Category: Science

A Meteoroid Hits the Moon

Moon impact 

Very neat. I hope that the next probe that is sent to map the surface will get some crist high detail images of this new crater.

There’s a new crater on the Moon. It’s about 14 meters wide, 3 meters deep and precisely one month, eleven days old. NASA astronomers watched it form: "On May 2, 2006, a meteoroid hit the Moon’s Sea of Clouds (Mare Nubium) with 17 billion joules of kinetic energy—that’s about the same as 4 tons of TNT," says Bill Cooke, the head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, AL. "The impact created a bright fireball which we video-recorded using a 10-inch telescope."

NASA – A Meteoroid Hits the Moon

Epson A6 QXGA Electronic Paper

Epson epaper 

The technology of thin film displays marches on. I’ll take my place in line for a roll up computer monitor as soon as they hit the streets.

Epson announced that they successfully developed a A6 (7.1") QXGA (1536×2048) Electronic paper using the SUFTLA Technology (Surface-free technology by laser annealing) son poly-Si TFT-LCD.?
In order to realize electronic devices on plastic film, new technology has been developed that enables the transfer of thin-film devices from an original substrate to another substrate by using laser irradiation. This technology was termed SUFTLA, which stands for surface-free technology by laser annealing. A polycrystalline-silicon thin film transistor (poly-Si TFT) back-plane for liquid crystal displays (LCDs) with integrated drivers was fabricated using a low-temperature process (below 425/spl deg/C) and could be successfully transferred from a glass or quartz substrate to plastic film using this technology. This technology enabled us to fabricate an all-plastic substrate TFT-LCD having a display area of 0.7 in measured diagonally and a pixel count of 428/spl times/238. In addition, the operation of the integrated drivers and the displayed image could be confirmed for the first time in the world.

Epson A6 QXGA Electronic Paper

Record Meteorite Hit Norway

Impact

 

A chunk of rock from space hit Norway a few days ago and it could be a record setter. Many people reported seeing the fireball and the smoke trail and then the sound of the impact:

Farmer Peter Bruvold was out on his farm in Lyngseidet with a camera because his mare Virika was about to foal for the first time.

"I saw a brilliant flash of light in the sky, and this became a light with a tail of smoke," Bruvold told Aftenposten.no. He photographed the object and then continued to tend to his animals when he heard an enormous crash.

"I heard the bang seven minutes later. It sounded like when you set off a solid charge of dynamite a kilometer (0.62 miles) away," Bruvold said.

Astronomers were excited by the news.

 I’ll bet. With some luck the meteorite can be recovered and studied. For more information on meteorites, check out Wikipedia.

Record meteorite hit Norway

PongSats

PongSats

Now you can send you own scientific experiment into near space. As long as it fits into the space of a ping-pong ball:

A PongSat is an experiment that fits inside of a ping pong ball.
These ping pong ball ‘satellites’ are flown to the edge of space by balloon or launched in sounding rockets. The PongSats are then returned to the student. It’s an easy and inexpensive way to get students excited about science and engineering. There are endless possibilities for experiments that can fit inside a ping pong ball. PongSat’s can be as simple or complex as you want them to be. Experiments can be as simple as comparing how high a ball bounces before and after being exposed to vacuum. The PongSat can carry seeds to see if exposure to cosmic rays effect their growth. Several small inexpensive computers and other electronic can fit inside a PongSat. These can be used to create a wide range of experiments. Whether carrying a marshmallow to see if it puffs up in the vacuum of near space or an entire sophisticated satellite in miniature, PongSat can create motivation, drive and passion in the classroom.
PongSats are flown at no cost to the student or school.

How cool is that? Some flights have reached over 100,000 feet, that’s definitely high enough to measure the UV index or even gamma rays if your detector is small enough.

[via neatorama] 

PongSats

Model Rocket Altitude Predictor

Rocket day

 

 

 

 

 

 

This looks to be a handy tool. You enter the body diameter, the rocket weight, drag coefficient, and the motor type and you get an estimation of how high it will go and even how long it will take to land if you add the parachute size. You can use it for other things too, like seeing if you could launch a full roll of paper towels into the air. You can, it takes about 3 D-12 motors. 🙂

Model Rocket Altitude Predictor

R.I.P. Amateur Science

 

 

In my recent issue of Wired, I was saddened to read an article on how the amateur exploration of science and chemistry is being criminalized. It’s all in the interests of anti-terrorism or anti fireworks laws. Mostly the ‘dumbing down’ of science has been because of the lawsuit happy nature of our society. (Gee, could the greedy lawyers and the lawyer law makers be the root cause of this? I wonder…) When the United States no longer has people winning Nobel prizes, or creating new technology, or science classes in schools become electives, all will be lost. All of the people who cry "but letting kids play with chemistry sets is dangerous and irresponsible! Think of the children!" Bah! If you give a bright kid the right tools to learn with they won’t kill themselves. Some of the less bright ones might get some injuries from adding water to an acid or something like that, but it’s a lesson learned. If enough do that then you will weed out the idiots. Harsh I know but that’s life. You never get anywhere by hiding at home and living life through what you see on TV. Having hands on experience is what makes you learn how and why things work. Look at how popular magazines like MAKE or Ready Made are. That’s because over the recent years the whole ‘hands on lets see what’s inside the black box’ creativity that made this country what is it has been bashed about it’s head and neck by litigation. Heck, even buying parts of a healthily chemistry set can get you fined or even jailed. What is this world coming to?

Anyway, here are a few links that can help open the doors to scientific exploration: 

Household Chemistry from the International Order of Nitrogen

DIY – Hollow Out A Light Bulb

DIY – Alcohol Backpacking Stove

Scientific American’s "The Amateur Scientist"

Henley’s Formulas for Home & Workshop

Don’t break any laws with this knowledge and try not to hurt yourself. Remember that part of science is having ethics and a broader look of the world around you. Think of the impact your experiments will have on others. Be smart and responsible. And if you hurt yourself it’s your own fault.