mars / nudes
we don’t often show nipples on super/collider, but it’s not often that an internationally-renowned artist simultaneously exhibits two shows based on photographs of porn stars and the surface of Mars read more
hypergiants
when seen side by side with, say, the planet Venus, our sun looks pretty huge – but lurking out beyond our solar system are millions upon millions of much bigger stars read more
score
a rare meteorite sample that could help unravel the mysteries of Mars has been acquired by the Natural History Museum in London. the space rock is about the size of a paperback book and is the largest known fragment of the Tissint meteorite, which fell as a shower of stones in the deserts of southern Morocco last July. eyewitnesses heard two sonic booms and saw a bright fireball trace through the night sky
death from above
to mark the first month of the Mayan year of doom, super/collider will be publishing stories about and predictions for 2012 throughout January. we start with “Death From Above?” – a look at one man’s efforts to save the world from cataclysm via a DIY asteroid observatory in rural Wales, originally published in Dazed & Confused
The Moon at Luminous Books
Friday 25 November
East London’s loveliest and tiniest bookshop takes its name from the luminous orb in our sky, and celebrates the moon each year with a night of literary-leaning lunar worship. this year’s soirée will see readings by James Atlee (author of Nocturne: A Journey in Search of Moonlight) and Steve Moore (comic book guy and author of Somnium), alongside up close films and images of the lunar surface supplied by us
The Moon at Luminous Books / 6-9pm / free / 3.5 Frederick Terrace, London E8 4EW
image from NASA’s Apollo 15 mission
guest post: a new physics?
with all the recent talk about faster-than-light particles, we thought it timely to bring you selected excerpts from physicist Ben Still’s Neutrino Blog looking at how such speeds might be possible, what that means for physics and how we might have seen this all once before read more
kosmica
plenty of cosmic happenings next week, starting with Nelly Ben Hayoun and Nahum Mantra’s ongoing Kosmica series at The Arts Catalyst with guests like Dr Jill Stuart, Alicia Framis and Jem Finer – artist in residence in the astrophysics department at Oxford University. next up, Science Fair™ drops by The Amwell Street Knocking Shop for a night of vintage shopping, astronomy, film and badge-making. and finally, if you’re up super early (or out super late) look out for a clutch of planets in the morning sky
surface
opening today at Saville Row’s Hauser & Wirth gallery, Matthew Day Jackson’s new show features coloured skulls, re-covered LIFE magazines, a repurposed B-29 and this work: a long, panelled landscape based on a Mercator map that replicates the moon’s surface through laser etching on drywall
shuttle
with NASA’s space shuttle program drawing to a close in the coming months, next week’s Science Fair™ night will be marking the end of an era with a special send off party – fitting, as the second-last space shuttle mission is now scheduled for Monday. we’ll be joined by space expert and author Piers Bizony and photographer David Ryle to discuss the wider cultural impact of the end of the dream before rounding off the night with a screening of the Motherboard documentary Space Shuttle Parking Lot
endeavour
if NASA’s penultimate shuttle launch goes ahead tomorrow – and the skies clear – the orbiter Endeavour will put on a final farewell show over the UK just after lifoff. two minutes after rocketing skywards from Kennedy Space Center, the shuttle will shed its two solid rocket boosters and head up over the Atlantic. five minutes later, its bright orange external tank will separate too – gliding along with the shuttle towards Europe. if you look up fifteen to twenty minutes after launch (which you can watch online) you should be able to spot them flying alongside each other like two little stars
zond
we thought we’d mark Earth Day tomorrow with a familiar but slightly different view of the planet we call home: not the famous Earthrise image taken from Apollo 8, but one snapped during the unmanned Russian Zond-7 mission on August 9, 1969. a two-person spaceship designed to circle around the moon but not land, the Soyuz 7K-L1 also photographed ‘earthrise’ – whose contrast between the dead moon and living earth became an emblem of the early environmental movement – during other missions around the moon and back
yuri
fifty years ago tomorrow Major Yuri Gagarin became the first human to leave the earth below and fly into space, orbiting the planet once in his Vostok-1 capsule for 108 minutes before parachuting down in the Saratov region of Russia to be greeted by confused locals. the launch of Chris Riley’s First Orbit promises to be among the highlights of the anniversary, which reminds us that although our progress into space sometimes seems to move at a glacial pace, it’s only been fifty short years since the voyage began
into the void
in September 1977, the Voyager 1 space probe blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, bound for the outer planets and beyond. having passed Jupiter, Saturn and even Pluto, it is now sailing for truly deep space: the empty void between star systems. recent data from the probe – which now takes 16 hours to reach us – indicates that Voyager has passed into a zone where the solar wind is blowing sideways, and may soon cease altogether as the lonely spacecraft plunges beyond the influence of our sun
_artwork: NASA
capsule
it looks uncannily like an old Apollo mission returning to earth – right down to the red and white parachutes – but this is private space firm SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which completed its first big test this week: reaching low earth orbit before successfully splashing down in the Pacific. if further flights go well, the spacecraft could soon be ferrying cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station, freeing NASA up to concentrate on new missions to the asteroids and beyond. cue The Blue Danube Waltz
_the Dragon’s first drop test, from a helicopter, in August 2010. image: Chris Thompson/SpaceX
impact
another week, another crater. but unlike the volcanic one in last week’s post, Barringer Crater in Arizona was formed when a 50m nickel-iron meteorite careened into it at up to 20km per second. if you missed Science Fair™ on Monday, there’s another chance to hear about such impacts from Dr Marek Kukula, Public Astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, as part of the Royal Albert Hall’s Close Encounters series, which also includes screenings of Alien and Barbarella, plus plenty of crater-making fun for the little ones
_Barringer Crater, Arizona / image: United States Geological Survey
ten
once every hundred years, there is a day you can write out as 10/10/10. in the 21st century, that day falls this Sunday, and to mark the occasion Eames Office will be celebrating Charles and Ray Eames’s classic Powers of Ten with screenings, events and the launch of a new website and educational initiative. originally released in 1977, the short film (below) puts things in perspective by zooming out from a picnicking couple in Chicago to the outer fringes of the known universe…
_ten
disappearer
strange goings on in the atmosphere high above Jupiter of late, with ghostly flashes and disappearing clouds spotted by amateur astronomers in recent weeks. it all began in June, when a small bright spot appeared briefly in the clouds. another followed in August, which professional and amateur astronomers have now identified as comets or meteors hitting the gas giant – the first such impacts ever observed. meanwhile, one of the famous planet-wide storm belts that ring the planet has suddenly faded, leaving Jupiter looking markedly different. when – and whether – it reappears remains a mystery
_images by amateur astronomers Anthony Wesley (left) and Masayuki Tachikawa (right)
cosmic
to kick a season of exploring the archives, we’re pleased to bring you the complete text of Piers from Cocadisco‘s talk at The Book Club last October – a brief history of cosmic disco. you can check it out over on super/reader, where we’ll be posting more goodies in the coming weeks
_cosmic scene
reader
at the end of each week, we try to pick one stand out science-related image for super/weekly. the idea is to keep the wordcount down and let the picture tell the story, making it quick and easy to check out. but sometimes there’s more to say – not to mention the stuff we write for other people, plus random thoughts and ideas, and all the images that don’t quite fit…
so to bring you more hot science action, we’ve created super/reader: a new hub for everything we do. over the coming weeks we’ll be posting loads from the archives, ranging from Chris’ visit to CERN to Rod’s interview with James Lovelock and Vivienne Westwood, plus new articles (like this one about spaceports) live updates and stuff we’ve found for AnOther Magazine’s Loves website. we hope you enjoy…
_Esrange Space Center, Sweden © SSC
s-band
nothing newsworthy about this week’s image, just a lovely shot from the Smithsonian we found while researching astronaut gloves. it shows the lunar south pole, as seen by S-band radar signals at 12.6-cm wavelength probing 1-5 meters below the Moon’s surface. read more about lunar mapping and grab the stunning high res version here
_image: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
craft
early this morning, Japan’s Akatsuki space probe blasted off from Tanegashima Island, bound for Venus. its serious mission is to study the climate and atmosphere of our cosmic neighbour, but this being the Japanese space agency, they’ve also created some ultra-cute anime characters and a DIY paper model to get people involved (here’s one we made earlier). to celebrate the successful launch, we want you to get crafty and create your own customised Akatsuki. just download our blank cut-out pattern, design your own exterior, then send us your results in the next two weeks. our favourite will win a copy of Mikhail Marov and David Grinspoons’ epic 464-page book about Venus
_T+Cs: the prize is one copy of The Planet Venus (£50 RRP), described as ‘Used – Very Good ex-Library copy’. all entries should consist of a photo of your space probe (3MB max) and be received by 03/06/2010. winner will be chosen at our discretion.
touchdown
if you fancy a little learning at lunchtime, pop down to the Royal Astronomical Society at Burlington House next Tuesday for what promises to be an interesting talk by the Open University’s Professor John Zarnecki, who designed the Surface Science Package for the Huygens probe which landed on Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005 and collected over 3.5 hours of data from this distant, mysterious world
__drawings: accommodation of the payload and the major subsystems on the top and bottom of the Huygens experiment platform, with Surface Science Package (SSP) highlighted in green. other components include ACP: Aerosol Collector Pyrolyser; BAT-1/5: Batteries; CASU: Central Acceleration Sensor Unit; CDMU-A/B: Command and Data Management Unit; DISR: Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer; DISR-E: DISR Electronics Box; DISR-S: DISR Sensor Head; GCMS: Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer; HASI: Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument; MTU: Mission Timer Unit; PCDU: Power Conditioning and Distribution Unit; PYRO: Pyro Unit; RASU: Radial Acceleration Sensor Unit; RUSO: Receiver Ultra Stable Oscillator; RX-A/B: Receiver Antennas for Radar Altimeter A/B; SEPS: Separation Subsystem; SSP-E: SSP Electronics Box; TUSO: Transmitter Ultra Stable Oscillator; TX-A/B: Transmit Antennas for Radar Altimeter A/B
summit
opening this weekend at Somerset House, new graphic art fair Pick Me Up is a veritable who’s who of art and illustration – including stuff from our pals at Nous Vous and Peepshow, like this cosmic piece by Miles Donovan. check out their online shop to see the full image…
_‘Arctic’ by Miles Donovan
ice
we all know about these ice caps melting down, but scientists are still unsure why it’s happening so quickly. in 2005, the European Space Agency tried to launch a satellite called Cryosat to measure the thickness of the ice, but the Russian rocket carrying it exploded shortly after launch. the mission is considered so vital that a second probe – Cryosat 2 – was built, and yesterday launched successfully from Baikonur Cosmodrome. once in operation, its measurements should give us a clearer picture of just what exactly is going on, and how bad things really are. gulp
_artist’s impression of Cryosat in orbit
soviet
nearing the end of its run at the Nottingham Contemporary gallery, Star City is an exploration of the future under Communism, combining Eastern Block art from the 60s and 70s with more modern and Western pieces. the exhibition also includes artifacts like propaganda posters, a life-size replica of a Sputnik, Soviet space food, a collection of Polish space toys and even a giant walk-through sculpture inspired by Valentina Tereshkova’s spacesuit
_Jane & Louise Wilson, Star City, 2000. Projection. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York
breathe
it might not save the world, but the ANDREA air filter will certainly help clean up your home environment. developed by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur and Le Laboratoire founder David Edwards, it draws on research that NASA did in the 1980s as part of the BioHome project, which examined how plants could be used to clean the air inside space stations like Skylab
to celebrate super/collider’s new role as UK distributor for ANDREA, we’re offering super/weekly readers a hefty secret discount until Christmas. you can read more here or order from our online store
_ANDREA © Véronique Huyghe
xray
from an extended shuttle mission to the ongoing Apollo stuff and a giant impact on Jupiter, it’s been a busy week in space. yesterday also marked the ten year anniversary of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, an orbiting telescope which sends back trippy multicolour images of supermassive black holes, gas jets, supernova shockwaves and other cosmic ephemera
_image: NGC 4649 / _credit: NASA/CXC/University of California Irvine/P.Humphrey
launch
forty years ago this afternoon, Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Canaveral to deliver Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon. the video below breaks down the ignition sequence in minute detail, and if you’re at your computer at 1:26pm you can watch the launch ‘live’ as seen on TV back in 1969. the anniversary celebrations reach a peak this weekend, with a lecture at the Royal Aeronautical Society, the BFI’s ongoing One Giant Leap Season and a special performance of Brian Eno’s ‘Apollo’ at the Science Museum. as well as the actual moonwalk anniversary, Monday sees the release of Moonfire, a massive new Taschen book with pictures that even space nerds like us haven’t seen
__early spacesuit prototype, from Moonfire © Taschen
radical
we couldn’t decide between the Barbican’s Radical Nature event and all the different Apollo-related stuff happening this month, so this picture of Richard Buckminster Fuller’s US Pavillion for Expo ’67 is perfect. part of the Barbican’s amazing architecture-meets-nature summer spectacular, it also happens to show the parachutes and capsule from the Apollo program – at that point, still untested and waiting to make history in the years ahead
_image courtesy of the Barbican / the estate of R Buckminster Fuller
titan
while we’re busy partying on the moon this weekend, the folks over at the Royal Observatory Greenwich are off exploring Saturn and its immense moons. there’s some kids’ stuff this weekend, but also an exciting series of talks from NASA experts and mission planners
_image: Titan’s thin atmosphere _credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
apollo
with the 40th anniversary of the moon landings fast approaching, our Apollo season continues with apollo +at + apollo – an evening of live music, art, video and spacecraft construction in an abandoned shop in South London. we’re also planning an event on the night itself (July 20th) so stay tuned
_image: NASA
double club
a ‘we’re living in the future’ photo from earlier this week, with the space shuttles Atlantis and Endeavour side by side at Kennedy Space Center. with Atlantis now way out in space repairing the Hubble space telescope, the second shuttle is on stand-by for a rescue mission if worst comes to worst. another double act blasts off later today, with the European Space Agency launching both the Herschel and Planck space probes on a single Ariane 5 rocket. you can watch the lift-off live this afternoon
_image: Atlantis and Endeavour / NASA / Dimitri Gerondidakis
orphans
to kickstart our Apollo season, super/collider is proud to present the UK premiere of Orphans of Apollo, which tells the story of a group of space entrepreneurs who flew to Moscow in the late 1990s to takeover the Russian space station, MIR. after negotiating one of the most ambitious business deals on earth, they hired and launched a group of astronauts into space to visit the station – a momentous but often overlooked moment in history. though ultimately doomed, their bold plan set the stage for the current private space race and the space tourism industry. definitely one for space nerds, the screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director, Michael Potter. full details on our super/cinema page
_image: the MIR space station and the moon / NASA
station
with the Space Shuttle Discovery up there installing a final set of solar panels, the International Space Station will become visible over the UK this week, and the weather is finally looking fine. if you haven’t seen the station before, it’s worth watching out for as it passes from West to East in the evening sky ? and weird to think six people will be living and working there around the clock. to help you find it, we’ve created a new project/page, where we’ll be posting astronomy-related updates. though centered on where we are, in Hackney, the info applies to most people in the northern hemisphere
_the ISS over London, taken with our run-of-the-mill digital camera
kepler
the hunt for distant planets should take a giant leap forward tonight, with NASA’s Kepler space telescope poised for launch aboard a Delta II rocket at Launch Complex 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. once in space, it will scan 100,000 far-off stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region with sensors so powerful that if turned towards earth could detect someone in a small town turning off their porch light
_image: NASA
cold war
if you live in London and you haven’t checked out the Cold War Modern exhibition at the V&A yet, you’ve got until Sunday before it moves on to Italy in March. worth tracking down for an impressive dose design and culture from 1945-1970, it includes a real Soviet model of Sputnik, experimental spacesuits, clips from films like 2001, fashion from Pierre Cardin and Paco Rabane plus all manner of futuristic architectural utopias, from Superstudio and Archigram to lesser-known Soviet and Japanese plans for dome cities, modular living and high rise towers. if super/collider was an exhibition, this would be it
_still from 2001: A Space Odyssey courtesy of the V&A
cradle
forty years ago this Sunday, the Apollo 8 spacecraft blasted off for the moon, carrying astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders – who would go on to take the famous ‘earthrise’ photograph from lunar orbit. it marked the first human mission ever leave the earth for deep space, the first time anyone could see and photograph the whole earth, and the first time anyone saw the dark side of the moon; all welcome Christmas distractions after a turbulent year. re-live the journey at NASA’s image archive, have a great holiday and we’ll see you in the year 2009
_artist’s concept of Apollo 8 Command Module (NASA)
_Apollo 8 on pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center
_Apollo 8 Saturn V launch (with moon added by NASA)
_earthrise seen from Apollo 8 (NASA)
_artist’s concept of Apollo 8 jettisoning panels (NASA)
_Apollo 8 re-entering the earth’s atmosphere (NASA)
X-102
of all the crazy stuff out there in the Universe, few things can top our relatively close neighbour, Saturn. from its sci-fi ring system to over 60 moons like Titan and Enceladus, it’s got the lot. inspired by the ongoing Cassini-Huygens mission, Jeff Mills and Mike Banks of Underground Resistance fame have revisited their 1992 techno opus: X-102 Discovers the Rings of Saturn. there’s a film screening / talk / club night next Thursday at London’s ICA, but you’ll need to be quick as it’s selling out fast
_image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
_image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
_image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
_image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
chandrayaan
this week saw the launch of India’s Chandrayaan lunar probe, the country’s first venture beyond earth orbit. roughly translated as ‘moon vehicle’, it’s off to map the lunar surface and carry out a whole load of international experiments – with everyone from Bulgaria to NASA hitching a ride. back on earth, the probe was the inspiration behind the awesome Moon Vehicle project; a collaboration between British artist Joanna Griffin and design students at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore which saw school kids designing their own satellites. if only the real thing looked so rad!
_photo: Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology
_photo: Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology