Can You Spot the Future Location of the Utopia Planitia Shipyards in this New HiRISE Image?

The surface of Utopia Planitia on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

The name of this large impact basin on Mars, Utopia Planitia, sounds idyllic. But it also strikes a warm place in the heart of any Trekkie, as in the future (at least in the Star Trek Universe) it will be the location of the facility where the original Starship Enterprise and its many incarnations will be built. While the majority of the Utopia Planitia Shipyards are in geosynchronous orbit of Mars, there are also facilities on the planet as well, according to the Utopia Planitia Yards Starship Guide website. Uptopia Planitia was “found to be the ideal location [for the Shipyard], and a number of planetary sites are developed along with an expansive orbital facility located in geosynchronous orbit directly above,” explains the site.

But back to the present and this beautiful image from the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

What is striking about the image are the polygon-shaped patterns of troughs and large scallop-shaped depressions. Mike Mellon, writing on the HiRISE website explains that collectively, such landforms are referred to as “thermokarst,” which both point to a slightly warmer and wetter Mars in the past.

Writes Mellon:

Under the proper climate conditions ice may form and seasonally accumulate in a honeycomb network of vertical fractures that appear when ice-rich soil contracts each winter. On Earth this form of subsurface ice is called an “ice wedge.” Special conditions are needed for this ice to accumulate and develop into a large wedge, namely warm temperature and abundant surface water. A thick layer of thawed wet soil forms allowing water to percolate into the open contraction cracks within the permafrost beneath. Later, loss of this wedge ice, by for example sublimation, results in deep depressions marking the honeycomb network.

Likewise, the larger scallop depressions might point to a past climate of frozen ponds or local patches of windblown snow collected in hollows. These surface ice deposits could later be covered by the ever-shifting soils and dust. In either case, the currently bitter cold and dry climate of Mars is not conducive to forming either of these buried-ice forms. Therefore, these landforms point to a warmer, but still cold, climate in the geologic past.

This image just highlights why I’m such a big fan of the HiRISE camera: a gorgeous image of our neighboring planet that was taken just last month from a spaceship orbiting Mars RIGHT NOW that tells us more about the past, while giving hope for our potentially space-faring future.

Why Teleportation Could Be Far Slower Than Walking

It always looked so easy in the Star Trek episodes. “Two to beam up,” Captain James T. Kirk would say from the planet’s surface. A few seconds later, the officers would materialize on the Enterprise — often missing a few red-shirts that went down with them.

A new analysis says the teleportation process wouldn’t take a few seconds. It could, in fact, stretch longer than the history of the universe! “It would probably be quicker to walk,” a press release said laconically.

Continue reading “Why Teleportation Could Be Far Slower Than Walking”

Seeing the Red of ‘La Superba,’ a Magnificent Springtime Carbon Star

Finder chart for La Superba. (Photo by Author).

The Universe can be a very gray place. But this week, we’ll look at a fine example of a class of objects that defies this trend.

Many first time stargazers are surprised when the Trifid or the Orion Nebula fails to exhibit the bright splashy colors seen in Hubble photos. The fault lies not with the Universe, but in our very own eyes.

This is because the light sensitive fovea of our eye has two different types of photoreceptor cells; rods and cones. These act like slow and fast speed film (for those of us old enough to remember actual film!) Under low light conditions, objects have a very black-and-white appearance. It’s only with an increase in brightness that the color receptors in the cone cells of our eye begin to kick in.

One class of stars can induce this effect. They’re known as carbon stars.

A fine example of just such an object rides high in the late spring sky for northern hemisphere observers. This is the variable star Y Canum Venaticorum, also abbreviated as Y CVn or “La Superba” (The magnificent). This name was given to the star by Father Angelo Secchi in the mid-19th century. It is one of the reddest stars in the sky.

Astronomers gauge the “redness” of a star by measuring its magnitude contrast through a blue and visible (green peaking) filters. This is what is known as its B-V index, and the higher the value, the redder the star.

La Superba has a B-V value of +2.5. For contrast, the familiar orange-red stars Antares and Betelgeuse have a B-V value of +1.83 & +1.85, respectively.

Some other classic carbon stars and their B-V values are;

TX Piscium: +2.5

Herschel’s Garnet Star: +2.35

V Hydrae: +4.5

R Leporis (Hind’s Crimson Star): +2.7

Many of these are also variable stars, and they can appear redder visually near their minimum brightness. In the case of La Superba, it ranges from magnitude +4.8 to +6.3 over a span of 160 days, with a longer super-imposed cycle of about 6 years. We’re just coming off of a peak cycle in late May 2013, and La Superba is easy to spot with binoculars about a third of the way between the brilliant double star Cor Caroli (visited by the Enterprise in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode “Allegiance”) and Delta Ursa Majoris.

I’ve shown off carbon stars such as La Superba and Hind’s Crimson Star at public star parties to great effect. They can be an excellent star party “secret weapon” when every other ‘scope down the line is aimed at the Orion nebula.

For a faint constellation, Canes Venatici has lots to offer. One of the best globular clusters in the sky M3 can be found within its borders, as can a handful of decent galaxies. La Superba lies in a rather empty region of the constellation high above the galactic plane. In fact, an area about 15° degrees north of location in the adjoining constellation Ursa Major was picked for the famous Hubble Deep Field image for this very reason.

Burnham’s Celestial Handbook describes La Superba as “one of the reddest of all the naked eye stars, (with) a truly odd and vivid tint in large telescopes.” Astronomer Agnes Clerke described its appearance in 1905 as an “extraordinary vivacity of prismatic rays, separated into dazzling zones of red, yellow, and green by broad spaces of profound obscurity.”  (Note: the “spaces” referred to gaps in its spectra).

Through the telescope at low power, we see La Superba as an orange-red ember with shades of white. It’s an easy catch with binoculars, and one of the very few carbon stars that is visible to the naked eye under dark skies. We’d judge that only TX Piscium rivals it in brightness, and only V Hydrae and Hinds appear ruddier. I always like to ask first time observers of colored stars what they see… human eye-brain perception can vary greatly!

The coordinates of La Superba are:

Right Ascension: 12 Hours 45’ 08”

Declination: +45 26’ 25”

La Superba is about 600-800 light years distant. Physically, it is a massive star at three times the mass of our Sun. It’s also a monster in terms of diameter, at four astronomical units in size.  If you placed it within our solar system, it would swallow up the orbits of the interior planets out to Mars!

La Superba is thus much less dense than our own Sun, and at a surface temperature of about 2,800K, relatively cool. It is also the brightest “J-type” carbon star in the sky, a rare sub-type characterized by the presence of the isotope carbon-13 in its atmosphere.  A carbon star is a sun near the end of its life, accumulating carbon compounds in its outer atmosphere as it fuses heavier elements in one last “hurrah” before shedding its outer layers and forming a white dwarf embedded inside a planetary nebula. Carbon stars are much brighter in the infrared, and we see the very tail end of this absorption in the visible red end of the spectrum. In fact, La Superba is a full 9 magnitudes (nearly 4,000 times) brighter in the near-infrared than in the ultraviolet!

All amazing facts to ponder as we view a star near the end of its career, seeding the cosmos with the very element that makes life possible. Next time you’re out observing, be sure to go “into the red” and check out the fine carbon star!

 

‘Star Trek’ Spaceship Model Soars Into Stratosphere

Dropping out of warp speed could have deadly results. (Image: Paramount Pictures/CBS Studios)

It was billed as the U.S. S. Enterprise’s first “real” flight in space, but the spaceship didn’t get quite that far.

A group of Star Trek fans launched a model of the famed fictional vessel to an altitude of 95,568 feet (29,129 meters) above Canada, or about 18.1 miles (29.1 kilometers), they told media.

The Karman line — a commonly accepted threshold for the edge of space — is at about 62 miles, or 100 kilometers, above sea level.

Still, the high-flying feat made the Canadian group quite happy, even though the ship made a suicidal crash landing at the end of its flight.

“We lost our engines,” said Steve Schnier, a member of the group that set Enterprise aloft with a weather balloon from Stayner, Ontario, in an interview with Canada AM.

“It wasn’t a smooth ride,” Schnier added concerning the ship’s final minutes. “It was moving, at one point, at 117 kilometres [72.7 miles] an hour.”

Enterprise smashed into the water near a Georgian Bay island in an area roughly 2.5 hours’ drive north of Canada’s largest city of Toronto. Searchers found it using a GPS signal.

The launch at the end of April came just weeks before Star Trek: Into Darkness, the next installment of the nearly 50-year-old franchise, zoomed into theaters in Canada and the United States this week. (Read our full review here.)

Weather balloon flights are used in science to collect information about the upper atmosphere. Other amateur groups have had fun using the idea, flying tokens ranging from teddy bears to Lego figurines.

How Many Tribbles Will Fit Into Your House?

Captain Kirk with Tribbles, from TOS episode, 'The Trouble with Tribbles.' Via Memory Alpha.


Star Trek: How Many Tribbles Will Fit in Your House?

Oh, those little creatures that are no Tribble at all. If you’re not familiar with these small, non-intelligent lifeforms known for their prodigious reproductive rate, Tribbles (Polygeminus grex) are part of Star Trek lore. And we’ve all got Star Trek on the brain with the opening of the latest movie, Star Trek: Into Darkness (see our review here). So just for fun, here’s something that Nilz Baris would have loved to have access to. Provided by the folks at Movoto, this handy calculator will will tell you a.) not only how many Tribbles will fit into your home, but also, b.) how long it will take them to be fruitful and multiply to fill your home.

And for more fun here’s some estimates of how many Tribbles will fit into various landmarks, both real and imagined:

Empire State Building

Tribbles: 71,153,846
Time: 96 hours

White House

Tribbles: 1,375,000
Time: 72 Hours

Burj Khalifa

Tribbles: 96,342,614
ime: 96 hours

Painted Lady

Tribbles: 57,692
Time: 60

Wayne Manor

Tribbles: 980,769
Time: 72 hours

Millennium Falcon

Tribbles: 1,173,493
Time: 72 hours

‘Star Trek into Darkness’ & NASA Station Crews Join Forces at Live NASA Webcast

NASA and Star Trek connect on NASA TV on May 16 for the premiere of “Star Trek Into Darkness” on May 17, 2013 to celebrate the wonders of Space Exploration. Still image of the fictional star ship ‘Enterprise’. Credit: Star Trek

Science Fact and Science Fiction join forces in space today for a one of a kind meeting turning science fiction into reality – and you can participate courtesy of NASA and Hollywood!

Fictional astronauts and crews from the newest Star Trek incarnation; “Star Trek into Darkness” and real life astronauts taking part from outer space and Earth get connected today (May 16) via a live ‘space bridge’ webcast hosted by NASA. The movies premieres today – May 16.

NASA Television broadcasts the face-to-face meeting as a Google+ Hangout from noon to 12:45 p.m. EDT, May 16. Watch live below!

The webcast includes “Captain Kirk” – played by actor Chris Pine, and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy – fresh off from his real life ‘emergency spacewalk’ this past weekend that saved the critically important cooling system aboard the International Space Station (ISS). “Into Darkness” features dramatic life and death spacewalks.

Astronaut Chris Cassidy during the May 11, 2013 emergency spacewalk at the ISS. Credit: NASA
Astronaut Chris Cassidy during the May 11, 2013 emergency spacewalk at the ISS. Credit: NASA

Also participating in the live NASA webcast are ‘Star Trek’ director J.J. Abrams, screenwriter and producer Damon Lindelof; and actors Alice Eve (Dr. Carol Marcus) and John Cho (Sulu) and astronauts Michael Fincke and Kjell Lindgren at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Fincke flew on the Space Shuttle and the ISS and made a guest appearance on the finale of the TV series – “Star Trek: Enterprise”. See photo below.

‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ movie still image. Credit: Star Trek
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ movie still image. Credit: Star Trek

The ISS is a sort of early forerunner for the fictional ‘Federation’ in the ‘Star Trek’ Universe – constructed in low Earth orbit by the combined genius and talents of 5 space agencies and 16 nations of Earth to forge a united path forward for the peaceful exploration of Outer Space.

Cassidy will provide insights about everyday life aboard the real space station – like eating, sleeping, exercising and fun ( think Chris Hadfield’s guitar strumming ‘Space Oddity’ -watch the YouTube video below) – as well as the myriad of over 300 biological, chemical and astronomical science experiments performed by himself and the six person station crews during their six-month stints in zero gravity.

Astronaut Terry Virts, left, Actor Scott Bakula and Astronaut Mike Fincke, right, beam on the set of Star Trek's final Enterprise voyage. Credit: NASA
Astronaut Terry Virts, left, Actor Scott Bakula and Astronaut Mike Fincke, right, beam on the set of Star Trek’s final Enterprise voyage. Credit: NASA

The participants will ask questions of each other and take questions from the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City (home of the space shuttle Enterprise), the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, and social media followers, says NASA.

Social media followers were allowed to submit 30 sec video questions until early this morning.

And you can submit questions today and during the live broadcast using the hashtag #askNASA on YouTube, Google+, Twitter and Facebook.

Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock in ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’. Credit: Star Trek
Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock in ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’. Credit: Star Trek

Watch the hangout live on NASA’s Google+ page, the NASA Television YouTube channel, or NASA TV starting at Noon EDT, May 16.

As a long time Star Trek fan (since TOS) I can’t wait to see ‘Into Darkness’

Ken Kremer

…………….
Learn more about NASA missions, Mars, Curiosity and more at Ken’s upcoming lecture presentation:

June 12: “Send your Name to Mars” and “LADEE Lunar & Antares ISS Rocket Launches from Virginia”; Franklin Institute and Rittenhouse Astronomical Society, Philadelphia, PA, 8 PM.

NASA’s real life Space Shuttle Enterprise transits the NYC Skyline at Dusk on a barge on June 3, 2012 during a two stage seagoing  journey to her permanent  new home at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Enterprise is bracketed by the Empire State Building, The Freedom Tower (still under construction) and the torch lit Statue of Liberty. Credit: Ken Kremer
NASA’s real life Space Shuttle Enterprise transits the NYC Skyline at Dusk on a barge on June 3, 2012 during a two stage seagoing journey to her permanent new home at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Enterprise is bracketed by the Empire State Building, The Freedom Tower (still under construction) and the torch lit Statue of Liberty. Credit: Ken Kremer

Our Spoiler-Free Review of Star Trek: Into Darkness

Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Kirk (Chris Pine) as portrayed in Star Trek: Into Darkness. Credit: StarTrekMovie.com

If you’re a fan of the rebooted 2009 Star Trek film, we think you’ll love the second edition. You’ll find similar whip-cracking dialog, inside jokes and action-filled storyline in the sequel, Star Trek: Into Darkness, which opens in theaters in the United States and several other countries today.

While the first movie introduced us to the characters, this movie is all about choices… moral choices, and when it is best to help somebody, as opposed to letting things be. That’s where things can get uncomfortable, though.

The film’s start portrays a moral dilemma in the first few minutes, with choices that bring upon punishment for the players involved. The consequences are quite logical — Spock would point that out — but when more dilemmas pile up at the end of the film, many decisions go unquestioned.

Yes, this is an action film and yes, the Star Trek franchise is one that never lets itself get slowed down by plot holes and inconsistencies. (The plot isn’t that groundbreaking, either.) Still, the movie could have benefitted from an extra five or 10 minutes to show the reasoning behind the final few choices. Thinking over what happened, there could be problems with what the crew decided to do.

Nyota Uhura as seen in Star Trek: Into Darkness. Credit: StarTrekMovie.com
Nyota Uhura as seen in Star Trek: Into Darkness. Credit: StarTrekMovie.com

Enough Tribble-like quibbling, though. Star Trek: Into Darkness pulls you in with an action sequence in the first few minutes, and the pace never lets up. Spock (Zachary Quinto)’s straightforward nature gets him into trouble — as usual — with James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), leading to quotable insults that generated audience guffaws in an advance screening Universe Today saw in Ottawa, Canada.

There’s enough time and, well, space for other characters to shine as well. While Nyota Uhura (Zoë Saldana) spends ample screen time mooning about her boyfriend, she proves to be an excellent and forceful translator. Scotty (Simon Pegg) also has a wonderful back-and-forth sequence late in the movie, breaking up some intense moments with his slapstick humor.

Also: Another character comes along and — with a presence that commands attention on the big screen — threatens to steal the show from our heroes. You don’t want to like them, but as you get to know them you realize they have reasons behind their actions.

What did you think of the film? Please share your thoughts in the comments

Spock Vs. Spock: New Commercial Full of ‘Star Trek’ Gems

We guarantee you’ll go out of your Vulcan mind watching this new car commercial starring Spock … and Spock.

The Audi ad shows Leonard Nimoy (Spock from Star Trek‘s original series) and Zachary Quinto (Spock from Star Trek: Into Darkness, which premieres May 17) looking for new challenges after Nimoy wins a chess match.

“You want to play a round of golf in the club and get some lunch? Whoever gets to the club last buys lunch,” Quinto says to his predecessor.

“Stand by to have your wallet emptied by a tractor beam,” responds Nimoy.

Continue reading “Spock Vs. Spock: New Commercial Full of ‘Star Trek’ Gems”

Tiny Bubbles: Star Trek Gets An Atomic Look

The Star Trek lego is spelled out on the atomic level in new research performed by IBM. Credit: IBM Research

Add IBM to the list of entities eagerly counting down to Star Trek: Into Darkness, the next installment of the famed franchise, which opens up in theaters May 17. Researchers at the computing giant are so excited that they created atomic images of Star Trek symbols.

Users of the Star Trek: Into Darkness app available on iOS and Android can see images of the USS Enterprise, a Vulcan hand salute and, of course, the logo for the movie itself — spelled out in individual atoms.

“These images were made by precisely moving hundreds of atoms with a two-ton microscope, operating at a temperature of -268 Celsius and magnified 100 million times,” IBM stated.

To show off just how good they think they are at this, IBM also released “the world’s smallest movie”, called A Boy and His Atom, where they play a stop-motion movie using the same moving-atoms technique. Check out the results below:

“Moving atoms is one thing; you can do that with the wave of your hand. Capturing, positioning and shaping atoms to create an original motion picture on the atomic-level is a precise science and entirely novel,” stated Andreas Heinrich, IBM Research’s principal investigator.

“This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world and show everyday people the challenges and fun science can create.”

As a quick science reminder, an atom is a unit of matter with a nucleus that is surrounded by electrons. That’s the simple explanation, but there’s a lot to explore even within that basic concept: electron transitions, subatomic particles and what happens if a piece of matter encounters a piece of antimatter.

Atomic physics is important to help astronomers understand how the sun shines, for example. Engineers also are trying to figure out how to develop antimatter engines for future space exploration.

Source: IBM – World’s Smallest Movie

NASA Trailer Achieves Crowdfunding Goal to Run Before Star Trek: Into Darkness

Here’s one bit of NASA outreach that won’t be affected by suspensions or sequesters: an edited version of “We Are The Explorers,” a video highlighting the past successes and future goals of the space administration — created by NASA and featuring an inspiring narration by Peter “Optimus Prime” Cullen — will be screened in several major U.S. cities during the premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness thanks to an overwhelmingly successful crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo.com.

Now that the initial goal of $33,000 has been met and the 30-second ad spot can be purchased, the team responsible for the campaign (Aerospace Industries Association of America) will use any funds donated during the next 29 days to reach its next target: getting the ad in at least one theater in every state in America for two weeks. In order for that to happen, a grand total of $94,000 will need to be reached.

Want to help make it so? Find out more about how you can contribute:

According to the Indiegogo campaign page, “If we raise our funding total to $94,000, students, young people, and the general public will see this video from coast to coast. This new goal will expand our reach from 59 movie theater screens to 750 screens!”

That means a lot more chances that the spot will run at the theater where you go to see the new Star Trek film when it comes out on May 17. (Because you know you’re going to go see it, let’s be honest. It’s Star Trek.)

And because it’s Indiegogo you’ll get a “perk” depending on the amount you contribute, ranging from digital copies of the final spot to DVD copies of the excellent HBO series “From Earth to the Moon” (while supplies last.) Because the initial goal has been met, some perks are already sold out… but then, contributing to something as important as space exploration isn’t about the stuff you get, it’s about the message you can give.

“This is more than a fundraiser, it’s a demonstration of support for space exploration programs. By donating to this campaign, you’re making a very powerful statement about the widespread enthusiam that exists for space programs. A crowdfunding campaign is the best vehicle to deliver this message. By reaching our goal, we not only enable a first-of-its-kind ad campaign, we also demonstrate that countless people support a strong space program that’s in development.”

You can contribute here, and be sure to spread the word too. That way, when you’re looking at the video on the big screen, when you see them putting Al Shepard’s gloves on, when you see the fiery exhaust of the Saturn rocket and you hear Cullen’s voice rumble “we are the explorers,” you can know that you helped make it happen — and that somewhere in that same theater a young mind may very well be inspired to continue the exploration.

Maybe that mind might even be be your own.

“Our next destination awaits. We don’t know what new discoveries lie ahead, but this is the very reason we must go.

This crowdfunding campaign is the work of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) of America. This campaign is not endorsed by NASA nor is it conducted at their direction or request. Note: by donating you acknowledge that donations are not tax deductible.