European Association for Astronomy Education

Zooniverse has launched a new tool.

Earlier this year, Galaxy Zoo expanded to include the infrared. Now Radio Galaxy Zoo involves looking at galaxies in (yet) another light. This time we are asking you to match huge jets – seen in radio emission – to the supermassive black holes at the centre of the galaxy that produced them. This requires looking at the galaxies in infrared and radio wavelengths. These galaxies are not like our own, and your classifications will allow scientists to understand the causes of these erupting black holes and how they affect the galaxy surrounding them.

Get involved now at http://radio.galaxyzoo.org - and have fun discovering black holes in our Universe.

Source: NASA

NASA has released a new online game called "Build it Yourself:" Satellite!". With this interactive tool  anyone can be an engineer or astronomer and build a satellite. Thjis is a unique oportunity to to discover planets orbiting distant stars, searche for  black holes  or try to observe the faint glow of the early Universe.

 
The website's layout

This Flash-based game, is magnificente learning tool for students and adults and  is just a click away at http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/build.html.

Source: Mars Today

Mars Today, created by Howard Houben of the Mars Global Circulation Model Group, is a poster produced daily by the Center for Mars Exploration at NASA's Ames Research Center. The updated poster depicts current conditions on Mars and its relationship to Earth in six panels. (learn more)

Source: ESA

The International Space Station (ISS) in 3D.
Image credits: ESA/NASA.

In space, astronauts learn to live and work in three dimensions. Now you can experience space with an extra dimension with ESA’s collection of 3D images. (read more)

Zooniverse has launched a new project: Whale FM.

Image credits: NOAA.

At Whale FM everyone is being asked to help decode what whales are saying to each other. Tune in and check it out at http://whale.fm.

Zooniverse team has announced the addition of Kepler Quarter 3  (Q3) data to the interface at www.planethunters.org.  This means that there are an additional ~90 days worth of Kepler observations for you to sort through, nearly doubling what they had before - meaning you should be able to find longer period planets hidden in the data. There is still some Quarter 2 data left to search through, and the site will be showing a mix of the two quarters.

This is great news for all planet hunters that have been cooperating with the project of finding planets around other stars. (go to Planet Hunters)

Source: ESA and YouTube

On October 10th, ESA, JAXA of Japan and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) joined the launch of 'YouTube Space Lab', an exciting campaign initiated by YouTube, NASA, Space Adventures and Lenovo that challenges students around the world to design a science experiment for the International Space Station.

The winning experiments will be conducted in space on the International Space Station (ISS), making it the Universe's largest science lesson, streamed live for the world to see via YouTube.

Space Lab is part of a larger YouTube effort, aimed at providing educators access to the wealth of educational content available on YouTube. Individually or in groups of up to three, students aged 14–18 years may submit a YouTube video describing their experiment to www.youtube.com/spacelab.

A panel of prestigious scientists, astronauts and teachers, including the renowned Professor Stephen Hawking, astronauts Frank De Winne, Samantha Cristoforetti and Timothy Peake of ESA, NASA’s Leland Melvin, Akihiko Hoshide of JAXA, Chris Hadfield of CSA and Cirque du Soleil’s founder Guy Laliberté, will judge the entries with input from the YouTube community. Six regional finalists will gather in the USA in March 2012 to experience a zero-gravity flight and receive other prizes. (Go to SpaceLab Contest webpage)

Source: NASA News Release

NASA has released an interactive, educational video game called NetworKing that depicts how the Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) network operates. The release of the video game coincides with the close of World Space Week, Oct. 4-10.

Developed by the Information Technology Office at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., NetworKing gives players an insider's perspective into how astronauts, mission controllers and scientists communicate during space missions. (see game)

Source: Planet Hunters

Thanks to all collaborators hard work at planethunters.org - a first paper was submitted to an astronomical journal, and it is now nearly through the referee process. The findings can be seen in detail in the paper titled "Planet Hunters: Two Planet Candidates Discovered by the Public using the Kepler Public Archive Data" which you can read at: http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4621

After careful analysis and follow-up observations with the Keck telescope in Hawaii, the Planet Hunters team sent the top 10 candidates found from your classifications of the Quarter 1 data to the Kepler team. With their help, it has been determined that two of the ten met their criteria for being classified as planet candidates.

If you're lucky enough to be one of the people who marked a transit, then your name is in the paper - the rest of you will find yourselves on the extended author list at http://planethunters.org/authors.

In other news, the Kepler team announced (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/keplerm-Q3release.html) that the next public release of data has been moved up from June 2012 to right now. Quarter 3 is an extra 90 days of light curves, nearly doubling the time baseline we have available for all the Kepler stars - meaning you can find even longer period planets hidden in the data. We're already working on getting this data to you, but in the mean time, there’s still lots of Quarter 2 data left to search through.

Planet Hunters is already producing fantastic results, and there is no doubt that with each new round of data, there will be more discoveries to come. Come and help the hunt for planets today: http://www.planethunters.org

Source: NASA

Screenshot of Eyes on the Solar System.

NASA is giving the public the power to journey through the solar system using a new interactive Web-based tool.

The "Eyes on the Solar System" interface combines video game technology and NASA data to create an environment for users to ride along with agency spacecraft and explore the cosmos. Screen graphics and information such as planet  locations and spacecraft maneuvers use actual space mission data.

"This is the first time the public has been able to see the entire solar system and our missions moving together in  real-time," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "It demonstrates NASA's continued commitment to share our science with everyone."

The virtual environment uses the Unity game engine to display models of planets, moons, asteroids, comets and spacecraft as they move through our solar system. With keyboard and mouse controls, users cruise through space to explore anything that catches their interest.

A free browser plug-in, available at the site, is required to run the Web application.

"You are now free to move about the solar system," said Blaine Baggett, executive manager in the Office of Communication and Education at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "See what NASA's spacecraft see -- and where they are right now -- all without leaving your computer."

Users may experienced missions in real-time, and "Eyes on the Solar System" also allows them to travel through time. The tool is populated with NASA data dating back to 1950 and projected to 2050.

The playback rate can be sped up or slowed down. When NASA's Juno spacecraft launched on Aug. 5, 2011, users could look ahead to see the mission's five-year journey to Jupiter in a matter of seconds.

Point of view can be switched from faraway to close-up to right "on board" spacecraft. Location, motion and appearance are based on predicted and reconstructed mission data. Dozens of controls on a series of pop-up menus allow users to fully customize what they see, and video and audio tutorials explain how to use the tool's many options. Users may choose from 2-D or 3-D modes, with the latter simply requiring a pair of red-cyan glasses to see.

"By basing our visualization primarily on mission data, this tool will help both NASA and the public better understand complex space science missions," said Kevin Hussey, manager of Visualization Technology Applications and Development at JPL, whose team developed "Eyes on the Solar System."

"Eyes on the Solar System" is in beta release. It has been demonstrated at science conferences, in classrooms and at the 2011 South by Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas.

Designers are updating "Eyes on the Solar System" to include NASA science missions launching during the coming months, including GRAIL to the moon and the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover.

"Eyes on the Solar System" and an introduction video are available at:

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eyes

Galaxy Zoo has launched a brand new site: The Milky Way Project (http://www.milkywayproject.org). The Milky Way Project aims to sort and measure our galaxy, the Milky Way. Their asking people to help find and draw bubbles in beautiful infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Understanding the cold, dusty material that can be seen in those images might help scientists to learn how stars form and how our galaxy changes and evolves with time.

As well as drawing out bubbles in our galaxy, they are also asking people to mark other objects such as star clusters, galaxies and ghostly red 'fuzzy' objects. People are invited to help to map star formation in the Galaxy.(read more)

Source: Astrosphere New Media Association

The award-winning 365 Days of Astronomy podcast is proud to announce that the project will continue for another 365 days and is now accepting sign-ups for participants for 2010. This is a legacy project of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) and is being managed by Astrosphere New Media Association.

In 2009, the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast was a major project of the IYA, publishing one podcast for every day of the year. The podcast episodes are written, recorded, and produced by people all around the world. “This podcast gives a voice to everyone in astronomy – professionals, amateurs, and those who just enjoy the amazing
discoveries and images of our Universe,” said Dr. Pamela Gay, chair for the IYA’s New Media Group. The continuation of the project was officially announced at the .Astronomy (“dot Astronomy”) conference in Leiden, The Netherlands, on Friday. (read more)

Galaxy Zoo team has launched Zooniverse. Galaxy Zoo has been an enormous success where professional astronomers, amateur astronomers, and scientists from other disciplines, have work to make discoveries about the Universe. The new website will be a platform for science projects where the public can take their pick of where and how they can make meaningful contributions to new scientific discoveries.

Link: Zooniverse

Source:365 Days of Astronomy Podcast

The award-winning 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast has announced that the project will continue for another 365 days, and is now accepting sign-ups for participants for 2010. Whether you're a seasoned podcaster or if you have never picked up a microphone before, anyone with a love of space exploration and astronomy is welcome to sign up to do a podcast.

Link:
365 Days of Astronomy Podcast