The Carnival of Space 189 is Now Open Come One, Come All!

The Carnival of Space is a weekly event hosted by a blogger of any and all things space. Welcome to Steve's Astro-corner. Get ready to be wowed and awed by what you see and read and in some cases by what you  hear. Today I am presenting for your pleasure, a fine assortment of blogs submitted to Brian Wang of the Next Big Future Blog . He rides herd on the dozens of space blog sites that send their blogs to the Carnival every week. If by chance, you own a blog that you wish to share with the world and in the process meet some really great people with a deep love for space "stuff" then by all means send your URL and a bit about the blog in an email to carnivalofspace@gmail.com and you will be added to the editorial circulation list.  Previous episodes can be found here.  So with all that said, let's step in to the carnival and enjoy the show!

 

The first blog we come to is the always well written blog UniverseToday with senior editor, Nancy Atkinson submitting. This week Nancy shares the before and after shots of the terrible earthquake and Tsunami that rocked Japan last week. The post can be found Here.

(as a side note) I personally wish the people of Japan  a speedy and safe recovery from the collection of calamities that have struck this country.

After that dose of reality a little escape to the movies might be in order and  Ian O'Neill of the Discovery Space News website  has the ticket. Ian says "Despite the bad press, I really enjoyed 'Battle: Los Angeles.' It is, after all, just a movie about war, aliens and mankind's desire not to be exterminated without a fight." Check out  his movie review at Discovery

Next in our quest for all things space we have Allen Versfeld and his Blog: Urban Astronomer. Here, Allen discusses how New observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope have refined our measurements of the expansion of the universe.  These new figures strengthen the case for Dark Energy by eliminating a competing theory. Sounds like a team of scientists just got sacked! ouch that always stings when it is your research. I feel their pain. I just knew the Ether was a sure thing...

On to our next big thing and that is  Next Big Future. Brian Wang, the thinking man's Thinking Man sorts out, In space it is relatively easy to move quite large space rocks using solar sails, ion drives and other means. There are a lot of space rocks and a survey could be done to select the rocks that would have to be moved with the least amount of effort. Then once each asteroid is moved into place they would be locked into place. It could be easier to gather asteroids to make desired shapes instead of digging out a larger asteroid. Different sized asteroids could be used from 500 kg, to tons up to asteroids that are 100 to 1000 meter across. Brian is amazing! I would love to hang out with him but I am afraid my head would explode. His  thought provoking article can be found Here

On to Ian Musgrave of Astroblogger fame  Ian tackles the Super Moon issue. Is it the bringer of death and carnage or is it just another full moon that just so happens to be at Perigee? Ian sheds some light on this well written piece. Yes, I slipped a pun in there... Go Here for all things Super Moon.

Vega 0.0 Fran Sevilla of Vega 0.0 delivers big with an Introduction to the comoving coordinates in cosmology. This is number 16 in a series so you might have some catching up to do there but as always a fascinating read. This Blog is in Spanish but have no worries if you scroll down on the right side you will find the Google translator application. translate it to the language of your choice and enjoy getting your head around our ever expanding universe. Check this blog out... Here

Time to get retro and when it comes to retro space there are few better than  Amy Shira Teitel and her blog: Vintage Space. This time around Amy takes a look back  at some of NASA's "trial and error" testing methods in selecting the ultimate shape for the Mercury capsule.  This is a real trip down memory lane. These were some exciting times for space travel. Did I mention dangerous too? When I'm the test pilot the last thing I really want to hear the aerospace engineers say is: "Well...  let's try this." Read all about the trial  and tribulations of the US mercury program Here

Peter Lake of Astroswanny takes opportunity to video some of my favorite Space stuff; that being the fascinating world of cataclysmic variables. Astroswanny has been logging some telescope time on FS Aur as part of Dr Vitaly Neustroev's research project. Peter has created a great little video that shows off some of the odd behavior of this cataclysmic variable. Peter is one of those citizen scientists doing real science  on behalf of a full time scientist doing research.  Now that is something to hang your hat on Peter! Get an eyeful --->  Here

J P Skipper of Weird Sciences discusses Atlantis  and the possibility it did exist but they built their empire on some  very shaky ground. Lots of underwater mapping to look at and some leaps to make but hey that's what it takes sometimes to make that big discovery. Check out the hang out of Atlas and his kin at Weird Sciences



Steve Nerlich over at Cheap Astronomy  has a treat for your ears and mind. Steve delves into the  unravel the whole density wave spiral arm story. Take a listen  and then think about that! Pick up what Steve is putting down right Here . I really don't have a logo to post for  Steve because he is frugal or I would!

How can our universe (or the one we are in at the moment) exist at the same time as another one? Would the other universe be a mirror image of this universe or would it have the same stuff in it but the stuff act differently from what we are experiencing now?  Those are some very good questions and for the answers or some answers. Go to the venerable Sage of Warp Chris Dann and his Blog Weird Warp for the skinny.

The Space writer (Carolyn Collins Petersen)   muses on the events of 25 years ago, when observations of Comet Halley were at their peak.  It is very hard to believe that it has been that long since the Halley experience was upon us. I am that old ... Read a great story by a great writer over at The Space  Writer

For a series of videos presented by the blog: We are all in the gutter, go here, here and here
This week They've been showcasing a series of videos about the Universe made by astronomers in Portsmouth. Three have been posted here with two more to be seen at this site.

Dr. Bruce Cordell has been perusing the latest data from the Kepler mission  and finds the mission seems to suggest Earths are 'Relatively Scarce'. Are we the only ones? no Galactic pen pals? Dr. Cordell is leaning in that direction. Find out all about it at Bruce's 21st Century Waves

A simple sentence can sometimes say a whole lot. So when you read Einstein's work was crucial to virtually every aspect of modern physics, what does that make you think? To wade out into those waters is none other than the Chandra Blog I guess Chandra was super busy way up in space taking some killer x-ray images so Megan Watzke stepped in to say happy birthday to Albert Einstein. He would have been 132 on March 14th. check out this short muse Here

Lastly, I offer for your enjoyment the witty repartee of Steve's Astrocorner as he takes a look at the Sun with a filter of course and ponders the latest study going about solar cycles. You can look at the Sun talk Here

I knew if I was ever going to get "witty repartee" and my blog in the same sentence I was going to have to do it my self . With  That my friends  is the end  of Carnival 189 I hope you enjoyed it. As I leave you. I just wanted to say happy birthday to the Cincinnati Astronomical Society as they celebrate 100 years of astronomical excellence.
Until next time,
Keep looking up!
SteveT