Something rather extraordinary has been discovered. On Wednesday the 7th of October a huge new ring around Saturn was discovered. It is located about 8 million miles from the planet, some 50 times further than Saturn's other rings, and it lies in a different plane. The ring is so huge that it is 3 million miles wide. The ring is invisible to the telescopes as well as the naked eye, but if it were visible, the ring would appear twice the size of the full moon in the night sky. It is thought that the ring was formed by dust being thrown up from Saturn's moon Phoebe after small impacts and the dust gravitates towards the planet where it is then picked up by Iapetus.
Full story here.
The theme of today's post is space and the Solar System, so I shall keep in line with that. NASA have sent a rocket segment smashing into the moon's south polar region in order to lift some dust from the surface, and a probe is to follow right after, hoping to pick up and detect water molecules which are expected to be in the lunar craters, hidden in the permanently dark corners of the craters. If the probe is successful in detecting water, it could pave the way for future plans for long term stays by astronauts on the surface of the moon. The up thrown dust was expected to reach altitudes of several miles but failed to reach even close to this, possibly due to more solid material below the lunar surface, however the analysis of the dust continues.
Full story here.
Russian space research institute, IKI, based in Moscow hosted an international conference aimed at luring scientists from Europe and possibly other countries such as the US into an ambitious project to send a craft to the surface of Venus, officially scheduled for launch in 2016. The idea of the conference was to determine what approaches would be best suited to getting the craft through the dense acidic atmosphere of Venus in an attempt to explore the planets surface.
Full story here.
9 October 2009
2 October 2009
Oasis and Noel Gallagher
Okay, so I know it is relatively old news that Noel Gallagher has left Oasis, but I just wanted to say my part, as I haven't done so yet.
Noel left the band because he could not take the constant fighting between his brother Liam and himself, and to be honest, it was only a matter of time before someone left.
Noel was basically the backbone of Oasis, a band which I am a fan of, so it was quite upsetting to hear the news. He was the chief lyricist, chief composer as well as the lead guitarist. On top of this he has a good singing voice, himself. I don't know what will happen with Oasis, but I do hope that Noel Gallagher will continue with a solo career, because it would be very interesting to hear some solo stuff.
Noel left the band because he could not take the constant fighting between his brother Liam and himself, and to be honest, it was only a matter of time before someone left.
Noel was basically the backbone of Oasis, a band which I am a fan of, so it was quite upsetting to hear the news. He was the chief lyricist, chief composer as well as the lead guitarist. On top of this he has a good singing voice, himself. I don't know what will happen with Oasis, but I do hope that Noel Gallagher will continue with a solo career, because it would be very interesting to hear some solo stuff.
1 October 2009
Okay, I Have Slacked
Admittedly I have slacked a bit during September, but it was a pretty busy month to be honest. Job interviews, courses, training, family and friends to see to, astronomical societies and lots of general procrastination.
I thought I might just start with a quick catch up. Four weeks ago today, my dad and I started attending meetings at the Loughton Astronomy Club in Theydon Bois, Essex. The group meet every Thursday night from 8pm to 10pm and it's been very interesting to see every one's collection of images of space, eclipses, galaxies and their own theories of the universe. On the first week, after the meeting was over, a few of the blokes had a telescope set up outside and we managed to see Jupiter, in great definition, a long with the four best known moons. We also saw the ISS pass over us, Andromeda galaxy (2.2 million lightyears away) and even saw star clusters from our own galaxy. It was quite breath taking.
I had a job interview for Game, the video game company, but I am still waiting to hear from them as they said they will contact me this week... Still, one more day and I shall assume the answer is a "no".
I see Labour are losing supporters, and well to be honest, they have been for some time... Personally I don't adhere myself to a specific political party, just vote for who has the right policies at the right times. Even so, I think Labours 12 year reign of terror and corruption over the UK has come to an end and I doubt we will see it for some time...
For now, though... I'll leave you alone and I will see you later. Peace x
I thought I might just start with a quick catch up. Four weeks ago today, my dad and I started attending meetings at the Loughton Astronomy Club in Theydon Bois, Essex. The group meet every Thursday night from 8pm to 10pm and it's been very interesting to see every one's collection of images of space, eclipses, galaxies and their own theories of the universe. On the first week, after the meeting was over, a few of the blokes had a telescope set up outside and we managed to see Jupiter, in great definition, a long with the four best known moons. We also saw the ISS pass over us, Andromeda galaxy (2.2 million lightyears away) and even saw star clusters from our own galaxy. It was quite breath taking.
I had a job interview for Game, the video game company, but I am still waiting to hear from them as they said they will contact me this week... Still, one more day and I shall assume the answer is a "no".
I see Labour are losing supporters, and well to be honest, they have been for some time... Personally I don't adhere myself to a specific political party, just vote for who has the right policies at the right times. Even so, I think Labours 12 year reign of terror and corruption over the UK has come to an end and I doubt we will see it for some time...
For now, though... I'll leave you alone and I will see you later. Peace x
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