Jean Tate

Maybe ET’s Calling, But We Have the Wrong Phone

June 21, 2010

To date, SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) has focused on ETs who ‘phone home’ using the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and even a very small region within that. But what if ET’s phone doesn’t use radio waves? Sure the xkcd comic, is funny, but maybe it points to a deep flaw in our [...]

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Answer to Universe Puzzle No. 13 Now Posted

May 15, 2010

I’ve now posted the answer in the original post.

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Universe Puzzle No. 13

May 11, 2010

How did you do in last week’s Universe Puzzle? Did you figure out an answer, but didn’t write up your reasons why it was the best? Do you enjoy these puzzles? What do you particularly like? Dislike? Would like to see changed? Would like to see more of? Let me know please! Once again, this [...]

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Universe Puzzle No. 12

May 3, 2010

How did you do in last week’s Universe Puzzle? Did you easily find out where the green valley is, but have no clue as to why it’s called a ‘valley’? Do you enjoy these puzzles? What do you particularly like? Dislike? Would like to see changed? Would like to see more of? Let me know [...]

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Universe Puzzle No. 11

April 26, 2010

How did you do in last week’s Universe Puzzle? Do you enjoy these puzzles? What do you particularly like? Dislike? Would like to see changed? Would like to see more of? Let me know please! Once again, this week’s puzzle requires you to cudgel your brains a bit and do some lateral thinking (five minutes [...]

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GOODS, Under Astronomers’ AEGIS, Produce GEMS

April 25, 2010

No, not really (but I got all three key words into the title in a way that sorta makes sense). Astronomers, like most scientists, just love acronyms; unfortunately, like most acronyms, on their own the ones astronomers use make no sense to non-astronomers. And sometimes not even when written in full: GOODS = Great Observatories [...]

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Hubble, Renewed, Reinvigorated, Raring to Go

April 23, 2010

Note: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, for ten days, Universe Today has featured highlights from two year slices of the life of the Hubble, focusing on its achievements as an astronomical observatory. Today’s article looks at the last two years, to April 2010. The stakes for the fifth, and final, [...]

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Click on Hubble: Galaxy Zoo Now Includes HST Images

April 22, 2010

The Hubble Space Telescope is 20 years old on Saturday and, to mark this anniversary, all the world’s space and astronomy fans have a chance to become part of the Hubble team. As part of the birthday celebrations NASA’s Space Telescope Science Institute and the online astronomy project Galaxy Zoo are making some 200,000 Hubble [...]

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Hubble’s Late Teen Years: It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

April 22, 2010

Note: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, for ten days, Universe Today will feature highlights from two year slices of the life of the Hubble, focusing on its achievements as an astronomical observatory. Today’s article looks at the period April 2006 to April 2008. The image of the Antennae galaxies, above, [...]

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Hubble Turns Sixteen, and Just Keeps on Working

April 21, 2010

Note: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, for ten days, Universe Today will feature highlights from two year slices of the life of the Hubble, focusing on its achievements as an astronomical observatory. Today’s article looks at the period April 2004 to April 2006. First, in 1995, there was the Hubble [...]

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Hubble Enters its Teen Years, More Powerful, More Ambitious

April 20, 2010

Note: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, for ten days, Universe Today will feature highlights from two year slices of the life of the Hubble, focusing on its achievements as an astronomical observatory. Today’s article looks at the period April 2002 to April 2004. As I mentioned yesterday, Hubble servicing mission [...]

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Hubble’s 20th: At Least as Good as Any Human Photographer

April 19, 2010

Note: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, for ten days, Universe Today will feature highlights from two year slices of the life of the Hubble, focusing on its achievements as an astronomical observatory. Today’s article looks at the period April 2000 to April 2002. The International Center for Photography gave its [...]

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Universe Puzzle No. 10

April 19, 2010

Last week’s Universe Puzzle was fun to do wasn’t it? Well, this week’s is number ten (how time flies), which is a good time to get some feedback. Do you enjoy these puzzles? What do you particularly like? Dislike? Would like to see changed? Would like to see more of? Let me know please! Either [...]

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Hubble’s 10th Birthday Gift: Measurement of the Hubble Constant

April 18, 2010

Note: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, for ten days, Universe Today will feature highlights from two year slices of the life of the Hubble, focusing on its achievements as an astronomical observatory. Today’s article looks at the period April 1998 to April 2000. In October 1998, Hubble complemented the original [...]

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Hubble at 8: So Many Discoveries, So Quickly

April 17, 2010

Note: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, for ten days, Universe Today will feature highlights from two year slices of the life of the Hubble, focusing on its achievements as an astronomical observatory. Today’s article looks at the period April 1996 to April 1998. The ability of the Hubble Space Telescope [...]

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Hubble’s 20 Years: Now We Are Six

April 16, 2010

Note: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, for ten days, Universe Today will feature highlights from two year slices of the life of the Hubble, focusing on its achievements as an astronomical observatory. Today’s article looks at the period April 1994 to April 1996. After the famous Apollo 8 “Earthrise” image, [...]

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Could An Amateur Astronomer Snap a Picture of an Exoplanet?

April 15, 2010

Using their backyard telescope, today? No; however, this image of three exoplanets required just 1.5 meters (diameter; 60 inches) of a telescope mirror, not vastly larger than the biggest backyard ‘scope. These particular exoplanets orbit the star HR 8799, and have been imaged directly before, by one of the 10-meter (33-foot) Keck telescopes and the [...]

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Hubble’s 20 Years: Time for 20/20 Vision

April 15, 2010

Note: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, for ten days, Universe Today will feature highlights from two year slices of the life of the Hubble, focusing on its achievements as an astronomical observatory. Today’s article looks at the period April 1992 to April 1994. “And we have liftoff, liftoff of the [...]

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Magnetic Fields in Inter-cluster Space: Measured at Last

April 14, 2010

The strength of the magnetic fields here on Earth, on the Sun, in inter-planetary space, on stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way; some of them anyway), in the interstellar medium (ISM) in our galaxy, and in the ISM of other spiral galaxies (some of them anyway) have been measured. But there have been no [...]

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Hubble: It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

April 14, 2010

That NASA sent the Hubble into space, to stay. The date was 24 April, 1990; “Liftoff of the Space Shuttle Discovery, with the Hubble Space Telescope, our window on the universe”. Over the next ten days I’ll be reviewing these twenty years, starting with the first two today; I hope you will enjoy the show.

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