LIVE REAL TIME SATELLITE AND SPACE SHUTTLE TRACKING AND PREDICTIONS Quantum teleportation achieved over ten miles of free space Quantum teleportation has achieved a new milestone or, should we say, a new ten-milestone: scientists have recently had success teleporting information between photons over a free space distance of nearly ten miles, an unprecedented length. The researchers who have accomplished this feat note that this brings us closer to communicating information without needing a traditional signal, and that the ten miles they have reached could span the distance between the surface of the earth and space. As we've explained before, "quantum teleportation" is quite different from how many people imagine teleportation to work. When one of the items is sent a distance away, entanglement ensures that changing the state of one causes the other to change as well, allowing the teleportation of quantum information, if not matter. Teleportation over distances of a few hundred meters has previously only been accomplished with the photons traveling in fiber channels to help preserve their state.
Japan Calls it Quits on Infrared Space Telescope | Akari Infrared Space Telescope | Akari Mission & Space Telescopes Japan announced last week that its Akari infrared space telescope was switched off after five years of scanning the sky in search of star-forming dust clouds, ancient galaxies in the distant universe, and asteroids within the solar system. The Akari mission succumbed to trouble in its power generation system, which first appeared in May and ended the satellite's scientific observations in June. The observatory stopped receiving electricity on the night side of its orbit around Earth, an indication its batteries were not charging sufficiently. The anomaly appeared May 24 when Akari shifted to a low-power mode and haulted science observations. In a written statement released in English on Friday, JAXA said it turned off Akari's transmitters at 0823 GMT (3:23 a.m. Akari launched in February 2006 on an 18-month primary mission. The liquid helium ran out in August 2007, putting the observatory's most sensitive far-infrared instrument out of business.
Daylight Hours Explorer Shows the hours of daylight received during the year for an observer at a given latitude. This is an important factor contributing to the seasons. Running this animation on your computer... right-click to download daylighthoursexplorer.swf and daylighthoursexplorer.html to the same directory open the html file in a browser to run the animation Linking to this animation... copy and paste the code below into your webpage or blog: Putting this animation on your website... upload daylighthoursexplorer.swf to the same directory as your webpage copy and paste the following code into your webpage:
Heads Up, Hoverboarders: Here Comes Quantum Levitation Few motifs of science fiction cinema have been more appealing to us than the subtle defiance of gravity offered by futuristic hovercraft. So every once in a while we check in to see how humanity is progressing on that front, and whether the promise of hoverboards will be delivered by 2015 as evidenced in Back to the Future Part 2. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re definitely getting off the ground, so to speak. Get ready to hover your brain around the art of quantum levitation. That’s right, quantum. Because of its chemical properties, a superconductor (when brought to low enough temperatures using, say, liquid nitrogen) exhibits this effect, causing the energy from the magnet below to warp around the superconductive object in a way which “locks” it in space. Even more impressive and ripe for practical transportation use: When the superconducting object is placed along a magnetic rail, it exhibits frictionless momentum. Connections:
One People, One Sky, One App! Astronomers Without Borders Endorses SkySafari for iOS and Mac OS X San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) November 28, 2011 Southern Stars Group, LLC, makers of the award-winning SkySafari astronomy apps, announced a major endorsement by Astronomers Without Borders, a global non-profit organization promoting better international relations through shared interest in astronomy and space exploration. Coinciding with the endorsement, Southern Stars has launched a two-week promotion of its products, where 40% of the proceeds will be donated to Astronomers Without Borders. AWB founder Mike Simmons writes, "We're very pleased to endorse SkySafari 3 and recommend it to our members. The promotion runs through December 8th, 2011. To download SkySafari 3 for iOS from the iTunes Store, follow this link: To download SkySafari for Mac OS X, follow this link: About Southern Stars Group, LLC About Astronomers Without Borders
Physics 20b: Introduction to Cosmology - Spring 2010 - Download free content from UC Irvine STEPHEN HAWKING: How to build a time machine By STEPHEN HAWKING Created: 18:47 GMT, 27 April 2010 All you need is a wormhole, the Large Hadron Collider or a rocket that goes really, really fast 'Through the wormhole, the scientist can see himself as he was one minute ago. Hello. Time travel was once considered scientific heresy. To see how this might be possible, we need to look at time as physicists do - at the fourth dimension. But there is another kind of length, a length in time. To see what that means, let's imagine we're doing a bit of normal, everyday car travel. Let's indulge in a little science fiction for a moment. Physicists have been thinking about tunnels in time too, but we come at it from a different angle. Enlarge A wormhole is a theoretical 'tunnel' or shortcut, predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity, that links two places in space-time - visualised above as the contours of a 3-D map, where negative energy pulls space and time into the mouth of a tunnel, emerging in another universe. Nothing is flat or solid.
Record-Breaking Photo Reveals a Planet-sized Object as Cool as the Earth Click on image below for a larger version. These two infrared images were taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2004 and 2009. They show a faint object moving through space together with a white dwarf. The brown dwarf, named WD 0806-661 B, is the coldest companion object to be directly imaged outside our solar system. 19 October 2011 — The photo of a nearby star and its orbiting companion -- whose temperature is like a hot summer day in Arizona -- will be presented by Penn State Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kevin Luhman during the Signposts of Planets conference at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on 20 October 2011. "This planet-like companion is the coldest object ever directly photographed outside our solar system," said Luhman, who led the discovery team. Click on either image below for a high-resolution version. Luhman classifies this object as a "brown dwarf," an object that formed just like a star out of a massive cloud of dust and gas.
Astronomy | Video Courses on Academic Earth Astronomers use tools like telescopes, cameras and spectrographs to study interactions between materials and energy within the universe. These scientists learn about galaxies, solar systems, planets and stars through careful observation and measurement recording. Astronomers also refer to natural sciences and mathematics to form and test theories. An integral part of a student’s astronomy experience is the quality of equipment and facilities they have access to. Astronomy departments at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Harvard University and the University of Tokyo give students access to some of the best observatories in the world. The quality of a school’s facility will determine much of an astronomy student’s intellectual development and research abilities, so these factors should play a role in one’s decision to apply to a specific program. Sample Courses Possible Specializations Degree Types Students can pursue astronomy at three major degree levels: bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D..
Scientists Discover The Oldest, Largest Body Of Water In Existence--In Space Scientists have found the biggest and oldest reservoir of water ever--so large and so old, it’s almost impossible to describe. The water is out in space, a place we used to think of as desolate and desert dry, but it's turning out to be pretty lush. Researchers found a lake of water so large that it could provide each person on Earth an entire planet’s worth of water--20,000 times over. The water is in a cloud around a huge black hole that is in the process of sucking in matter and spraying out energy (such an active black hole is called a quasar), and the waves of energy the black hole releases make water by literally knocking hydrogen and oxygen atoms together. The official NASA news release describes the amount of water as “140 trillion times all the water in the world’s oceans," which isn’t particularly helpful, except if you think about it like this. That one cloud of newly discovered space water vapor could supply 140 trillion planets that are just as wet as Earth is.
Astronomer discovers 18 giant alien planets the size of Jupiter orbiting massive dying stars outside our own solar system By Michael Zennie Updated: 00:08 GMT, 4 December 2011 A patient astronomer has discovered 18 massive new alien planets orbiting dying giant stars outside our solar system. It is a finding that could help scientists better understand the origins of our own sun and the planets that orbit it. This is the second-largest batch of such planets ever found -- and increases the number of known alien bodies orbiting massive stars by 50 percent. California Institute of Technology Professor John Johnson and his team of astronomers spent nearly 10 years staring at 300 solar systems, searching for a tell-tale wobble caused by the gravitational pull from planets. Gas giants: All 18 planets found by Professor John Johnson and his team are roughly the size of Jupiter 'Looking for a wobble': These alien planets were found by looking for a tell-tale change in the gravity of their stars as they orbited 'I liken it to a garden. 'Then, a decade in, your garden is big and flourishing.
Space Adventures Here are 10,000 reasons to be excited about deep-space exploration They'll ask why we continue to strive to see further and deeper into space than ever before, without knowing what we'll find. They'll ask why we insist upon exploring a solar system that, by their account, has no immediate bearing on our lives. And they'll ask why, in light of recent budgetary crises, space agencies the world over deserve funding to seek out answers to the mysteries of a Universe that we will never fully understand. Strawmen are made of straw. The first two questions are asked by ignoramuses. To use an analogy, I love travel. But even if we all can agree on the value of travel, is it still not grossly irresponsible to pay for your vacation to Europe or your study-abroad in India when you can't pay your rent, utilities or student loans without a credit card? I loved Hubble, and I'm sure I'll equally love the Webb telescope. But let's not kid ourselves by pretending that we are not in a place today that forces us to make budgetary priorities.