Emily Lakdawalla • Sep 18, 2009
Two weeks of Tweets
Forgot to post this last week, so it's two weeks' worth. If you'd like to see these in real time, Follow me at Twitter. A word on some conventions: "RT" means "Retweet" -- I'm repeating something that somebody else said. Anything preceded by an "@" symbol is the username of someone else on Twitter. Twitter is a microblogging service that limits updates to 140 characters in length; I use it primarily to post links to stories I don't have time to write about here on the blog and to mention really really tiny bits of news that aren't worth full blog entries.
Typhoon Morakot seriously damaged roads to Taiwan's Lulin observatory, a Shoemaker NEO Grant winner: http://is.gd/3pTAR (via @cosmos4u)
riday, September 18, 2009 9:19 AM
Wow, this is slower than an SR-71: RT @LCROSS_NASA Where am I now? Cruisin' at 0.78km/s(1753mph). Have just 1,685,000km to go.
hursday, September 17, 2009 7:47 PM
Oh man do I wish I could go to this workshop on Asteroid TC3 in Sudan, with field trip: http://bit.ly/7tjNs Anyone want to blog from it?
hursday, September 17, 2009 2:18 PM
Images and videos from today's LRO press briefing (going on now on NASA TV) are here: http://bit.ly/y2906
hursday, September 17, 2009 10:05 AM
Oh boy -- the only scientist on the LRO press briefing is the Laser Altimeter guy. Can't wait to see that data!!!
hursday, September 17, 2009 10:03 AM
Uranus is at opposition today. So Saturn, the Sun, Earth, and Uranus are all in a neat line (if you view solar system from above) today.
hursday, September 17, 2009 6:00 AM
Saturn is in solar conjunction today, which explains why no astronomers (am or pro) are getting good photos of it with rings seen edge-on.
hursday, September 17, 2009 5:45 AM
Oops! Almost forgot the second kid's birthday. It's Opportunity's third landing anniversary, measured in Martian years. Happy b-day, Oppy!
ednesday, September 16, 2009 4:48 PM
TONS of press releases coming out of EPSC meeting: Titan valleys; Mars polar winds; map of Ganymede; much more. I'll summarize some later. [NOTE: I really wanted to get to these this week, but just ran out of time. Next week, I hope.]
ednesday, September 16, 2009 8:24 AM
Yay! Lunar Recon Orbiter is now in its 50-km science orbit -- which means camera can now get images at 50 cm/pixel. http://bit.ly/4pN7v9
uesday, September 15, 2009 1:50 PM
Haven't heard about the status of LRO's orbit insertion burn yet, but they have promised a press briefing with pictures on Thursday morning.
uesday, September 15, 2009 12:18 PM
RT @LRO_NASA: Orbit #1000 about the Moon! Mission Orbit Insertion (MOI) burn today to lower into mission orbit of 50 km.
uesday, September 15, 2009 9:00 AM
WANT: Anna Sui constellation-print silk playsuit. http://is.gd/3hCzp
onday, September 14, 2009 8:52 PM
Today is the 50th anniversary of the first hard landing of a spacecraft on the Moon (Luna 2). Wonder if LROC will spot its remains?
onday, September 14, 2009 10:15 AM
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is doing final instrument calibration, prepping for Mission Orbit Insertion (MOI) burn tomorrow. (via LRO_NASA)
onday, September 14, 2009 7:14 AM
An informative post from Astroprof on lunar lettered craters & why LCROSS is targeting "Cabeus A," not Cabeus: http://bit.ly/3XOc7s
unday, September 13, 2009 10:05 PM
Opportunity's on the road again! Having spent ~50 sols on a detour to study huge meteorite Block Island, on sol 2004 she zoomed NW.
unday, September 13, 2009 8:43 AM
Baby Sanaya was just dropping to sleep when the Shuttle's BOOM BOOM woke her! Too bad she won't remember.
riday, September 11, 2009 6:04 PM
BOOM BOOM! Anahita heard it too!
riday, September 11, 2009 5:50 PM
Stuck in in-laws' back yard in Santa Clartita, CA I've no chance of seeing the shuttle but I should hear it!
riday, September 11, 2009 5:45 PM
Hm. I'll be in Santa Clarita area this evening when Shuttle lands at Edwards AFB. Will I be able to see or hear anything?
riday, September 11, 2009 1:43 PM
Finally! Images and maps of LCROSS impact site are now on the mission's website: http://bit.ly/Conmi
riday, September 11, 2009 11:31 AM
"The Arctic is becoming a blue ocean": laden cargo ships have successfully traversed the fabled Northwest Passage. http://bit.ly/5qVOg
riday, September 11, 2009 10:58 AM
RT @LCROSS_NASA: Actual lat/lon for impact will be in sweet spot in Cabeus A that is not crater center. Info will be posted soon on website.
riday, September 11, 2009 10:35 AM
Here's the press release on the LCROSS impact site. I can't find any photos or maps online yet. http://bit.ly/15m39O
riday, September 11, 2009 10:25 AM
Just announced: LCROSS will smash into crater Cabeus A, located at 82.2° S, 39.1° W near lunar south pole and "very observable" from Earth.
riday, September 11, 2009 10:16 AM
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's commissioning phase is complete! It'll be placed in its circular science orbit Sep 15. http://bit.ly/ZE9J1
riday, September 11, 2009 9:24 AM
Tonight the Moon is in the same phase as it will be next month when LCROSS hits it. Press briefing tomorrow about the site choice.
hursday, September 10, 2009 10:22 PM
RT @HiRISE: A new image of @MarsPhoenix landing site was released last week. Can anyone find the lander? http://tinyurl.com/ksxtfr
hursday, September 10, 2009 11:20 AM
I've finally posted a lengthy story with lots of pretty pictures from the newly refurbished Hubble Space Telescope: http://bit.ly/qqiWS
ednesday, September 9, 2009 5:21 PM
All you skeptics out there, go get They Might Be Giants' new CD/DVD "Here Comes Science" for kids & people with kids. "Science is real..."
ednesday, September 9, 2009 5:20 PM
Annoyed that all the official Hubble sites couldn't tell me WFC3's field of view, but it was at the top of the Wikipedia page (164 arcsec).
ednesday, September 9, 2009 9:12 AM
Senator Mikulski: "What we have done with Hubble is one of the greatest forms of public diplomacy that the United States has."
ednesday, September 9, 2009 8:22 AM
Here's the Space Telescope Science Institute site with new Hubble images and LOTS more info than is on the NASA site: http://bit.ly/NuvCI
ednesday, September 9, 2009 8:08 AM
Images from refurbished Hubble Space Telescope are now online here! http://bit.ly/Nm35b
ednesday, September 9, 2009 8:05 AM
Trying to decipher sequence of Space Station assembly, I found this diagram (& all its previous versions) very helpful: http://bit.ly/7TFVz
uesday, September 8, 2009 4:56 PM
Holy cow...check out this Terra image of the San Gabriels showing how much burned (and is still burning): http://bit.ly/qkGFs #stationfire
uesday, September 8, 2009 3:39 PM
Today New Horizons reached the halfway point between the orbits of Saturn & Uranus (but the planets are nowhere near). http://bit.ly/1knLsW
uesday, September 8, 2009 1:40 PM
NASA has selected a target for LCROSS's lunar impact. Press briefing on Friday at 11 am PDT on NASA TV -- I'll be watching!
uesday, September 8, 2009 11:18 AM
RT @plutokiller: We just got a snap shot of Hylonome, as far away as Uranus, with the new camera on HST. Data downloading. Me salivating.
uesday, September 8, 2009 10:32 AM
RT @astro0_umsf: Today (tosol), the Rover Opportunity reaches 2000 Martian days on the red planet. Poster: http://tiny.cc/OuHaB
uesday, September 8, 2009 10:19 AM
The study also suggests that only ~1 comet shower has happened since Cambrian Explosion, so comets likely didn't cause (many) extinctions.
unday, September 6, 2009 5:23 PM
Huh. A new study suggests long-period comets may originate closer to the Sun than formerly thought (10 times closer!): http://bit.ly/NtSOR
unday, September 6, 2009 5:20 PM
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