Carnival of Space #307 here on Links Through Space

Sun paths in Turku, Finland in January (lowest arch) – April (highest arc),
photographed with two curved-back pinhole cameras around the 20th of every month.
This project, we will photograph only the left hand (sunrise) part of the March (vernal Equinox) curve.
Credit: Sakari Ekko.

Welcome to Links Through Space, astronomy for everyone.

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

We write/post news about space related topics and we showcase our Astrophotos and Timelapses.

Our blog is a way for you to follow Space/Astronomy news and 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 307th Carnival of Space live from Kustavi Finland.

 OPEN!

North polar area showing location of
the Schrödinger basin antipode,
magnetized area and grooved terrain in Froelich and Lovelace.

Here is another edition of The carnival of space. The Summer solstice brought us Summer here in the northern hemisphere and it is looking great here in Finland.

On this edition we have a few articles by Brian Wang @ Next Big Future
- A summary of a presentation by Adam Crowl on different kinds of starship designs that have been proposed over the decades
- John Cramer presentation on wormhole travel from the starship conference
- Planetary Resources reaches first goal of raising $1 million to fund a public Arkyd space telescope.

Thierry Legault had less than half a second to capture these incredible shots of the Shenzhou-10 module docked to Tiangong-1 Chinese station transiting across the Sun. And it he did it not only once, but twice, on two consecutive days. Read more @ Universe Today HERE.

TheSpacewriter explores Mars. Follow the great adventure a Pixel at a Time of the Mars Curiosity Rover.
Also Carolyn Collins Petersen a.k.a. the Spacewriter has written a book on Astronomy. Her book Astronomy 101 is available online (Amazon) and in "bricks-and-mortar" establishments all over. Please have a look at her post and read all about it.

The Urban Astronomer Allen Versfeld has for us this week a nice article on the Cassini mission. The pale blue dot revisited, have a look at the article at his blog.

Paul Scott Andersson @ The Meridiani journal has a great post on The Search for life in Europa’s ocean – with a tiny submarine. 

With all the fantastic (and sometimes unrealistic) science fiction block-buster movies coming out, Andrew Fraknoi recommends two places on the Web to find authors, novels, and stories that feature real astronomy as part of the plot or setting. Great real astronomy fun!

A new planet may be being built, not by aliens (well who knows really?), But in a cloud of gas and dust around TW Hydrae about 176 light-years away. Read the story here @ Weird Warp.

Here in Kustavi, Finland the Astronomy Club Toutatis is hosting his summer Space Exhibition 2013. Many people has visited us and experience the exhibition and the observation sessions we had. On top of looking at the Sun and at the Moon with the telescope, we made many experiments as proving that the Moon is moving. We look at Sunspots and figured out if the Sun revolve around it self. Small experiments that connect us to astronomy and it's wonders. This week Carnival of Space picture is a solargraph of the motion of the Sun taken with a pin hole camera (Visit EAAE Sunrise Project HERE). We have installed our own pin hole camera in our backyard and looking forward to unveil the result in 6 months time. :D

So here you have it! All the thrills and excitements of the Astronomy/Space community.

The Carnival of Space #307

If you run a space/astronomy related blog, and would like to get more awareness, participate in the Carnival of Space. Every week, a different webmaster or blogger hosts the carnival, showcasing articles written on the topic of space. It’s a great way to get to know the community, and to help your writing reach a wider audience. If you’d like to be a host for the carnival, please send email to carnivalofspace@gmail.com


About Astronomy Club Toutatis

Gravitational lensing helps discover planets

This plot shows the projected motion of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri (green line) over the next decade, as plotted from NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observations.
Because of parallax caused by Earth’s motion around the Sun, the path appears scalloped. Because Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our Sun (at a distance of 4.2 light-years), its angular motion across the sky is relatively fast compared to far more distant background stars. This means that in 2014 and 2016 Proxima Centauri will pass in front of two background stars that are along its path. This affords astronomers a rare opportunity to study the warping of space by Proxima's gravity, as will be evident in the apparent displacement of the two stars in sky photographs. This effect is called gravitational lensing. The amount of warping will be used to calculate a precise mass for Proxima Centauri, and look for the gravitational footprint and any planets orbiting the star. The background image shows a wider view of the region of sky in the southern constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur) that Proxima is traversing.

Link:

• NASA Press release

Credit:
NASA, ESA, K. Sahu and J. Anderson (STScI), H. Bond (STScI and Pennsylvania State University), M. Dominik (University of St. Andrews), and Digitized Sky Survey (STScI/AURA/UKSTU/AAO)


About Astronomy Club Toutatis