Photo Caption: Endeavour in orbit on flight STS-118, August 15, 2007. Click on the image for a breathtaking close up view. Read more about the image, and visit the STS-118 image gallery at NASA.

This is a Teachable Moments in the News QuickLinks Post. It connects a news story with this Blog’s existing powerful library of Posts and Resource Pages. The cited Posts and Pages provide a deep understanding of concepts in the earth and space sciences relevant to the news story. Teachers—the Posts and Pages are also designed for use as lessons, allowing you to easily bring current science into the classroom as a teachable moment. Each cited Post is outlined in the Teachers Lesson Planner, which includes the Post’s essential questions, concepts, objectives, and math skills.

Follow the flight of Endeavour (STS-130) with liftoff currently scheduled for Monday, Feb. 8, 2010, 4:14 a.m. EST, at NASA’s Space Shuttle website.

A different kind of countdown has begun. It is now 2010. Before the next New Year’s celebration, the U.S. Space Shuttle program will be just a memory. Those that took pride in following along as this remarkable vehicle broke the surly bonds of Earth will surely feel they’ve lost a friend, and the pain of a very personal page turned forever will linger for quite some time. Those of you that follow news of the day as daily ritual, every so often hearing about a Space Shuttle blasting off or returning to Earth, will no longer experience that quick smile acknowledging pride in American leadership and technological prowess—at least not when it comes to human spaceflight.

The older generations world-wide will tell children what it was like to see a Shuttle blast off. It’s a sight that will be preserved in perpetuity on the internet, or whatever the internet will morph into. But in just 5 or 6 years we will be telling children about that time through which we lived when the Shuttle was flying—and these children will have no memory of it, for they will have been born in the post-shuttle age. Soon, the ancient history of Apollo will marry with the ancient history of the Space Shuttle for this new generation.

You and I are not alone in our living memories of Shuttle. Half the people alive today didn’t even know of a time when the Shuttle wasn’t flying, all of them born after April 1981 when John Young and Robert Crippen piloted Columbia into space as STS-1.

What’s the future for America in human spaceflight? The current long term plan for at least getting humans to low earth orbit—which is where you’ll find the International Space Station, a pretty hefty taxpayer investment—is to hand responsibility over to commercial companies with no current track record of getting even a single human there. So I’d like to put those companies on notice here. You’ve got big shoes to fill, and a spacefaring nation that is watching. You need to do us proud.

Since sometimes words are not enough, if you haven’t clicked on the photo above to see Endeavour up close in orbit, please do. And if you have, I know you’d like to click on it again—so be my guest.

Finally, if you have memories of the Space Shuttle you’d like to share with other readers of this Blog, you’re invited to leave a comment below.

Make Endeavour in orbit a teachable moment with your kids, or if you’re a teacher, with your class. Below are previous posts at Blog on the Universe that powerfully address the science, history, and politics of human spaceflight—and all of them embrace the notion that science education is about conceptual understanding at an emotional level.

The Business Trip

Essential questions: How far is ‘Outer Space’? What does this imply for the thickness of Earth’s atmosphere?

Weekly Challenge 4: You Want Me to Do What With a Bathroom Scale?

Essential question: Why are astronauts weightless in space?

TMN QuickLinks: Shuttle Atlantis in Orbit, Make it a Teachable Moment

Essential question: When a space shuttle launches—how heavy, how fast, how far?

Commentary on Blue Ribbon Panel Exploring NASA’s Strategic Options for Human Space Flight

Essential question: What should be the goal of human space flight?

Shuttle Atlantis Home! Prompts Me to Look at America’s Future … and I’m Troubled

Essential questions: Is the end of the space shuttle era a symptom of a larger problem for America? Are we taking science and technology education seriously?

Teachers and Parents: make sure to read about The Teacher’s Toolbox which is designed to help you put this Blog to work for your class and your children. If you’re new to Blog on the Universe read About this Blog.

To Teachers:

How did I figure out how many people alive today were born after the first flight of the space shuttle?

Make this an interdisciplinary teachable moment. Here is the data for the current (2010) world population by age group, as well as the total world population. Have your students figure out how long ago the first Shuttle flew, and how many people were born since then.

Solution: Shuttle has been flying for 29 years (since April 1981). Adding together all those born in the last 29 years gives 3.5 billion people, which is a little more than half (51%) of the total world population.

Here’s an extension. Have your students figure out how many people have been born since the first landing on the Moon on July 20, 1969, during the flight of Apollo 11. And since your students weren’t around then, let them live that experience through the eyes of others (including me) using these earlier Blog on the Universe posts:

Yesterday’s Launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Brings Back Memories of Apollo 11

Essential question: What was it like to live through the flight of Apollo 11—the most historic voyage in the history of the human race?

SPECIAL POST: Where Were You During the Flight of Apollo 11? Remember and Share—

Essential question: What were the experiences of people that lived through the historic flight of Apollo 11?

An Apollo 11 Personal Story

Essential questions: What is it like to meet your hero? What is the nature of human exploration?

Photocredit: NASA

This post is a Teachable Moment in the News and a Dr. Jeff’s Jeffism.

It’s been a wonderful year for me here at Blog on the Universe. We launched in May 2009, not knowing if the concept would catch on. It did, and in just 7 months I’ve had the good fortune of reaching and conversing with tens of thousands of educators, science and space enthusiasts, science writers, environmentalists, homeschool moms and dads, ed techs, and scifi fans. The Blog now has a pretty eclectic following … which is very cool.

To all of you that follow the ol’ blog, may you and your families have a healthy, joyous, and prosperous 2010! And my advice is live in the moment.

Now for something completely different (Monty Python?) While I was tweeting to my PLN earlier today I came up with some New Years fun facts and Jeffisms of sorts. Thought I’d collect them all and share them here with you. Teachers and parents, you might want to discuss these with your kids!

Ponder this: From the moment the New Year began to the end of the first day in 2010, YOU on Earth have traveled a whopping 1.6 MILLION miles (2.6 MILLION km) along Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

That’s the same as traveling 200 Earth diameters. Another way to think about it—today you traveled the diameter of Earth every 7 minutes … and you didn’t even feel a breeze.

I actually wrote a blog post about your travels through space aboard Spaceship Earth. If you liked my New Years thought above, you’ll really like this post.

Ponder this too: You may have been standing there watching the clock as it counted down to midnight. But actually … YOU were flying to the location of midnight on Earth at up to 1,000 mph (1,600 km/hr) due to Earth’s rotation. The clock was just keeping track of your flight. Did you remember to buckle up?

Fun fact: It’s 2010. Thank goodness we made it through another 31,557,600 seconds since New Years 2009. (Hummm that’s almost pi x 10⁷ —that’s creepy.)

More pondering: the location in Earth’s orbit where you marked the start of YOUR 2010 orbit of the Sun is different from someone in another time zone.  In other words, someone on the opposite side of Earth from you started their New Year 800,000 miles (1,300,000 km) from where you started yours.

Earth to other planets: hey guys, I must be at that strange, rather non-descript place in my orbit again, ’cause the bipeds are all celebrating.

Other planets to Earth: we know, we saw fireworks sweeping across your surface as their cities and towns moved into midnight. Weird critters you’ve got living on you.

Pluto to Earth: hey if you were more like me, those bipeds would only celebrate every 240 Earth years!

Earth to Pluto: yeah but if I were more like you, there wouldn’t be any bipeds here, and hey, why am I talking to you anyway? You’re not a planet any more.

Pluto to Earth: even I think that’s pretty cold.

Hey gang, ready for another orbit of the Sun here at Blog on the Universe? May it be a safe journey, and I promise I’ll try to be a good guide.

—Doctor Jeff

Photocredit: NASA, ESA and J. Hester (ASU)

Dr. Jeff on Mathematics Education

This is a Dr. Jeff’s Jeffism and a Dr. Jeff Speaks Out.

Math is the language of nature. If you yearn to know

how she operates, you must speak her language.

—Dr. Jeff

I wrote this essay because I needed to get something off my chest. It first appeared as a foreword to a Dr. Jeff’s Weekly Challenge posted on June 15, 2009, but I think it’s so important that I decided to commit it to a formal Resource Page here at Blog on the Universe. My Resource Pages are all found in the right navigation column under the section titled “Pages” and under the subsection titled “Dr. Jeff on Stuff – The BotU Resource Pages” (take a look at right.) I dedicate the Resource Pages to essays on important topics like: the Nature of Our Existence, the Art of Teaching, Scientists and Engineers as Heros and Role Models, and the Crisis in Science and Technology Education. I felt that an important essay on mathematics and mathematics education should be a dedicated Resource Page.

So here now is my sure to be viewed as an outrageous essay:

Dr. Jeff on Mathematics Education

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment on that page. Also—you can read more about this Blog’s Resource Pages HERE.

This is a Teachable Moment in the News and a Dr. Jeff Speaks Out.

This is crossposted at the Huffington Post HERE.

I had a day of meetings yesterday, with no connection to the outside world. When I got home a good friend stopped over and asked if I heard what Al Gore had said in Copenhagen, and the firestorm it created in the world media. I had not. So I made a beeline for the computer and sought out the circus-sphere passing for journalism these days. Here is what I found.

A Timesonline story titled “Inconvenient truth for Al Gore as his north pole sums don’t add up”, may have been the focal point. Apparently Mr. Gore said, as reported by the Timesonline—

“These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”

However, the climatologist whose work Mr Gore was relying upon dropped the former Vice-President in the water with an icy blast.

“It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at,” Dr Maslowski said. “I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.”

This led the Timesonline to conclude, that—

The embarrassing error cast another shadow over the conference after the controversy over the hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, which appeared to suggest that scientists had manipulated data to strengthen their argument that human activities were causing global warming.

But this story did not add up to me. My problem was two-fold. First, Mr. Gore stated a dire prediction about the Arctic and attributed the prediction to Dr. Wieslaw Maslowski. Given Gore is not a climate scientist, citing his source was the right and prudent thing to do. Maslowski was apparently contacted by some organization or individual (I should assume the Timesonline but I won’t) and the Timesonline then quoted Maslowski’s denial. So here we have two individuals with differing stories, but with a distinction—Mr. Gore was attributing his statement to Dr. Maslowski. But Maslowski was not attributing anything to Gore. Clearly someone was wrong, whether by mistake or by design. But based on the story, I didn’t know which one. Which brings me to my second problem—Timesonline immediately assumed the problem was with Gore, the story was picked up globally, and quickly turned into “there goes Al Gore again, and this time we got ‘em!”

But the pesky distinction between the two was an obvious pathway for me to explore—Gore cited Maslowski, so was there any formal record of Maslowski’s past statements about Arctic sea ice coverage? I found no evidence that anyone reporting the story had bothered to look.

Is this what journalism passes for these days? No need to check sources carefully? Forget due diligence? Gore caught twisting the truth—even lying—is good for sales and readership? And it doesn’t matter whether he did or not, because perception is reality today, not truth?

Earth to journalists. Let me clue you in. I’m not a journalist but I’ll do your due diligence for you. It’s REALLY easy in the age of the internet. Here, let me show you how it’s done.

Dr. Wieslaw Maslowski is a Research Professor in the Department of Oceanography at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey California. All this is from his bio on the NPS website. His research includes: arctic oceanography, numerical ocean and sea ice modeling, and climate change—again from the NPS website. He sounds like a qualified expert to me. Apparently the media has thought so too. Here is what Dr. Maslowski told the New York Times, October 2, 2007 (just 2 years ago)—

“Experts say the ice retreat is likely to be even bigger next summer because this winter’s freeze is starting from such a huge ice deficit. At least one researcher, Wieslaw Maslowski of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., projects a blue Arctic Ocean in summers by 2013.”

Want him in his own words? Here, at Beyond Zero Emissions, is Dr. Maslowski interviewed by Matthew Wright, with a post date of March 24, 2008 (less than 2 years ago.) Read the transcript of the interview, and by all means download the podcast.

“We speak to Wieslaw Maslowski about his prediction that by the summer of 2013, we will have completely lost ice cover in the Arctic. Dr. Maslowski says that the complete loss of summer ice may actually happen sooner.”

Wright: “Ok. So now, it was reported in The New York Times that you said that 2013 was a possibility, and perhaps you’d actually projected this some years ago, that we could lose the summer sea ice extent – that’s in the summer solstice is it?”

Maslowski: “That is correct.”

Maslowski (later in the interview): “There are some model simulations, single model simulations, that are suggesting that it could possibly occur as early as 2050 or maybe even as early as 2030. Comparing those models simulations predictions with the satellite observations of the Arctic sea ice extent actually shows that most of those models are too conservative predicting the current and the past ice extent changes in the Arctic as has been observed. So the idea is that the climate models – they’re underestimating, they are too conservative in their prediction.”

Maslowski is on the record stating he thought it possible that we’d lose all summer ice cover in the Arctic by 2013. Let’s do some math. That is 3.5 years from now.  Gore said 75% chance in 5 to 7 years based apparently on personal conversations with Maslowski. You know what? Gore’s statement was a CONSERVATIVE estimate relative to what I found Maslowski has said on the record.

Does anybody care that journalistic integrity is important in the midst of a contentious debate? Will ‘journalists’ like Hannah Devlin, Ben Webster, and Philippe Naughton (see Timesonline) apologize to Mr. Gore for not doing their jobs? Will anyone give the guy any credit for standing up for what he believes in? Mr. Vice President, hang in there. I know you know how Galileo felt.

And a note to the Timesonline. Should I believe your quote from Dr. Maslowski? If so, then shouldn’t someone ask Dr. Maslowski why his quote is inconsistent with what he has said on the record? Dr. Maslowski, your credibility as a researcher is on the line.

Let’s debate the quality of the data and the interpretation of the data. Let’s do it in the context of science. As a planet, let’s explore and debate the global courses of action that can and should be considered based on what these data are telling us. And let’s do it with journalists recognizing the important role they play in keeping us all informed, and the sacred trust that that entails.

Finally, aside from the spitting back and forth on who said what (which could have been avoided if journalists did their jobs) does anybody care that complete loss of sea ice coverage in the Arctic, even if by 2050, would represent a dramatic climatic change in a geological instant in time?

For an understanding of rapid climatic change in the context of geologic time, and the correlation to human activity, see A Day in the Life of the Earth, here at Blog on the Universe.

Photo Caption: Image taken September 29, 2009 by MESSENGER’s Narrow Angle Camera (NAC). The distance across the bottom of the image is 250 miles (410 km), which means the crater at lower left is about 80 miles (130 km) across! The crater’s appearance points to Mercury’s volcanic past—to a time when the crater was filled with lava and now only portions of the crater’s circular rim are visible. (Click on image for zoom.)

This post is a Teachable Moment in the News.

Remember the MESSENGER spacecraft we were all following back in September as it flew by Mercury? The little spacecraft that gave us all a scare during the September 29 flyby (hey little fella, don’t do that again) is day-by-day getting closer to orbital insertion on March 18, 2011. We’re now just 15 months away!

I promised to keep you all posted with new mission updates. My last was October 17, and there have been a bunch of things piling up to report. I could have just quietly inserted the new updates on the MESSENGER Mission Updates page here at the Blog, and snuck in a date change in the Teachable Moments in the News QuickLinks Box in the upper right corner above (your cue to look in upper right corner). But hey! When Time Magazine names a family member as one of the 50 Best Inventions of 2009 (and by the way, we were number 11) YOU’VE JUST GOT TO CELEBRATE WITH AN OFFICIAL POST!

And a BIG thanks to Dr. Harri Vanhala, (another) cool astrophysicist here at the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, for feeding me all the updates information. Dr. Harri (to his fans) also manages the MESSENGER Educator Fellowship Program, and oversaw the development of the brand spanking new Mission Design curriculum package that will be available in Spring 2010. The package has lots of middle and high school lessons that engage students in the design process for a robotic spacecraft mission to another planet, and teachers—you’ll be able to download it lesson by lesson at no cost. Your tax dollars at work.

So I invite y’all (a shout out to my friends in Houston and Corpus Christi) to check out the MESSENGER Mission Updates page for a link to the official honor from Time Magazine, LOTS of new images of Mercury, a way cool podcast on the results of the September 29 flyby by Team Member Bob Hirshon of the American Assocation for the Advancement of Science, and a link for the NASA Teleconference which showcased the scientific findings from the flyby.

Keep Truckin’ MESSENGER. And you folks in the blogosphere—stay tuned right here.

Photocredit: NASA

This is a Teachable Moment in the News and a Dr. Jeff Speaks Out.

This is crossposted at the Huffington Post HERE and at the Space Tweep Society Blog HERE.

I just watched space shuttle Atlantis land at Kennedy. I had lots and lots of mixed emotions. The shuttle is just a remarkable technological achievement, and watching it land can be a pretty emotional experience.

But the space shuttle was never supposed to be more than a space truck to low Earth orbit. I was left reflecting on my childhood when I watched Apollo astronauts walking on the Moon, and dreamed of what awaited us in the 21st century in terms of human spaceflight. It has definitely not come to pass. In fact, approaching 2010 we are now at a crossroads. Shuttle has just 5 more flights, and then the U.S. will need to rely on the Russians for years just to have astronaut access to the International Space Station. And that’s just keeping the status quo with humans continuing to travel no farther from the surface of Earth than a couple hundred miles. I drive farther than that visiting my mom just north of New York City from my home near Washington, DC. It’s called low Earth orbit, and we’ve been stuck here now for 37 YEARS. Is this the grand vision for human spaceflight we embraced 40 years ago when we saw Armstrong and Aldrin walking on the Moon?

So what exactly are we doing as a nation in terms of leadership in human spaceflight? Are we embracing a strategic long-term plan or an administration flavor of the month? Should human spaceflight be a high technology priority for America? Should we allow this leadership to pass to other nations? Won’t such action surely help erode our larger ‘brand’ as a leader and innovator in science and technology? Is it really about the NASA budget shortfall recently identified by the White House-appointed Committee headed by Norman Augustine, or is it something far more substantial, reflecting a nation trying to redefine itself—no, make that a superpower unsure of how to chart its course in the 21st century after the rules of the road seem to have dramatically changed? Is it the inability to muster a national will on virtually anything in light of a seemingly perfect storm of crises here at home, and globally?

My sadness over an unrealized vision for human spaceflight only leads me to a more general realization. And it’s this realization that is very troubling, even ominous. Will America be able to compete in the global high technology marketplace of the 21st century? Are we taking science and technology education seriously? Are PARENTS taking science and technology education seriously? Do Americans know that our national prowess in science and technology is about the future of our children, our standard of living, and the American dream? Do Americans truly know this is of national strategic importance? We are living through changes forced by globalization and a new marketplace. Are jobs lost ever coming back? More importantly—are we training Americans—all Americans—in our grade K-12 system and in our colleges and universities, in skills required by 21st century jobs? This is far bigger than leadership in spaceflight. It’s about the science and technology required to address global problems from energy, to climate change, to managing limited resources in the midst of growing populations. Will America be capable of stepping to the plate in the face of these challenges—in the face of these remarkable opportunities?

WE LANDED HUMANS ON THE MOON. IT IS STILL HARD TO FATHOM. IT WAS THE MOST REMARKABLE JOURNEY THE HUMAN RACE HAS EVER UNDERTAKEN (my view). It was raw inspiration propelling generations of young Americans to the frontiers of science and technology. Yet it seems to me that a vibrant, healthy nation, is only as good as its next success. The question before us—are we now destined in the words of Dylan Thomas to “just go gentle into that good night?” I firmly believe it is up to us.

I am very troubled. And as an American … I can say it hurts. I’m very interested in your thoughts on this, so please feel free to share below.

I had written in an earlier post my view on the needed driver for the future of U.S. human spaceflight.

Here is what it was like for me living through Apollo, and a later chance encounter with Buzz Aldrin. It will give you a sense of where I’m coming from, and might reconnect you with a vision for the future from a time long ago.

Photocredit: NASA

Photo Caption: The Pleiades as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.

This post is a Teachable Moment in the News.

So here I am in NY, visiting my mom and my sister’s family. We’re sitting on the couch and my sister comes up with this bizarre Thanksgiving challenge. “Hey Jeffrey! (my family calls me Jeffrey … yuck), why don’t you come up with a personal Thanksgiving story involving the pilgrims. Sort of a 3 degrees of separation thing.” Ok, fine. Here goes—

I’m now (unfortunately) 52 years old. In 52 years, in the year 2061, Halley’s Comet will return. And if you look up on Thanksgiving Night in 2061, at the famously visible star cluster the Pleiades, the light you see will have traveled 440 years from the Pleiades to your eye. So that light must have left the Pleiades in the year 1621 (that’s 2061 – 440), and in just the right direction to hit your eye which is staring at the Pleiades in 2061. And hey look! There goes Halley’s Comet. But that means that the light you see on Thanksgiving Night 2061 left the Pleiades when the Pilgrims were holding the first Thanksgiving in 1621 in Plymouth colony.

Now here is the spooky part. I actually went to Pilgrim Monument on my way to Nantucket, when I was visiting my good friend who was the Director of Nantucket’s Maria Mitchell Observatory. I knew him ’cause we worked together a few years earlier in the Lab for Astrophysics at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. And while working in the Lab, I made lots of trips to the Big Island of Hawai’i where I was part of teams at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility on the summit of Mauna Kea studying among other things—Halley’s Comet. And right next to the NASA telescope you can now find the Japanese National Telescope called Subaru, which in Japanese means …. “Pleiades”.  (I know!!!)  Hey you Subaru owners, look at the emblem on your car—it’s that star cluster.

So ’sis, how’d I do?  “Jeffrey I just got chills—I’ve owned 4 Subarus.”

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!!

ps-

I’m claiming a heaping helping of writer’s artistic license, since I’ve assumed the Pleiades is exactly 440 light years away. But don’t tell my sister.

Photocredit: NASA, ESA and AURA/Caltech

Photo Caption: Atlantis blasts off from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, 2:28 p.m. EST, November 16, 2009.

This is a Teachable Moments in the News QuickLinks Post. It connects a news story with this Blog’s existing powerful library of Posts and Resource Pages. The cited Posts and Pages provide a deep understanding of concepts in the earth and space sciences relevant to the news story. Teachers—the Posts and Pages are also designed for use as lessons, allowing you to easily bring current science into the classroom as a teachable moment. Each cited Post is outlined in the Teachers Lesson Planner, which includes the Post’s essential questions, concepts, objectives, and math skills.

This is crossposted at the Huffington Post HERE.

A space shuttle has now lifted off from Kennedy Space Center 129 times. The flight of Atlantis that began on November 16 is also the 31^st to the International Space Station. After she returns to Earth, a space shuttle will clear the tower only 5 more times before the fleet—Discovery, Endeavour, and Atlantis—is retired in 2010. Atlantis is scheduled to go up only once more.

We take the technical aspects of shuttle flights for granted, even the shuttle flights themselves. But it’s a remarkable technological achievement that deserves both our reflection and awe. So let me help. Here’s what happened November 16 close to 2:30 pm EST, when folks on the west coast of the U.S. were thinking about where to go for lunch. East coasters were looking forward to the end of the work day. But down at Kennedy Space Center, a now famous clock was ticking.

Sitting at Pad 39A before launch, the orbiter Atlantis, its external tank, and the two solid rocket boosters weighed in at a combined 4,522,383 lbs. Let’s put that in familiar terms. That’s 2,261 TONS …. or about 1,300 cars (assuming the weight of a 2010 Toyota Camry V6) … or 30,000 average human adults. Yet only 6 human adults were aboard, waiting to leave our Earth. It’s something we humans have been able to do for less than 50 years. It’s worth noting that well over a billion of us alive today remember a time when we could not.

Pointing heavenward, Atlantis waited. At a height of 184 feet (56.1 m) she was a nearly 20-story-tall machine waiting for the clock to tick down to T=0. Just 6.6 seconds before T=0 the three main engines on the orbiter ignited. At T=0 the vehicle was explosively unattached from the Pad (you need to detach from the planet rather quickly), the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) ignited, and this massive, magnificent machine was set into motion …. up.

Imagine a 20 story building moving slowly down the street. Boy, that would be something to see. Imagine a 20 story building racing down the street at 60 miles an hour. Imagine a 20 story building accelerating ….. UP, and already traveling more than 60 miles per hour by the time it cleared the tower at Pad 39A—after traveling less than twice its height. The space shuttle does 0 to 60 mph (0 to 100 km/hr) in 5.5 seconds, not too impressive by racetrack standards. It does beat the 6.2 seconds for the 2010 Toyota Camry V6. But did I mention the shuttle is going UP, and it weighs as much as 1,300 Camrys? You’ve got to just step back from this and recognize what we’re talking about here.

And it keeps accelerating. The two solid rocket boosters separated 2 minutes after launch, when the vehicle was already at an altitude of about 24 miles (39 km). Just 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the shuttle was in a preliminary orbit at an altitude of 140 miles (225 km), and moving over 17,000 miles per hour (27,400 km/hr)—that’s fast enough to go from New York City to San Francisco (2570 miles; 4,140 km) in just under 7 minutes. It’s fast enough to go around the entire Earth every hour and a half. In more poetic terms, it’s fast enough for the astronauts to see a sunrise every 90 minutes.

As we count down the final flights of the space shuttle, I invite you to use Atlantis in orbit as a teachable moment with your kids, or if you are a teacher, with your class. Below are two previous posts at Blog on the Universe that ask a couple of cool questions: “How far is outer space?” and “Why are the astronauts weightless?” And if you missed it, here’s the launch of Atlantis on YouTube.

Weekly Challenge 4: You Want Me to Do What With a Bathroom Scale?

Essential question: Why are astronauts weightless in space?

The Business Trip

Essential questions: How far is ‘Outer Space’? What does this imply for the thickness of Earth’s atmosphere?

Teachers and Parents: make sure to read about The Teacher’s Toolbox which is designed to help you put this Blog to work for your class and your children. If you’re new to Blog on the Universe read About this Blog.

Photocredit: NASA

Photo caption: CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere in parts per million over the last 400,000 years. Credit: NOAA.

This post is a Teachable Moment in the News and a Dr. Jeff Speaks Out.

This is crossposted at the Huffington Post HERE.

Here’s how the argument goes—and do it justice by reading it out loud, and kinda yelling whenever you see words in CAPS.

“Hey, you’re worried about CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere going up because of human activity and causing an increase in global temperature?! GIVE ME A BREAK! It’s only a TRACE gas, currently making up only 0.038% of the atmosphere, or 380 parts per MILLION!!  SO WHAT if we increase it to a WHOPPING 1,000 parts per million (ppm) by 2100. Then it would ONLY comprise 0.1% of the atmosphere. BIG DEAL!! There is NO CONCEIVABLE WAY that changes in such a miniscule amount of CO₂ could have any significant impact on the global environment. You’re preaching the sky is falling, and ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN can see that this is just SILLY! YOU must be part of some Scientists-in-Need-of-Federal-Funds—Green Business—Government (SiNoFF-GB-G) conspiracy that’s bent on destroying everything that is good. TAKE A WALK YOU ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST IN NEED OF A CAUSE. Why … you’re likely a paid operative of the SINoFF-GB-G machine!”

Ummm.. has anybody else heard this argument, or is it just me? Here’s my rebuttal (and you’re still using the CAPS-means-shouting thing.)

The point of the VAST MAJORITY of climate scientists is that the trace level of CO₂ in the atmosphere DOES play a critical role in the global environment. But before addressing why such a concept IS NOT PREPOSTEROUS, let’s get the obvious out of the way first. The myth makers and myth propagators use the word TRACE to belittle poor CO₂—to render its level WHOLLY INSIGNIFICANT. But anyone with just a touch of basic science education knows that—CO₂ IS VITALLY IMPORTANT FOR LIFE ON EARTH. It is both used and produced by life. If its level were so small to be a worthless consideration, then, hey—let’s take it ALL away, drop it to 0%, AND WATCH THE MAJORITY OF LIFE ACROSS THE PLANET CEASE TO EXIST. That TRACE gas seems pretty important to me. It powers a little thing we like to call PHOTOSYNTHESIS which is fundamental to the food chain. For all those that do not want to pay homage to CO₂, I say—STOP EATING. Or at least STOP throwing around the expression TRACE GAS so loosely.

Now for those that espouse the mythical view at the top of this post that “a little more of nothing amounts to nothing” is a rational argument for why CO₂ cannot dramatically alter the environment, my first tendency is to go into a discussion of climate change modeling and the importance of even trace gases held within acceptable ranges. A complex biological system like THE ENTIRE PLANET EARTH reflects a finely tuned balance, with regulating systems that keep conditions within acceptable limits for life—EVEN AT THE LEVEL OF TRACE GASES (barring catastrophic events like an asteroid impact, or super volcano, or say humans popping up in an instant and burning everything they can find in just 150 years). If specific trace gas concentrations are pushed beyond narrow limits the entire global system goes out of balance—even past a tipping point where it moves to a new equilibrium position not conducive for vast numbers of species currently inhabiting the planet.

You could also point out that in fact life operates within narrow acceptable regimes for, e.g., temperature. Absolute zero is -460 °F (-273 °C). The surface of the Sun (exceedingly cold by cosmic standards) is 10,300 °F (5,700 °C). That’s a temperature range of 10,800 °F (6,000 °C)!  But a human—YOU—has to exist within a temperature range of just 100 °F (55 °C). Here’s a way to look at it. If you represent the range in temperature from absolute zero to that of the solar surface as a 10-foot ruler, you’re existence is constrained to the width of 1-inch (for you metric types, if the larger range is represented by one meter, then you’re assigned just one centimeter of living space.) YOU LIVE ON THE HAIRY EDGE. YOU JUST AREN’T AWARE YOU LIVE ON THE HAIRY EDGE. You depend on Earth’s regulatory systems to keep you in the happy place.

But alas, I can’t use these arguments, because folks often can’t get past the it’s just a trace gas thing. Detailed global observations over time, careful analysis of the geological record, sophisticated climate models projecting into the future, and still you hear—”it’s all voodoo, it’s just THEORY, it’s a [VERY LARGE] percentage of [CLIMATE] scientists that don’t know what they are talking about. And there’s a [VERY SMALL] percentage of scientists that AGREE WITH ME so THEY must be right.”

Ok, fine. So let’s do this far closer to home. And see if there isn’t something strangely familiar about this.

1. The amount of alcohol in the blood is defined by the Blood Alcohol Level (BAC.) If someone has just a little to drink, and they’re BAC is between 0.01% and 0.029%, they will appear outwardly normal. What does this mean? It means that the alcohol content in the blood is between 95 and 270 PARTS PER MILLION. It is a TRACE chemical in the blood.

Now you increase the BAC to 0.11% to 0.20% and this person looses gross motor control, staggers when walking, and their speech is slurred. What does that mean? You’ve increased the alcohol concentration to at least 1,050 PARTS PER MILLION. Just by increasing this TRACE chemical by a factor of 4 (THAT’S FOUR) leads to system-wide imbalance in a human being—A COMPLEX BIOLOGICAL SYSTEM.

What? The alcohol shouldn’t have been there in the first place? That’s different than CO₂? Well this is a ROCK-SOLID example of systemic imbalance due to a 4-fold increase in a TRACE chemical. But fine, let’s go to example 2.

2. Say … hypoglycemia. We should all be able to agree that glucose is absolutely essential for body function. A normal glucose level averages about 1,500 PARTS PER MILLION in the blood. Now this one is really dramatic. If you DECREASE blood glucose by a factor of 10 to about 150 PARTS PER MILLION—then … COMA, and possibly …. well you get the picture.

ANYONE who thinks that changes in TRACE chemicals cannot impact complex biological systems—after just these 2 of TRULY COUNTLESS examples—is not reachable through reason and logic.

Now—BY LOGICAL EXTENSION—back to Earth. JUST BECAUSE CO₂ IS A TRACE GAS DOES NOT IMPLY IT CAN’T CAUSE A GLOBAL-SCALE IMBALANCE IN CLIMATE. This myth is busted.

Take a look at the graph at the top. It tracks CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere. Over the last 400,000 YEARS, CO₂ concentration never went above the dotted line. It was typically 230 parts per million, and maximally 300 parts per million (ppm). But just since 1950, it has gone from about 280 to 380 ppm!

In the graph below, climate models indicate by the year 2100 the concentration will increase to 550 to 1,000 ppm! If we assume the average climate model projection, the Industrial Age (Age of Fossil Fuels) by 2100 will have increased CO₂ concentration by a factor of 2.5 over the highest levels seen in the last 400,000 years, and by a factor of 3.5 over what was typical over the last 400,000 years!

Surely worry is warranted. We know we are changing the atmospheric composition, we know that global warming is real, and the vast consensus of scientists that specialize in this field feel that it is highly likely the global warming is due to how we are changing the atmosphere.

I’ve finished my rant. I hope many reading this have some new ammunition. But those that don’t want to accept global warming as human induced will now take the argument to the next level—increased CO₂ does not lead to increased global temperature. Sounds like I’ve got the topic for a new post. Stay tuned to this same Bat Channel. Alfred … have you been standing over my shoulder the whole time?

-dj

ps- You want more PERCEPTION-CHANGING posts on Climate Change and Global Warming? Your wish is my command: HERE

Photo Credit: Past and future CO2 atmospheric concentrations, United Nations Environmental Programme, cartographer/designer Philippe Rekacewicz, Emmanuelle Bournay, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

MESSENGER Flyby of Mercury, and Ongoing Updates

through Orbital Insertion in March 2011

We had a great time at Mission Control covering the MESSENGER flyby of Mercury live via Twitter September 29 through October 1. Judging from the tens of thousands of page views that week, lots of folks were going along for the ride. Cool! That’s why we did it!

I recently put up a MESSENGER Updates Post which will be providing ongoing updates through MESSENGER’s orbital insertion at Mercury in March 18, 2011. If you’ve not seen the Post yet, you’ll be surprised at how many updates there are already, and the other cool resources provided there, including a play-by-play of the nail-biting in Mission Control when we lost signal from the spacecraft near close approach, and the Twitter Archives of us Voices of Mission Control which allow you to relive the experience. Note the MESSENGER Updates Post can always be accessed from the TMN QuickLinks Box at upper right. Over the next 18 months, you’re also invited to use the MESSENGER Ideas for Lessons in the Classroom, and Educational Resources Post which addresses the nature of human exploration, the exploration of the Solar System, and the exploration of Mercury, with powerful essays, activities, and lessons.

A Presentation on the Universe For Your School or Community?

This week I was honored to accept an invitation to deliver the Keynote Address at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, October 28-30, 2010. On August 20, 2009, I had the privilege of giving the Keynote to 600 secondary science teachers in the Houston area at the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD Professional Development Day. And my staff and I are gearing up to deliver 12 Family Science Night evenings this Winter at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall, and at the Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport in Virginia (think Night at the Museum 2—the Movie). Each evening is for 450 students, parents and their teachers from DC-area schools.

We also conduct these powerful family learning programs across the nation. Hey, if you’d like to explore a program for families at your school—or across your entire community; a special program just for teachers and their families; or a professional development program for teachers of science, then contact me HERE. All these programs embrace the same philosophy as this Blog—Inspire … then Educate, and Conceptual Understanding at an Emotional Level. Here’s a list of my personal talks, and comments from attendees. Drs. Timothy Livengood and Harri Vanhala, also researchers at the Center, are available as well.

The Blog on the Universe Legion of Ambassadors

We’ll soon be launching the Blog on the Universe LEGION OF AMBASSADORS program. We’re looking for about 100 Tweeps interested in becoming official Ambassadors, helping us get word out on new Blog posts via their PLNs, and providing me with new direction for the Blog. The Ambassadors will have a formal affiliation with the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, which oversees national initiatives like the Voyage National Program, (see Voyage model Solar Systems in different communities at our Facebook page photoalbum), Journey through the Universe, the MESSENGER Educator Fellows Program, Family Science Night at the National Air and Space Museum, and Blog on the Universe. The Center also conducts planetary atmospheres research through a Cooperative Agreement with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Ambassadors will have an official section here at Blog on the Universe, where they will be listed with their photos and links to their websites, blogs, and social networks. Ambassadors will get an e-template for an official business card, and a press release for local media. (I think there may be a decoder ring involved too.) Are you a Legionnaire?

Quick Links Feature and Teachers Toolbox

The new Teachable Moments in the News (TMN) QuickLinks Box in the upper right corner was launched this month. It is tracking current news stories and events that can be made into teachable moments through the use of this Blog’s existing library of Posts and Resource Pages. The idea is to provide conceptual understanding for current science. You’ll also note that the TMN QuickLinks feature, together with the Teachers Lesson Planner are tools found in the new Teachers Toolbox. These pages are all found in the right column under “Teachers Toolbox”.

UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, December 2009

We will soon be putting up a countdown clock for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen December 7-18, 2009. I recently wrote a Post about how critical I feel this meeting is for the future of the planet Earth we know. On that Post I pulled together an overview of all the climate change posts to date here at the Bog. These are PERSPECTIVE-CHANGING POSTS on the fragility of the atmosphere, the impact of technology, the rate of population growth, and humanity’s impact on climate. I’d love to see these Posts put to work in the 2 months leading up to the Copenhagen Summit. Take a look.

BotU Banners. Widgets, and Flyers

I think Blog on the Universe is gaining a following even though it was only launched in May. It’s now showing up in Blogrolls and as links at websites. I’ve had a number of requests for banners, a flyer, a Blog description for incorporation into an emailing—even a request for widgets. They are all now available at the Blog’s Banners, Widgets & Flyers Page.

That’ it for now!

-dj