10th Planet

Astronomers have found an object larger than Pluto out at the edge of the solar system.

Take a look at these stories:

• MP3 Download of Interview
• Slacker Astronomy Newsletter #2 & Background Info!
• Dr. Trujillo’s Gemini Spectra Page
• New Scientist Story
• Sky and Telescope story

Chit Chat Show #3

SA Extra: Chit Chat Show #3
Disembodied Voices: Travis, Pamela, Aaron and an appearance by Jorge and the Bad Astronomer Phil Plait with Bill dancing in the background
Engineered: Travis

Links:

• Battlestar Galactica
• Slacker Poster at AAS (HUGE FILE)
• iTunes 4.9!
• A Brief Brief History of Time
• Skype!
• Astronomical Naming Conventions
• Phil Plaitt’s Bad Astronomy
• Operation Clambake

We had a blast doing this and Pamela and Travis drank a wee bit too much while celebrating our happiness on a Friday night. Can you guess how much red wine they drank and at what point Pamela’s brain stopped computing smoothly?

What happened (Pamela refuses to write a transcript for this one):

• Recaped life since last show: It was hot, we didn’t get naked
• Discussed Battlestar Galactica
• Mentioned AAS and our Poster at AAS
• Annouced new site design (Please send us comments!)
• iTunes 4.9!
• Change is bad - stay tuned cause we’re not going anywhere (and then Aaron leaves)
• Queen Nell’s “A Brief Brief History of Time” as narrated amazingly well by Aaron as he races out the door
• Jorge joins us from Europe
• Answering some e-mail
• Updates on old shows
• Travis leaves in some audio Pamela and Phil thought would be editted out!!!!!
• Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer) rants about Scientology and “War of the Worlds”
• Slacker Astronomy Newsletter! Subscribe!

Sharin’ Charon (Show #19)

Castdate: 050725
Title: Sharin’ Charon
Written By: Aaron Price
Disembodied Voices: Pamela Gay, Travis Searle, Bill The Roommate
Engineered By: Travis

• Transcript
• Animation of the Occultation
• Space.com coverage of the 1999 Pluto/Charon imaging

Here is a snippet from IAUC #8570 which announced the results of the recent occultation:

OCCULTATION BY PLUTO I (CHARON)
    L. A. Young, C. B. Olkin, and E. F. Young, Southwest Research
Institute; and R. G. French, Wellesley College, report their
observations of an occultation on July 11 of the star 2UCAC
26257135 by Pluto I (Charon).  E. F. Young and K. Shoemaker
observed with 0.2-s integration times using the visitor instrument
PHOT (unfiltered) on the 4.2-m SOAR telescope at Cerro Pachon.  C.
Olkin, C. Ruhland, and L. A. Young observed via a 240-s I-band
exposure trailed at 1".5/s with the 4-m Blanco telescope (+ Mosaic
II camera) at Cerro Tololo.  R. French, B. Gregory, L. A. Young,
and R. Galvez observed via 0.5-s I-band exposures using the 0.9-m
SMARTS telescope (+ Tek2K No. 3 CCD camera) at Cerro Tololo.  All
three sites report durations of 55.3 +/- 0.2 s.  The chord length
is 1179 +/- 4 km, which serves as a lower limit on the diameter
from these telescopes.  No obvious atmosphere was detected.
Immersion and emersion times (+/- 0s.01) at SOAR were 3h36m16s.19
and 3h37m11s.26 UT.

Artistic rendering of Pluto/Charon sharing an atmosphere:

SA Extra: Interview with Cmdr. Paul Shankland

This is the 4th and last SA-Extra from the AAS meeting. Paul “Happy” Shankland is a lifelong amateur astronomer who now works at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. while working on a PhD in astronomy. His research focus so far has been on exoplanet transit systems and photometry.

• US Naval Observatory
• Paul’s Navy Bio

There is a 2 second gap around 25 minutes into the recording. No audio was lost, that is just an artifact of a lazy method we used to get around the Garageband 30 minute limit. We could edit it out but, eh..

Show #18: Breaking the Superwind

Castdate: 050718
Title: Breaking the Superwind
Written By: Aaron
Disembodied Voices: Pamela & Travis
Engineered: Travis
Subjects: superwind, supernovae, galaxies, moon hoaxes

• Transcript (left at home, link coming soon)
• Physorg.com article
• Spaceflight Now older PR about a superwind image
• SAURON web page

Chandra image (X-Ray blue superimposed on optical) at right is of a superwind bubble in a nearby galaxy (NGC 3079).

Question for our learned audience (thou who art still awake): could Earthlike life on an Earthlike planet survive in a superwind front?

Show #17: When Supernovae Attack!

Castdate: 050713
Title: Death becomes supernovae
Written By: Pamela
Disembodied Voices: Pamela and Travis
Subjects: Supernovae, Death

• Transcript
• Spitzer Cas A Press Release
• ESA Press Release on Supernova N 63A

Show #16: Ringworld Around The Collar

Castdate: 050705
Title: Ringworld Around the Collar
Written By: Aaron
Disembodied Voices: Pamela and the Phantom Australian (Travis is on vacation this week)
Subjects: Saturn, rings, atmospheres, chitlins and boiled peanuts

• Transcript
• BBC News Story
• Oxygen Ions Observed Near Saturn’s A-Ring paper abstract
• The Discovery of Oxygen Kα X-Ray Emission from the Rings of Saturn abstract
• Saturn’s A-ring Ionosphere as Observed by the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer
  abstract
• Alphabet Soup of Saturn’s Rings from the Planetary Society
• Cassini Photo Contest

One of Aaron’s favorite painters is Francisco Goya. Here is one of his more lighthearted pieces titled Saturn Devouring His Son. Better his son and not our Sun!

Anyone want to redraw this as “Saturn Devouring His Rings”?