Carnival of Space #240 Here at LINKS THROUGH SPACE

Links Through Space

Carnival of Space #240

Welcome to Links Through Space, astronomy for everyone.

This is the blog of our Astronomy Club here in Kustavi, Finland

We write news about space related topics and we showcase our astrophotographies and timelapses.

Our blog is a way for you to find new links through the Internet about Space and astronomy.

So here we have it, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Links Through Space is honored to declare the 240th Carnival of Space live from Kustavi Finland.

 OPEN!

This week we have...

Ian O’Neill at Discovery news who writes about the Cassini mission that has sniffed oxygen in Dione's exosphere, how does this affect the search for life beyond Earth? HERE

On the Chandra Blog we get the latest news on Chandra and the Latest Giant Solar Flare. On Friday March 2, 2012, we noticed Sunspot Group 1429 moving onto the Earth facing part of the Sun, leading to a series of over-night alerts. HERE

If you aren’t familiar with the Drake Equation, or how it may actually apply to exomoons, read HERE Ray Sanders article at Dear Astronomer to learn more about the famous equation. Additionally, what conditions could make a habitable moon like Pandora as depicted in Avatar, or the forest Moon of Endor as seen in Return of the Jedi?

TheSpacewriter rides the solar storm front in the wake of recent solar storms. All you should know HERE.

The Ecliptic

The word of the week is "ecliptic"! 
Come ride the solar system carousel with AstroWOW.

Read HERE

Space Access 2012 is just a couple weeks away.  This is the conference that prompted the creation of Carnival of Space. Henry Cate at Why Homeschool is inviting us to read more about the conference HERE.

Brian Wang at Next Big Future takes us up to date on the Exoplanets found by the Kepler mission. NASA - 1,091 new transiting planet candidates have emerged from analysis of Kepler spacecraft data spanning May 2009 to September 2010, bringing the total count to 2,321 Kepler planet candidates orbiting 1,790 host stars. A clear trend toward smaller planets at longer orbital periods is evident with each new catalog release. This suggests that Earth-size planets in the habitable zone are forthcoming if, indeed, such planets are abundant. HERE

Also at Next Big Future, a word on science fiction, Star Wars Phantom Menace 3D will make about $45-50 million domestically. It will make about two times that amount in foreign box office. It is already at $46 million in foreign box office. There will be Blu-ray and other revenue and it re-invigorates toy sales. Toys sales are about 4 times the movie box office money. It costs about $10-15 million to convert the movie to 3D. Even after other costs and sharing with distributors, this will make 10-30 times its money back. Leia quote - If money is all that you love, then that's what you'll receive. I wonder if he really cares about anything. HERE

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Univ. of Arizona

A towering dust devil casts a serpentineshadow
over the Martian surface in this image, acquired on Feb. 16
by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment
on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Alan Boyle our science editor at msnbc.com reports two articles. Twisty dust devil captured on Mars: The dust devil spotted by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter may not be the first mini-tornado spotted on the Red Planet, but it just might be the prettiest.

and

How thehunt for Mars life evolved: The real-life effort to explore Mars over the next year will probably be getting way better reviews than the "John Carter" sci-fi movie. Get the latest about NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission.

Gadi Eidelheit at The Venus Transit relates that there is no chance to miss Venus and Jupiter in the west. Read HERE about Venus and Jupiter conjunction at the Venus Transit.

Mars Sample Return: Off the table?

Paul D. Spudis at Air & Space mag.com writes How the Mars Community Shot Itself in the Foot.

Planetary science (considered a “jewel in the crown” of the space agency) has been identified for cutting, over 20% during the next five years.  A particularly painful cut comes to the agency’s robotic Mars exploration program.  Planned missions in cooperation with the Europeans and future missions designed to lead up to the return of a surface sample from Mars were eliminated from the budget. HERE

 At StarryCritters we zoom in for a close look at a supernova on the verge of being in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of Eta Carinae. Check it out HERE

So here you have it! All the thrills and excitements of the astronomy/space community.   

The Carnival of Space #240.

If you’re interested in looking back on the Carnival of Space, here’s the complete list that we have on UT or the archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the Carnival. Just email an entry to carnivalofspace@gmail.com, and the next host will link to it. It will help get awareness out there about your writing, help you meet others in the space community – and community is what blogging is all about. And if you really want to help out, sign up to be a host. Send and email to the above address.