He's never attempted woodworking before, but tackled this project with absolute determination. I'm a huge space geek, and have been fascinated with the night sky almost all of my life. I've talked of wanting a good telescope, and it would have been very easy for him to just make a stop by the store to pick one up. That he spent weeks working on this for me makes it the most special gift I've ever received.

Sure, you couldn't make a Kindle or a 47-inch Plasma TV by hand—at least nothing comparable in quality to the real thing—but did you even try? Huh?

So Rachel, you've got a really nice husband, but he's probably cheated on you in the past year. That's the only logical explanation. [Make]

Apparently quite a few key observatories use lasers to adjust telescope optics for atmospheric turbulence. Those same lasers can damage Earth-observing satellites and so regulations on their usage have been getting stricter and stricter over the years. Now astronomers have had enough. They are happy to consult with the Air Force each time they point a laser at the sky to make sure that a satellite isn't in the path, but it seems that the turnaround time is too long. I don't see why they don't just change it to a "We'll have your analysis delivered in less than 30 minutes or you can point your lasers wherever you want" rule. [New Scientist]

Dubbed Ridge A, this magical spot in Antarctica provides such a clear view of the heavens that a "modestly-sized telescope there would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on earth." Scientists will be using the knowledge gained from the first Antarctic robotic viewing station, the PLATeau Observatory, to set up another 'bot operated observatory station in this dry and cold place:

The simple observatory is, in the words of University of Arizona astronomer Craig Kulesa, a steel shipping container that scientists "cut in half and insulated the crap out of."

Well, not everything has to be high tech, right? Hacked together or not, the robot-manned observatories are significant not only of the data they provide, but also because of the savings in comparison to a space mission for the same photos:

Getting a kilogram of anything into orbit costs thousands of dollars. The cost of getting a kilogram to Ridge A is about $10.

This means that the National Science Foundation is getting a heck of a lot of research done without the benefits of a NASA-sized budget. Not to mention that robots are far cooler than rockets anyway. [Wired]

"This breakthrough camera is without an equivalent anywhere in the world," says Norbert Hubin, head of the Adaptive Optics for ESO space agency. "The camera will enable great leaps forward in many areas of the study of the universe."

Ok, so the images are only 240 x 240, but it does produces around 10x digital noise than current VLT cameras. A mixture of speed and sensitivity like that is no small achievement. Images from the ground could be as crisp as those taken from space. [TechRadar]

And it's completely fitting too, given that this voyage is the last trip NASA will take to service Hubble. But enough sad news on Mother's Day, what's with these "superpowers?"

The first power is "three-in-one vision," provided by the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which will allow Hubble to see the light spectrum simultaneously, from ultraviolet to infrared. The gadget also grants Hubble the ability to see "cosmic cobwebs" that stretch out and connect galaxies. These new abilities should double or tripe the rate at which NASA discovers distant supernovae.

The other addition, called the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), costs $70 million and sniffs out ultraviolet light with reckless abandon. What once took 10 Earth orbits to observe will now take just one. Extremely dim objects that took a year to observe properly will be cataloged in weeks.

Unsurprisingly, both gadgets, used in tandem with with existing tech on Hubble, are designed to seek out dark matter and energy. Oh, and alien planets too:

"For example, you might be able to see whether a planet's atmosphere has hydrogen or carbon or oxygen in it," said Ken Sembach, Hubble project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

NASA expects the first data from these new instruments to be delivered by Labor Day. [MSNBC]

Dark Flow. Or, The Universe's Great Cosmic Tease
Like some kind of massive cosmic toilet bowl, the multitude of galaxies that populate the known Universe are swirling inexplicably toward a tiny 20-degree plane of deep space. At least, that's what astrophysicist Alexander Kashlinsky discovered in an incredibly controversial paper published in October 2008. Put simply for we laypeople, the paper suggests that way out in the cosmos—beyond Tatooine and idiotic Ewoks and Caprica Six's curves—lay a chunk of matter so beyond our understanding that it is actually pulling the observable universe toward it at 600km/s.

But in that term "observable universe" lies the rub. We can't (and never will) "see" what this mass of theorized matter looks like. Which is too bad, because the dark flow theory hints that this mass, or super structure, could be anything from another universe to a realm of whimsical fancy whose physics, forces and warped space-time are completely beyond any of us. Unicorns, flying cars, cats and dogs living in harmony, you name it and it could be true, as we'll never, ever make it there to find out first hand.

And even though this whole "observable universe" buzz kill means one of the greatest discoveries ever will never be observed by humanity's naked eye, it doesn't mean scientists are deterred from theorizing the hell out of what lies just beyond the cosmic horizon. Indeed, Kashlinsky intends to continue to research the phenomenon using data from the five-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) project. Launched in June 2001, WMAP has been a "stunningly successful" program, responsible for producing a new Standard Model of Cosmology, says NASA. (Ed. Note: WMAP's top ten discoveries are on display over at NASA –j.l.)

The WOW! Signal. Or, Holy Crap, Alien Avon Calling!
Before Jodie Foster implored humanity to send poets to document the denizens of Vega, there was a real-life signal from the heavens that has, to date, remained one of the most compelling pieces of evidence that we are not alone.

Called the WOW! signal, this 72-second beacon was detected by Dr. Jerry R. Ehman on August 15, 1977. Because the unknown signal fit the parameters of what an artificial space signal might sound like so exactly, the awestruck Ehman jotted down "Wow!" when he first heard it. I'd also like to think he cartoonishly fell back in his chair and spit coffee out all over the terminal when it happened too, but that's just me.

One of the biggest pieces of evidence supporting the theory that Wow! was extraterrestrial in origin—and not some random signal from Earth that bounced off a satellite—was the 72-second duration. As was the case in Contact, with its 18 hours of recorded static, more can be read in the length of the transmission than within the signal itself. In fact, in a paper published on the 20th anniversary of WOW!, Ehman explored additional theories and speculation regarding signal length:

There is still another factor to consider. The signal could actually have been present for years (or millennia, for that matter) prior to its detection for the following reason. Just before the data acquisition and analysis (i.e., the "run") began, the declination of the telescope was changed. In the days (and years) previous to August 15, 1977 the radio telescope was not pointed at the declination where Wow! was seen; thus, we couldn't have detected that signal. I should note that during the Ohio Sky Survey many years earlier, we did survey the same declination we did when the Wow! signal was discovered. However, we were using a wideband receiver (8 MHz bandwidth). A narrowband signal averaged over a wide bandwidth would be reduced in intensity so much that it would have been buried in the noise. Thus, even if Wow! were present then, we wouldn't have seen it."

So, was it aliens? If we get off this rock and jet off into the stars, will we one day find the source of this mysterious signal? Who knows, as subsequent attempts made over the past 20 years to locate the Wow! signal, or another one like it, have failed. Even when more powerful systems were implemented, like the Hollywood-friendly Very Large Array in New Mexico, the results were all the same: Utter silence.

If you'll yourself a bit of wishful thinking, however, the idea that this was some kind of powerful last-ditch burst of radiation from a dying alien race is not implausible. As detailed by author and astronomer David Darling, the Wow! signal could have been generated by an alien civilization with access to a transmitting dish like our Arecibo radio telescope. They'd also need a 2.2-gigawatt transmitter—extremely powerful, but plausible for humans (and definitely plausible if your race is, say, facing extinction).

NASA's Mystery BOOM! Or Something In Space Is Screaming
Contrary to what the original Alien movie poster might have lead you to believe, somewhere in the universe, something is screaming—and we can "hear" it.

In the words of Alan Kogut from the Goddard Space Center, "The universe really threw us a curve. Instead of the faint signal we hoped to find, here was this booming 'noise' six times louder than anyone had predicted."

Of course, there is no sound in space. What NASA's ARCADE system received was actually deafening cosmic radio background, and the source is completely unknown at this time. Normally radio telescopes pick up electromagnetic chatter in the 10 MHz and 100 GHz, coming from what are known as "radio galaxies." But according to our existing models and theories, the signal shouldn't exist, as there are "not enough radio galaxies to account for the signal."

As detailed by Jesus when this story initially broke earlier this year, NASA said that to create this signal, "you'd have to pack [radio galaxies] into the universe like sardines. There wouldn't be any space left between one galaxy and the next." That's obviously not the case.

The discovery, while amazing, also carries with it a substantial negative. Remember all that cool stuff about dark flow and the edge of the universe from earlier? Well, the BOOM complicates our efforts to detect it more accurately.

Hubble Spies UFO. Or... Yeah, This One Really Was a Legitimate UFO
Stories like these confirm to me that we need to keep Hubble and similar programs going as long as humanly possible.

On February 21, 2006 (the paper was only published recently), the venerable space telescope spied a UFO in an area of space where there should have been nothing at all.

Stranger still, the object disappeared almost as mysteriously as it arrived, about 100 days after the initial observation. It got very bright over time, to the 21st magnitude, then faded just as fast. Kind of like an explosion... Not much else is known about the celestial phenomenon, and it hasn't reappeared since 2006.

The one other certainty? It wasn't dust, so there go all your jokes.

The Sloan Great Wall: There Is Nothing Bigger

Until we figure out what that huge thing tugging on the pant leg of the universe is, the freakishly huge Sloan Great Wall is the largest structure known to mankind.

It is a behemoth wall of galaxies, otherwise known as a galactic filament, that stretches 1.37 billion light years from end to end. The filament was discovered only recently, on October 20, 2003, by the Princeton University duo J. Richard Gott III and Mario Jurić. Its immense, unimaginable bulk lies an equally unimaginable one billion light years from Earth.

It's kind of hard to wrap your mind around such distance, so we'll take things down an exponential notch or two and compare the Great Sloan Wall to something we might eventually (fingers crossed) map out in a few thousand years: The Milky Way.

Our galaxy is actually considered large in the scheme of things. Various estimates say it's about 100,000 light-years from end-to-end, and about 1,000 light-years thick in the center (where there lay a massive black hole). So, 1.37 billion versus 100,000. I'd say it's like David and Goliath, but that'd be woefully inaccurate. This Goliath would be incapable of even knowing about our insignificant little existence. Our "large" galaxy is more like a cell in the human body in this case—dutifully performing its mundane, insignificant work while the host moves obliviously on through eternity.

To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before. Or, My Closing.
Now, admittedly, these interstellar objects and phenomena are a bit beyond both our reach and our comprehension, and I highly doubt we'll ever encounter any of them firsthand on our wild journey Off This Rock anytime soon. But you'll never hear me say "never" when it comes to space travel, even if you just did. This list, if anything, is a heads-up for us all as we (or our robots) journey into deep space.

Watch your ass out in the ether, people, because it's a frakking freak show up there.

This image is a composite of a wide region of the northern winter sky that was painstakingly put together to show just how much we're missing thanks to the limitation of our bodies.

In the shot, you see the Great Orion Nebula, the Rosette Nebula, the Seagull Nebula, the California Nebula, and Barnard's Loop. You may recognize the constellation of Orion just above the house as well.

So how about it? When do we get our ocular telescope implants? Because I really, really want them. [Astronomy Picture of the Day via Kottke]

Hit up io9 to check out the giant gallery. [io9]

There are six targets in all, and NASA is currently conducting a poll to figure out which one to survey using the venerable (and at times glitch-ridden) space telescope.

Voting concludes March 1, so you have some time to deliberate and research your choice. "Spiral Galaxy: NGC 5172" currently leads, followed by the plucky "Interacting Galaxies: Arp 274" in second, and the moxie-filled "Star-Forming Region: NGC 6634" is in third.

And guys, a quick aside, if you will. These are space-only locations. "Cute Girl's Window in the Apartment Across the Street" is not one of the options. [Hubble Site via Tom's Astronomy Blog]

Why twenty years and so much money spent in this observatory? Well, while it's not as spectacular as a space telescope, the daily challenges that SOFIA will face are greater than those of Hubble. From the high-tech door system in the modified 747 to the technology needed to compensate for the extreme in-flight vibration, SOFIA needs a lot more daily love than Hubble does.

In fact, it's not that expensive: The $500 million price tag is a bargain when you consider the $2.5 billion paid for the Hubble Space Telescope's construction. Not to talk about the Hubble's total bill, including the servicing missions, which is estimated at between $4.5 billion to $6 billion without the more than half billion dollars that Europe put into the project.

For sure, SOFIA is not as flexible and won't take the same kind of breathtaking photos that Hubble does. The telescope is designed to only work on the infrared and far-infrared light spectrums. But then again, in those light ranges, flying will allow it to get results as good or better than Hubble (it's mirror is almost 4 inches larger than Hubble's). After all, SOFIA won't have to deal with 99% of the atmospheric vapor that disturbs these kind of instruments at ground level.

On the other side, repairing it won't require dangerous and costly space missions. If it breaks down, they will fix it in the hangar.

Tests for SOFIA will being this month, while actual science missions will start in 2011, getting into full capability in 2014. [NASA]

Space junkies, go to town with the full presser below. And, for those of you with some time on your hands, the ESO has a link to the full 80 MB TIFF image in the page we linked to below.

A Pool of Distant Galaxies – the deepest ultraviolet image of the Universe yet

Anyone who has wondered what it might be like to dive into a pool of millions of distant galaxies of different shapes and colours, will enjoy the latest image released by ESO. Obtained in part with the Very Large Telescope, the image is the deepest ground-based U-band image of the Universe ever obtained. It contains more than 27 million pixels and is the result of 55 hours of observations with the VIMOS instrument.

This uniquely beautiful patchwork image, with its myriad of brightly coloured galaxies, shows the Chandra Deep Field South (CDF-S), arguably the most observed and best studied region in the entire sky. The CDF-S is one of the two regions selected as part of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), an effort of the worldwide astronomical community that unites the deepest observations from ground- and space-based facilities at all wavelengths from X-ray to radio. Its primary purpose is to provide astronomers with the most sensitive census of the distant Universe to assist in their study of the formation and evolution of galaxies.

The new image released by ESO combines data obtained with the VIMOS instrument in the U- and R-bands, as well as data obtained in the B-band with the Wide-Field Imager (WFI) attached to the 2.2 m MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla, in the framework of the GABODS survey.

The newly released U-band image – the result of 40 hours of staring at the same region of the sky and just made ready by the GOODS team – is the deepest image ever taken from the ground in this wavelength domain. At these depths, the sky is almost completely covered by galaxies, each one, like our own galaxy, the Milky Way, home of hundreds of billions of stars.

Galaxies were detected that are a billion times fainter than the unaided eye can see and over a range of colours not directly observable by the eye. This deep image has been essential to the discovery of a large number of new galaxies that are so far away that they are seen as they were when the Universe was only 2 billion years old.

In this sea of galaxies – or island universes as they are sometimes called – only a very few stars belonging to the Milky Way are seen. One of them is so close that it moves very fast on the sky. This "high proper motion star" is visible to the left of the second brightest star in the image. It appears as a funny elongated rainbow because the star moved while the data were being taken in the different filters over several years.

[European Southern Observatory via Slashdot]

The 486 was activated Thursday, and that went well, NASA scientists said. It was everything else on board the aging space telescope that pooped the bed, unfortunately.

When the 486 fired up, a low-voltage power supply issue sidelined one of Hubble's cameras, and prevented it from rebooting properly. Not good. After that, further unidentified "computer trouble" hit Hubble hard, and ended all recovery efforts instantly. Now NASA is tasked with going through piles of data beamed back from Hubble since the malfunction on Friday to find a cure.

Today the best case scenario for Hubble is that engineers get it up and running late next week, said Art Whipple, a Hubble manager. The worst case scenario is Hubble has to wait for human hands to arrive next year as part of a shuttle mission. And fixing the telescope with astronauts is no joke. As we noted in September when this mess first started, fixing Hubble by hand is more risky that you could possibly imagine. Unless you're an astronaut, of course. [MSNBC]

The PRIMA system consists of many small mirrors that are moved by pistons at levels that are smaller than an atom. The light from each telescope is reflected into underground tunnels in a way that cancels out the light waves from a star. What remains is the faint light of an orbiting planet—hopefully a planet capable of harboring life. Apparently, PRIMA will start hunting down E.T. in about six months time—and according to Fred Kamphues, developer of a major component of PRIMA called a Star Separator, we stand a good chance of finding them inside the next 100 years. Meanwhile, a high-level government official who has had E.T. on ice for the last 60 years is laughing his ass off. [Wired Science]

A Cosmic Eye is a unique configuration of galaxies in the sky, with one galaxy in the foreground and the other in the background, giving it the appearance of an eye in space. The foreground galaxy— in this case the yellow one, 2.2 billion light years from Earth—acts as the lenses thanks to its gravitational field, which bends the light coming from the background galaxy—in blue, 11 billion light years from Earth. This distortion effect, which was predicted by Einstein theories, has enlarged the early spiral galaxy by eight times.

The technique gives an idea of what would be possible with the next generation of telescopes—the European Extremely Large Telescope and the American Thirty Metre Telescope. [Physorg]

Credit: Cosmic Eye showing the foreground galaxy in yellow at the centre of the image surrounded by the blue arc of the distant galaxy. Credit: Mark Swinbank/Durham University

Daniel Fabricant, an astrophysicist for the Harvard-Smithsonian center thinks that the precision (a fraction of a wavelength of light) required for a telescope of that stature would pose a sizable challenge in making one that large. He also thinks it would be really, really, really expensive. But the leader of NASA's team, Peter Chen, claims that without Moon dust and on-site manufacturing, it would be impossible to get telescopes to the moon.

According to Chen, making a telescope equivalent in size to the Hubble (2.4 meters) on the Moon would require 1300 pounds of Moon dust, 130 pounds of epoxy, 13 pounds of carbon nanotubes and under a gram of aluminum. Now if we could turn those telescopes into lasers and get a little pew pew, we'd be set. [New Scientist]

St George says in the 19th century his great-grandfather, Alexander Stanhope St George, built a trans-Atlantic tunnel from London to New York which was forgotten by time. The artist discovered his great-grandfather's plans recently and using the diagrams installed parabolic mirrors at both locations that reflect what's happening 3500 miles across the pond. Now, I can't say for sure since I haven't seen the Telectroscope in person, but a picture in the gallery above suggests a more logical explanation that involves built-in webcams and broadband internet sending live video in both directions. Either way, the scope looks fantastic and I can't wait to check it out.

The Telectroscopes are on display 24/7 until June 15. New Yorkers can check out the Brits by heading to Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn; Londoners will need to head to Tower Bridge if they want their fix of spying on the Yanks. [Telectroscope via Gothamist 1, 2]

Though a Fresnel sensor has the same sharpness as a glass lens, it only collects about 10% of the light. That's why the sheet has to be really really big, like the 30-meter one mentioned above. Even worse, the Fresnel lens brings light to focus far away from its own surface. A 30-meter panel may require a spaceship with secondary lens and camera located several kilometers away to line up within a few millimeters to capture the image precisely on camera. That's some tricky flying, and would require a lot of energy, especially when the panel itself is constantly tilting to look at new, wondrous things. [New Scientist via Kurzweil AI]