though she already knew that. Feeling quite...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on May 19th, 2011

Could Kepler Detect Borg C...

"That's no sunspot." Assuming Star Trek‘s Borg Collective went into overdrive and decided to build a huge cube a few thousand miles wide, then yes, the exoplanet-hunting Kepler space telescope should be able to spot it. But how could Kepler distinguish a cube from a nice spherical exoplanet? With the help of Ray Villard over at Discovery News, he did some digging and found a paper...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on April 21st, 2011

Want to Feel Good? Watch t...

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo. I actually posted this jaw-dropping video on Discovery News last month, but today it got picked up on Digg, so I was reminded why I had to feature it. The video is actually composed of 22,000 high-definition photographs, stitched together is a finely crafted time lapse video. The photographer in question is Terje Sorgjerd who braved -22C temperatures in the...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on April 20th, 2011

Screaming Exoplanets: Dete...

Exoplanets may reveal their location through radio emissions (NASA) In 2009, I wrote about a fascinating idea: in the hunt for “Earth-like” exoplanets, perhaps we could detect the radio emissions from a distant world possessing a magnetosphere. This basically builds on the premise that planets in the solar system, including Earth, generate electromagnetic waves as space plasma interacts...

Posted by Ian O'Neill on April 20th, 2011

Sometimes, You Just Have T...

It's a chocolate Mars rover! Photo credit and cake-making skills: Will Gater OK, so Astroengine has been a little quiet of late due to some uber-cool space news writing over at Discovery News, but to kick off an era of increased productivity (and not just Photoshop fun), I just had to share this superb chocolate-covered tribute to Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. Created by my mate Will Gater, science...

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