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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_flare.jpg\">\u003cem>Sunspot 930 (dark area) and associated\u003cbr>\nX-class solar flare of 12/13/06 (bright).\u003cbr>\nImage Credit: Hinode, Japan Aerospace Exploration\u003cbr>\nAgency (JAXA).\u003c/em>\u003c/span>The Sun doesn't usually make the headlines--not even something like, \"Flash! Nuclear explosion as powerful as a billion H-bombs sighted only 93 million miles from Earth!\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let's face it, things like that just don’t seem relevant to our everyday lives. The Sun may be the nearest star, but it still lies at a distance that would take you well over 3000 years to walk, if you could. What happens on the Sun, stays on the Sun, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wrong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take Sunspot 930 as an example. Last December, this prominent spot came into view and moved across the Sun's face, carried by the Sun's rotation and marking the location of intense magnetic activity, of which sunspots are a side-effect.\u003cbr>\nThe sunspot itself was equivalent in size to two or three Earths--which is not unusual; the Sun is a big object, and just about everything that goes on there is done in big fashion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the magnetic fields twisted and turned, energy built up in them, similar to how tension builds up in a rubber band when you twist it tighter and tighter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At some point, all that wound up magnetic energy reached a sort of breaking point, and things simply \"snapped.\" Enormous quantities of energy that had been held in the magnetic field was released into the surrounding gases of the solar atmosphere, causing a rapid and unimaginably violent explosion of heat and radiation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A solar flare was unleashed--and in this event, back on December 13, 2006, one of the most powerful types: an \"X-class\" flare. More details and animations of this event can be found at this link:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org/vsc/solar/hinode/discovery/highlights/2006-1213-flare.asp\" target=\"_blank\">http://www.chabotspace.org/vsc/solar/hinode/discovery/highlights/2006-1213-flare.asp\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Sunspot 930 produced three powerful X-class flares in December: one on December 5th, then the December 13th flare, and finally one on the 14th.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gases of the flare were heated to 20 million degrees or more, and a burst of intense gamma rays and X-rays flashed out across the solar system, reaching Earth only 8 minutes later. In the picture above, the bright, slinky-shaped structure below the sunspot is the flare and its impelling magnetic fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the X-rays and gamma rays were blocked from reaching the ground by our atmosphere, our planet doesn't go completely unscathed by solar outbursts. Both solar flares and another type of eruption called a coronal mass ejection can affect Earth in a number of interesting ways, including the production of spectacular aurora displays in the polar regions, radiation storms in the spaces around the Earth that can pose a threat to astronauts and Earth-orbiting satellites, and geomagnetic storms—disturbances in Earth’s magnetic field that can deflect compass needles and induce blackouts in electrical power grids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can check out the current and recent conditions of \"space weather\" caused by the Sun at \u003ca href=\"http://spaceweather.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Spaceweather.com\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, the Sun is in the middle of a \"quiet\" period of a cycle of magnetic activity it undergoes every 11 years. As we move away from the bottom of this cycle, however, look for reports of solar activity—sunspots, solar flares, geomagnetic storms, and the like—to be on the rise, reaching a crescendo sometime around 2012 or 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/icon_benb.jpg\">\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Benjamin Burress\u003c/strong> is a staff astronomer at The \u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org\">Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/a> in Oakland, CA.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_hulk.jpg\">\u003cem>Most of us are killed after receiving\u003cbr>\na large dose of gamma rays. For a select few,\u003cbr>\nthe exposure can unleash our inner demons.\u003cbr>\nImage courtesy of\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.hulkmovie.com/navigation/multimedia.htm\" target=\"_blank\">http://www.hulkmovie.com/navigation/multimedia.htm\u003c/a>.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003c/span>Continuing on the theme of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2007/04/23/why-does-it-matter-part-ii/\">Supernovae \u003c/a>from my last posting, I’ll take this opportunity to address an earlier question that was asked by one of my loyal readers: “Perhaps your thoughts on the controversial topic of the effect of Gamma Rays on humans?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being a Berkeleyite and working at the home (\u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov\" target=\"_blank\">www.lbl.gov\u003c/a>) of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.aip.org/isns/reports/2003/066.html\" target=\"_blank\">Gammasphere\u003c/a>, I can’t help thinking of the \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_(comics)\" target=\"_blank\">Incredible Hulk\u003c/a> when I read this question. In Marvel Comics, the Incredible Hulk was born when a brilliant but emotionally repressed Berkeley Physicist was exposed to an enormous dose of \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray\" target=\"_blank\">gamma radiation\u003c/a> from his failed experiment. The genetic mutations from the exposure released his dark, hidden emotions in the persona of a savage dark green monster - a superhero with little wit or self-control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like visible light, gamma radiation is carried by photons. However, each photon in the \u003ca href=\"http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html\" target=\"_blank\">gamma region of the electromagnetic spectrum\u003c/a> has millions of times more energy than a red or blue photon that we see with our eyes. With so much energy, a gamma photon is capable of doing great damage by knocking the electrons around in living tissue like a pinball machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"right\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_hst.jpg\">\u003cem>The Veil supernova remnant.Credit: J. J. Hester (Arizona State University),\u003cbr>\nWFPC, HST, NASA*\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The largest source of gamma radiation is believed to be short, but intense \u003ca href=\"http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/introduction/bursts.html\" target=\"_blank\">gamma ray bursts\u003c/a>. We are unsure of the exact nature of gamma ray bursts, but we suspect they may be the associated with supernovae. The intensity of a gamma ray burst implies that some energy from a supernova blast is focused like a laser beam. If this assumption is correct, then only a small fraction of supernova blasts will direct that beam of gamma rays at Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All gamma ray bursts that have been detected are well outside our galaxy, often billions of light years away. For a supernova or gamma ray burst to do any damage, it has to be well within the Milky Way. For more information on X-ray and gamma ray exposure from a nearby supernova, \u003ca href=\"http://stupendous.rit.edu/richmond/answers/snrisks.txt\" target=\"_blank\">check out some rough calculations\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are fortunate that supernova blasts are rare, occurring once every few hundred years in the Milky Way. Gamma ray blasts in the Milky Way are much rarer. Some scientists suspect that there may have been at most a few such \u003ca href=\"http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/gammaray_bursts_010522-1.html\" target=\"_blank\">explosions\u003c/a> in the Earth’s four billion-year history. If so, it’s only a matter of time before we get hit again. I know it’s not particularly good news, but at least we know the Hulk will rise again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/icon_kdawson.jpg\">\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Kyle S. Dawson\u003c/strong> is engaged in post-doctorate studies of distant supernovae and development of a proposed space-based telescope at \u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>* \u003cem>Remains of a supernova located 2600 light years away. This supernova is believed to have exploded about 15,000 years ago and should not have posed any threats to a human population that was patiently awaiting the end of the most recent ice age.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_hulk.jpg\">\u003cem>Most of us are killed after receiving\u003cbr>\na large dose of gamma rays. For a select few,\u003cbr>\nthe exposure can unleash our inner demons.\u003cbr>\nImage courtesy of\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.hulkmovie.com/navigation/multimedia.htm\" target=\"_blank\">http://www.hulkmovie.com/navigation/multimedia.htm\u003c/a>.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003c/span>Continuing on the theme of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2007/04/23/why-does-it-matter-part-ii/\">Supernovae \u003c/a>from my last posting, I’ll take this opportunity to address an earlier question that was asked by one of my loyal readers: “Perhaps your thoughts on the controversial topic of the effect of Gamma Rays on humans?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being a Berkeleyite and working at the home (\u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov\" target=\"_blank\">www.lbl.gov\u003c/a>) of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.aip.org/isns/reports/2003/066.html\" target=\"_blank\">Gammasphere\u003c/a>, I can’t help thinking of the \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_(comics)\" target=\"_blank\">Incredible Hulk\u003c/a> when I read this question. In Marvel Comics, the Incredible Hulk was born when a brilliant but emotionally repressed Berkeley Physicist was exposed to an enormous dose of \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray\" target=\"_blank\">gamma radiation\u003c/a> from his failed experiment. The genetic mutations from the exposure released his dark, hidden emotions in the persona of a savage dark green monster - a superhero with little wit or self-control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like visible light, gamma radiation is carried by photons. However, each photon in the \u003ca href=\"http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html\" target=\"_blank\">gamma region of the electromagnetic spectrum\u003c/a> has millions of times more energy than a red or blue photon that we see with our eyes. With so much energy, a gamma photon is capable of doing great damage by knocking the electrons around in living tissue like a pinball machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"right\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_hst.jpg\">\u003cem>The Veil supernova remnant.Credit: J. J. Hester (Arizona State University),\u003cbr>\nWFPC, HST, NASA*\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The largest source of gamma radiation is believed to be short, but intense \u003ca href=\"http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/introduction/bursts.html\" target=\"_blank\">gamma ray bursts\u003c/a>. We are unsure of the exact nature of gamma ray bursts, but we suspect they may be the associated with supernovae. The intensity of a gamma ray burst implies that some energy from a supernova blast is focused like a laser beam. If this assumption is correct, then only a small fraction of supernova blasts will direct that beam of gamma rays at Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All gamma ray bursts that have been detected are well outside our galaxy, often billions of light years away. For a supernova or gamma ray burst to do any damage, it has to be well within the Milky Way. For more information on X-ray and gamma ray exposure from a nearby supernova, \u003ca href=\"http://stupendous.rit.edu/richmond/answers/snrisks.txt\" target=\"_blank\">check out some rough calculations\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are fortunate that supernova blasts are rare, occurring once every few hundred years in the Milky Way. Gamma ray blasts in the Milky Way are much rarer. Some scientists suspect that there may have been at most a few such \u003ca href=\"http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/gammaray_bursts_010522-1.html\" target=\"_blank\">explosions\u003c/a> in the Earth’s four billion-year history. If so, it’s only a matter of time before we get hit again. I know it’s not particularly good news, but at least we know the Hulk will rise again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/icon_kdawson.jpg\">\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Kyle S. Dawson\u003c/strong> is engaged in post-doctorate studies of distant supernovae and development of a proposed space-based telescope at \u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>* \u003cem>Remains of a supernova located 2600 light years away. This supernova is believed to have exploded about 15,000 years ago and should not have posed any threats to a human population that was patiently awaiting the end of the most recent ice age.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_hinode.jpg\">\u003cem>A typical, Earth-sized sunspot as seen by Hinode.\u003cbr>\nCredit: Hinode, National Astronomical Observtory of Japan (NAOJ)\u003c/em>\u003c/span>A new day has dawned-- so to speak...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last September, the Japanese space agency, \u003ca href=\"http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html\" target=\"_blank\">JAXA\u003c/a>, launched a new solar observatory satellite, originally designated as \"Solar-B.\" Upon its successful launch, the spacecraft was bestowed its nickname, Hinode (pronounced “\u003cem>heh NO day\u003c/em>”), which means sunrise--a name selected through a student contest in Japan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Hinode isn’t the first space borne solar observatory, it’s a significant step up in capability for this type of tool for understanding our Sun, and by extension other stars. If you want to see the kind of stunning imagery delivered to us by predecessor spacecraft, check out some of these websites: the European \u003ca href=\"http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html\" target=\"_blank\">SOHO spacecraft\u003c/a>, NASA’s \u003ca href=\"http://trace.lmsal.com/POD/TRACEpodoverview.html\" target=\"_blank\">TRACE spacecraft\u003c/a>, and NASA’s newest, \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/news/first_light.html\" target=\"_blank\">STEREO\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s the connection to the Bay Area, you might ask? Hinode, though a Japanese science mission, is an international collaboration between Japan, the UK, and the US through NASA. The package of scientific instruments created for the main Hinode telescope was designed and built by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.lmsal.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab\u003c/a> in Palo Alto (also the lab that built TRACE, and some of the instrumentation for SOHO). Also, Chabot Space & Science Center conducts an educational and public outreach program for this mission-- check out \u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org/vsc/solar/hinode/default.asp#hinode_top\">our own website\u003c/a> .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The floodgates of Hinode’s stunning imagery will be opened some time in May, following the initial multi-month “commissioning phase” of the spacecraft, during which project scientists and engineers have activated and tested all of Hinode’s science and operational systems. You can \u003ca href=\"http://solarb.msfc.nasa.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">see some “sneak peeks”\u003c/a> at the NASA website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What we’ve learned about the Sun through the vision of spacecraft like SOHO and TRACE, and Hinode’s X-ray telescope predecessor, Yohkoh, is fantastic. Not just a quietly shining ball of brightness peacefully supplying our planet with energy for all life, the Sun is a dynamic, stunningly beautiful and complex, and even violent object. It engages in intense and rhythmic cycles of magnetic mayhem, it regularly sets off superpyromaniacal explosions that make an h-bomb detonation look like a tiny spark, and routinely throws billions of tons of electrically charged gas outward through the solar system—activity that hammers Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere to cause radio interference, auroras, and storms of radiation that are potentially life threatening to astronauts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cheers, Hinode!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/icon_benb.jpg\">\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Benjamin Burress\u003c/strong> is a staff astronomer at The \u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org\">Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/a> in Oakland, CA.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What we’ve learned about the Sun through the vision of spacecraft like SOHO and TRACE, and Hinode’s X-ray telescope predecessor, Yohkoh, is fantastic. Not just a quietly shining ball of brightness peacefully supplying our planet with energy for all life, the Sun is a dynamic, stunningly beautiful and complex, and even violent object. It engages in intense and rhythmic cycles of magnetic mayhem, it regularly sets off superpyromaniacal explosions that make an h-bomb detonation look like a tiny spark, and routinely throws billions of tons of electrically charged gas outward through the solar system—activity that hammers Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere to cause radio interference, auroras, and storms of radiation that are potentially life threatening to astronauts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cheers, Hinode!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/icon_benb.jpg\">\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Benjamin Burress\u003c/strong> is a staff astronomer at The \u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org\">Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/a> in Oakland, CA.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_keck.jpg\">\u003cem>Half hour exposure of star trails\u003cbr>\nabove the Keck Telescopes taken by yours truly\u003c/em>\u003c/span>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2007/04/09/why-does-it-matter/\" target=\"_blank\">dark matter that I discussed in my last post\u003c/a> is quite bizarre, but makes up only a small fraction of the universe. The dominant material in the universe actually appears to be some kind of \"\u003ca href=\"http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/17/5/7\" target=\"_blank\">dark energy\u003c/a>\".\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since no one has any idea what dark energy actually is, I can't really write a whole lot about it. All I can say is that something is out there, and it’s really weird.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dark energy presents itself to us as a mysterious force, counteracting gravity over enormous cosmological distances. The effects of this force were first observed through observations of very distant \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova\" target=\"_blank\">supernovae\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the right conditions (any idea what these conditions may be?), an \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dwarf\">old star can explode\u003c/a> as a supernova. The explosion is so bright that it can be seen from across the universe. All of these explosions are very similar, enabling us to estimate the distance to the supernova from its apparent brightness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Observations of supernovae are used to measure the rate at which \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/kenny/papers/cosmo.html\" target=\"_blank\">space is expanding\u003c/a>. Measurements show that supernovae are much fainter than expected. It appears that there must be a new force at work, caused by a previously unknown material. We call this material dark energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"right\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_cosmo.jpg\">\u003cem>As this NASA chart indicates,\u003cbr> the dominant material in the universe is \"dark energy\"\u003c/em>\u003c/span>This week I’m actually observing supernovae (and dark energy) using the \u003ca href=\"http://www.keckobservatory.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Keck Observatory\u003c/a> on \u003ca href=\"http://www.gohawaii.com/big_island/\" target=\"_blank\">Hawai’i\u003c/a>. We discovered a little over 30 of these supernovae in the last year using the \u003ca href=\"http://hubblesite.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Hubble Space Telescope\u003c/a>. We use large ground-based telescopes to measure the speed at which they are moving away from us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Combining the brightness from the Hubble data with the speed from the Keck data, we get a measure of this dark energy. But it’s not all fun and games there in the beautiful Hawaiian islands-- I get to spend 16 hours a day in front of a computer screen watching data come while my girlfriend scuba dives nearby with a pod of dolphins. Well, you can't \u003ca href=\"http://www.poico.com/artman/publish/cat_index_27.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">have your poi and eat it too\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/icon_kdawson.jpg\">\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Kyle S. Dawson\u003c/strong> is engaged in post-doctorate studies of distant supernovae and\u003cbr>\ndevelopment of a proposed space-based telescope at \u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_keck.jpg\">\u003cem>Half hour exposure of star trails\u003cbr>\nabove the Keck Telescopes taken by yours truly\u003c/em>\u003c/span>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2007/04/09/why-does-it-matter/\" target=\"_blank\">dark matter that I discussed in my last post\u003c/a> is quite bizarre, but makes up only a small fraction of the universe. The dominant material in the universe actually appears to be some kind of \"\u003ca href=\"http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/17/5/7\" target=\"_blank\">dark energy\u003c/a>\".\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since no one has any idea what dark energy actually is, I can't really write a whole lot about it. All I can say is that something is out there, and it’s really weird.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dark energy presents itself to us as a mysterious force, counteracting gravity over enormous cosmological distances. The effects of this force were first observed through observations of very distant \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova\" target=\"_blank\">supernovae\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the right conditions (any idea what these conditions may be?), an \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dwarf\">old star can explode\u003c/a> as a supernova. The explosion is so bright that it can be seen from across the universe. All of these explosions are very similar, enabling us to estimate the distance to the supernova from its apparent brightness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Observations of supernovae are used to measure the rate at which \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/kenny/papers/cosmo.html\" target=\"_blank\">space is expanding\u003c/a>. Measurements show that supernovae are much fainter than expected. It appears that there must be a new force at work, caused by a previously unknown material. We call this material dark energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_sofia.jpg\">\u003cem>Artwork of SOFIA with backdrop of\u003cbr>\nastronomical objects; Credit: NASA/USRA.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>Soon, the nighttime Bay Area skies may be graced with a new astronomical wonder-- and I'm not talking about a celestial object or event. I'm talking about something that’s a bit of a cross between an astronomical \u003cem>observatory\u003c/em>, a stealth \u003cem>aircraft\u003c/em>, and a NASA \u003cem>spacecraft\u003c/em>...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m referring to SOFIA. \u003ca href=\"http://www.sofia.usra.edu/\">The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy\u003c/a> is the next generation airborne infrared observatory: a 2.5-meter reflecting telescope built into a Boeing 747. SOFIA is a joint project between NASA and the German DLR. Its purpose: to make astronomical observations and measurements of the \u003cem>infrared \u003c/em>light emitted by objects in space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visible light comes primarily from stars, or objects and material reflecting visible starlight. But there's plenty of stuff out there that emits or reflects little, if any, visible light, but which does emit the lower-energy form of light called \u003cem>infrared\u003c/em>. Anything that's even slightly warm emits some infrared light-- and though human eyes can’t see it, we can build detectors that are able to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SOFIA will observe all sorts of things, from planetary atmospheres to clouds of molecules in space to dust-disks around forming solar systems to regions of our Milky Way galaxy inscrutable to ordinary telescopes but unexplored virgin territory to infrared eyes. It may be possible for SOFIA to measure and analyze infrared emissions from extrasolar planets (exo-planets) and possibly determine the composition and temperature of their atmospheres, and maybe even telltale chemical signatures of possible life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why fly an infrared telescope in an airplane, instead of basing it on the ground like conventional observatories? Simple: While Earth’s atmosphere may be transparent to visible light, allowing us to see stars and planets and nebulas and such with our eyes, molecules in our atmosphere-- primarily water vapor-- absorbs most forms of infrared light. To an infrared telescope, the sky appears in a perpetual overcast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have a special interest in SOFIA, as I once worked on SOFIA's predecessor, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/watchtheskies/kuiper.html\">Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO)\u003c/a>, on which I served as an observing assistant for seven years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The KAO sported a smaller, 1-meter telescope built into a C-141A \"Starlifter\" cargo plane, and flew the night skies from 1976 to 1995 observing an invisible universe overhead. As SOFIA will be, the KAO was based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I affectionately refer to the KAO as a true fly-by-night outfit-- no metaphor included! At some point in the future, you may be out in your backyard and notice the stealthy passage of what may otherwise appear as an ordinary jet liner. You may wonder if, instead of a plane-load of sleeping tourists, that plane holds a 20-ton infrared telescope and a team of dedicated crew and scientists probing the cold darkness of the universe...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/icon_benb.jpg\">\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Benjamin Burress\u003c/strong> is a staff astronomer at The \u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org\">Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/a> in Oakland, CA.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_sofia.jpg\">\u003cem>Artwork of SOFIA with backdrop of\u003cbr>\nastronomical objects; Credit: NASA/USRA.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>Soon, the nighttime Bay Area skies may be graced with a new astronomical wonder-- and I'm not talking about a celestial object or event. I'm talking about something that’s a bit of a cross between an astronomical \u003cem>observatory\u003c/em>, a stealth \u003cem>aircraft\u003c/em>, and a NASA \u003cem>spacecraft\u003c/em>...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m referring to SOFIA. \u003ca href=\"http://www.sofia.usra.edu/\">The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy\u003c/a> is the next generation airborne infrared observatory: a 2.5-meter reflecting telescope built into a Boeing 747. SOFIA is a joint project between NASA and the German DLR. Its purpose: to make astronomical observations and measurements of the \u003cem>infrared \u003c/em>light emitted by objects in space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Visible light comes primarily from stars, or objects and material reflecting visible starlight. But there's plenty of stuff out there that emits or reflects little, if any, visible light, but which does emit the lower-energy form of light called \u003cem>infrared\u003c/em>. Anything that's even slightly warm emits some infrared light-- and though human eyes can’t see it, we can build detectors that are able to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SOFIA will observe all sorts of things, from planetary atmospheres to clouds of molecules in space to dust-disks around forming solar systems to regions of our Milky Way galaxy inscrutable to ordinary telescopes but unexplored virgin territory to infrared eyes. It may be possible for SOFIA to measure and analyze infrared emissions from extrasolar planets (exo-planets) and possibly determine the composition and temperature of their atmospheres, and maybe even telltale chemical signatures of possible life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why fly an infrared telescope in an airplane, instead of basing it on the ground like conventional observatories? Simple: While Earth’s atmosphere may be transparent to visible light, allowing us to see stars and planets and nebulas and such with our eyes, molecules in our atmosphere-- primarily water vapor-- absorbs most forms of infrared light. To an infrared telescope, the sky appears in a perpetual overcast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have a special interest in SOFIA, as I once worked on SOFIA's predecessor, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/watchtheskies/kuiper.html\">Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO)\u003c/a>, on which I served as an observing assistant for seven years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The KAO sported a smaller, 1-meter telescope built into a C-141A \"Starlifter\" cargo plane, and flew the night skies from 1976 to 1995 observing an invisible universe overhead. As SOFIA will be, the KAO was based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I affectionately refer to the KAO as a true fly-by-night outfit-- no metaphor included! At some point in the future, you may be out in your backyard and notice the stealthy passage of what may otherwise appear as an ordinary jet liner. You may wonder if, instead of a plane-load of sleeping tourists, that plane holds a 20-ton infrared telescope and a team of dedicated crew and scientists probing the cold darkness of the universe...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/icon_benb.jpg\">\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Benjamin Burress\u003c/strong> is a staff astronomer at The \u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org\">Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/a> in Oakland, CA.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_darkmatter2.jpg\">\u003cem> A work for SFMOMA?\u003c/em>\u003c/span>Standing on Earth and looking out into space, it’s easy to assume that you have it figured out. There are stars, gases, metals-- all 'normal matter' that we can see, made up of electrons and protons. From this vantage point, there is no reason to believe that there is anything else out there. At least this is what astronomers used to believe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let's begin by reviewing the hierarchy of objects that are found in the universe. On the small end are \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2007/02/26/my-very-eager-mother-just-served-us-nachos/\">solar systems\u003c/a>, with a series of planets orbiting around a central star. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2007/03/13/galaxies-all-that-and-a-can-of-spam/\">Galaxies like the Milky Way\u003c/a> define the second level. At the highest level are \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2007/03/26/a-summer-at-the-south-pole/\">galaxy clusters\u003c/a> which are a collection of thousands of galaxies much like a galaxy is made up of billions of stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stepping back to 1933, an astronomer from the California Institute of Technology named Fritz Zwicki was observing the motion of galaxies in the \u003ca href=\"http://www.solstation.com/x-objects/coma-sc.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Coma Cluster\u003c/a>. Coma is one of our nearest neighbor galaxy clusters, being only 100 million light years away and containing more than 1,000 galaxies. Zwicki observed that the galaxies in the Coma Cluster were moving much faster than predicted. When counting up all the light from the galaxies, he saw that there is not nearly enough mass to create the gravitational attraction responsible for the speed of these galaxies. To account for the missing mass, he postulated the idea of \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter\" target=\"_blank\">dark matter\u003c/a>, which would be invisible to us here on Earth. \u003cem>Invisible matter???\u003c/em> He was ridiculed for his ideas that defied common sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not much else was said about this invisible matter until the 1970's when Vera Rubin, an astronomer from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ociw.edu\" target=\"_blank\">Carnegie Institution of Washington\u003c/a>, started to observe the rotation of nearby galaxies (see figure below*). Much like Zwicki and the Coma Cluster, she saw that the mass from all of the stars did not account for nearly the gravity required to describe the speed at which the galaxies were spinning. To account for the missing matter, she again invoked the dark matter scenario, and again, no one believed her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, technology has finally caught up to the intuition of Rubin and Zwicki. Astronomers now routinely see indirect evidence of this invisible matter at work. It is now generally accepted that dark matter exists, and actually dominates the composition of galaxies. We now believe the universe to be only 4 percent normal matter and 22 percent dark matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, for those of you who are keeping score, you probably noticed that I only accounted for 26 percent of the materials that make up the universe. Where are the other 74 percent? I hate to keep you on the edge of your seat, but \u003ca href=\"http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9906463\" target=\"_blank\">here’s a hint\u003c/a>. Stay tuned...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>* \u003cstrong>Figure 1\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_rotation.gif\">\u003c/span>\u003cem>Rotation curve of an average galaxy. The X-axis represents distance from the center of the galaxy while the Y-axis represents the speed at which the galaxy is spinning. Curve \"A\"shows the expected rotation curve for a galaxy which is composed solely of it luminous matter. Curve \"B\" is what is actually observed. The presence of dark matter is currently the best explanation for the difference between the two curves.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/icon_kdawson.jpg\">\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Kyle S. Dawson\u003c/strong> is engaged in post-doctorate studies of distant supernovae and\u003cbr>\ndevelopment of a proposed space-based telescope at \u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_darkmatter2.jpg\">\u003cem> A work for SFMOMA?\u003c/em>\u003c/span>Standing on Earth and looking out into space, it’s easy to assume that you have it figured out. There are stars, gases, metals-- all 'normal matter' that we can see, made up of electrons and protons. From this vantage point, there is no reason to believe that there is anything else out there. At least this is what astronomers used to believe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let's begin by reviewing the hierarchy of objects that are found in the universe. On the small end are \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2007/02/26/my-very-eager-mother-just-served-us-nachos/\">solar systems\u003c/a>, with a series of planets orbiting around a central star. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2007/03/13/galaxies-all-that-and-a-can-of-spam/\">Galaxies like the Milky Way\u003c/a> define the second level. At the highest level are \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2007/03/26/a-summer-at-the-south-pole/\">galaxy clusters\u003c/a> which are a collection of thousands of galaxies much like a galaxy is made up of billions of stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stepping back to 1933, an astronomer from the California Institute of Technology named Fritz Zwicki was observing the motion of galaxies in the \u003ca href=\"http://www.solstation.com/x-objects/coma-sc.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Coma Cluster\u003c/a>. Coma is one of our nearest neighbor galaxy clusters, being only 100 million light years away and containing more than 1,000 galaxies. Zwicki observed that the galaxies in the Coma Cluster were moving much faster than predicted. When counting up all the light from the galaxies, he saw that there is not nearly enough mass to create the gravitational attraction responsible for the speed of these galaxies. To account for the missing mass, he postulated the idea of \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter\" target=\"_blank\">dark matter\u003c/a>, which would be invisible to us here on Earth. \u003cem>Invisible matter???\u003c/em> He was ridiculed for his ideas that defied common sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not much else was said about this invisible matter until the 1970's when Vera Rubin, an astronomer from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ociw.edu\" target=\"_blank\">Carnegie Institution of Washington\u003c/a>, started to observe the rotation of nearby galaxies (see figure below*). Much like Zwicki and the Coma Cluster, she saw that the mass from all of the stars did not account for nearly the gravity required to describe the speed at which the galaxies were spinning. To account for the missing matter, she again invoked the dark matter scenario, and again, no one believed her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, technology has finally caught up to the intuition of Rubin and Zwicki. Astronomers now routinely see indirect evidence of this invisible matter at work. It is now generally accepted that dark matter exists, and actually dominates the composition of galaxies. We now believe the universe to be only 4 percent normal matter and 22 percent dark matter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, for those of you who are keeping score, you probably noticed that I only accounted for 26 percent of the materials that make up the universe. Where are the other 74 percent? I hate to keep you on the edge of your seat, but \u003ca href=\"http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9906463\" target=\"_blank\">here’s a hint\u003c/a>. Stay tuned...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>* \u003cstrong>Figure 1\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_rotation.gif\">\u003c/span>\u003cem>Rotation curve of an average galaxy. The X-axis represents distance from the center of the galaxy while the Y-axis represents the speed at which the galaxy is spinning. Curve \"A\"shows the expected rotation curve for a galaxy which is composed solely of it luminous matter. Curve \"B\" is what is actually observed. The presence of dark matter is currently the best explanation for the difference between the two curves.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/icon_kdawson.jpg\">\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Kyle S. Dawson\u003c/strong> is engaged in post-doctorate studies of distant supernovae and\u003cbr>\ndevelopment of a proposed space-based telescope at \u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_color_night.jpg\">\u003cem>Double star Albireo, at the head of Cygnus the Swan.\u003cbr>\nCredit: Conrad Jung, through Chabot’s 8-inch telescope, Leah.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>I occasionally get an email or a phone call from someone wanting to know what that strange, dazzling light was they saw in the sky that looked too unusual to be a star, or a planet, and was certainly not an airplane...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whenever this happens, I think back to a night in my youth when the same sort of thing happened to me. I was in my early teens, living under the relatively \"dark\" skies of Alamo, in the shadow of Las Trampas Regional Park. I walked outside and looked up to the sky to see a dazzling light, one that I swore I’d never seen before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its sheer brightness was enough to make me do a double take, but the way it flickered and flashed in every color or the rainbow-- red, blue, green, maybe a glint of yellow-- made me wonder if I were seeing a supernova, and if I should run inside and report it to someone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it turned out, it was the star Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major, to the left of Orion-- and though it’s a member of a winter constellation, you can still see it, low in the southwestern sky after dusk. Sirius is the brightest star in our sky--after the Sun of course-- with enough intensity in its light for the color-sensing \"cone\" cells in our eyes' retinas to register. The prismatic flashing of different colors you can see in Sirius is caused by its light being refracted in Earth's atmosphere and the various colors being split apart, like light passing through a prism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though there are some other stars bright enough to show their true colors to our human eyes-- such as \"red giant\" stars like Antares, Betelgeuse, and Arcturas-- most stars are only detected by our more sensitive \"rod\" cells, which paint pictures in our brains in shades of gray. The fact of the matter is that the night sky is full of color-- it's just too subtle for our eyes to perceive.\u003cbr>\nTelescopes, even small ones, can bring out the colors in objects in space, collecting enough light to stimulate our color vision or to allow a camera to capture a color image. The subtle colors of the night sky begin to reveal themselves, from the blue-whites and yellows and oranges of stars to the pinks of clouds of hydrogen gas (nebulas) to the soft blue-greens in distant planets like Uranus and Neptune.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can check out our colorful universe as seen though Chabot Space & Science Center’s large telescopes at http://www.chabotspace.org/vsc/observatory/astrophotos.asp, or come up on a public viewing night on Friday or Saturday to look through the telescopes with your own eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a whole universe waiting to be noticed every time you step outside at night. It was Sirius that got me hooked on star gazing--after the surprise of its brightness and the colors in its light had passed. Before it disappears into the twilight of spring and summer, take a look to the southwest after dusk and see what you think...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Benjamin Burress\u003c/strong> is a staff astronomer at The \u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org\">Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/a> in Oakland, CA.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "Double star Albireo, at the head of Cygnus the Swan. Credit: Conrad Jung, through Chabot’s 8-inch telescope, Leah.I occasionally get an email or a phone call from someone wanting to know what that strange, dazzling light was they saw in the sky that looked too unusual to be a star, or a planet, and was",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_color_night.jpg\">\u003cem>Double star Albireo, at the head of Cygnus the Swan.\u003cbr>\nCredit: Conrad Jung, through Chabot’s 8-inch telescope, Leah.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>I occasionally get an email or a phone call from someone wanting to know what that strange, dazzling light was they saw in the sky that looked too unusual to be a star, or a planet, and was certainly not an airplane...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whenever this happens, I think back to a night in my youth when the same sort of thing happened to me. I was in my early teens, living under the relatively \"dark\" skies of Alamo, in the shadow of Las Trampas Regional Park. I walked outside and looked up to the sky to see a dazzling light, one that I swore I’d never seen before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its sheer brightness was enough to make me do a double take, but the way it flickered and flashed in every color or the rainbow-- red, blue, green, maybe a glint of yellow-- made me wonder if I were seeing a supernova, and if I should run inside and report it to someone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it turned out, it was the star Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major, to the left of Orion-- and though it’s a member of a winter constellation, you can still see it, low in the southwestern sky after dusk. Sirius is the brightest star in our sky--after the Sun of course-- with enough intensity in its light for the color-sensing \"cone\" cells in our eyes' retinas to register. The prismatic flashing of different colors you can see in Sirius is caused by its light being refracted in Earth's atmosphere and the various colors being split apart, like light passing through a prism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though there are some other stars bright enough to show their true colors to our human eyes-- such as \"red giant\" stars like Antares, Betelgeuse, and Arcturas-- most stars are only detected by our more sensitive \"rod\" cells, which paint pictures in our brains in shades of gray. The fact of the matter is that the night sky is full of color-- it's just too subtle for our eyes to perceive.\u003cbr>\nTelescopes, even small ones, can bring out the colors in objects in space, collecting enough light to stimulate our color vision or to allow a camera to capture a color image. The subtle colors of the night sky begin to reveal themselves, from the blue-whites and yellows and oranges of stars to the pinks of clouds of hydrogen gas (nebulas) to the soft blue-greens in distant planets like Uranus and Neptune.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can check out our colorful universe as seen though Chabot Space & Science Center’s large telescopes at http://www.chabotspace.org/vsc/observatory/astrophotos.asp, or come up on a public viewing night on Friday or Saturday to look through the telescopes with your own eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a whole universe waiting to be noticed every time you step outside at night. It was Sirius that got me hooked on star gazing--after the surprise of its brightness and the colors in its light had passed. Before it disappears into the twilight of spring and summer, take a look to the southwest after dusk and see what you think...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Benjamin Burress\u003c/strong> is a staff astronomer at The \u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org\">Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/a> in Oakland, CA.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_telescope_abell.jpg\">\u003cem>Much like bumper cars, galaxies fly about the center\u003cbr>\nand smash into one another. As a demonstration,\u003cbr>\nthe large blue galaxyon the left, nicknamed\u003cbr>\nthe guitar galaxy,is torn apart as it collides\u003cbr>\nwith another member of the cluster.*\u003c/em>\u003c/span>In the last two posts, I talked about solar systems and galaxies, you know, the really small stuff. Personally, I'm interested in the cosmological behemoths: clusters of galaxies. In fact, I studied these behemoths for five years in graduate school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the name would imply, a cluster of galaxies is a large system of galaxies, much like a solar system is a system of planets and a galaxy is a system of stars. In the largest clusters, there are thousands of galaxies, each trapped by the enormous gravity of the entire cluster. The largest cluster members are among the very first galaxies to have formed in the universe. Living in the rich cluster environment, they’ve had a lot of time to grow through collisions with other cluster galaxies, and are also among the largest galaxies in the universe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are probably around 1,000 known galaxy clusters. All of the known clusters have been discovered using well-established techniques, such as just taking pictures through a telescope. However, we’ve only managed to search a small bit of the universe, and we believe there are hundreds of thousands still out there, waiting to be discovered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For three summers, I searched for new clusters using two California telescopes: the \u003ca href=\"http://bima.astro.umd.edu/\" target=\"_blank\">BIMA array\u003c/a> in Hat Creek and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ovro.caltech.edu/\" target=\"_blank\">OVRO\u003c/a> array near Bishop. With all those massive clusters, you'd think it would be a breeze to find them. For better or for worse, I was using a fairly new technique which hadn't really been developed to the point of routine use and I came up empty-handed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This new technique targets a unique signature of galaxy clusters, the \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunyaev-Zel'dovich_effect\" target=\"_blank\">Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect\u003c/a>, or as it is more affectionately known, the \u003cem>SZ effect\u003c/em>. The SZ effect describes how a galaxy cluster appears silhouetted against the glow of the big bang known as the \u003ca href=\"http://www.astro.ubc.ca/people/scott/cmb_intro.html\">cosmic microwave background, or CMB\u003c/a>. I'll cover this in a later post, but if you are anxious for more details, feel free to ask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"right\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_assemble.jpg\">\u003cem>Construction at the South Pole\u003c/em>\u003c/span>Now, technology has advanced so far that there are several telescopes dedicated entirely to looking for clusters of galaxies using the SZ effect. One of these is the new South Pole Telescope, located at the very bottom of the planet and \u003ca href=\"http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=108413\" target=\"_blank\">just commissioned this year\u003c/a>. Using this telescope, scientists from \u003ca href=\"http://southpoletelescope.uchicago.edu/spt/team/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">eight different institutions\u003c/a> (including my old boss at UC-Berkeley) will outdo my 5-year doctoral thesis project every two and a half minutes. By late 2008, they will have studied 20,000 times more universe and should find more than 10,000 new clusters. Maybe I should have worked harder in graduate school…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing seven stories tall with a diameter of over 30 feet, the telescope weighs almost 600,000 pounds. It was constructed in much nicer climates and then \u003ca href=\"http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/support/lc130.jsp\" target=\"_blank\">flown down to the South Pole one piece at a time\u003c/a> on an old military cargo plane. By the time the last nut and bolt arrived at the site, the plane had made over 50 round trip flights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The telescope was pieced together at the South Pole during the Austral summer, running from December till February at a balmy -30 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit. With a population of 18 scientists for this project and 240 people from other projects, summer is the busy time at the South Pole. However, all of the sane people flee before the sun sets for six months of darkness, leaving only \"winter-overs\" behind for the cold season (I just looked at the weather and it’s currently -83.9 degrees). This year, there will be 54 winter-overs, two of whom will be running the South Pole Telescope as it searches for new clusters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the telescope construction was completed, the last of the summer crew worked like mad to test the instrument before they had to head back home. This in itself is nearly as much work as constructing the telescope in the bitter cold. For example, the camera operates at a temperature of 0.25 Kelvin - any warmer and the sensors don't work. You have to keep an eye on every wire and every cable just to get the camera to be this cold. Then they went through several stages of calibrating the instrument, making sure they could reproduce what they saw when testing the camera in the lab in Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As time was running out, they still hadn't actually looked at anything on the sky. They begged and gnashed their teeth for more time. With a little luck from the weather and a soft-hearted commander from the Air National Guard, they got one extra day to observe their first astronomical objects, starting with the planets in our solar system. Now, the next step is to find some of those elusive clusters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_SPT_pano.jpg\">\u003cem>Panoramic view of the South Pole Telescope\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I sit and re-read this posting, I realize that I left out one crucial ingredient - Why the South Pole??? Well, although it is a crazy place to work, there are quite a few advantages of building a telescope there rather than some tropical paradise like Tahiti.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any ideas what makes all the effort in such a harsh climate worth the hassle?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Kyle S. Dawson\u003c/strong> is engaged in post-doctorate studies of distant supernovae and\u003cbr>\ndevelopment of a proposed space-based telescope at \u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>* Credit & Copyright: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT), Hawaiian Starlight, CFHT Most of the galaxies in this image are part of the massive cluster Abell1185.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_telescope_abell.jpg\">\u003cem>Much like bumper cars, galaxies fly about the center\u003cbr>\nand smash into one another. As a demonstration,\u003cbr>\nthe large blue galaxyon the left, nicknamed\u003cbr>\nthe guitar galaxy,is torn apart as it collides\u003cbr>\nwith another member of the cluster.*\u003c/em>\u003c/span>In the last two posts, I talked about solar systems and galaxies, you know, the really small stuff. Personally, I'm interested in the cosmological behemoths: clusters of galaxies. In fact, I studied these behemoths for five years in graduate school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the name would imply, a cluster of galaxies is a large system of galaxies, much like a solar system is a system of planets and a galaxy is a system of stars. In the largest clusters, there are thousands of galaxies, each trapped by the enormous gravity of the entire cluster. The largest cluster members are among the very first galaxies to have formed in the universe. Living in the rich cluster environment, they’ve had a lot of time to grow through collisions with other cluster galaxies, and are also among the largest galaxies in the universe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are probably around 1,000 known galaxy clusters. All of the known clusters have been discovered using well-established techniques, such as just taking pictures through a telescope. However, we’ve only managed to search a small bit of the universe, and we believe there are hundreds of thousands still out there, waiting to be discovered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For three summers, I searched for new clusters using two California telescopes: the \u003ca href=\"http://bima.astro.umd.edu/\" target=\"_blank\">BIMA array\u003c/a> in Hat Creek and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ovro.caltech.edu/\" target=\"_blank\">OVRO\u003c/a> array near Bishop. With all those massive clusters, you'd think it would be a breeze to find them. For better or for worse, I was using a fairly new technique which hadn't really been developed to the point of routine use and I came up empty-handed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This new technique targets a unique signature of galaxy clusters, the \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunyaev-Zel'dovich_effect\" target=\"_blank\">Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect\u003c/a>, or as it is more affectionately known, the \u003cem>SZ effect\u003c/em>. The SZ effect describes how a galaxy cluster appears silhouetted against the glow of the big bang known as the \u003ca href=\"http://www.astro.ubc.ca/people/scott/cmb_intro.html\">cosmic microwave background, or CMB\u003c/a>. I'll cover this in a later post, but if you are anxious for more details, feel free to ask.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"right\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_assemble.jpg\">\u003cem>Construction at the South Pole\u003c/em>\u003c/span>Now, technology has advanced so far that there are several telescopes dedicated entirely to looking for clusters of galaxies using the SZ effect. One of these is the new South Pole Telescope, located at the very bottom of the planet and \u003ca href=\"http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=108413\" target=\"_blank\">just commissioned this year\u003c/a>. Using this telescope, scientists from \u003ca href=\"http://southpoletelescope.uchicago.edu/spt/team/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">eight different institutions\u003c/a> (including my old boss at UC-Berkeley) will outdo my 5-year doctoral thesis project every two and a half minutes. By late 2008, they will have studied 20,000 times more universe and should find more than 10,000 new clusters. Maybe I should have worked harder in graduate school…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Standing seven stories tall with a diameter of over 30 feet, the telescope weighs almost 600,000 pounds. It was constructed in much nicer climates and then \u003ca href=\"http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/support/lc130.jsp\" target=\"_blank\">flown down to the South Pole one piece at a time\u003c/a> on an old military cargo plane. By the time the last nut and bolt arrived at the site, the plane had made over 50 round trip flights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The telescope was pieced together at the South Pole during the Austral summer, running from December till February at a balmy -30 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit. With a population of 18 scientists for this project and 240 people from other projects, summer is the busy time at the South Pole. However, all of the sane people flee before the sun sets for six months of darkness, leaving only \"winter-overs\" behind for the cold season (I just looked at the weather and it’s currently -83.9 degrees). This year, there will be 54 winter-overs, two of whom will be running the South Pole Telescope as it searches for new clusters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the telescope construction was completed, the last of the summer crew worked like mad to test the instrument before they had to head back home. This in itself is nearly as much work as constructing the telescope in the bitter cold. For example, the camera operates at a temperature of 0.25 Kelvin - any warmer and the sensors don't work. You have to keep an eye on every wire and every cable just to get the camera to be this cold. Then they went through several stages of calibrating the instrument, making sure they could reproduce what they saw when testing the camera in the lab in Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As time was running out, they still hadn't actually looked at anything on the sky. They begged and gnashed their teeth for more time. With a little luck from the weather and a soft-hearted commander from the Air National Guard, they got one extra day to observe their first astronomical objects, starting with the planets in our solar system. Now, the next step is to find some of those elusive clusters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_SPT_pano.jpg\">\u003cem>Panoramic view of the South Pole Telescope\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I sit and re-read this posting, I realize that I left out one crucial ingredient - Why the South Pole??? Well, although it is a crazy place to work, there are quite a few advantages of building a telescope there rather than some tropical paradise like Tahiti.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any ideas what makes all the effort in such a harsh climate worth the hassle?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Kyle S. Dawson\u003c/strong> is engaged in post-doctorate studies of distant supernovae and\u003cbr>\ndevelopment of a proposed space-based telescope at \u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>* Credit & Copyright: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT), Hawaiian Starlight, CFHT Most of the galaxies in this image are part of the massive cluster Abell1185.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_exoplanet300.jpg\">\u003cem>False-colored infrared picture of the first ever\u003cbr>\ndirectly imaged exoplanet (fainter) and its parent star\u003cbr>\n(a brown dwarf—brighter). Credit: European Southern Observatory.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Exo-planet\u003c/em>: it sounds like something the starship \u003cem>Enterprise\u003c/em> should be visiting-- and though they have been taken for granted in science fiction for a long time, prior to about fifteen years ago the existence of exoplanet-- short for \u003cem>extra-solar planets\u003c/em>, or planets orbiting stars other than our Sun-- was only theoretical. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, not only are these far-flung worlds a known fact, they’re being turned out in large numbers by astronomers. In 2006, the same year the number of planets in our Solar System went from 9 to 8, the count of planets orbiting stars other than our Sun exceeded 200, and is climbing at a rate of about one per month. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is exciting stuff, whether you’re mesmerized by the potential of finding life beyond the Earth or simply intrigued by the possibilities of what may be out there in space, given the sheer number of exoplanets in the galaxy implied by observation-- quite probably in the trillions. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The means by which astronomers detect these distant worlds have been mostly through indirect observation-- observation of the effects a planet has on its parent star, whether by the slight \"wobble\" in a star or the subtle eclipsing of its light caused by the orbiting planet. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently there has been a landmark event in exoplanet research: the \u003ca href=\"http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2004/pr-23-04.html\" target=\"_blank\">first ever direct image of an exoplanet\u003c/a> was released to the world. Through observations of infrared light with the European Southern Observatory's \u003cem>Very Large Telescope\u003c/em> in Chile, this exoplanet was captured in an image along with its parent, a \u003cem>brown dwarf\u003c/em> star.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the exoplanets detected to date are large, \u003cem>gas giant\u003c/em> worlds like Jupiter and Saturn. Larger planets produce a greater wobble in the position of their star, and can block out more its light when they cross in front of it. This makes them easier to detect than \u003cem>Earth-sized\u003c/em> worlds. Many of the exoplanets discovered tend to orbit relatively close to their parent stars, too; the closer ones orbit their stars more frequently, and so the cycles of their influences play out in shorter periods of time, making them easier to observe and confirm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October, 2008, NASA will launch a new spacecraft to hunt for exoplanets: \u003ca href=\"http://kepler.nasa.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>Kepler\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Kepler will hunt for Earth-sized planets that orbit their parent stars at greater distance, within what’s called the \"habitable zone,\" the range of distances from a star where conditions are suitable for the formation of life-- at least, life as we know it here on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While exoplanet research is going on all over the world, the Bay Area is home to more than one exoplanet hunting group. Not only do observers at Chabot Space & Science Center make regular confirming observations of exoplanets, the research team with \u003ca href=\"http://exoplanets.org/\" target=\"_blank\">the greatest number of exoplanet discoveries\u003c/a> is led by Dr. Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, and Dr. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institute of Washington.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, the next time you look up at the night sky and view the stars, you can tell yourself that there may be at least one or more planets in orbit around many of them. It’s no longer a thing of science fiction alone... \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Benjamin Burress\u003c/strong> is a staff astronomer at The \u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org\">Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/a> in Oakland, CA.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_exoplanet300.jpg\">\u003cem>False-colored infrared picture of the first ever\u003cbr>\ndirectly imaged exoplanet (fainter) and its parent star\u003cbr>\n(a brown dwarf—brighter). Credit: European Southern Observatory.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Exo-planet\u003c/em>: it sounds like something the starship \u003cem>Enterprise\u003c/em> should be visiting-- and though they have been taken for granted in science fiction for a long time, prior to about fifteen years ago the existence of exoplanet-- short for \u003cem>extra-solar planets\u003c/em>, or planets orbiting stars other than our Sun-- was only theoretical. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, not only are these far-flung worlds a known fact, they’re being turned out in large numbers by astronomers. In 2006, the same year the number of planets in our Solar System went from 9 to 8, the count of planets orbiting stars other than our Sun exceeded 200, and is climbing at a rate of about one per month. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is exciting stuff, whether you’re mesmerized by the potential of finding life beyond the Earth or simply intrigued by the possibilities of what may be out there in space, given the sheer number of exoplanets in the galaxy implied by observation-- quite probably in the trillions. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The means by which astronomers detect these distant worlds have been mostly through indirect observation-- observation of the effects a planet has on its parent star, whether by the slight \"wobble\" in a star or the subtle eclipsing of its light caused by the orbiting planet. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently there has been a landmark event in exoplanet research: the \u003ca href=\"http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2004/pr-23-04.html\" target=\"_blank\">first ever direct image of an exoplanet\u003c/a> was released to the world. Through observations of infrared light with the European Southern Observatory's \u003cem>Very Large Telescope\u003c/em> in Chile, this exoplanet was captured in an image along with its parent, a \u003cem>brown dwarf\u003c/em> star.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the exoplanets detected to date are large, \u003cem>gas giant\u003c/em> worlds like Jupiter and Saturn. Larger planets produce a greater wobble in the position of their star, and can block out more its light when they cross in front of it. This makes them easier to detect than \u003cem>Earth-sized\u003c/em> worlds. Many of the exoplanets discovered tend to orbit relatively close to their parent stars, too; the closer ones orbit their stars more frequently, and so the cycles of their influences play out in shorter periods of time, making them easier to observe and confirm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October, 2008, NASA will launch a new spacecraft to hunt for exoplanets: \u003ca href=\"http://kepler.nasa.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>Kepler\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Kepler will hunt for Earth-sized planets that orbit their parent stars at greater distance, within what’s called the \"habitable zone,\" the range of distances from a star where conditions are suitable for the formation of life-- at least, life as we know it here on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While exoplanet research is going on all over the world, the Bay Area is home to more than one exoplanet hunting group. Not only do observers at Chabot Space & Science Center make regular confirming observations of exoplanets, the research team with \u003ca href=\"http://exoplanets.org/\" target=\"_blank\">the greatest number of exoplanet discoveries\u003c/a> is led by Dr. Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, and Dr. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institute of Washington.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, the next time you look up at the night sky and view the stars, you can tell yourself that there may be at least one or more planets in orbit around many of them. It’s no longer a thing of science fiction alone... \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Benjamin Burress\u003c/strong> is a staff astronomer at The \u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org\">Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/a> in Oakland, CA.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_hdf.jpg\">\u003cem>Deep image from the \u003ca href=\"http://hubblesite.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Hubble Space Telescope\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nknown as the \u003ca href=\"http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/07/\" target=\"_blank\">Hubble Deep Field\u003c/a>.\u003cbr>\nA few bright round objects, i.e. the bright white object\u003cbr>\nleft of center, are stars. All other objects are galaxies,\u003cbr>\nsome as far as 12 billion light years away.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>To be perfectly honest, although my last posting focused on stars and extrasolar planets, as a cosmologist I find these to be quite mundane. On the one hand, Venus does seem impossibly far away when you think about how long it takes to fly smushed in coach class all the way to Rio de Janeiro. On these scales, Pluto, sitting out near the edge of our solar system, seems to be the edge of time and space. On the other hand, if you want to go out and study the universe, our solar system doesn’t even register as a tick on your yardstick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To continue with this complex analogy, I’d say the first ticks on your yardstick are galaxies like \u003ca href=\"http://www.seds.org/messier/more/mw.html\" target=\"_blank\">our very own Milky Way\u003c/a>. All of those extrasolar planets I talked about before have been discovered in our very small, local neighborhood of the Milky Way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Milky Way is only one of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.seds.org/messier/galaxy.html\" target=\"_blank\">many galaxies in the universe\u003c/a>. There are so many that Bill Gates wouldn’t be able to buy all of them if the universe were holding a liquidation sale, even at the bargain price of $1.00 each. If you want to find extrasolar planets in other galaxies, forget about it. Individual stars are extremely difficult to observe outside of the Milky Way, not to mention the planets around those stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the Land Down Under, I am intrigued by university lecturer Glen Mackie, who took the time to estimate the \u003ca href=\"http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~gmackie/billions.html\" target=\"_blank\">total number of galaxies in the universe\u003c/a>, and the stars in those galaxies. He compares the total number of stars in the universe to the total number of grains of sand on Earth and finds the sand is outscored by 20 to 1. It is quite humbling to think that the Sun, which is central to our very existence, is as unique to the universe as a single grain of sand is unique to our Earth. There are many other such analogies - let me know some of your favorites in a response to this post.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With such a large number of galaxies in the universe, there’s a lot that we don’t yet understand. One project working to gain some insight into the various populations of galaxies is the \u003ca href=\"http://deep.berkeley.edu/\">DEEP \u003c/a>survey. They are using the \u003ca href=\"http://www.keckobservatory.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Keck Observatory\u003c/a>, found in one of my favorite destinations, the Big Island of Hawaii. Hawaii is not only a great place for snorkeling and SPAM, but also a phenomenal place to observe very distant galaxies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists from UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, as well as researchers from the Universities of Arizona, Maryland, Virginia, and Hawaii are all working as part of the DEEP team to study distant galaxies. Over the course of five years, they identified and observed 60,000 galaxies in four small patches of sky, each barely larger than the moon. Using this extensive data set, they hope to gain a better understanding of how distant galaxies have aged compared to older, nearby galaxies. For those of you data-crunchers like me, take a look at some of \u003ca href=\"http://deep.berkeley.edu/gallery/\" target=\"_blank\">DEEP's images\u003c/a>. I know it’s not as exciting as watching the proceedings of the Anna Nicole Smith case, but I suspect Larry King will pick up on DEEP soon enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Kyle S. Dawson\u003c/strong> is engaged in post-doctorate studies of distant supernovae and\u003cbr>\ndevelopment of a proposed space-based telescope at \u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"left\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/imp/blog_hdf.jpg\">\u003cem>Deep image from the \u003ca href=\"http://hubblesite.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Hubble Space Telescope\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\nknown as the \u003ca href=\"http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/07/\" target=\"_blank\">Hubble Deep Field\u003c/a>.\u003cbr>\nA few bright round objects, i.e. the bright white object\u003cbr>\nleft of center, are stars. All other objects are galaxies,\u003cbr>\nsome as far as 12 billion light years away.\u003c/em>\u003c/span>To be perfectly honest, although my last posting focused on stars and extrasolar planets, as a cosmologist I find these to be quite mundane. On the one hand, Venus does seem impossibly far away when you think about how long it takes to fly smushed in coach class all the way to Rio de Janeiro. On these scales, Pluto, sitting out near the edge of our solar system, seems to be the edge of time and space. On the other hand, if you want to go out and study the universe, our solar system doesn’t even register as a tick on your yardstick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To continue with this complex analogy, I’d say the first ticks on your yardstick are galaxies like \u003ca href=\"http://www.seds.org/messier/more/mw.html\" target=\"_blank\">our very own Milky Way\u003c/a>. All of those extrasolar planets I talked about before have been discovered in our very small, local neighborhood of the Milky Way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Milky Way is only one of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.seds.org/messier/galaxy.html\" target=\"_blank\">many galaxies in the universe\u003c/a>. There are so many that Bill Gates wouldn’t be able to buy all of them if the universe were holding a liquidation sale, even at the bargain price of $1.00 each. If you want to find extrasolar planets in other galaxies, forget about it. Individual stars are extremely difficult to observe outside of the Milky Way, not to mention the planets around those stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the Land Down Under, I am intrigued by university lecturer Glen Mackie, who took the time to estimate the \u003ca href=\"http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~gmackie/billions.html\" target=\"_blank\">total number of galaxies in the universe\u003c/a>, and the stars in those galaxies. He compares the total number of stars in the universe to the total number of grains of sand on Earth and finds the sand is outscored by 20 to 1. It is quite humbling to think that the Sun, which is central to our very existence, is as unique to the universe as a single grain of sand is unique to our Earth. There are many other such analogies - let me know some of your favorites in a response to this post.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With such a large number of galaxies in the universe, there’s a lot that we don’t yet understand. One project working to gain some insight into the various populations of galaxies is the \u003ca href=\"http://deep.berkeley.edu/\">DEEP \u003c/a>survey. They are using the \u003ca href=\"http://www.keckobservatory.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Keck Observatory\u003c/a>, found in one of my favorite destinations, the Big Island of Hawaii. Hawaii is not only a great place for snorkeling and SPAM, but also a phenomenal place to observe very distant galaxies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
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"order": 1
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"order": 9
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
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"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
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"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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