Carnival of Space #61: Tunguska Edition

Welcome everyone to the 61st Carnival of Space. I am delighted to be your host for this edition of the Carnival marking the 100th Anniversary of the Tunguska Event.

As this is my first time hosting, I also want to welcome you to Mang's Bat Page where a Cub Scout leader takes a strong interest in astronomy, space exploration, cryptography, and why things fail - all hopefully with a Scouting flavour. If you want to know about the name see Why Mang?

I encourage you all to leave comments. Normally this site is moderated, but for the next week I've opened things up. Please keep all comments PG as I have youth readers and I don't want to delete comments (I have no ability to edit them).

Thanks to my friend Richard for the Tesla death ray photo
and not electrocuting anyone in the process.
(BTW. the spark to the grounding rod on the left was over 8 feet!)

So let's explore the real cause of the Tunguska blast ...

Well perhaps not the real cause. So without further ado ... lets get this party started.

First our non-Tunguska submissions ...

From Earth to the Moon and Mars

At Nextbigfuture, Brian Wang reports that the Blackswift Hypersonic program may not get fully funded for the $750 million that it needs, but the program has a lot of interesting technology and innovations for greater efficiency. Read more about The technology of the hypersonic Falcon HTV-3X.

From Centauri Dreams, Paul Gilster, sends us NanoSail-D: Solar Sail Deployment Planned which looks at the upcoming attempt to launch a small solar sail for deployment experiments in space on a modest budget.

At A Babe in the Universe, Louise Riofrio, gives us a peek at Altair. Perhaps the next lunar lander by 2019. And possibly a large step towards a moon base.

From Altair VI, David Portree sends us articles on two early US studies: the first Mars sample return study (1967) and the first lunar outpost resupply study (1992). There are some nice Gemini pics too.

And at Colony Worlds, Darnell Clayton considers that future Martian colonists may need to rely on "solar steam power" technology in Solar Steam To Power Martian Cities? Oh, and there's a video too.

Ian O'Neill at Astroengine considers future Mars colonists in Watch out Phoenix! Don't Scratch the CD! I guess, the receipt will be the least of their problems returning it.

Update: Emily at the Planetary Society has an update on the activities of the Phoenix mission at Mars, up to sol 36. This update contains some amazing amateur-produced panoramas, and some more troubling news about TEGA. Read more in Phoenix sol 36 update: Scraping in Wonderland, next steps for TEGA.

Science!

Over at Starts with a Bang!, Ethan Siegel announces the publication of a paper about Dark Matter in Our Solar System. Congratulations Ethan!

Mike Simonsen at Simostronomy looks at Dusty TOADs a rare class of White Dwarves with a bit of a temper. Please pass the sun screen folks.

From the Orbiting Frog, Rob sends us plans on how to make your own spectrometer! (with everyday household items no less). Pity, for once his science experiments don't involve food or drink. It's okay Rob, the Cub Scouts will forgive you :)

Entertainment, Photography, and Art

Moving down-under, Ian Musgrave at Astroblog has some photos and animation of The ISS, Mars, Saturn and Crux. (Hey Ian, I could use some southern feedback on Navigation Without Compass or GPS).

At Out of the Cradle, Ken Murphy our Lunar Librarian, provides a nice of overview and update on Japanese space comics (Manga) and cartoons (Anime).

Music of the Spheres discusses the new Pixar movie WALL-E. Should we fear science and technology, or embrace it? The answer from WALL-E the robot in 2700: yes! Read more at WALL-E: The Trash Route to Space Colonies.

At the Martian Chronicles, Ryan Anderson looks at the new Astrobiology related computer game Spore and considers some of the science in the game.

Insight

At Cumbrian Sky, Stuart Atkinson takes a personal reflection on his enthusiasm for astronomy, outreach, and those who do and don't get it in Woah... I know Astronomy.... Well worth a read.

Over at Artsnova Art Gallery, Jim Plaxco takes on the The Religion of the Face on Mars and talks about why people want to see a face.

Rob from Orbiting Frog nominated Stuart's article at the Astronomy Blog titled Changes to ESA?

Bruce Cordell at 21st Century Waves writes "10 Reasons Why China is Good for Space" and looks at some economic reasons why the decade from 2015 will be interesting for space exploration and development.

From Free Space blogs at Discovery News, Irene Klotz writes about Twittering spacecraft and blogs. Phoenix twitters. And now, apparently, so does her blog.

History & Conservation

Robert Pearlman at collectSPACE has contributed an editorial to Discovery Channel's space blogs about saving the bricks recently blasted out of the Pad 39A flame trench in If these Walls could Talk. I'd sure like to buy one.

Update: Todd Flowerday at Catholic Sensibility reflects on Satellite Imagination: the Herschel years. It seems a lot of early astronomers had some rather large blind spots. But not Herschel.

Tunguska

Yikes Fraser! I was sure there would be a raft of articles submitted on Tunguska. So following the motto of being prepared, I took the liberty of writing my own. Please enjoy reading Tunguska's Legacy.

I'd also like to nominate the following articles.

• Tunguska, One Century Later - Astroprof
• 100th Anniversary of a Cosmic Warning - Centauri Dreams
• 100 years ago today: KABLAM!!!!! - The Bad Astronomer

Wrap-up

Congratulations to the Bad Astronomer on his move to Discovery blogs.

Thanks to Fraser for letting me fill in this week as the Carnival guest host.

Finally, thanks to everyone for reading. Please take some time and explore the Bat Page, fill in the guest book or contact me.

Update: Oops and I almost forgot NEOSSat

Music of the Spheres posted Don't Blame Canada and Universe Today posted Canada to build World's First Asteroid-hunting Satellite.

Until next week ...
---
Carnival of Space Index @ Universe Today

Previous: Carnival of Space No. 60 @ Slacker Astronomy
Next: Carnival of Space #62 - The Image Extravaganza! @ Space Disco

Mentos and diet-coke explained

Finally, scientists have figured out what it is about Mentos and Diet-Coke that creates such spectacular eruptions!

A 2006 Mythbusters episode had it partly figured out. Now students at Appalachian State University have filled in the details. The full story is over at ABC news, here. Make sure you check out the great clip from a world record set for 1360 simultaneous Coke-Mentos fountains.

Thanks to Rob at the Orbiting Frog for spotting this, here. Rob seems to have a soft spot for science experiments that involve food and drink as you can see here (Can crushing) and here (eating a microwave).

Camp cleanup with destructive science!

Rob over at The Orbiting Frog likes to post easy and fun science experiments involving food and drink. Previously I commented on his article explaining how we can measure the speed of light with a microwave in Yummy Science Experiment - eating up the speed of light!

Now he's found a found a fun experiment to aid any camper that needs to carry out their litter, please see Air Pressure and Coke Cans.

Ok, stamping on them is more efficient. But is it really as much fun?

And if you doubt the power of this simple trick, a maple syrup producer has a freight car sized tank that was first crushed and then re-inflated by the power of air pressure and steam. (Note: The maple syrup producer was McCutcheon's south of Coldwater not far from our year-end camp at Wye Marsh).

Greenwash, Security Theatre, and Skepticism - Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is an essential life skill. It lets us make good decisions and can protect us. People don't exercise it all the time, but people who exercise it more tend to be more successful. And people who fail to exercise it can become victims of one sort or another.

So I wanted to comment on some current examples where critical thinking helps.

Greenwash

The term "Greenwash" has been around for about 20 years but has only recently made it into the mainstream. Basically, Greenwashing is about companies exaggerating and overstating their environmental contribution. An advertising con-job carried out on the public. Often where companies spend more advertising their greenness than actually contributing to the environment.

• For a history and definition see Wikipedia, here.
• For a consumer index, see the Greenwashing Index, here.

Companies marketing products have a long history of spinning the benefits of their products even when the benefits are dubious. The spin can range from the relatively harmless, such as stating what a product already does, to deception, such as deflecting attention away from a problem area. Critical thinking can help you see through this.

Update: I saw a related survey on "What should we do about bogus ‘green’ technologies?" at another Scouters blog.

Security Theatre

The term "Security Theatre isn't as mainstream yet. It refers to security measures that give people the illusion of security rather than providing real and measurable security. A lot of the security measures put in place since 9/11 fall into this category.

Examples of this include no-fly-lists. While they seem like a good idea at first glance, they break down under scrutiny. The problem with the list is that it isn't properly maintained; it is subject to false alarms - it has been used to detain babies, children, well known public figures, politicians, sky-marshalls, and inconvenience many thousands of people; there is no visible oversight of its effectiveness; known terrorist suspects have been kept off it; and there is no evidence to support that it has ever stopped an attack. I won't get into more detail on this debate, but if you're interested you can find more by one of the leading critics of Security Theatre, Bruce Schneier, who has posted many articles on his widely read blog. A few are below:

• The No-Fly List
• Five-Year-Old Boy Detained by the TSA
• Sky Marshals on the No-Fly List
• No-Fly List to Be Scrubbed (cleaned up)
• Canadian Privacy Commissioner Comments on the No-Fly List
• In Praise of Security Theater

Security Theatre and it's mindset has been a healthy target for comedy:

• The Chaser, an Australian team has made fun of this with such episodes as "Airport Security" and the "Trojan Horse". Video clips are available on You-Tube here and here.
• The TV series "Boston Legal" dedicated part of an episode to the absurdities of the no-fly list. An audio clip can be found here (mild language warning).
  

Skepticism and extraordinary claims

The world is full of doomsday prophecies and other bunk. A healthy does of skepticism is useful for dealing with extraordinary claims. There are lots of people who will waste your time seeking attention, money, and fame. All of this they take from you without providing anything of value back.

Current examples include:

• The end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 predicts the end of civilization. This is no more true than suggesting the earth would end after December 31st, 999AD or 9999AD - the calendar is just a bit stranger. See here and here.
• Planet X is coming to destroy us. Planet X was originally an astronomical reference to a presumed missing planet or unknown planet beyond Neptune. Pluto didn't fit the bill and it took over 50 years to resolve the facts. Later the name was usurped by conspiracy theorists. The predictions aren't supported by facts and the date for doomsday has been revised. See articles, here, here and a series of articles here.

Update: The crop of bunk surrounding 2012 never seems to to end. Fear mongers and misguided folks keep reviving it and scaring people with these fabrications. Dr. Ian O'Neill at Astroengine has written a fine series of articles debunking these. Have a look at 2012 Doomsday Fabrication: Abusing Science and Making Money.

Some bunk that has passed their best before dates:

• Venus Transit (in 2004) Floods
• The Grand Alignment of Planets Disasters (2000 and many previous years)
• Asteroid 2007 TU24 near miss disasters. For a description of this rock see Wikipedia. For the debunking see this and this. For a told-ya-so, see this.
• Planet X (2003).
  

So exercise your critical thinking and save your time and money. Better don't let the fear mongers profit!

Wanting to believe

People are often predisposed to believe in a cause. The problem with this is that people often suspend their critical thinking and can be taken in. They can overreact to circumstances. Or they can mis-evaluate the situation.

To demonstrate this, a group took a petition to an environmental event. The petitioners (correctly) claimed that there was a substance associated with all major sources of water pollution and sought a ban on the chemical. What was it? Check out dhmo.org for a wealth of information of dihydrogen monoxide (dHmO, aka H2O). Sadly, a large number of people just listened to the spin and signed the petition to ban water!

While there is nothing wrong with wanting to believe or belong, we still need to be careful to apply some critical thinking.

Yummy Science Experiment - eating up the speed of light!

The folks over at the Orbiting Frog came up with this yummy science experiment. It turns out that anyone with a microwave (with turntable), microwave safe dish, a ruler, and yummy marshmallows or chocolate chips can measure the speed of light!

Whether they can do it without getting sick to there stomachs is another question :)

I haven't looked but I'm certain this could be worked into a badge somewhere. Cubs doesn't have a science badge, but Scouts do. Heck why should Scouts have all the fun.

Brilliant folks! We need more edible (or gooey) science experiments.