Marek Mahut » science

First amateur radio-astronomy detection in Slovak Republic

marek — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:34:33 +0000

First amateur radio astronomy detection of Cygnus A and the Hydrogen-line in Slovak Republic has been done with Fedora system using gnuradio software package.

More information on WavesFromSpace.org.

Open-mindedness lesson for close-mindeds

marek — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:37:44 +0000

Nigerian goat detained for armed robbery to steal a Mazda 323

marek — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:08:35 +0000

Ok, this is too strange even for me – I have to share it.

A goat has been taken to the police in Nigeria on suspicion of attempted armed robbery in the African country’s western Kwara State. A group of vigilantes took the animal to the police arguing it was an armed robber who was trying to steal a Mazda 323. The vigilantes claimed the robber had used black magic to transform himself into a goat so that he could escape arrest. Read more…

WTF?!

Fedora QA: gnuradio-3.1.3-2.fc10 bugfix update

marek — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:06:34 +0000

Please test gnuradio-3.1.3-2.fc10 bugfix update.

* Fri Dec 19 2008 Marek Mahut – 3.1.3-2
- Upstream release 3.1.3
- Comedi support
- RHBZ#473928 Unowned directories

Fomalhaut B: first optical image of an exoplanet

marek — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:51:58 +0000

Astronomers discovered on picture taken by Hubble Space Telesope of Fomolhaut star a tiny dot, which has been identified as its orbiting planet called Fomalhaut B. It has carved a path along the inner edge of a vast, dusty debris ring encircling Fomalhaut that is 34.6 billion kilometers across. Fomalhaut b lies 2.9 billion kilometers inside the ring’s inner edge and orbits 10.7 billion miles from its star.

H+

marek — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:24:07 +0000

End of Phoenix Mars Lander’s destiny

marek — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:38:29 +0000

NASA released a status report stating that Phoenix is going to end its valuable mission on Mars soon. Communication center lost the connection with Phoenix last week, but managed to reestablish the connection at some point. It’s nice that even Phoenix has his twitter account :) Check it out for updates. Phoenix, thanks for all the valuable work you’ve done there and see you in few years when a human exploration mission to Mars will take you back home to peacefully rest in a museum. Respect to you and especially to all people behind his mission.

Trailer: Welcome to the Universe

marek — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:36:35 +0000

http://youtube.com/user/AndromedasWake

2008 TC3: Small planetoid 8TA9D69 will cross Earth’s atmosphere

marek — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:03:35 +0000

Small planetoid with name 8TA9D69 (also know as 2008 TC3) can cross Earth’s atmosphere just in few hours, chances of this are about 90%. This big bolide (very bright meteoroid that can be visible even during day) will enter Earth’s atmosphere at about 2h30 - 2h50 UTC 7th Oct 2008 There’s nothing to worry about, this ~2 meters big rock will burn in atmosphere before reaching Earth, it will just create very pretty light show and it can be your only chance to see such bright bolide in your entire life. His path is not know yet, return here for continuous updates.

Mon Oct 6 18:25:09 UTC 2008: official ephemeride published:

The nominal orbit given above has 2008 TC3 coming to within one earth
radius around Oct. 7.1. The absolute magnitude indicates that the
object will not survive passage through the atmosphere.

Steve Chesley (JPL) reports that atmospheric entry will occur on 2008
Oct 07 0246 UTC over northern Sudan.

Post updates:

Researchers in Europe: Noc vědců

marek — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:06:29 +0000

26th September is know as Researchers’ night (noc vedcu in .cz), launched in 2005 under the “Researchers in Europe” initiative, offers the large public a unique opportunity to discover the researchers and their magic world: dozens of labs, universities, enterprises, foundations… open their doors and unveil their secrets Europe wide, allowing each of you, “hand in hand” with researchers, to be scientist for a night, take part in mysterious and fascinating experiments, use sophisticated instruments, understand the magic of science and its beauty and ask any question you always wanted to ask without daring before… I’m sure there is something near you, just start looking!