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• Lunar Ice Smack-down a Success!

  Posted by Ben Burress

  on Nov 20, 2009

  The view from the control room of Chabot's planetarium during
  the live LCROSS lunar impact eventIt's official: NASA's LCROSS mission found water on the Moon, no bones about it. Though NASA is still analyzing all the data they reaped from the LCROSS impact event on October 9th, and will be for a long time to come, they seem confident enough about the preliminary findings to make this a definite declaration of discovery!

  Rewind to October 9th. It was a lot of fun watching the event up here at Chabot. We'd hoped to observe the impact through our 36-inch telescope, Nellie, but were clouded out. Fortunately, the main part of the show was brought to us via satellite from NASA?and from the vantage point of the LCROSS spacecraft, on its collision course with the Moon, where terrestrial weather was not a factor.

  Our planetarium was filled?overfilled actually; we had to open up our theater across the hall as an overflow viewing area! Mind you, it was 3:00 in the morning on a Friday, and still over 300 people showed up in various states of caffeination.

  I set up the planetarium to resemble the control room of a futuristic starship: a huge spinning animation of the Moon overhead, and several large projections showing simulations of the impending impact, recent images from other lunar missions, and, front and center, the view from NASA, which alternated between Mission Control at Ames Research Center and a live view from the LCROSS spacecraft itself.

  The view from LCROSS showed an ever-nearing wall of lunar craters and topography as LCROSS homed in on its fate. The announcement was made that the primary impactor, LCROSS's Centaur upper rocket stage, had impacted, and we all strained our eyes looking for the plume of dust the impact was hoped to produce. But, the impact didn't create as visible an ejecta plume as expected; we stared on, but only saw the wall of craters loom closer and closer.

  The four minutes between Centaur impact and the inevitable impact by LCROSS itself ticked by, and we held our breaths. Then, the image went blank, and NASA announced that LCROSS had impacted the Moon. Though we didn't see the plume, it was exciting to ride along with LCROSS to its end, and live to tell about it. Next better thing to being there?.

  Back to the water. Though no plume of dust was seen by LCROSS's main visible camera, that's not all it had in its toolbox of instruments. Most revealing was data collected by LCROSS's spectrometer?the device that sorts out the wavelengths of light and discriminates the specific wavelengths emitted by specific chemicals. Water (H2O) and hydroxyl (OH) seem to have been present in the dust plumes kicked up from the permanently shadowed floor of Cabeus crater, at the lunar south pole.

  And more: other volatile chemicals?whose identities will no doubt be revealed by NASA in coming months in the due course of their data analysis?appear to have been detected in the impact plume.

  How much water? Are we talking vast sheets of solid ice, glaciers, and land-locked icebergs? Well?though NASA hasn't yet characterized the quantities of water inferred by LCROSS's detection, the serene waters of Cabeus likely are a mixture of lunar soil and ice?a substance you'd have to work at to extract pure water from.

  For more exciting discoveries to come, stay tuned to the Moon?.

  
  Tags: chabot space and science center, lcross, moon, nasa
  
  
  

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• Science Event Pick: Geek Out: Surviving on Mars

  Posted by Kishore Hari

  on Nov 18, 2009

  Geek Out by taking the Mars Survival Challenge

  Forget the challenging landscapes of the Arctic or Everest; if you want a true survival test, how about Mars? Our red neighbor has inspired thousands of intrepid explorers (and a number of awful movies) to formulate colonization plans. With a little help from Google Mars, you can choose plot near all the important landmarks: Valles Marineris, Olympus Mons, or even the famous northern polar ice caps.

  Thanks to our friends at the Lawrence Hall of Science, you too can help the colonization effort. At their Geek Out event on 11/18, you?ll be able to design your own Mars Base. There will be experts on hand from the SETI Institute and NASA to provide some info on the Martian landscape and what it takes to survive there.

  You?ll be able to videotape your landscape to share with the rest of the universe. Who knows, the first ever Martian colony could be named after you!

  This is the 2^nd LHS Geek Out event, a new monthly science series for adults. The evening will be full of interactive science, music, and cocktails. There is also a free shuttle from the Downtown Berkeley BART to the museum. For a primer, check out this video from the 1^st Geek Out event.

  LHS Geek Out: Mars Survival Challenge
  When: Wednesday 11/18, 7-10 PM
  Where: Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley
  Cost: $10, $8 for members and UC Berkeley Students
  Details: Come to Lawrence Hall of Science, grab a drink and a friend, and get ready for some downright nerdy fun. All events include full access to exhibits, a cash bar, hors d?oeuvres, and of course the best view in the East Bay. Program is for adults only.

  
  Tags: geek out, lawrence hall of science, mars, nasa, SETI
  
  
  

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• Unlocking the Mysteries of Graphene

  Posted by Christopher Smallwood

  on Nov 16, 2009

  Electron microscope image of a hole embedded within a sheet of graphene. The corners of the green hexagons are carbon atoms which form graphene?s crystal structure. Image courtesy of the Zettl Research Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California at Berkeley.

  Acquiring a sample of graphene is almost comically easy. Start with an ordinary piece of graphite, which is basically the same material that is used in pencil lead. Squeeze it between two pieces of Scotch tape and tear them apart. Repeat several times until pieces of the graphite have been cleaved into sheets no more than a single atom thick. Voila – graphene! Total cost of 1 pencil plus a roll of Scotch tape: about $3.

  Simple as this process is, scientists did not even know that single sheets of graphene could exist until 2004. Now that we know that we can make graphene, it turns out that it has some amazing electrical properties and someday might even replace silicon as the most important component in computer circuitry. To that end, researchers in Alex Zettl?s group at Berkeley have endeavored recently to isolate suspended membranes of graphene for study and image them at Lawrence Berkeley Lab?s TEAM 0.5, the world?s most powerful transmission electron microscope (TEM). Results were published last spring by Çaglar Ö. Girit and others in the Science.

  Two aspects of the Zettl group?s recent work have been particularly interesting. First, the TEAM 0.5 microscope not only has the ability to see individual atoms of graphene, but can also take pictures in close to real time. This means that Girit was able to see dynamics of graphene as they actually happened. Other types of microscopy (scanning tunneling microscopes, for example) can take several minutes to get a single picture.

  Second, Girit and others centered their images at a hole within the graphene sheet. This allowed them to observe the dynamics that occur at the material?s edge. Such edges can have a notable effect on a graphene sheet?s electrical properties and thus understanding them and controlling them would be crucial in the design of any future technology.

  Aside from technological applications, graphene is a theoretical physicist?s dream system because it beautifully combines the dynamics of relativistic particles from space such as neutrinos with the experimental accessibility of an easy system to make and manipulate here on Earth. Girit thinks that this is perhaps the single most exciting aspect of the system.

  Only time will tell if graphene will have a long-term impact on society, but this would not be the first time a new discovery has transformed the Bay Area. In 1955 William Shockley moved to Mountain View, CA to found a new startup developing the silicon transistor. His company?s success was ultimately marred by Shockley?s own belligerent personality (?He understood everything except people,? Charles Townes once remarked), but the invention and the industry that grew up around it have revolutionized the region. The Santa Clara Valley?s old nickname, ?the Valley of Heart?s Delight,? has long since been whisked away into a memory of a distant time and setting. Today most of us know it only as Silicon Valley. Our children may know the region as something entirely different.

  
  Tags: alex zettl, graphene, graphite, lawrence berkeley lab, team 0.5 microscope
  
  
  

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