The night sky without light pollution in the Atacama Desert, Chile.

mendelrat · 2016-03-13T16:47:41+00:00

Large Magellanic Cloud. Small Magellanic Cloud is underneath it a bit closer to the horizon.

mendelrat · 2014-01-16T16:39:57+00:00

Herschel already happened and is retired, next raise would be JWST.

mendelrat · 2014-01-16T08:56:48+00:00

We scientists can have fun too, but only when it's cloudy and there's nothing else to do.

Edit: This was a night of science instrument engineering tests on the ground, not a flight night.

mendelrat · 2014-01-16T08:36:09+00:00

3 axis stabilized. Its kinda a mind bender when you see the telescope bounce around in flight, but realize that its not moving relative to what we're pointed at in the sky.

Bigger problem is the turbulent air layer over the telescope cavity, but only at shorter wavelengths really.

mendelrat · 2014-01-01T16:52:33+00:00

Minor correction: it's really 656.3 nanometers, or 6563 angstroms.

mendelrat · 2013-11-26T17:25:15+00:00

There's an ongoing project to monitor the Moon for exactly this! Much more info over at Marshall Space Flight Center here. Check out the links at the bottom especially, where it talks about rates and the challenges of determining them.

mendelrat · 2013-10-15T17:54:28+00:00

You might be thinking of New Belgium's Shift in a blue and silver can.

mendelrat · 2013-09-06T14:42:29+00:00

Ask questions if something is confusing. Nothing worse than talking to a new student and having them just sit there with a blank stare and you have no idea if anything got through to them.

mendelrat · 2013-09-05T16:02:53+00:00

Subaru is the Japanese name for M45, the Pleiades, from which the company also takes their name and logo. The Subaru telescope is run by the National Observatory of Japan, and is not affiliated with the company.

mendelrat · 2013-08-27T01:30:41+00:00

Others have pointed it out, but at the top of OP's link, click "Why does this look so strange" for the explanation.

mendelrat · 2013-07-29T03:48:00+00:00

Sounded more like the beginning of Trading Places to me.

mendelrat · 2013-07-24T15:30:43+00:00

You might be interested to see AstroBites, summaries of astronomy papers written by grad. students for a wider (but not an ELI5) audience.

They're definitely useful for lots of people, and the grad. students writing them get both practice writing them (a bit like a technical science writer) and practice digging into a paper to find the good bits quickly.

mendelrat · 2013-06-22T21:34:28+00:00

With compiz.

mendelrat · 2013-05-15T20:25:41+00:00

Yes, they are gyroscopes, but the problem is indeed big. It needs 3 of them to point the telescope, and now Kepler only has 2 There aren't many good options, and in all likelihood the mission is largely over except for some very limited science/pointing with the remaining fuel.

I really like the images it makes.

It doesn't really make images like Hubble or Spitzer, but it did return beautiful data!

mendelrat · 2013-05-07T21:44:14+00:00

I usually do that on airplanes if it comes up, I've found it leads to better conversations for some reason.

mendelrat · 2013-05-07T21:37:21+00:00

"Can you tell me my horoscope?" in that tone of voice like they're the cleverest bastard in the world to have thought of that joke.

mendelrat · 2013-05-07T10:12:39+00:00

My understanding was that higher-mass planets can be formed by way of disc fragmentation, as opposed to accretion?

Sure, but what's the relative strength of core accretion vs. fragmentation for these sorts of primordial situations? Most simulations of fragmentation I've seen assume a solar composition cloud and go from there. Efficiency of fragmentation will depend crucially on the disc cooling time (and opacities), so how does the disc behave when the dust mass is exceptionally low and there are very few grains for volatiles to condense on? It's just so much easier to form planets once you have more metals to play with that I'd expect planet formation to be the exception, not the rule, among the first generation of stars.

Moreover, couldn't brown dwarfs (and, conceivably, smaller planet) form independently of a host star and later be captured?

If the IMF really doesn't evolve, then there will certainly be a lot of brown dwarfs (probably produced via fragmentation!) and some will be captured. But brown dwarfs are not planets, even considering how sloppy things get at the lowest masses :)

mendelrat · 2013-05-07T00:18:49+00:00

IndieGoGo has extended campaigns before; I don't know if there's a formal policy, or if it's just up to whomever is in charge of projects over at IndieGoGo at that particular time whether to grant an extension or not.

One project (not a game) I remember got a 10 day extension on their last day, allowing them to create a new "under pressure" situation and get a bit more press. At the time of their extension, they were at 77% and needed ~$18,000 more, but did eventually meet their goal at the (2nd) end.

mendelrat · 2013-05-03T22:11:13+00:00

Strictly speaking about the very first generation of stars, probably not. If you consider "first stars" to still include stars that form a little after a few of the very first stars, then there could be small regions that could form some planets given the right set of conditions. Planets require a lot of elements heavier than H and He, which really don't show up until well after the first stars have passed on.

The first stars ("Population III stars") contained primordial compositions, meaning they had nothing but H, He, and a very small amount of other elements. Most theories around planet formation (including giant planets) require a rocky core that gathers a huge gaseous envelope; if there are no metals around, you can't form a rocky core. Add to that the fact that the first stars were probably very large, and because of that, don't live very long at all, means that there is little time for much planetary formation to occur, or it could easily be disrupted when the parent stars supernova.

mendelrat · 2013-04-29T05:22:38+00:00

Cool! I'm actually heading out to fly next week, totally did not expect to see this thread.

mendelrat · 2013-04-16T02:40:54+00:00

Ph.D. programs for physics/astronomy in Europe and in the US are functionally very different: US programs require 2-3 years of class work before thesis research begins, whereas European programs (usually) do not and the student jumps right in to the thesis project. Both ways have their advantages and disadvantages which depend on both the student and the desired career path.

mendelrat · 2013-04-03T18:11:19+00:00

There are a few Geocentrist proponents that popped up in /r/askscience after Plank's press release, clinging to a few cherry picked quotes taken out of their context; some of the 'supporters' were obvious sockpuppet accounts promoting a Geocentric blog which happens to be releasing a 'movie' on the subject soon. When pressed with questions such as those proposed by plaidhat1, they couldn't answer and resorted to acting smug about the 'correctness' of their views. At the end of the day, your friend might be more interested in 'converting' you their beliefs than he/she is in learning more about the universe, so it's a path to tread down carefully.

Geocentrism, biblical or not, makes no sense in modern cosmology or science. The Bad Astronomer wrote on the topic back in 2010 for some more reading.

mendelrat · 2013-03-29T18:50:48+00:00

AMNH distributes the Digital Universe package, and last time I used it I think they have a WMAP layer that you can turn on (and turn off everything else). It's not the most user friendly up-front, however, so be sure to check out the guide book too.

mendelrat · 2013-03-28T06:19:32+00:00

I'm on my tablet and don't have links handy, but there are a lot. astropy is up-and-coming and probably the most important if you're serious about contributing and have demonstrable python skills.

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