Tag Archives: satellites

Geoscience, Imaging, Physics, Science, Space, Technology, Water Issues

Spotting Fracking and Pumping Effects from Space

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2011-2014 Hydraulic Fracturing Water Use (square meters/well)
Map by U. S. Geological Survey.

Using a technique called satellite radar interferometry, researchers have spotted millimeter-scale ground uplift surrounding four high-pressure injection wells near the eastern Texas city of Timpson. Two of the wells were located directly above a spate of record quakes that struck Timpson in 2012, topping out with a 4.8 magnitude quake on May 17. The other two were located within six miles of the quakes.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
ASU Researcher: Satellite Radar Links Wastewater Pumping To Earthquakes

Astronomy, Biochemistry, Imaging, Science, Space, Technology

Thermal Camera Will Narrow Search for Water, Life on Europa

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Image of Europa's chaotic surface.
Image courtesy NASA/JPL/DLR.

NASA’s recent news that the Hubble Space Telescope had spotted liquid water plumes on Jupiter’s moon Europa has raised interest in a planned mission that will study the icy world to confirm the ocean’s presence and search for signs of life.

An instrument being built by Arizona State University will show experts where to start looking.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
ASU Thermal Camera Will Guide Europa Mission’s Search For Water, Life

Engineering, History, Space, Technology

Who Names NASA’s Space Probes?

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Early artist's conception of New Horizons, courtesy of NASA.
Early artist’s conception of New Horizons, courtesy of NASA.

The latest NASA space probes to make the news have zoomed to the farthest reaches of the solar system, and their names – Pluto’s New Horizons, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s Rosetta and Philae – reflect the ambition and spirit of discovery behind them.

But who gets to pick those evocative names, and is there any pattern that ties them together? Read on …

What’s Way Cooler Than Naming a Kid? Naming a NASA Spacecraft

Astronomy, Electromagnetism, Engineering, Imaging, Materials, Physics, Science, Space, Technology

The James Webb Space Telescope Prepares to Peer Past Hubble

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Artist's rendering of JWST
Artist’s rendering. Image courtesy NASA.

For two decades, the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope helped pierce the veil of time, image stellar nurseries and prove that galaxies collide. Now, the James Webb Space Telescope stands poised to take those observations to the next level, making the delicate observations possible only in the cold, dark spaces beyond the moon.

Slated for a 2018 launch date and team-built by 14 countries, 27 states and the District of Columbia, Webb will take astronomers closer to the beginning of time than ever before, granting glimpses of sights long hypothesized but never seen, from the birth of galaxies to light from the very first stars. Join us as we explore…

How the James Webb Space Telescope Will Work

Astronomy, Biochemistry, Culture, Electromagnetism, Health, History, Mathematics, Medicine, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Physics, Psychology, Science, Top 10, Weird

There was Madness to Their Method: The Western World Before the Scientific Method

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Cartoon of Mary Toft's doctors.
“My money’s on a lop-eared doe, or perhaps a Britannia Petite.”

One of the many things I enjoy about teaching my university class, Science, Feuds, Scandals and Hoaxes, is the opportunity to explore some of the most outrageous ideas ever to gain traction in the public mind. It’s easy to make fun today, but some of these ideas were grounded in reasoning that, though flawed, eventually gave rise to the right answer. Then again, there’s really no defending those doctors who thought that woman was giving birth to rabbit parts.

10 Things We Thought Were True Before the Scientific Method