Observe Space – Carnival Style

Welcome to the March 13, 2008 edition of the Carnival of Space. Many thanks to Universe Today for allowing me to host the carnival this week. We have many fantastic space related links for you to enjoy, so without further ado…

Ethan at Starts With a Bang has posted about dark matter and what effect, if any, it has on the expansion of the universe. The Universe is Accelerating?

Ian over at Astroblog shares his “musings on the multiple uses of the STEREO satellite images. You can find comets, asteroids and variable stars, can you find exoplanets?” He’s posted this nifty animation of the minima of Algol. Wow! I’ve learned so much just by hosting this carnival.

We are introduced to a mystery at A Babe in the Universe. Video from JPL previews the coming encounter. Enceladus’ South Pole is home to warm geysers that spew vapor into Space, resupplying Saturn’s E Ring. Power source of the geysers, and why they are concentrated at the South Pole, are considered a mystery. Check out Encounters and get a feel for Cassini’s flyby encounter.

Amanda at Astropixie reflects on what she learned 10 years ago while taking her first intro to astronomy course, and how far our knowledge has come since then! WMAP – “double-U map” was inspired by last week’s 5-year data release from the wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe (WMAP). Take a few minutes to reminisce with Amanda, you’ll be glad you did.

Astroprof laments about Daylight Wasting Time? over at Astroprof’s Page. The practice of changing our clocks twice a year seems to be based on antiquated data and the author encourages us to “not pretend that we are saving energy when we are not.” Check it out and weigh in on the topic.

Steinn Sigurðsson from Dynamics of Cats has submitted two links this week. The first I’ll take anticorrelated isocurvature with tensor modes, please is a pointer to the WMAP-5 results. Second under/over is a discourse on the run-up to the Hubble Cycle 17 proposal deadline. Stop by and tell Steinn hello.

FlyingSinger, at Music of the Spheres, has learned from the April issue of “Discover” magazine that he has been a space tourist since 2005 when he started using the Orbiter space flight simulator. The article “Space Treks” in Discover discusses the usual expensive space tourism options, but suggests Orbiter as the low-cost (free!) virtual solution. Read Discover Orbiter and decide if you want to be a virtual space tourist.

David at Altair VI has an interesting article about a “speculative fact article in the December 1962 issue of Galaxy science fiction magazine” entitled Pluto: Doorway to the Stars. It’s quite intriguing.

Ian at Astroengine has submitted two links. First wouldn’t it be cool if we could get advance warning that a Supernova was imminent? How do you catch a Supernova in the Act? Build a Neutrino Detecting, Early Warning Device is an article that explains how chance has possibly been taken out of the equation. SuperNova Early Warning System (SNEWS) may possibly give advance warning and allow “astronomers to direct their telescopes toward the predicted location of a pre-supernova event with time to spare.” Ian’s second article Could Mars Quakes, Seasonal Temperature Changes or a Chance Meteorite Impact Cause Mars Avalanches? is a superb look at the Mars Avalanches.

For a look at how self-replicating probes might change our understanding of the Fermi question and influence future possibilities in interstellar travel, visit Centauri Dreams and read Dreaming of von Neumann. It’s a takeoff on a post by George Dvorsky on his Sentient Developments site.

Mang at Mang’s Bat Page provides info about Scouts in Space (not kidding). Can you guess how many of the men that have walked on the moon were scouts? Visit Mang and find out.

The Lunar Librarian, of Out of the Cradle, takes a look at a pair of books that explore the idea of living and working on the Moon, one for younger audiences and one for adults. From crafts projects to a sample employment contract, they cover everything you need to know about how our future on the Moon may turn out. Read the reviews at Home on the Moon – Welcome to Moonbase.

RLV and Space Transport News has an update on the Mars atmospheric sounding probe project led by the German Mars Society. The probe will fly on AMSAT-DLs P5A-Mission spacecraft. Several German universities are also involved. Check it out here –> Mars Society Archimedes project update

Sean at Visual Astronomy shares his joy at viewing the skies with What a Birthday Gift!. He’s shared an exhilarating experience!

I sincerely hope you visited all the links and left a comment or two. Thanks to all of the submitters, you’ve done a fabulous job of sharing information about astronomy and space.

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