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The Universe is Yours: NASA Releases Sky-Mapping Data

Source: LAist - NASA's Pasadena-based (Caltech) Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) left us all a little gift this week -- the first batch of data and images collected by an infrared satellite that captured the most detailed scan of the whole sky. Data and images captured by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) during the first three months of 2010 can now be pored over by anyone with access to the internet.The catalog includes millions of stars, galaxies, nebulae and other celestial wonders and can be searched by coordinate or name (for example: Sirius).

Can't wait to play with it? Here's a guide to get you started.

Hubble Telescope Zeroes in on Green Blob in Space

Source: Yahoo - The Hubble Space Telescope got its first peek at a mysterious giant green blob in outer space and found that it's strangely alive. The bizarre glowing blob is giving birth to new stars, some only a couple million years old, in remote areas of the universe where stars don't normally form.

The blob of gas was first discovered by a Dutch school teacher in 2007 and is named Hanny's Voorwerp (HAN'-nee's-FOR'-vehrp). Voorwerp is Dutch for object.NASA released the new Hubble photo Monday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle.

Parts of the green blob are collapsing and the resulting pressure from that is creating the stars. The stellar nurseries are outside of a normal galaxy, which is usually where stars live.That makes these "very lonely newborn stars" that are "in the middle of nowhere," said Bill Keel, the University of Alabama astronomer who examined the blob.The blob is the size of our own Milky Way galaxy and it is 650 million light years away. Each light year is about 6 trillion miles.The blob is mostly hydrogen gas swirling from a close encounter of two galaxies and it glows because it is illuminated by a quasar in one of the galaxies. A quasar is a bright object full of energy powered by a black hole.

The blob was discovered by elementary school teacher Hanny van Arkel, who was 24 at the time, as part of a worldwide Galaxy Zoo project where everyday people can look at archived star photographs to catalog new objects.Van Arkel said when she first saw the odd object in 2007 it appeared blue and smaller. The Hubble photo provides a clear picture and better explanation for what is happening around the blob.

"It actually looked like a blue smudge," van Arkel told The Associated Press.

"Now it looks like dancing frog in the sky because it's green." She says she can even see what passes for arms and eyes.Since van Arkel's discovery, astronomers have looked for similar gas blobs and found 18 of them. But all of them are about half the size of Hanny's Voorwerp, Keel said.

Online:Hubble Space Telescope: www.spacetelescope.org

The Really Strange Story Behind Sunday's Blue Moon

Source: Yahoo - The full moon of November arrive[d] on Sunday and brought with it a cosmic addition: It will also be a so-called "blue moon."

"But wait a minute," you might ask. "Isn't a 'blue moon' defined as the second full moon that occurs during a calendar month? Sunday's full moon falls on Nov. 21 and it will be the only full moon in November 2010. So how can it be a 'blue' moon?"

Indeed, November's full moon is blue moon – but only if we follow a rule that's now somewhat obscure.In fact, the current "two- full moons in one month" rule has superseded an older rule that would allow us to call Sunday's moon "blue." To be clear, the moon does not actually appear a blue color during a blue moon, it has to do with lunar mechanics.

Confused yet? Well, as the late Paul Harvey used to say — here now, is the rest of the story: The blue moon rule Back in the July 1943 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, in a question and answer column written by Lawrence J. Lafleur, there was a reference made to the term "blue moon."  [Gallery - Full Moon Fever] Lafleur cited the unusual term from a copy of the 1937 edition of the now-defunct Maine Farmers' Almanac (NOT to be confused with The Farmers' Almanac of Lewiston, Maine, which is still in business). 

On the almanac page for August 1937, the calendrical meaning for the term "blue moon" was given. That explanation said that the moon "... usually comes full twelve times in a year, three times for each season."Occasionally, however, there will come a year when there are 13 full moons during a year, not the usual 12. The almanac explanation continued:"

This was considered a very unfortunate circumstance, especially by the monks who had charge of the calendar of thirteen months for that year, and it upset the regular arrangement of church festivals.

For this reason thirteen came to be considered an unlucky number."And with that extra full moon, it also meant that one of the four seasons would contain four full moons instead of the usual three. "There are seven Blue Moons in a Lunar Cycle of nineteen years," continued the almanac, ending on the comment that, "In olden times the almanac makers had much difficulty calculating the occurrence of the Blue Moon and this uncertainty gave rise to the expression 'Once in a Blue Moon.'"An unfortunate oversight. But while LaFleur quoted the almanac's account, he made one very important omission: He never specified the date for this particular blue moon.  As it turned out, in 1937, it occurred on Aug. 21. That was the third full moon in the summer of 1937, a summer season that would see a total of four full moons. Names were assigned to each moon in a season: For example, the first moon of summer was called the early summer moon, the second was the midsummer moon, and the last was called the late summer moon.

But when a particular season has four moons, the third was apparently called a blue moon so that the fourth and final one can continue to be called the late moon.

So where did we get the "two full moons in a month rule" that is so popular today?A moon mistake. Once again, we must turn to the pages of Sky & Telescope .This time, on page 3 of the March 1946 issue, James Hugh Pruett wrote an article, "Once in a Blue Moon," in which he made a reference to the term "blue moon" and referenced LaFleur's article from 1943. But because Pruett had no specific full moon date for 1937 to fall back on, his interpretation of the ruling given by the Maine Farmers' Almanac was highly subjective. Pruett ultimately came to this conclusion... Read more at Yahoo.

Obama Calls for International Cooperation in Space

 By Mark K. Matthews - More peace and fewer space junk are the missions in an update of U.S. space policy, crafted decades ago during the Cold War.

President Obama underscored his desire to turn space into a place for peace on Monday, releasing a policy paper that advocated international science missions and opened the door for future treaties that could limit space junk and weapons above Earth.

But administration officials said the push for international cooperation did not mean the U.S. necessarily would ask its allies to join Obama's proposed mission to send NASA astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, which he outlined during a visit to Florida's Kennedy Space Center in April, or immediately seek a treaty that would ban space-based weapons.

"The United States will consider proposals and concepts for arms control measures if they are equitable, effectively verifiable, and enhance the national security of the United States and its allies," administration officials wrote in the 18-page policy paper.

The paper acknowledges that U.S. space policy — crafted decades ago during the Cold War with the then-Soviet Union — is no longer "racing against an adversary." Instead, Obama calls for greater cooperation with space-faring nations, including Russia and China.

Jim Kohlenberger, chief of staff to the White House science advisor, acknowledged that "there aren't any new specific pieces in this space policy today that lay out new partnerships." But, he added, "there are going to be lots of opportunities … for new collaboration in space as we go forward."

A key concern is the amount of space debris in orbit. More than half a million pieces of space junk larger than half an inch are whipping around Earth at speeds approaching 18,000 mph, and even an errant screw could destroy a satellite or endanger an astronaut.

Obama said the U.S. intended to develop a better system to monitor space junk while finding ways to avoid a repeat of the 2009 collision between an American and Russian satellite — the first impact by two intact satellites.

"This policy recognizes that as our reliance on satellites and other space-based technologies increase, so too does our responsibility to address challenges such as debris and other hazards," Obama said in a statement.

The paper also touts the benefits of using commercial rocket companies — rather than NASA-designed spaceships — to send crew and cargo to the International Space Station after NASA retires the space shuttle fleet, adding that a "robust and competitive" commercial rocket sector is vital to the American economy and its security.

This argument is aimed at congressional critics who have opposed Obama's plan to cancel NASA's Constellation moon program and use commercial rockets to resupply the station. A House committee with oversight of NASA's budget is scheduled to debate the plan Tuesday.

Stem Cell Function In Space?

Source: PopSci - Human stem cells grown in a simulated microgravity environment develop differently than those grown under normal conditions, an Australian study has found. The finding could have implications for space colonization and long-term spaceflight.

Using a NASA-developed rotating vessel that simulates microgravity, an Australian whiz-kid researcher found the stem cells' protein expressions were vastly different than when grown in normal Earth gravity, Discovery News reports.

About 64 percent of the proteins found in the microgravity cells were not present in control samples. The microgravity cells contained proteins involved in the breakdown of bone and the regulation of calcium, neither of which were found in regular, Earth-gravity cells. Embryonic stem cells can differentiate into any of the body's hundreds of cell types. 21-year-old Elizabeth Blaber, who co-authored the study, presented a paper last month at an astrobiology conference in Houston.

Spaceflight wreaks havoc on the body -- astronauts experience muscle atrophy, bone-density loss and slower heart rates in orbit. Plenty of research has been done in those areas, but the Australian team, supervised by Brendan Burns of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, says little has been done on the cellular level.

The finding that stem cells express different proteins under microgravity could help explain muscular and skeletal changes in adults.

The research also showed that anti-oxidant levels fell over time, which could shed light on why wounds heal more slowly in space.

More news is forthcoming on stem cells in space, as researchers pore over the results of a mouse stem cell experiment space shuttle Discovery brought to and from the International Space Station last month.

For that study, a ball of mouse stem cells sat in a small reactor, where they were allowed to differentiate. On Earth, mouse stem-cell balls are considered a model for understanding how stem cells differentiate and develop. NASA researchers are still analyzing the results.

Although adults don't have embryonic stem cells, the research is important for understanding the health effects of living -- and maybe someday procreating -- in space.