Tour the universe in 60 seconds
Narrated by comedian David Mitchell, 60 Second Adventures in Astronomy explains the wonders of the universe in bite-size chunks.
The animation topics were developed by a team from The Open University’s Science faculty: Drs Janet Sumner, Stephen Serjeant, Andrew Norton and David Rothery.
OU Reader in Cosmology Dr Stephen Serjeant said: "We've found we can get across genuinely deep scientific concepts in only a minute and still have room for a few jokes.
"The origin and fate of the Universe, time dilation in relativity, how to make black holes – nothing was too tricky."
Millions of online viewers have already tuned in to the 60 Second Adventures series, which covers topics such as philosophy, English language, economics, and religion.
The production of 60 Second Adventures in Astronomy was funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the video was produced by Angel Eye Media.
Find 60 Second Adventures in Astronomy on YouTube, iTunes U and OpenLearn.
The OU turns its attention to the stars in the latest series of its 60 Second Adventures videos, available on YouTube, iTunesU and the OU’s free online learning platform OpenLearn. Narrated by comedian David Mitchell, 60 Second Adventures in Astronomy explains the wonders of the universe in bite-size chunks. The animation topics were developed by a team from The ...
OU to investigate potential Lunar and Martian bases
Researchers at The Open University have presented plans for an extraplanetary laboratory that will determine whether it will be possible to establish a base on the Moon, or potentially Mars.
The Open University's Planetary and Space Sciences researchers have developed a conceptual Lunar Volatile Resources Analysis Package (L-VRAP) that, if selected for funding, will ascertain whether there are sufficient quantities of water and fuel at the Moon’s South Pole to support a future manned research base. Researchers also suggest that L-VRAP could be utilised in a similar mission to Mars.
L-VRAP is a miniature chemical laboratory capable of identifying and quantifying volatiles - elements and compounds with low boiling points such as nitrogen, water, carbon dioxide, ammonia, hydrogen and methane - in the Moon’s crust and atmosphere.
The device could be fitted to a Lunar or Martian lander and would carry out scientific investigations that are essential to the success of long-term space exploration and could pave the way for an extended human presence away from the Earth.
Dr Simon Sheridan, Research Fellow at The Open University and one of the authors of the paper, said: “To date, only a tiny fraction of the Moon's surface has been physically sampled and analysed and all of that activity took place 40 years ago. Our L-VRAP device is a state of the art sampling and analysis package that will determine in situ, the abundance and the isotopic composition of volatiles present in the Moon’s atmosphere, surface and sub-surface.”
Previously thought to be a dry, barren landscape, recent evidence suggests that the Moon has large pools of frozen water in craters around its poles. By measuring the detailed isotopic composition of key elements, L-VRAP may be able to provide clues to the origin of any water detected on the Moon.
The Lunar Lander mission will be considered at the ESA Ministerial meeting in November 2012. If selected, L-VRAP could launch as early as 2019. Meanwhile, The Open University will be developing L-VRAP in readiness for other space mission opportunities.
The paper describing the L-VRAP has been published in Planetary and Space Science. A copy of “L-VRAP - A Lunar Volatile Resources Analysis Package for Lunar Exploration” is available here.
Pictured is an annotated image of the L-VRAP CAD model
Researchers at The Open University have presented plans for an extraplanetary laboratory that will determine whether it will be possible to establish a base on the Moon, or potentially Mars. The Open University's Planetary and Space Sciences researchers have developed a conceptual Lunar Volatile Resources Analysis Package (L-VRAP) that, if selected for funding, will ascertain whether there ...
OU researcher to study minerals on Mars
Dr Susanne Schwenzer in the University’s research centre for physical and environmental sciences is part of a team which will study minerals formed when hot or cold water interacts with rocks on Mars.
“We already know that there is water on Mars,” said Susanne. “Now, we want to know the temperature of the water and whether it is clean and supportive of potential life - or if it is poisonous. We also want to know if Mars has niches where microbial life could have existed.”
Susanne joins a mission led by Dr John Bridges, Reader in Planetary Science at the University of Leicester.
The Mars Science Laboratory mission, landing NASA’s most advanced planetary rover called Curiosity, is a deploying the most powerful suite of instruments yet sent to the Red Planet.
The rover is scheduled to land at 6.31am UK time on Monday 6 August, beside a Martian mountain within Gale Crater called Mt. Sharp, to begin two years of unprecedented scientific detective work.
Curiosity will also carry the biggest, most advanced suite of instruments for scientific studies ever sent to the Martian surface. The rover will analyse a dozen or so samples scooped from the soil and extracted from rocks.
The record of the planet's climate and geology is essentially "written in the rocks and soil"-in their formation, structure, and chemical composition. The rover's onboard laboratory will study rocks, soils, and the local geologic setting in order to decide if the conditions on Mars were able to support microbial life.
Prior to the landing, the MSL spacecraft will decelerate significantly from a speed of about 13,200 miles per hour to enable the rover to achieve a landing speed of about 1.7 miles per hour. The success of the landing is a critical milestone toward the goal of sending humans to Mars by 2030.
A researcher at the OU will take part in a mission to explore the chemistry of Mars when the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) lands on the planet next week (6 August 2012). Dr Susanne Schwenzer in the University’s research centre for physical and environmental sciences is part of a team which will study minerals formed when hot or cold water interacts with rocks on ...
It's been 50 years since launch of first international satellite
The Ariel-1, the world's first international satellite, carried experiments designed by UK universities and was built and launched by NASA.
John Zarnecki, Professor of Space Science at the OU and chair of the UK Space Agency's Science Programme Advisory Committee, said: “Ariel-1 set the standard for international collaboration in space exploration, something that is essential today in the light of the tight budgets faced by national space programmes and because of the ambitious missions undertaken by space scientists and engineers.
"Projects like Cassini-Huygens to Saturn, a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency of which the UK is a major player, help us to understand how the solar system formed and evolved, and would not have been viable without international partnerships.
“On a more practical front, the Galileo constellation of European Navigation satellites currently under construction, will enable us to locate our position on Earth to unprecedented accuracy, opening up a whole new range of applications. And in two years’ time, the international Rosetta mission will arrive to land on the surface of a comet nucleus after a 10-year journey. It will carry a dust counter from Italy, a camera from Germany, a gas analyser from Switzerland... and a high-tech analytical laboratory from The Open University!”
Ian Wright, Professor of Planetary Sciences at the OU, is the Principal Investigator for the Ptolemy instrument on board the Rosetta mission, which is currently on its way to land on the surface of a comet in 2014. Ptolemy is a high-tech analytical laboratory which will process the comet sample.
The UK Space Agency is hosting a two-day conference at the Science Museum on 26 and 27 April and Professor Zarnecki will attend as a speaker.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first international satellite which the OU's Professor of Space Science John Zarnecki says set the standard for international collaboration in space exploration. The Ariel-1, the world's first international satellite, carried experiments designed by UK universities and was built and launched by NASA. John Zarnecki, ...
OU iBook takes one giant leap to the moon
The OU has released its first Multi-Touch iBook enabling people to explore moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts from the comfort of their own sofa.
The 'Moon Rocks' iBook incorporates the OU's world-leading Virtual Microscope giving users the ability to explore thin sections of moon rocks under different light conditions, letting them zoom in and out, rotate individual rocks and identify the diagnostic colour changes that helped geologists identify the minerals in these rare finds.
Dr Tindle said: "Our Multi-Touch iBook tells the geological story of the evolution of our Moon and gives us a huge advantage over conventional books in allowing us to accurately represent to a general audience how scientists study rare and precious samples such as Moon rocks. In reality, such samples could never be made publically available to such an audience."
The samples we use in the book were collected by Apollo astronauts. They were part of the bravest and boldest endeavour of the 20th century and their contribution to science is acknowledged in the book which also incorporates interactive virtual microscopes, videos, image galleries, 360° panoramic rotation movies and 'test your Knowledge' quizzes.
'Moon Rocks', available now on the iBookstore on iPad, was developed using Apple's new iBooks Author publishing tool. The Open University already has over 422 eBooks available for free on iTunes U, but 'Moon Rocks' was the first to use iBooks Author.
The OU is always exploring ways to make the most of the latest and highest quality technologies to simplify study on the move. 71 percent of OU students fit study around work and nearly 30,000 accessed OU sites via mobile devices in December 2011 alone.
All the OU's content is available from the OpenLearn website which houses more than 11,000 hours of free web-based learning materials. For eBook readers there are more than 400 existing OU enhanced eBooks available, representing over 5,000 hours of interactive study.
The OU has released its first Multi-Touch iBook enabling people to explore moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts from the comfort of their own sofa. The 'Moon Rocks' iBook incorporates the OU's world-leading Virtual Microscope giving users the ability to explore thin sections of moon rocks under different light conditions, letting them zoom in and out, rotate individual rocks and ...
OU student captures rare astronomical event
Every astronomer's dream came true for Open University astronomy student Stefan Holmes, when a rare and dramatic star explosion happened on the night he was observing the skies.
Stefan, a PhD student, captured an image of the 'Type 1a' supernova as it appeared only four hours after the explosion, using the Open University's robotic astronomical telescope, PIRATE.
The supernova, which occurred 20 million light-years away in the spiral galaxy M101, (see PIRATE image below) was the closest explosion of its type observed for decades, and the first to be available for detailed investigations with modern-day astronomical detectors.
“This is a great advancement," said Dr Ulrich Kolb, OU Senior Lecturer and Director of the PIRATE facility."The spectral appearance of type Ia supernovae have long suggested exploding white dwarfs as the culprits responsible for the explosion, but this new research is effectively proof of their white dwarf nature.
“It demonstrates the capabilities of small- to medium-aperture telescopes to contribute to world-leading research.”
Stefan, who is among the team conducting the PIRATE research programme, said: “It was great to have been able to capture this image and be part of such an exciting outcome. It was a case of being at the right place at the right time."
The international team's finding is the subject of an article in the January 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters series (2012, ApJ, Issue 744, L17) and has been presented this week at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.
For more information see OU news release.
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Every astronomer's dream came true for Open University astronomy student Stefan Holmes, when a rare and dramatic star explosion happened on the night he was observing the skies. Stefan, a PhD student, captured an image of the 'Type 1a' supernova as it appeared only four hours after the explosion, using the Open University's robotic astronomical telescope, PIRATE. The ...
OU gets £1 million to establish online centre for practical science teaching
The Wolfson OpenScience Laboratory will be at the cutting edge of new techniques in online education.
It will be a gateway to a range of scientific experiments and observations, many developed by Open University scientists.
Although the centre will operate entirely online, users will access data from real physical instruments and equipment enabling them to carry out authentic and rigorous science investigations.
Professor Steve Swithenby, Science Director of eSTEeM at the OU said: “Practical science has been an under-developed area of online education – it is cost-effective and is a bold way of making the world of science accessible to many more people, particularly those in the least developed countries.”
Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation, said: “The Open University is among the international pioneers in this field and we look forward to the Wolfson OpenScience Laboratory making practical science available to many more students across the globe."
Read the full story here.
The Open University is to lead a global centre for practical science teaching, with the help of a £1 million grant from the Wolfson Foundation. The Wolfson OpenScience Laboratory will be at the cutting edge of new techniques in online education. It will be a gateway to a range of scientific experiments and observations, many developed by Open University ...
OU's Virtual Microscope Project is looking at a grant boost
The OU’s Centre for Earth and Planetary Science Research (CEPSAR) is to receive a grant from the prestigious Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) towards expanding its web-based virtual microscope facility.
Diane Johnson, who has led the OU Virtual Microscope Project for the past six years, successfully applied for a grant of £3,465 to the Vice President’s Fund of the RMS, of which she is a Fellow, to buy a camera upgrade, professional data storage system, accessories and disposables.
The current internet-based system was launched about two years ago initially just for OU students but now provides free access and has proved very popular attracting visits from people in 105 countries.
The grant will allow the development of ‘The RMS Virtual Microscope’ that expands beyond the current optical microscopy projects to include electron microscopy and rotational object imaging.
Some images of samples could be reconstructed as 3D objects at high resolution.
The resulting virtual object can then be ‘handled’ and examined by the virtual microscope user, said Diane.
She said: “We aim to make microscopy techniques accessible, meaningful and at the same time capture the imagination, informing a broad cross section of society in making specialist microscopy and imaging techniques available freely to any web user.”
“The project aims to include something of interest to everyone allowing rare and important materials to be accessible not just to specialists but anyone with a desire to learn,” she said.
Find out more:
The Open University’s ambitious virtual microscope project could reveal images of Moon rock (pictured left), Martian meteorites and Darwin’s rock samples to a worldwide audience – possibly in 3D. The OU’s Centre for Earth and Planetary Science Research (CEPSAR) is to receive a grant from the prestigious Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) towards expanding ...
Colin Pillinger on Beagle 2's legacy, Ian Johnston on Eggheads
Their discussion will be broadcast on Tuesday 27 December at 09 am and again at and 9.30 pm.
According to the Daily Telegraph’s Pick of the Day writer Gillian Reynolds: "This is where the romantic side of science shows as Dr Jim Al-Khalili talks to Colin Pillinger.
"On this day eight years ago, Pillinger was still optimistic that the British Beagle 2 lander he’d spent years designing, building and publicising would be found somewhere on the surface of Mars. It never has been. But even if that means it’s been lost somewhere in space, Pillinger is convinced that valuable lessons can be learned."
Another OU academic on air over the festive period is engineer and mathematician Dr Ian Johnston a staff tutor for the OU in Scotland, who will be joining the celebrity scientists' team on Celebrity Eggheads on BBC2 on Friday 23 December at 6 pm.
The OU's Professor Colin Pillinger (pictured) will be in conversation with physicist and presenter Professor Jim Al-Khalili on BBC Radio Four's A Life Scientific. Their discussion will be broadcast on Tuesday 27 December at 09 am and again at and 9.30 pm. According to the Daily Telegraph’s Pick of the Day writer Gillian Reynolds: "This is ...
Crash and burn is likely fate of Martian moon mission
Launched on November 9, 2011, the craft was to carry a lander to Mars’ potato-shaped moon Phobos and grab samples from its surface.
But hours into its mission radio contact was lost and it remained in Earth orbit.
Now all hope of re-booting it and sending it to Mars seems gone and the craft will probably burn up on re-entry in January.
Dr Murray, Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Science was invited to help analyse images of Phobos taken during the craft’s planned orbits of it and Mars.
A volcanologist and planetary scientist, John has always been fascinated by Phobos.
The moon, with a radius of just over 11 km, orbits 5,000 km from Mars (our Moon orbits 384, 405 km from the Earth). It has been pummelled by asteroid collisions and could be partially hollow, possibly containing ice.
“It is possible Phobos was formed in situ, from a big impact on Mars and the debris thrown up accumulated,” said Dr Murray.
“Studies of the orbit of Phobos close to Mars make it highly unlikely that it was a ‘captured asteroid’,” he said.
Dr Murray said he was disappointed at the likely failure of Phobos-Grunt but remained philosophical.
“It always was a hugely ambitious project,” he said.
The mission would have taken ten months to reach Mars. A Chinese orbiter would detach and Phobos- Grunt (Russian for soil) studied the Red Planet and its moons.
In February 2013 it was due to land on Phobos and collect soil samples some of which would return to Earth via a small rocket.
Experiments would continue for a year while the samples were due to reach Earth in August 2014.
All for $165 million compared to the NASA/ESA lander mission to Mars which will cost $8.5 billion.
But Dr Murray said lessons learned from failed missions can help subsequent ones.
He was involved in the Russian Mars 96 mission that didn’t even reach Earth orbit but some of its technology was revived in the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter launched in 2003. Its imagery and data of Mars and Phobos was a success. It also carried the ill-fated Beagle 2 lander.
“Hopefully Phobos-Grunt can lift off again,” said John.
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The failure of the Russian Phobos-Grunt space probe has left The Open University’s Dr John Murray disappointed but philosophical. Launched on November 9, 2011, the craft was to carry a lander to Mars’ potato-shaped moon Phobos and grab samples from its surface. But hours into its mission radio contact was lost and it remained in Earth orbit. Now all hope of ...
New remote telescope gives astronomers more viewing time
The original remote telescope, PIRATE, (pictured left and below) based at Majorca's Observatori Astronomic (OAM), allows students and researchers to observe the Majorcan sky while sitting at their computers in the UK.
PIRATE is a serious research telescope which is used to hunt for exo-planets– planets which are orbiting around distant stars. Students on S382 Astrophysics and SXP288 Practical Science:physics and astronomy also get to operate it so they can learn to make research-grade measurements of the night sky.
They connect to PIRATE from home via a web interface and submit commands to remotely open or close the dome, point the telescope, and get images of the night sky on their computer screens.
As well as having access to the power of a professional 17 inch telescope, they also benefit from the clearer skies of Majorca which give better viewing conditions than in the UK.
Now the University of Hamburg has funded a second remote telescope at OAM which is modelled on PIRATE, and set up using OU expertise.
The OU and OAM will share the facility with Hamburg University, as well as collaborating on research and teaching projects on the PIRATE telescope.
But this facility will be for researchers only, he says. "Students will still be asked to supervise the telescope in person because they need to learn about the issues involved in observing, and that is best done by live control."
He added: "I think the facilities we have built up at OAM are really leading the way, both in terms of how they are operated, and in terms of giving access to students."
Find out more
OU astronomy students will have more opportunities to view the heavens from home, thanks to a second remotely-controlled telescope installed at the OU's partner observatory in Majorca. The original remote telescope, PIRATE, (pictured left and below) based at Majorca's Observatori Astronomic (OAM), allows students and researchers to observe the Majorcan sky while sitting at ...
Mercury is full of surprises says OU expert
"From the views glimpsed during MESSENGER’s 2008 and 2009 flybys it was apparent that vast tracts of the planet are covered by lava flows. Now MESSENGER is in orbit we can see details of volcanic vents and lava channels and begin to determine the surface composition. For me, the most intriguing aspects are that Mercury is richer in sulphur and potassium than it has any right to be, so close to the Sun, and the curious hollowed terrain where steep-sided, flat bottomed pits a few tens of metres deep and up to a few kilometres across show that parts of the surface have wasted away, and presumably by being turned to vapour.
"Sulfur would be the obvious candidate, except that the colour associated with most of these pits is blue rather than yellow. MESSENGER probably won’t be capable of measuring the composition of features this small, so this is something for the European and Japanese Space Agencies’ BepiColombo mission to get its teeth into, when it arrives in 2020.
"When NASA, ESA and Japanese Space Agency Mercury teams met in Kyoto last month, there was much excitement and speculation about what the new results might mean. Maybe Mercury formed much further away from the Sun than its current orbit (nearly three times closer to the Sun than the Earth) and migrated inwards later. On the other hand, Mercury has a very large iron-rich core, so maybe there was something about the catastrophic giant collision responsible for stripping away most of Mercury’s original rocky mantle that was able to scavenge sulfur and potassium from the core and concentrate it upwards as the new crust formed.
Dr David Rothery, of the OU’s Department of Physical Sciences, heads the European Space Agency’s Mercury Surface & Composition Working Group and is the lead scientist for the X-ray spectrometer (designed at Leicester University) that will be flown to Mercury on ESA’s BepiColombo mission (launch 2014, arrival 2020).
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Picture shows the volcanic features of Mercury. Credit: AAAS/Science
"Mercury is full of surprises," says the OU's Dr David Rothery, commenting on the results from NASA’s MESSENGER probe achieved during its first few months in orbit and published in this week’s Science magazine. "From the views glimpsed during MESSENGER’s 2008 and 2009 flybys it was apparent that vast tracts of the planet are covered by lava ...
A residential full of stars
Who would have thought that sleep deprivation could be so much fun? But maybe when you add into the mix a well-equipped observatory, loads of interesting astronomy projects, a gang of inspirational OU tutors and a new bunch of mates, it was obviously going to be a good time.
Just as at the Nottingham residential back in July, I was part of a wonderful team, this time with Alaine, Graham, Kate and Peter. As well as the camaraderie, what was particularly uplifting was how much everyone cared about what they were doing. We had some fairly heated discussions about how we should be working and about what we thought our results meant but we remained friends during and after. They were all fantastic.
The week had so many positives but the highlight for me was the occasional small personal triumph. One of our projects was to measure the light curve of an asteroid. If you monitor how much light is reflected by a giant space rock over a period of time, you can infer certain facts about it. To do this we had to get the asteroid in our telescope's sights and then take an image every few minutes. The images were then replayed as an animation to discover which one of the bright dots on our display appeared to be moving more quickly in relation to the background stars. Even though our target was only a handful of pixels on a black and white image – like the worst kind of early 80s computer game - there was an amazing feeling of satisfaction in having found our asteroid, and a sense of wonder in directly viewing such a small body floating in the depths of space. God, I'm such a nerd.
'In a year when I've cycled through 17 countries, seen the glories of Paris, Berlin and Prague, eaten delicious food and met dozens of lovely people, the two weeks at the OU residentials were probably the best two weeks of all'
Watching other people's triumphs was just as fulfilling. When our tutor tripped and hurt herself, Alaine and I were left alone with the telescope for a while. To begin with, Alaine seemed a little uneasy at being abandoned. The evening's work was to gather spectrographic information from various stars and planets, and our next task was to collect data for Jupiter. I went off to the computer room to find the coordinates for Jupiter so that we could tell the telescope where to point. Unfortunately there had been a power cut and all of the computers were down. I hung around for a few minutes, hoping the electricity would come back on, but no luck. So back to the telescope I went to explain the delay. In that time, Alaine had found Jupiter herself, shifted the heavy sliding door of the observatory dome, perfectly aligned the telescope and had Jupiter and three of its moons clearly visible in the spectroscope's display. She was also yelling like a five-year-old and dancing around with excitement. She's clearly a nerd too.
I left the party at around two in the morning when only a handful of people were left, and once again walked away from a residential wishing that it could have carried on and on for months. It's such a shame that these week-long residentials are coming to an end. In a year when I've cycled through 17 countries, seen the glories of Paris, Berlin and Prague, eaten delicious, if sometimes dodgy food, and met dozens of lovely people, the two weeks at the OU residentials were probably the best two weeks of all.
Who would have thought that sleep deprivation could be so much fun? But maybe when you add into the mix a well-equipped observatory, loads of interesting astronomy projects, a gang of inspirational OU tutors and a new bunch of mates, it was obviously going to be a good time. Yes, I've just completed the SXR208 astronomy residential in Majorca. After heaving myself thousands of ...
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OU's space professor wins prestigious Royal Society award for good science communication
OU Professor of Planetary Science Colin Pillinger has been awarded the Royal Society's 2011 Michael Faraday prize and lecture, for his excellent work in science communication.
Professor Pillinger is probably best-known for leading the Beagle 2 project to land a British-built spacecraft on Mars in 2003. But he has been sharing his enthusiasm for space exploration with the public, through lectures, exhibitions, books, articles and broadcasting, throughout a career spanning nearly 40 years.
The Michael Faraday Prize is awarded annually a scientist or engineer whose expertise in communicating scientific ideas in lay terms is judged exemplary. Past recipients include David Attenborough, geneticist Steve Jones, broadcaster Robert Winston and Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, a former Professor of Astronomy at the OU.
Winners receive a silver gilt medal and a gift of £2,500, and is called upon to deliver a lecture at the Royal Society, normally in the January following the award.
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OU Professor of Planetary Science Colin Pillinger has been awarded the Royal Society's 2011 Michael Faraday prize and lecture, for his excellent work in science communication. Professor Pillinger is probably best-known for leading the Beagle 2 project to land a British-built spacecraft on Mars in 2003. But he has been sharing his enthusiasm for space exploration with the ...
Worth keeping this group?
Folks, the OU already provide excellent forum support for S194.
Unless you have a solid reason for wanting to keep the group on Platform, I propose to remove it in one weeks time.
Please email/message this group otherwise!
Folks, the OU already provide excellent forum support for S194. Unless you have a solid reason for wanting to keep the group on Platform, I propose to remove it in one weeks time. Please email/message this group otherwise!
Martian rock offered as prize
New Scientist magazine is running a competition to win a piece of Mars rock authenticated by the Open University.
The 1.75 gramme rock is a piece of a meteorite called NWA 2975 which was found in north west Africa. Meteorites are fragments of the planet's surface which were blasted off into space by asteroid impacts and eventually landed on Earth.
Also in the 21 May issue of New Scientist is an article by Professor Colin Pillinger describing the OU's pioneering research on Martian meteorites, which inspired the Beagle 2 Mars mission.
As well as the Mars rock, there are copies of Professor Pillinger's autobiography My Life on Mars and Beagle 2 memorabilia to be won.
The competition and Professor Pillinger's article can be found here. You will need to register (which is free) to enter the competition.
New Scientist magazine is running a competition to win a piece of Mars rock authenticated by the Open University. The 1.75 gramme rock is a piece of a meteorite called NWA 2975 which was found in north west Africa. Meteorites are fragments of the planet's surface which were blasted off into space by asteroid impacts and eventually landed ...
OU team plan to sail boat on Saturn's largest moon
An Open University team led by Professor John Zarnecki is seeking Nasa's backing for a mission to sail a robot boat on lakes of Saturn's moon Titan.
Read more about the proposal at the Guardian's website
An Open University team led by Professor John Zarnecki is seeking Nasa's backing for a mission to sail a robot boat on lakes of Saturn's moon Titan. Read more about the proposal at the Guardian's website 2.833335 Average: 2.8 (6 votes)
Space centre to showcase developments in capillary flow technology
The Open University is to host a new centre of excellence for chromatography, a technique used to help break down samples for analysis.
The Agilent Centre of Excellence in Comprehensive Chromatography will be hosted in the OU's Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute (PSSRI), where it will be used in space, environmental and medical diagnostic research, as well as being available to companies outside the university.
It will utilise capillary flow technology hardware developed by Agilent Technologies which will make it simpler and more cost-effective to analyse complex substances.
PSSRI's Dr Geraint Morgan, who is Centre Director of the Agilent Centre of Excellence in Comprehensive Chromatography, said: “Comprehensive chromatography is an important component of terrestrial and extra-terrestrial research at The Open University. The establishment of the Agilent Centre of Excellence provides our researchers with a unique opportunity to access world-leading technology and expertise, in addition to providing a vehicle for raising the profile of our research and analytical infrastructure with the analytical community.”
Sarah Corbin, UK Sales Manager, Agilent Technologies, said: “For more than ten years, multidimensional gas chromatography has been largely confined to the research laboratory, used only by skilled practitioners of gas chromatography. With reliable, easy-to-use hardware integrated in to the chromatograph, the technique is now ready for more routine laboratory settings.”
Anyone interested in the services provided by the new Centre should contact Science-Agilent-Centre@open.ac.uk
For the full story, with more technical information, see OU News.
Image shows a sample being prepared in a PSSRI clean room
The Open University is to host a new centre of excellence for chromatography, a technique used to help break down samples for analysis. The Agilent Centre of Excellence in Comprehensive Chromatography will be hosted in the OU's Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute (PSSRI), where it will be used in space, environmental and medical diagnostic research, ...
Study Materials!
Study materials have arrived! It's starting to get a bit more exciting! The Course book looks great - just the sort of level I was hoping for.....
Study materials have arrived! It's starting to get a bit more exciting! The Course book looks great - just the sort of level I was hoping for.....
OU payload on new satellite which will "throw open the doors" of space experiments
An Earth-imaging camera developed by the Open University will form part of the payload of UKube-1, one of a new generation of CubeSat satellites promising greater access to space.
The CubeSat concept involves satellites of fixed dimensions which will be cheaper to deploy, opening the possibility for far more people to get involved in space experiments.
UKube-1, which is due to launch early 2012, is the first UK CubeSat, and is funded by the UK Space Agency, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and the Technology Strategy Board.
There will be five payloads on board, chosen by competition. The OU's contribution is the CMOS Imager Demonstrator, which is based on new sensor technology being developed and evaluated for space use.
It is designed to perform a variety of imaging tasks and will take images of the Earth and test the effect of radiation on instruments in space.
"UKube-1 will allow scientific discoveries, demonstrate technological innovation and throw open the doors of space experiments to the UK school and university population, all from a 4.5kg satellite," said Dr Ronan Wall, UKube-1 programme manager and Astrium systems engineer.
For more details go to Electronic Weekly.
An Earth-imaging camera developed by the Open University will form part of the payload of UKube-1, one of a new generation of CubeSat satellites promising greater access to space. The CubeSat concept involves satellites of fixed dimensions which will be cheaper to deploy, opening the possibility for far more people to get involved in space experiments. UKube-1, which is due to ...
