I know you have all been DYING to find out if our name for the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) won the contest NASA set up earlier this year.  Alas, even with the awesome-ness that was the Los Angeles contribution:  “Gamma Gamma Hey!”  We didn’t win.  They decided to go with “The Enrico Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.”  Whatever.  Here are their reasons:

Enrico Fermi was an Italian-American physicist who devised what is still the most plausible explanation for the acceleration mechanism responsible for high-energy cosmic rays, and hence, for cosmic gamma rays. In addition, Fermi made important contributions to our understanding of quantum statistics and also atomic nuclei and subatomic particles. He is generally considered to be one of the outstanding scientists of the 20th Century.

He may have won the Nobel Prize, but did he know how to rock and roll?

Thanks again for those who voted way back in March.

For some of the first images taken from the Fermi and a cool satellite tracking website, join me after the break.

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If you can get away from the wash of Los Angeles light at night, the Perseid Meteor Shower will be peaking in the very early hours of tomorrow morning. That means tonight, after the moon sets at 1:09 AM.

Space.com points out the related tale of the natural phenomenon being known as “The Tears of St. Lawrence,” which involves the martyring of a Christian deacon by the Romans in 258 AD on an outdoor stove. Ouch!

Being the Darwinist that I am, I will try to focus on the wacky idea that the meteors are nothing more than hurtling space rocks from a distant comet burning up as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Thankfully, space.com plays it fair and balanced by also serving up the facts.

The exact time of maximum should be about 7:00 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT) Aug. 12… If so, the timing is very good for meteor watchers observing before dawn in North America, especially in the western states. And that morning, the waxing gibbous moon sets around 1:30 a.m. local daylight saving time, leaving a dark sky for the next 3 hours.

Take full advantage of that moonless period. Next year, a last quarter moon will illuminate the after-midnight sky with its light and will hinder observation of the Perseids.

Happy stargazing…

Tonight as the sun is setting, look to the eastern horizon to see the moon rising. This full moon is known as the “Solstice Moon” and if it looks bigger to you, don’t panic, the moon is not suddenly hurtling toward Earth. This effect is known as the Moon Illusion and astronomers have been wondering about it for a long time.

Photographs taken of the Solstice Moon rising show that the illusion only happens to human eyes, not cameras. (See the example here.) And the theory of why it happens is similar to the Ponzo Illusion. (No relation to the Ponzi Scheme.)

The sun sets in Los Angeles at 8:08pm tonight, with the moon rising about 40 minutes later.

Follow me after the break for more on the Moon Illusion and tonight’s beauty.

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I think this could be the geekiest weekend we’ve had so far this year. Allow me to explain:

• Iron Man comes out today. I saw a preview screening on Monday, and other than the score (which is absolute crap) the movie is damn near perfect. I think it’s the best comic book movie since Sin City, and blows Transformers and the last two X-Men movies into oblivion. Go see it for the pitch-perfect performances, lead by Robert Downey Junior. io9 says, “Iron Man is the first comic-book movie that’s actually better than its source material. That’s partly because Iron Man is one of the most boring characters in the history of comics, but it’s also because the movie manages to transcend its source.”
• Saturday is Free Comic Book Day. Go to your friendly local comic shop, and load up on piles of free comic books.
• JPL is having their open house Saturday and Sunday, so after you get your fix of pretend science in the movies, you can get up close and personal with some real science.

Pretty awesome, isn’t it? Put on your nerd cape and have a great weekend, everyone!

Following the previous post about an A bomb explosion it only seems appropriate to talk about my favorite landmark in the city. It’s not the Hollywood sign, it’s not Charlie Tuna’s* star on the Walk of Fame (yeah a fake fish has a star a reader has pointed out the star is for the radio legend of the same name, not the cartoon spokesfish) and it’s not even the place where I met my wife for the first time. Those are all great places but they aren’t my favorite place.

You can find out what it is after the jump but here’s a hint…it involves a space robot.

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If you have the chance to watch the sun set tonight (7:17pm), don’t look away after the green flash as the moon will be there too. Keep looking west and you will see a 6% crescent moon set against the dark blue of early evening. You will also see what is called the “Da Vinci glow” which is the “pale impression of the full Moon inside the vivid crescent.” More from NASA:

Five hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci was first to explain this phenomenon: it is Earthshine, the light of our own planet Earth illuminating the Moon’s dark terrain. A crescent moon with Earthshine is widely regarded as one of the prettiest sights in the heavens.

(Read more about The Da Vinci Glow.)

But this is just a rehearsal for tomorrow night. Click with me across the heavens…

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You voted and the top choice was….drumroll….Gamma Gamma Hey! So I sent it in today and received our Certificate of Participation. (You can click on the image for a much larger version that you can then download and hang proudly in your home or office.) (No, that’s not geeky at all, why do you ask?)

Thanks for participating. I’ll let you know when the official name is announced later this summer. (I know you are all DYING to find out what it will be called.) Cross your fingers!

You have read the details from my earlier post about the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) that is going into space in May of this year. NASA wants to give GLAST a real name. I asked you to come up with some suggestions and now it’s time to vote.

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The poll closes on Friday morning at which point I will take the top two and send them into NASA for consideration. We will get a certificate just for participating. Vote vote vote!

Three weeks ago I challenged you to come up with an LA-centric name for a Space Telescope, currently called GLAST, that will be launched into space in May. (Full recap of my earlier post here.) The brief recap from NASA:

GLAST is designed to probe the most violent events and exotic objects in the cosmos from gamma-ray bursts to black holes and beyond. “We’re looking for suggestions that will capture the excitement of GLAST’s mission and call attention to gamma-ray and high-energy astronomy,” says Alan Stern, associate administrator for Science at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. “We hope someone will come up with a name that is catchy, easy to say and will help make the satellite and its mission a topic of dinner table and classroom discussion.”

We have until March 31st to send in a name for consideration. And remember, we get a certificate just for participating! To see suggestions already made, click on through to the other side.

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NASA is holding a contest to name the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, aka GLAST, prior to its launch on May 16, 2008 from Cape Canaveral. From the Nasa contest page:

GLAST is designed to probe the most violent events and exotic objects in the cosmos from gamma-ray bursts to black holes and beyond.

“We’re looking for suggestions that will capture the excitement of GLAST’s mission and call attention to gamma-ray and high-energy astronomy,” says Alan Stern, associate administrator for Science at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. “We hope someone will come up with a name that is catchy, easy to say and will help make the satellite and its mission a topic of dinner table and classroom discussion.”

Let’s make it a group effort and come up with something groovy and LA-y. The contest ends March 31 so we have a while to come up with something fab. The mission is expected to last a minimum of five years, but NASA’s goal is to keep it going for ten. Wouldn’t you be stoked if the name you (we) came up with could be part of NASA lingo for ten years?!?! Of course you would. Let’s do it! Let those ideas rip in the comments and I’ll update this as we get closer to March 31. We’ll get a certificate just for participating.

If you want to cut to the chase and just send your own suggestion, here is the entry page.

More cool images and info to help us come up with a name, after the jump.

(GLAST logo is public domain.)
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