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Show 241: Asteroid Tracking Falls Short
October 1, 2009
NASA says that without more funding, it will not meet the asteroid tracking goals mandated by Congress. NASA hopes to spot 90% of potentially dangerous objects by 2020. Large asteroids could cause global catastrophe if they strike Earth, and the U.S. is the only country with an asteroid-detection program.
Show 240: Space Debris
September 24, 2009
Leftover pieces of satellites orbit the earth as debris. Some of this debris has been hazardous for the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle, as well as orbiting satellites. The debris re-enters Earth’s atmosphere at the rate of about one piece per day. One of the most famous pieces of orbital debris, a tool box dropped by an astronaut while performing a space walk, re-entered the atmosphere on August 3, 2009.
Show 239: Is Titan like Earth?
September 17, 2009
Saturn’s moon Titan is far from Earth, but both worlds have some things in common — wind, rain, volcanoes and tectonics. These forces sculpt features on Titan, as on Earth, but in an environment more frigid than Antarctica. Titan looks more like Earth than any other body in the solar system, despite the huge differences in temperature and environment.
Show 238: Solar Cycle and Weather
September 10, 2009
A new link has been established between the Sun’s 11-year cycle and global climate. It shows that solar activity has effects on Earth resembling La Niņa and El Niņo events in the Pacific Ocean. We’ve known for years that long-term solar variations affect certain weather patterns, including droughts and regional temperatures, but establishing a real connection between solar cycles and global climate patterns has proven elusive.
Show 237: HubbleWatch for September 2009
September 9, 2009
The newly upgraded and repaired Hubble Space Telescope has released its first showcase images, spotlighting galaxies drawn together by gravity, star clusters, dying stars and more. For the first time, Hubble will circle the Earth with a full set of five instruments, opening new horizons for scientific study.
Show 236: Solar System Shake Up
September 3, 2009
Was the solar system always the organized clockwork system envisioned by Isaac Newton? According to a computer model of the early epoch of the solar system, the answer is “no.” The large outer planets may have been closer to the Sun and migrated outwards while encountering small bodies called planetesimals. As the big planets moved outward, small objects cascaded toward the inner solar system, bombarding the four small, rocky planets. The model also predicts other oddities of the solar system that have gone unexplained.
Show 235: Edvard Munch's Painting
August 27, 2009
Researchers at Texas State University have found more interesting conclusions about Edvard Munch’s paintings in Norway. Previously they had found that the vivid colors in Munch’s painting, The Scream, could be attributable to dust spewed into the atmosphere by the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.
In new findings, the group has concluded that a mysterious orb in the sky that Munch painted in “Girls on the Pier” depicts the Moon rather than the Sun. The group also explains why Munch didn’t paint the reflection of the Moon in the water.
Show 234: Sunspot Model
August 20, 2009
A new model of sunspots shows striking, beautiful detail, and may help unlock mysteries of Sun and its impact on Earth. This first-ever comprehensive computer model of sunspots, made possible by advances in supercomputers, drew on increasingly detailed observations from a network of ground- and space-based observatories to verify that model captured sunspots realistically.
