And I had no idea how I was going to articulate this. But then Lucas pointed this chart out to me, and it does a better job of explaining it than I ever could.

You know who could explain this? Captain Picard. Imagine you got to be a Starfleet officer. Here’s what he has to say about searching for the truth:

The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it’s scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based! If you can’t find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don’t deserve to wear that uniform!

And at the end of the day, that’s what we’re after. If you disagree with what I’ve written (or anyone else, ever, for that matter), try to do it in a way that brings us closer to the truth. I’ll continue to do my absolute best to respect all of you in the same exact way.

Thanks to Henry Cate for starting the Carnival and coming back to host it one year later! My post on a black hole getting kicked out of our galaxy is up there; check it out and find out what’s going on in outer space!

In my mind, and in my car,
we can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far,
pictures came and broke your heart,
put the blame on VTR.

And for those of you who are under the age of 25, VTR stands for Video Tape Recorder. This was the Buggles, who made the first music video that ever appeared on MTV, back when MTV played music videos. (I wonder what the last music video on MTV was? My guess is California Love by Tupac and Dre back in 1996. At least, that’s probably the last music video that I’ve ever seen on MTV.)

But why all this? Because I wanted to tell you about my appearance on The Space Show this past Tuesday! That’s right, I made it to the radio airwaves! Dr. David Livingston, the host, was really good to me, and even wrote this neat synopsis of me. But I didn’t know what the show would actually be like. So here’s my overview (of what I remember).

He was really nice in prepping me, telling me how it was going to go, and that he was going to start off by asking me what the difference was between astrophysics and cosmology. So I had time to think of that while he started his show and introduced me. (It was a very nice introduction.) Then I talked with him for a bit, and he asked me about astrophysics and cosmology, so I told him what I had thought up in that time: that astrophysics is about how all the stuff that we see in the sky works, but cosmology is about what it is that’s out there, and how it got to be that way. (Also, that nobody thinks you do hair, nails and makeup if you say you’re an astrophysicist.)

And then he started taking calls. I was a little perplexed, because I got a lot of calls about global warming, and as my friend Brian says, I had to put on my “scientist” hat instead of my “astrophysicist” hat. Really, I had to put on my “I’m an informed amateur” hat, as opposed to my “I’m really an expert professional” hat. But I did my best, and thought I did pretty well. And then came the roughest question of the night: I was asked to comment on the “fact” that the Earth is 6000 years old. The questioner was sure to let me know that he was a religious New York Jew.

Well, for those of you who don’t know from my bio page where it says I’m from New York, and from my last name, Siegel, I, too, am a New York Jew. And let me tell you, I am in some pretty esteemed company here… people who’ve accomplished great things… men like Carl Sagan, Alan Greenspan, and Robert Downey, Jr.

So I told him one way that we know the Universe has to be at least billions of years old; from the fact that we see light from objects that are billions of light-years away. And over the course of the 90 minutes, we got a lot of interesting questions, including one which really made me think, about the famous gamma-ray burst that we were able to see with our naked eyes, even though it went off 7.5 billion light years away!

And so all in all it was a good time, even though I had my rough spots, like when he asked me for a parting thought! (Oops! Next time, I’ll know to have one in advance.) But he told me he’d love to have me back, and I’d love the chance to do it again. If you’re a fan of his show or a fan of this site, make sure to send your questions in to him the next time I’m going to be on, and see if your question can make it to us live on the air! Thanks to everyone who listened, and, of course, a big thanks to David Livingston (not the one you presume), the host of the space show!

This is a very old picture of him; it’s amazing what you can find on the internet! Thanks David! And, as a renowned cosmologist, I’d like to talk to you about that hairdo…

You can listen live via internet radio by going to http://www.thespaceshow.com/live.htm at the appropriate time, or by heading to the RSS feed afterwards and downloading the episode. Don’t forget to leave your comments if you listen to it!

Now, what comes next for me, since I don’t like it here in Arizona? Well, the Dangerman audition didn’t work out (I never heard back), and I’ve been scoping out the Portland, OR area, which could work out well. But I got an email earlier this week about a job vacancy at ESO (the European Southern Observatories). They are looking for someone to take on the role of being head of the ESO public outreach office! Really, this would be a wonderful job for me, and I would be a great fit for it. Consider that this is what they’re looking for:

Education: A University degree in science, preferably in astronomy/astrophysics combined with public outreach training or equivalent.

Experience: The candidate should have a proven record in scientific public outreach work and be well acquainted with astronomy. A familiarity with, and an aptitude to use effectively, modern communication techniques are expected. A very good knowledge of - and particularly an ability to write - English is required. Knowledge of another language, especially German or Spanish would be an advantage.

Key Competences:

• Provides clear, concise and timely oral and written communications, identifying the key issues, examining options and proposing way ahead.
• Is able to speak to colleagues at all levels, external contacts and the public and can explain a complex and technical subject in terms the non-specialist can understand.
• Sets clear performance standards for staff and makes it clear what is expected of them, both
  as team and as individuals.
• Understands the dynamics of team relationships and is able to bring out the best of teams (sic) members.

Well, what do I have to offer?

• Education: A Ph.D. in Astrophysics while working presently on a Masters in Education in Science Outreach.
• Experience: A proven scientific track record in research, a proven record as an educator at the University and high school levels, and experience doing public outreach, including giving public lectures, networking with educators, and, oh, writing and running this website! English is my mother tongue and I’m also fairly proficient in Spanish.
• Key Competences: Clear and concise communications? Check. Ability to communicate with people of all levels effectively (including about things as esoteric and complicated as, say, theoretical cosmology)? Check. As for the leadership and managerial skills? Oh, I have them, no problem; anyone who’s met me or worked with me can attest to that.

The only weakness on my application is that I don’t have demonstrated on-the-job managerial experience, unless you count managing over 100 students per semester. It’s hard reaching for a job like this at such a young age. Well, that, and I’m an American, and the US is not a member nation of ESO.

And what would I tell people I’m doing? “Yeah, I’m the head of public outreach for all of the European Observatories in the Southern Hemisphere. No big deal.” I sent in my application already, even though they aren’t due until May 31st. Here’s hoping it works out well; wish me luck!

So get ready to listen up, because this is going to be available worldwide for download! I’ll definitely have an entry for you after the recording to let you know how it goes and what we talked about, but I hope to get to talk about all the things that excite me about doing this, including space, the solar system, dark matter, dark energy, the big bang, and so much more! I’ve answered most of the questions that would be good for a general audience that you guys have sent me, so send me more!

• Nancy Young-Houser, of A Mars Odyssey, for Stellar Breakthrough Performance for her work on The Mysterious Solar Flares.
• Will Gater, for Best Adaptation of An Epic Poem for Odyssey’s End In Sight For Ulysses. The Odyssey took 17 years this time; up 7 from last time.
• David Bigwood, for Comeback Performance of the Year for What’s New and Noteworthy at the Lunar & Planetary Institute. The great highlight here is, of course, an entire free issue of their new magazine, Communicating Astronomy with the Public.
• Amanda Bauer, aka Astropixie, wins an award far greater than Oscar gold and has a job offer in Europe, where she’ll be moving in the fall. Enjoy Nottingham, Amanda, and congratulations! She brings us a recap of 50 years of Space Science, and shares her opinions of what the next 50 years may bring, including an interesting opinion on the Moon-Mars initiative.
• Robert Simpson at Orbiting Frog, for Best Animated Feature for his work on locating and tracking many of Earth’s man-made satellites, using Google Earth/Sky. Anyone want to add Sputnik?

• Paul Gilster of Centauri Dreams for best Director, as he directs you to the quest to find terrestrial (rocky) planets in the Centauri star system. He’s got links and references to the hard science that it’s based on, too.
• Bruce Irving at Music of the Spheres, for Outstanding Technical Achievement for his post Bravado and Robots, about the robots that may explore underground and undersea environments on other planets.
• Keeping with Robots, Brian Wang of Next Big Future wins for Outstanding Subterranean Achievement for his article about a new lunar truck and mining rover.
• Bill Dunford, of Riding with Robots, wins for best Poem (bet you didn’t know that category!) for his entry on chain poems about space. The latest chain poem is for the scientists working on the Japanese Kaguya mission, and some of it is really interesting!
• Robert Nemiroff from Astronomy Picture Of the Day wins Best Picture (duh) for this stunning picture of the Lunar Eclipse. Damn you, Arizona skies; I was clouded out after just seeing a little bit of the first part of it! There goes the Earth’s shadow… we won’t see it again until 2010.

• David Portree at Altair VI wins for Best Adapted Screenplay for his play about Galileo and his daughter. He also brings us a little bit of NASA’s Mars exploration history that you might not know about.
• The Astroprof wins the award for Planetary Alignment for talking about planetary conjunctions and occultations.
• Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society wins for Best Foreign Film for the Contribution of Mars Global Surveyor (R.I.P. 2006) to the mysterious White Rock Formation in Mars’ Pollack Crater. Hey, if Ed Harris didn’t win for his role Jackson Pollack, maybe this win for Pollack Crater will redeem that?
• Pamela Gay, A.K.A. Star Stryder, wins for Biggest Burst, for her post on Star Formation in the Center of the Galaxy. Big central bulge + huge density of stars + lots of gas & dust = star formation! She’s got the details, and the scientific papers to boot!
• Captain Kirk William Shatner for Best Actor (ha!) for his cameo appearance with Mars HiRISE images at Cumbrian Sky. Shatner was negotiating priceline rates at the time, so Stuart Atkinson will be accepting the award on his behalf.

• Robert Pearlman of collectSPACE wins for Improvements in Safety for his article on NASA’s display of the debris of Space Shuttle Columbia. There’s a lot that we’ve learned since then about ensuring that another disaster like that doesn’t occur.
• The Fool at New Frontiers wins for best Science Fiction Screenplay for his update on Spaceport America. This isn’t fiction, of course, but will it actually succeed? Nobody knows…
• Darnell over at Colony Worlds wins the Meteorology Oscar for his forecasts of radiation storms with SOHO. This is even better than the Dr. G/Mr. G weatherman scandal I had growing up in New York!
• The Bad Astronomer wins the Tom Cruise award for his post on the panspermia hypothesis. Was life created from non-life on Earth, or did it happen somewhere else and wind up here? (I had a recent post on this, but I like Phil’s take on it, too.)

• Shubber at Space Cynic wins for Achievements in Special Effects for the possible impending doom of NASA’s Ares mission. If Shubber is right, I would be hard-pressed to find an informed astronaut willing to get on board that thing!
• Sean Welton wins the award for rehashing the oldest fight in Astronomy, between Newton and Galileo, over whether you should own a refracting telescope or a reflecting telescope. My money’s on Newton’s reflectors; dude, the man wrote a book called “Opticks.”
• Ethan Siegel wins the Shameless Self-Promotion Cosmic History award for his post right here on Starts With A Bang! on why the Cosmic Microwave Background is the same temperature everywhere. He narrowly defeated a competing post on figuring out the Age and Size of the Universe, which would have won any other week.
• Fraser Cain and Pamela Gay win for Best Broadcast for their Podcast at Astronomycast.com on “Where is the center of the Universe?” Apparently, it isn’t wherever I happen to be, contrary to whatever I may tell you.
• Finally, Nancy Young-Houser won her second award of the night, The Humanitarian Award, for her post on NASA unveiling Space for the Blind. It’s written by the same author who wrote the 1990 Braille book Touch the Stars.

Made it this far? Take a good look around the site and enjoy! Have any questions about astronomy/physics/cosmology? Drop me a line and check back; it’s your good questions that keep me writing. Thanks for visiting this week’s Carnival of Space! Did you like it? Digg it!

1. The latest Carnival of Space is live, where you have your choice of 23 different astronomical topics to choose from. Of course, my post this week on galaxies and how they’re made is on there, too!
2. Pamela L. Gay, cohost of Astronomy Cast, blogger of Star Stryder and all-around great person, saw a press release this week about whether we need dark matter and dark energy. The answer, of course, is yes, but since I’m an expert on that stuff, she came to me and asked me to give my analysis of the scientific articles. You can find my first guest post on her blog here.
3. I found the perfect job advertisement for myself: hosting a science-based TV show! The concept is that I would be Dangerman, putting my life in the hands of science and performing stunts that would otherwise be life-ending. This would be great for me because I wouldn’t do this crazy stuff unless I was confident I would live, and so I’d be great at convincing the audience that, against the odds, I ought to survive. I think I could bring a perspective that it isn’t about having faith in science, it’s about understanding the way the world works that would allow me to live through those stunts. Plus, I love doing crazy stunts!

So seriously, go read the Carnival of Space, go read my guest post over on Star Stryder, and go email Annabel Rafferty and tell her that I would make a wonderful Dangerman!

How does this work?  The video demonstrates that to make something very simple happen (to get a sustained, controlled flame out of a compact piece of equipment), a lot of thought needs to go into how it’s made, and what each step is going to accomplish.  A lighter works by the following:

1. Flint and steel rub together (that’s turning the wheel) to create very high temperatures along the metal shavings, which fly off in many directions.  
2. The metal conducts heat well enough to get very hot, but the individual shavings, interacting only with the air, remain quite hot, and can glow for up to about a quarter of a second.
3. The hydrocarbon gas (which flows up from the spout when the lever is pressed) enters the volume where the very hot metal shavings are.
4. The gas has a low ignition point, and when it approaches close enough to the hot metal shavings, they ignite, so long as there’s enough oxygen around.
5. The ignition causes a large release of energy, significant enough to light all of the remaining gas in the neighborhood, which expands, rises, and cools.
6. Finally, the excess gas completely burns off, leaving only the gas from the spout continuing to burn, as the air directly over the lighter is hot enough (and oxygenated enough) to cause continued ignition.

Neat!  You can see the different colors of fire that result from the different temperatures, and you can see how, if it weren’t for three or four specific metal shards, the lighter wouldn’t have lit!  Of course I think everything is better in slow motion…