The new LHC collider of CERN in Switzerland will start up in 32 days. The first attempt will be seen live in television through Eurovision. This will be very interesting moment, because they have built LHC for years already, and now it will start-up. This will be the first beam.

“The LHC is the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, producing beams seven times more energetic than any previous machine, and around 30 times more intense when it reaches design performance, probably by 2010. Housed in a 27-kilometer tunnel, it relies on technologies that would not have been possible 30 years ago. The LHC is, in a sense, its own prototype” [CERN].

Could CERN’s LHC create microsopic black holes?

There have been discussions that LHC could create microscopic black holes, just like those in space, but much smaller. Is it possible that massive collisions of particles could create microscopic black holes?

“According to the well-established properties of gravity, described by Einstein’s relativity, it is impossible for microscopic black holes to be produced at the LHC. There are, however, some speculative theories that predict the production of such particles at the LHC. All these theories predict that these particles would disintegrate immediately. Black holes, therefore, would have no time to start accreting matter and to cause macroscopic effects” [CERN].

In theory it is not possible, but theories don’t always explain all the phenomena. As speculative theories say, creation of microscopic black holes is possible. Because of this CERN organized a highly skillful team of scientists to find out if possible microscopic black holes could be dangerous for human beings. The result of this study is that it is possible to create microscopic black holes in LHC, but because these black holes would be so small, they would disappear in seconds. This is explained by Hawking radiation, a theory developed by Stephen Hawking.

Microscopic black holes of CERN won’t do you any harm

If for some reason a black hole would exist longer, it would not cause any harm to our planet. Otherwise this planet would have been destroyed long time ago, because similar particle collisions happen every now and then in our atmosphere. It has been estimated that in every 100 years a particle hits our atmosphere with energy enough to create a black hole. This has happened already during billions of years, and our planet still exists.

“Although stable microscopic black holes are not expected in theory, study of the consequences of their production by cosmic rays shows that they would be harmless. Collisions at the LHC differ from cosmic-ray collisions with astronomical bodies like the Earth in that new particles produced in LHC collisions tend to move more slowly than those produced by cosmic rays” [CERN]

What do you think about the possible microscopic black holes of CERN?

Source [CERN]

Spacecraft that will be used is called Space Ship II, which is an enhanced version of Space Ship I. Space Ship II will be carried by a bigger plane, White Knight II, which was introduced to public last weekend in the Mojave desert. While Space Ship II is almost (60%) ready, White Knight II is ready to fly. This interesting looking airplane is completely made of carbon fiber composite. Bob Morgan, Lead engineer at Scaled Composites, said that the vehicle is triple the weight but has capacity for 12 more passengers. The plane’s cabling system is also carbon fiber.

Virgin Galactic Opening More Space Ports

During the introduction of White Knight II, Richard Branson announced that Virgin Galactic is going to open more space ports in addition to Mexico. Countries mentioned were Sweden, Spain and Far East. This is pretty interesting, because I live in Finland, next to Sweden. As soon as the Swedish space port has been opened, I will be there checking out the places. I wish I had extra $130.000, but it seems I have to wait for lower bids..

According to various sources, few older people are going to be among the first ones traveling to space. For example, Richard Branson’s parents as well as Stephen Hawking are going to be on board. I hope Mr. Hawking will stay healthy so that he will be able to join the flight. As you might know, Stephen Hawking suffers from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS is a progressive, usually fatal, neurodegenerative disease caused by the degeneration of motor neurons, the nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement.

The first Virgin Galactic spaceships will be called “Spirit of Steve Fossett” after Sir Richard’s friend and his mother, “Eve”. According to Wikipedia, “James Stephen Fossett (April 22, 1944 – missing September 3, 2007, declared legally dead February 15, 2008) was an American aviator, sailor, and adventurer who became the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon. He made his fortune in the financial services industry and was best known for many world records, including five nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo flight fixed-wing aircraft pilot”.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is having a dream-come-true project. It is really fascinating to see ordinary people travelling to space and experiencing zero gravity. It is absolutely revolutionary! I wish I was going to join the first flights..

Source [Gizmodo via Techeblog]

I recently stumbled upon the video below. I was lucky to find it, because in the video scientists discuss about various ways to prove that parallel universes exist. As we cannot travel to distant universes, scientists take examples from microcosmoses.

It is interesting how scientists compare the behavior of waves to parallel universes. The point is that when interfered, a wave produces multiple identical waveforms. Now, you might think this does not happen with solid particles. Wrong, particles do the same. Just watch the video, it’s pretty interesting.

However, it is very difficult for me to believe that somewhere in distant universes, another Marko (me) is sitting with his laptop, drinking way too much coffee, and writing his astronomy blog. In fact, that me-looking-dude must be writing about parallel universes, just like me here in our universe. Come on.. I got the point of the theory, but seeing another me, or even infinite number of copies of myself, in distant galaxies sounds ridicculous.

How about you? Do you believe in parallel universes?

Source [Videosift]

One of my readers asked me a question in the comments of another blog post. The question was “how can I locate constellation Lyra as well as star Vega when located in Belgium“? I promised to answer by writing an article so that other amateur astronomers in Belgium can use this same information. In this post I try to provide an easy-to-understand and useful method for finding constellation Lyra and star Vega when observer is located in Belgium. Please ask more in comments if something is unclear or your would like to discuss more about this topic.

First of all I decided to run a simulation of the sky above Belgium tonight. I assumed that an observer is located in Brussels. Vega, the alpha star of constellation Lyra, belongs to so called Summer Triangle. In this same article I also tell you how to find the summer triangle when located in Brussels, Belgium.

Go out at 1:30 am and watch directly to south

Lyra and Vega are located pretty high in southern summer sky when observed from central Europe. In order to observe constellation Lyra and it’s brightest star Vega, go out at 1:30 am and watch directly south. Then raise your head up until you see a bright star high above horizon. That star is Vega, as shown in the first picture above (click to see a bigger picture). Right next to Vega you should see the other stars of constellation Lyra.

I have no “bullet proof” method for finding Lyra and Vega, but I believe you should be able to locate them both with this picture captured directly from a simulation of the upcoming night sky above Belgium. If it helps, you can use two other bright stars, Altair and Arcturus (also circulated), to help finding Vega.

Notice also so called Summer Triangle

Because Vega is part of so called Summer Triangle star formation, we really have to say few words about the Summer Triangle as well. Being one of the most popular formations, Summer Triangle consists of three stars, namely Vera (constellation Lyra), Deneb (constellation Cygnus) and Altair (constellation Aquila). See the second picture above. There you can see those three bright stars circulated. By using this picture you should be able to locate the stars of the Summer Triangle above Brussels in Belgium. This picture shows the night sky above Brussels on July 20th 2008 at 1:30 am (tonight). So, if you are going to observe Vega tonight, take a look at the Summer Triangle as well.

As we wrote in April, ESA is looking for new European candidates to their astronaut training program. ESA asked all member countries to send applications for the upcoming training program. From Finland they will receive over 300 applications. This is the first time Finns have a change to become an astronaut and fly to the space.

ESA received 8.400 applications in total, and out of those thousands of applications only few will be picked up and given astronaut training. Most of the applications ESA received from Germany and France. I am really looking for to see someone from my home country entering the space. I did not apply

My dream might come true. ESA has announced that after their initial selection few Finns are still in the game. The process continues with a series of psychological tests, and those who pass the tests will continue with medical tests. Finally only four people out of 8.400 applicants will become ESA astronauts.

This is the first ESA candidate search since 1992. Those four new astronauts will fly to the International Space Station (ISS), but might also go to Moon one day.

Heh.. now my four years old son wants to become an astronaut..

This picture is from Aram Chaos crater in Mars. It was taken last month by HiRISE camera of MRO-probe. The crater was named Aram Chaos because of the broken formations of the surface.

Scientists believe the crater was formed when the material under the surface dissappeared. Lowest parts of the crater contain dark sand which is coloured blue in the picture. On can also see the dunes formed by the sand right next to steep walls.

“Sulfates have been detected in the cliff walls in some areas within Aram Chaos, as well as hematite. It has been suggested that these materials were deposited within a lake setting“, was said in HiRISE project website.

See a high-resolution image here.

Check out the press release of ESA (European Space Agency). They are looking for European students to join their new programme called “Fly Your Thesis! – An Astronaut Experience”. If you are a European student (like me), this is your change to experience a zero gravity flight. My old colleague from Ericsson was lucky and joined this kind of zero gravity flight some years ago. I saw his pictures and I must say I was a bit jealous..

ESA’s airplane flies a parable route and during 20 second periods students can feel almost zero gravity. Yes, they really hover in the air and bounce from walls. Well, may be there is not that much bouncing, but they really feel the zero gravity, just like astronauts in the International Space Station (ISS). This is currently best way to experience how astronomers feel in space.

Unfortunately one cannot join the programme just like that. The idea is that students perform a scientific experiment during the flight. It must be related to master’s of doctoral thesis of the student or it can be part of some other science project.

ESA will pick 20 European student groups who must present their thesis plans. Out of those 20 ESA will then select 3-4 groups who will join the 2009 flight. Groups of 2-4 students must be 18-28 years old, come from ESA member country and must be either MSc or PhD students. Damn! I’m already too old.. Deadline for the applications is the end of August 2008.

Here you can see the pictures and videos of Finnish students joining the flight in 2000. These are from Mikko Suominen, one of the writers of the great Avaruus.Fi astronomy blog.

Source [Avaruus.Fi via ESA]

So, what my vacation in Crete has to do with astronomy? Last Friday night I was having a dinner with my family in the village of Platanias in Crete. I noticed that the Moon was almost 100% covered by the shadow of itself (not like during a full lunar eclipse when it’s covered by the shadow of the Earth). I told my five-year old son and he was amazed with the beauty of the waxing crescent Moon. On our way back home I recognized that there is actually something more interesting next to the Moon. Castor and Pollux were lined with the Moon.

The Moon happened to be located next to constellation Gemini, and Gemini’s bright stars Pollux (beta Gemini) and Castor (alpha Gemini) were set in line with the Moon. The straight line of those three celestial elements did really look wonderful in the eyes of an amateur astronomer. Next night I noticed that the Moon was much higher in the sky in relation to constellation Gemini. I was lucky to see this phenomenon.

Unfortunately I had no camera on that night, so I decided to run a simulation back home and add screen captures to this article. I ran the simulation on Stellarium software which is absolutely the best simulation program I have ever used. Check out the three pictures included in this article. The sky above Crete on last Friday did look exactly like in those pictures. The second picture is a close-up of the Moon, Pollux and Castor. Third picture is a close-up of the Moon. I wanted you to see how pretty the waxing crescent Moon did look.

As you can see I haven’t written much lately in this blog. The reason is that the sun doesn’t set anymore here in Finland and therefore I haven’t been stargazing lately. Nights in Crete are dark and I found myself lying on beach on night time and watching the awesome and beautiful universe above me. Aren’t we small? Isn’t this universe amazing? Man, I must say it really keeps on amazing me.

Notice that also in EarthSky’s article the waxing crescent Moon, Pollux and Castor are almost lined up.

There has been a really unusual problem in the International Space Station (ISS). The one and only toilet of ISS has been broken. Imagine how difficult the situation can be when astronomers cannot go to toilet and Nasa is not able to send a service man up there..

Ok, it is not that tragic anymore. The toilet is ISS got broken last week and the crew was first forced to use the toilet facilities of Soyuz but can now use the main toilet as it has been repaired by replacing a micro-processor valve. Although the toilet can be used now, it is still broken. There are several backup solutions available, so no worry guys.

Discovery will fly to ISS next week and currently it seems that Discovery will carry some extra toilet parts. Meanwhile ground specialists will continue troubleshooting the problem and station crew continue preparing for the arrival of STS-124. Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman have been practicing photography techniques they will use when filming the Rendezvouz Pitch Manouver of STS-124. If you wonder what the “Rendezvouz Pitch Manouver” means, it is a “back-flip” performed before docking with the station. The reason for photographing Discovery is to analyze if heat shields have broken during lift-off.

Oh boy, next week we will be able to watch directly the lift-off of STS-124. I guess I will have some troubles to do my work because every now and then I need to watch Nasa TV. I have watched several lift-offs directly after Nasa launched their TV in the Internet. Nasa TV is one of those great things Internet can offer. 10 years ago I could have not imagined that in few years I will be able to watch STS flights directly on my computer. Man, these things develop so fast..

If you are one of my daily readers, you probably have noticed that I have not been blogging actively lately. I have been too busy with my job and family. There have been so many things ongoing that my blogging has suffered very much. Another reason for my blogging hiatus is that here on northern hemisphere we suffer from the lack of dark nights. For example in Finland the Sun does not set at all on midsummer. Because of this amateur astronomers of northern countries don’t go stargazing that much on summer time. This applies with me as well. I hope I will be able to stick to my blogging pace in the future and avoid these breaks.

WWT is a powerful education tool of science enabling the observations of the sky for anyone, says Bill Gates. WWT seems to very very easy to use and it contains terabytes of pictures of the celestial objects. It looks like WWT will play major role in schools when teaching astronomy, and that is just great! I wish we had such a software when I was in school.

The mission of the WWT is twofold:

- To aggregate scientific data from major telescopes, observatories and institutions and make temporal and multi-spectral studies available through a single cohesive Internet–based portal.

- To re-awaken the interest for science in the younger generations through astronomy and new technologies through the virtual observatory of the WWT. This also provides a wonderful base for teaching astronomy, scientific discovery, and computational science.

WWT searches NASA’s real pictures for its background. One can browse the targets of a certain area of the sky or pick them up from a certain real telescope database. WWT reminds Google’s Sky, but it is much easier and straightforward to use. WWT also contains features to help you explore the Earth, satellites, such as the Moon, and 360 degree panoramas of Yosemite’s Half Dome and other locations.

Computer requirements are pretty high for using WWT. 2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 128 MB video card and XP- or Vista operating system are required.