These pages chronicle the work and ruminations of Carolyn Collins Petersen, also known as TheSpacewriter.

qrcode

I am CEO of Loch Ness Productions. I am also a producer for Astrocast.TV, an online magazine about astronomy and space science.

For the past few years, I've also been a voice actor, appearing in a variety of productions. You can see and hear samples of my work by clicking on the "Voice-Overs, Videos and 'Casts tab.

My blog, TheSpacewriter's Ramblings, is about astronomy, space science, and other sciences.

Ideas and opinions expressed here do not represent those of my employer or of any other organization to which I am affiliated. They're mine.

Visit my main site at: TheSpacewriter.com.

**Comments are welcome; I do moderate them to weed out spam.

Contact me for writing and voice-over projects at: cc(dot)petersen(at)gmail(dot)com

I Twitter as Spacewriter

Astronomy | Add your site

Spacewriter’s Recent Posts

Calendar

September 2004
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Aug		Oct »
	1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30

Like space music?

Check out my favorite space music artist: Geodesium at Geodesium.com

More Rainy Day Astronomy

September 16, 2004 at 10:38 am | Leave a Comment

the Antennae galaxies

In an entry a long time ago I talked about what to do when the skies are clouded out from rain, snow, smog, light pollution, or whatever else it is that keeps you from stepping out for some stargazing. Reading books is always a cool thing. Right now I’m making my way through Alan Guth’s “The Inflationary Universe,” wherein he explains the birth of the universe. I got started on that because of a conversation I had with a friend a few weeks back about the incredible occurrence of the creation of the cosmos and how science explains it. So, my current “rainy day” activity (and late nights, and Saturday afternoons) is all Steve’s fault. (Steve, you know who you are.)

But, if you aren’t in the mood for a good book, there’s always Web surfing. As usual, there are a great many really cool Web sites that talk about astronomy and space science. I’ve talked about the The Astronomy Picture of the Day, and of course Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy Web site with its attached forum discussion area. And of course, I have mentioned the Gemini Observatory web site, which is being revamped before ourvery eyes. These are in addition to the wonderful sites I’ve linked to over in the left column that take you to the European Southern Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute.

So, there’s no shortage of places to go. Just for grins, here are a couple of new ones for you to explore. The first is the Spitzer Space Telescope. Here’s a little taste to whet your appetite for this new observatory’s work.

The other web page is a subset of the Haystack Observatory educational tutorial website, which contains a lovely radio astronomy “short course” you can browse through to learn a little about the fascinating science being done with the world’s radio dishes and networks. Next time you’re stuck indoors, give it a whirl!

Exploring the Galaxies

September 14, 2004 at 10:53 am | Leave a Comment

The past few months I’ve been working with the Gemini Observatory, doing a series of interesting and absorbing projects for their outreach team. These range from science reports and newsletters to press release edits and consultations. A couple of weeks ago they sent me this great image of members of Stephan’s Quintet, a troupe of five galaxies that lies about 300 million light-years away. What we see here tells an interesting tale of galactic intrigue.

Courtesy Gemini Observatory

Some members of the group are interacting with each other, tearing huge swaths of gas and stars away from each other in a sort of cosmic dance. One thing that really stands out in this image is a collection of brilliant red clumps in the spiral galaxy NGC 7320 (just above the center of the image). These are star-forming regions as seen with the help of a special filter.

This galaxy may or may not be part of the Quintet—its relation to the other galaxies in the cluster is the subject of some controversy. Most astronomers now think that NGC 7320 is quite some distance away from the others. Spectroscopic data show its apparent velocity away from us at around 800 kilometers per second. The rest of the group is moving away from us (through the expansion of the universe) at over 6,000 kilometers per second. This puts the the other galaxies in the cluster almost 8 times farther away from us than the brilliantly-lit spiral.

The interacting members of Stephan’s Quintet will continue their dance for millions of years, but eventually they will combine into a different, smaller set of objects than we see today.

Them’s the Breaks

September 13, 2004 at 10:12 am | Leave a Comment

Genesis crash site

Last week wasn’t a great week for the scientists on the Genesis mission. The spacecraft, which has performed quite well throughout the program, has been collecting samples of the solar wind and storing them on delicate chips for study by scientists here on Earth. The collecting capsule returned on Wednesday, but due to a parachute malfunction, it crashed to Earth instead of wafting gently down and being picked up by a stunt pilot flying a specially equipped helicopter.

It was pretty dismaying to watch the little canister come hurtling down and smack into the Utah desert. When I saw the first closeups of it buried in the dirt, I figured “Well, so much for the science.” The capsule was cracked open, you could see its innards through a couple of good-sized holes, and it was obvious that the inside had been contaminated with dirt. But, I also knew that the scientists could more than likely recover some science. How much they would get was (and still remains) an open question.

As it turns out, while many of the wafers containing the captured particles of the solar wind are broken, but as researchers pick through the pieces, they are finding that there’s more for them to work with than the landing might have suggested.

I think that’s pretty cool. Despite the smash-up end to the mission, it appears that the scientists got a lucky break. They did plan the capsule to be pretty robust—that is, strong enough to not break into complete smithereens if a crash occurred. They CAN subtract data about the contamination out of the data they gather from the chips. In all likelihood, it will be enough to help them understand the role of oxygen in the formation of our solar system, and how nitrogen played a part in the formation of atmospheres like Earth’s. So, as my grandfather used to say,”them’s the breaks” but in this case, at least it wasn’t broken so badly that scientists were left with nothing to study.

« Newest entries

This blog a wholly pwnd subsidiary of Carolyn Collins Petersen, a.k.a. TheSpacewriter.
Copyright 2008, Carolyn Collins Petersen
Inama Nushif!
Image of Horsehead Nebula: T.A.Rector (NOAO/AURA/NSF) and Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA)

“It is by Coffee alone I set my day in motion. It is by the juice of bean that coffee acquires depth, the tongue acquires taste, the taste awakens the body. It is by Coffee alone I set my day in motion.”

TheSpacewriter