Tag Archives: space telescope

And the Award Goes To…

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Last night was the biggest night for movies and actors.  So today I am giving the award for best planet hunter to…..Kepler!

kepler

Kepler is like the gift that keeps on giving.  The Kepler team analyzing the data captured by the now disabled spacecraft have found another 715 exo-planets.

715!

That is almost as many planets  that have been identified in the past decade!  Kepler had previously identified 246 planets.  Over the past 20 years, Kepler is responsible for more than 1/2 of all exo-planets found.

Kepler_mission

I know that Kepler cannot be fixed, but for the $600M price-tag, and the continued discoveries, I think we should consider putting another Kepler up.  This time point it at a different part of the sky, with a wider field and a better camera.

File:James Webb Telescope Design.jpg

Considering the $8Billion dollar price tag of the James Webb space telescope, Kepler was a bargain.  Don’t get me wrong, I do want to see the results from the Webb telescope, but that is years away (if ever).

File:Mtv moon man.jpg

Although last night was the Academy Awards, I think the trophy for the MTV music awards is more appropriate for Kepler’s big win.

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

Gaia Is Go!

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Gaia, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) unmanned astrometry spacecraft has taken its first image.

As I told you before, Gaia’s mission is make a 3D space catalogue of approximately 1 billion astronomical objects.  It sounds like a lot, but that is only about 1% of the Milky Way!

File:Gaia observatory trajectory.svg

Gaia will monitor each of its target stars about 70 times over a period of five years from its L2 vantage point.

So what does a billion pixel image look like?

LMC

Pretty good for a warmup.  The final results should be spectacular.  Not the pictures (this isn’t that kind of mission), but the data collected giving us the accurate distances and relative motions of the tracked objects.  But some of the images may be spruced up a bit to make good copy.

And, if you remember my post from a few days ago, Gaia will be using parallax trigonometric techniques (like a parsec!) to measure the objects distance from us.  See! There is a madness to my method, or

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California and I am a Rising Star as rated by Super Lawyers Magazine.  As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman

How did I miss this?

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Planetary Resources started this Kickstarter campaign to make the first publicly available space telescope.

The project has already reached its initial goal of $1,000,000 and is looking to extend the Kickstarter to expand the scope of the mission.

According to their mission statement, Planetary Resources is in part interested in: “Harnessing valuable minerals from a practically infinite source will provide stability on Earth, increase humanity’s prosperity, and help establish and maintain human presence in space.”

So, basically, this is one of the first commercial attempts at space mining.  I think this is a good idea and will help spur commercial interest in space.

The goals for the space telescope are:

  • To give students access to space capabilities
  • To support important research and discovery
  • To build excitement about space and all of its potential
  • To give YOU a say

All of these are worthy goals, so if you feel like contributing follow the link above.

This gives me an idea for making a Kickstarter to purchase and maintain the ISS before it is crash landed.  Now all I need to figure out is how to get several governments to let us buy it!

– Ex astris, scientia –

I am and avid amateur astronomer and intellectual property attorney in Pasadena, California. As a former Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, I am a proud member of the Armed Service Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association working to aid all active duty and veterans in our communities. Connect with me on Google +

Norman