New York Times Article and other stuff...

One of the experiments that my facility launched from Antarctica last year has apparently made some pretty significant astronomical discoveries. Not really knowing that much about it, I guess they made one of the first actual measurements of dark matter. Anyway, the group has published a paper in the magazine Nature and today there was an article in the New York Times about the experiment. Below are 2 links. The first is a rather lengthy article, but there are some really good pictures of the launch from Antarctica. The second is a one page summary that is much more palatable to those of us who aren't genius astro-physicists. There is a REALLY good picture on this one as well. It gives a view of the entire flight train of the balloon at launch. You can really tell how big everything is on this picture. The orange thing about a third of the way up on the flight train is the parachute. Everything above this is the balloon and when it is fully inflated will be a sphere with that diameter. Anyway, here are the links.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/science/25dark.html?ref=science

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/11/25/science/20081125_DARK_GRAPHIC.html

There's not much else going on down here. It has been a little warmer lately - temperatures have made it all the way up to the low 20s on several days. It's funny that 20s actually seem warm down here. If I was back in Texas, 20 would seem frigid. Tonight I get to go on an Ice Cave tour at the Mount Erebus glacier. I am really looking forward to it, not only because from what I've heard it's pretty awesome, but also it's something to break the monotony of my daily schedule. So tomorrow, hopefully I will have some really good pictures to share. Below are just 2 random pictures from the past few days.

The ANITA payload outside. They still have to add another row of antennas to the bottom and solar panels

An Adelie Penguin near Ross Island. I guy I work with actually took this picture. I have only seen 1 penguin since I have been here and didn't have my camera.