Techdirt. Stories filed under "telescopes" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "telescopes"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:00:00 PST DailyDirt: Cool Telescopes Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101021/10511511527/dailydirt-cool-telescopes.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101021/10511511527/dailydirt-cool-telescopes.shtml
  • The US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) donated a couple of huge space telescopes to NASA. Instead of spying on earthlings, these telescopes could be outfitted with equipment to look for ETs in distant star systems. [url]
  • A starshade fitted to a helium blimp could help astronomers pick out exoplanets more easily. The starshade blocks light from a parent star so that its orbiting planets can be detected directly. [url]
  • NuSTAR is an orbiting space telescope that's looking for sources of high-energy X-rays that potentially come from black holes or radioactive material in supernova remnants. This telescope is still calibrating, but it should start collecting some cool data soon. [url]
    • If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101021/10511511527     Mon, 5 Mar 2012 17:00:00 PST DailyDirt: The Rest Of The Universe Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120225/02042417880/dailydirt-rest-universe.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120225/02042417880/dailydirt-rest-universe.shtml
  • Nomad planets could be floating around our galaxy without orbiting a star in surprisingly large numbers. Based on some new estimates, there might be 100,000 times more nomad planets in the Milky Way than stars. [url]
  • The Hubble telescope has found a totally new class of planet that is made of an enormous amount of water. Given the density of this waterworld, GJ1214b has more water than Earth and much less rockiness. [url]
  • The Kepler Space Telescope has discovered over a thousand planets outside our solar system, and a few other star systems have interesting planetary orbit patterns. One "Kepler Object of Interest" (KOI) is a system in which there are planets that share the same orbit. In another KOI, all the planets circle their star in under a week. Strange, new worlds, indeed. [url]
  • To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]  
    • By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120225/02042417880     Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Staring Off Into Space Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110726/18180715272/dailydirt-staring-off-into-space.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110726/18180715272/dailydirt-staring-off-into-space.shtml
  • SETI's Allen Telescope Array is going to be turned back on, thanks to donations from viewers like you. The SETIStars program raised over $200,000 and exceeded its funding goal. (But next year, they'll have to interrupt their broadcasts with another pledge drive...) [url]
  • Nanosatellites could help look for Earth-like planets in other star systems. Pretty soon, there'll be femtosatellites, too. [url]
  • The RadioAstron mission is creating a radio telescope that's larger that the Earth. But the project still needs to tackle a problem of collecting data at 144 megabits per second from multiple receivers on the ground. [url]
  • To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]  
    • By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110726/18180715272     Tue, 24 May 2011 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Satellites Measure All Sorts Of Stuff... Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110215/17261113117/dailydirt-satellites-measure-all-sorts-stuff.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110215/17261113117/dailydirt-satellites-measure-all-sorts-stuff.shtml
  • Satellite measurements of the upper atmosphere could lead to forecasting models for earthquakes. Days before a massive earthquake, detectable ionization and heat buildup in the atmosphere can be seen -- but it's still uncertain exactly what the mechanism for this is. [url]
  • The Kepler telescope has taken stellar photo­metry to the next level -- and needs help to analyze all the data it's gathering. It sounds like amateur astronomers could have a decent chance at making some interesting discoveries... [url]
  • Telescopes need to be calibrated, so there's a proposal to put a light bulb in orbit as a standard reference for light sources. Hubble and other space-based satellites already have internal references, but an orbiting light bulb could serve the same purpose for other telescopes and ground-based telescopes. [url]
  • To discover more stuff on research & research tools, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  
    • By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110215/17261113117     Tue, 17 May 2011 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: ET Could Phone Home... But Would We Know It? Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110131/11442912897/dailydirt-et-could-phone-home-would-we-know-it.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110131/11442912897/dailydirt-et-could-phone-home-would-we-know-it.shtml
  • Funding for the Allen Telescope Array has been cut -- so its ability to help search for signs of extraterrestrial life is coming to an end -- unless more funding is raised. The telescope array could potentially be saved by a combination of donations and money from the US Air Force, but it could also just go into hibernation and never wake up again. [url]
  • The Green Bank Telescope is trying to pick up the slack by looking for signs of life on 86 specific planetary systems. NASA's Kepler space telescope identified these 86 systems as being possibly Earth-like. [url]
  • Mass spectrometry could detect life on Mars more reliably using lasers. Lasers, is there nothing you can't improve? [url]
  • To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]  
    • By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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