Sounds like a promising start to a B-list sci-fi flick ...

What the heck is down there, anyway?

Leonid Meteor Shower - Connecticut

UPDATE 11.16.09 - Peak viewing hours will be during the wee hours of Tuesday morning (Nov. 17*) from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.

The Clear Sky Chart Homepage will be your best friend during this year's shower.

Check the Connecticut Star Party for specific information and here's a comprehensive list of viewing spots in Conn. (with light pollution data). Check Hartford here. If you're curious about how to read the chart, blue blocks indicate good conditions and white means it will be cloudy.

NASA's Fluxtimator gives good general estimates of anticipated shower rates, but doesn't have a preset Connecticut option. But it's called the 'Fluxtimator,' so I had to link it.

The Leonids generally begin on Nov. 13 and run until Nov. 21, with peak periods on Nov. 17 and Nov. 18. You won't need a telescope or binoculars, just look up.

Weather is supposed to be good, but you can check specific cloud forecasts here.

What do the light pollution levels mean? Check. It.

If you don't see any meteors right away, don't get frustrated. Relax. Get your head in a comfortable position and wait for those really big ones that leave the fading trails. Cool.

Finally, here's an Atomic Age song about Shooting Stars to get you in the mood. (Note if you get a 'forbidden' message, just highlight your address bar and hit enter so the page reloads.)

Enjoy the shower! It's supposed to be one of the best in recent memory.


*For some reason I was thinking the peak morning was Nov. 18. Whoops! It's not. It's the 17th. Although the shower lasts for several days, so you're still likely to see shooting stars Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

$445 million to go 25 miles up ...

Quite a price tag, considering two students from MIT did nearly that for about $150.
I'm being facetious, of course. Yes, the launch of Ares I-X was exciting (I quietly turned up the newsroom TV and watched while no one else paid attention). And yes, I'm sure the scientists at NASA will have a ton of data to pour through.
But $445 million? For one flight? On a project whose budget is arguably in even greater jeopardy than it was under former President Bush?
I don't get it. NASA seems content to aimlessly waft along with the Constellation project. There's the vague goal of returning to the moon around 2020, nearly 50 years after Apollo 17. And maybe, just maybe ... I'll see an American on Mars before I turn 60.
But I'm not holding my breadth. It's becoming clearer and clearer NASA can't function in a world without the cold war as a backdrop. As Americans combat terrorism, launching a rocket to the moon doesn't really matter anymore. It's not a symbol of our national unity and strength, it's a symbol of our decadence. And, in my opinion, it's a symbol of our scientific stagnation.
In the coming years where going to see the private sector play a larger and larger role in the American space race. That's a good thing. That's something that lets me look up at the stars and hope. And in a world without the iron curtain, it could be the only thing keeping NASA on their toes.

The Do It Yourself Universe

I've been reading a lot about multiple universe theories lately.
Mainly out of a sense of wonder at what it would be like to meet my doppelganger, but also out of a fascination with the oddity of it all.
I tried to explain it before, but basically the theory says this: our universe isn't everything. In fact, it is next to a fraction of nothing. There's a whole bubble bath of universes out there in the cosmic stew -- each one unique and separate. We're a lonely bubble in an infinite tub.

So that begs the question -- if there are so many universes out there, something must be creating them. And if something is creating them, there must be a formula. And if there's a formula, well, I should be able to just slap one together in my kitchen ... right?

Surprisingly, yes. But only if you have the right ingredients.

The first thing we'll need is a universe seed. We'll make it really tiny. Physicists speculate our universe was roughly 10 to the -26 centimeters across prior to the Big Bang, so shoot for something around that. And you'll have to cram a lot of stuff in there - about 10 lbs. of material. Come on, work those pecs! Pack it in! Good job!

Next, we'll need a healthy dose of gravity.

But not the gravity we are familiar with. We'll want to utilize gravity's mean cousin - repulsive gravity. Or to demonize him a little further, let's call him DARK ENERGY. He likes to push everything apart. There's a lot of math involved, but suffice it to say that dark energy is what physicists believe to be the engine driving the expansion of our universe.

So we've impregnated our universe seedling with some dark energy. Hurrah! This little universe is really coming along! It's got all the stuff and energy it's ever going to need. Exciting! But why is our seedling is still sitting on the table inert?

Let's check our universe cookbook again ... we must be missing something.

A-ha! A trigger! Something to make our universe grow!

Here's where it gets really tricky. And, to be honest, I still understand only like 40 percent of this. We're going to have to compress our seedling a little more. Good. Now a little more. Wash rinse and repeat until it's so compressed it drops into its own black hole. And that's our tipping point. The black hole is our trigger.

And when the seed transforms into a black hole, it drops out of our reality and BOOM! a universe springs out on the other side.

Your universe. All made within the confines of your kitchen.

But isn't that like, totally dangerous?

Apparently, not. According to the math, (which again flies over my head) the universe would blow out the opposite side of the black hole, creating its own reality in space that never existed before. It would be like blowing another bubble into that cosmic bathtub we talked about. And all we'd have to do to observe it would be jump into the bubble.

There's just one catch. Once you've plunged into the new bubble (by traveling through the black hole conduit), there's no going back. To check out how surprisingly awesome your universe is -- you'll have to forsake your universe and every single bit of reality you've come to know.

But what a curious prospect! What would it be like in the other universe? Would there be carbon? Would stars develop? Would they do strong and weak forces? Would life evolve?

I'd be game to check it out. Sure, there would no longer be a monkey to run this blog, but that'd be letting down, what ... like 10 people?

They'll deal. See you in my new universe! (It's located behind the kitchen sink).

SPACE: The Multiverse

Okay so let me try to explain this in a sentence.
Basically, there's an infinite number of yous and they're all reading this right now.
A shame, isn't it?
But take heart, there's also an infinite number of yous reading a blog that's doesn't suck, so all is not lost.
Anyway, that's pretty much string theory and the mutliverse in a nutshell.
It all boils down to this -- on a canvas with infinite space and a finite number of atoms, there's bound to be some repetition. In fact, there's bound to be a whole lotta of repetition.
And this repetition has spawned an army of doppelganger yous -- an infinite legion armed with every single one of your memories, experiences, thoughts and dreams. Then, of course, there's the infinite number of variations on you. (So take heart lovesick friends, in one universe you actually do get that dream girl or guy. Just not here, sorry.)
I'd encourage you all to go check out the radio lab podcast. Brain Greene, as always, is very lucid and clear in his explanation of this far out concept. It's a broadcast I've listened to at least a dozen times since downloading it over a year ago. And it's one I keep coming back to and learning from.
Next on the list of heady scientific topics to tackle: dark matter. It's basically the "air" pushing the balloon of the universe apart. Beyond that, I have no clue.

Space: A few things you may not have known about the Apollo 11 Mission

...Or may not have wanted to know.

• Neil Armstrong may have been the first man to walk on the Moon, but Buzz Aldrin was the first man to urinate there. While millions watched on live television, Aldrin relieved himself a tube fitted inside his space suit.
• After returning to the landing module, Aldrin accidentally broke the switch used to activate the ascent engines. After initial concern they managed to activate the switch using a ball-point pen.
• One of President Nixon’s speechwriters had prepared an address entitled: “In Event of Moon Disaster”. It began: “Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay to rest in peace.” If the launch from the Moon had failed, Houston was to close down communications and leave Armstrong and Aldrin to their death.
• When the astronauts took off their helmets after their moonwalk, they noticed a strong smell, which Armstrong described as “wet ashes in a fireplace” and Aldrin as “spent gunpowder”. It was the smell of moondust brought in on their boots.

Space: I really need to go outside more ...

Maybe I'll see stuff like this.
Courtesy of William Castleman, a Texas based photographer who replaced the stock lens on his Canon EOS5-D with a red lens filter allowing him to capture the rising core of the Milky Way.
Spectacular.

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

SPACE: Another Earth? "It could happen anytime now"

Are we on the verge of finding another Earth?
According to new reports, maybe.
The traditional methods for detecting distant planets are becoming more refined, scientists say, and this reality is making the possibility of ferreting out an Earth-like rock in the distant cosmos a very real possibility.

The Daily Galaxy reports:

Until recently, this "radial velocity" method has only been sensitive enough to pick up planets far more massive than Earth, but improvements now make the discovery of a second Earth highly likely, said Dave Latham, a co-author on the paper at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

"It could happen almost any time now. We have the technological capability to identify Earth-like planets around the smallest stars even now," he said.

As years progress, scientists expect planetary detection technology will continue to improve -- promising news for a science that a few years ago could only detect Jupiter-sized (or larger) planetary masses.

Of course, when speaking of habitable planets mass is only one piece of the puzzle. Ultimately, scientists say, when determining whether or not these extra-solar bodies are habitable many other factors must be considered including planetary orbits and the magnitude of local stars.

The report continues:

Tinney thinks that “finding a planet of Earth mass is probably a only couple of years away. But…”—and he emphasizes the “but,” pausing for a moment—“there’s always a ‘but.’” As he explains, all of the things they are finding of very low mass are moving in very short orbital periods, which means that they are orbiting close to their parent stars. So although there they are like Earth in terms of their mass and size, these planets are very unlike the Earth in terms of their orbit. “To find an Earth-mass planet in an Earth-like orbit is just not going to happen with the Doppler technique,” [Chris] Tinney states. It is simply beyond the technology currently developed. Essentially, it would mean that they would need to be performing measurements 100 times better than any technology is capable of doing.

SPACE: Star supernovas; scientists baffled

Scientists may have to rework some of their theories on solar evolution following the unexpected explosion of a massive star a million times brighter than our sun.
The surprise supernova, which can be viewed here, took place roughly 215-million light years from Earth in the NGC-266 galaxy. Hubble telescope photos dating back to 1997 show the star as very luminous, but stable. In 2005, however, photographs show the star went nova.
Space.com reports:

"This might mean that we are fundamentally wrong about the evolution of massive stars, and that theories need revising," said Avishay Gal-Yam of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

According to theory, the doomed star, about 100 times our sun's mass, was not mature enough to have evolved a massive iron core of nuclear fusion ash, considered a prerequisite for a core implosion that triggers the sort of supernova blast that was seen.

The unexpected explosion could mean other stars may behave in ways not previously expected, including one relatively close to home, known as Eta Carinae, just 7,500 light-years away and in our own Milky Way galaxy. Extremely massive and luminous stars topping 100 solar masses, such as Eta Carinae, are expected to lose their entire hydrogen envelopes prior to their ultimate explosions as supernovae.

"These observations demonstrate that many details in the evolution and fate of LBVs remain a mystery," said Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. "We should continue to keep an eye on Eta Carinae, it may surprise us yet again,"

"The progenitor identification shows that, at least in some cases, massive stars explode before losing most of their hydrogen envelope, suggesting that the evolution of the core and the evolution of the envelope are less coupled than previously thought, a finding which may require a revision of stellar evolution theory," said study co-author Douglas Leonard from San Diego State University.