Posts tagged astronomy
beerock
The orbits of the moons and planets form a fractal 4-dimensional helix in spacetime.
(via infinity-imagined)
Snowy Range Perseids Meteor Show by David Kingham
(via dawnawakened)
Who wouldn’t want to go to space after seeing this?
View from the ISS at Night (by Knate Myers)
WANT
Starfield (by lab212)
Solar activity is picking up, and no one has a better view of its effect on Earth than the crew of the International Space Station. During a geomagnetic storm on Sept. 17th, astronauts recorded a must-see movie of auroras dancing underfoot.
via Spaceweather.com
via Anton Jankovoy
Beautiful time lapse of the stars
Incredible
The Mountain (by Terje Sorgjerd)
This NASA image released June 21, 2010 shows the Aurora Australis observed from the International Space Station on May 29, 2010. This aurora image is taken during a geomagnetic storm that was most likely caused by a coronal mass ejection from the Sun.
FANTASTIC SOLAR ECLIPSE: When the sun rose over Europe on Dec 4, 2011, a piece of it was missing. The Moon had covered as much as 86% of the solar disk, producing a partial solar eclipse and a fantastic crescent-shaped sunrise. The most amazing apparition, however, may have occurred in the Sultanate of Oman, where for a split second the Moon and the International Space Station partially eclipsed the sun at the same time. Photographed by Thierry Legault.
Not sure what the big deal is. I actually discovered a supernovae when I was 9. But I didn’t tell anyone so this 10 year old could take credit one day. I’m cool like that.
But seriously, why are downplaying her discovery! WTF! Discovering a supernovae is NO SMALL FEAT! Step back folks! This is a HUGE accomplishment even for professional astronomers. Bill Bryson explains in his superb analogy from his superb book, A Short History of Nearly Everything:
“To understand what a feat this is, imagine a standard dining room table covered in a black tablecloth and someone throwing a handful of salt across it. The scattered grains can be thought of as a galaxy. Now imagine fifteen hundred more tables like the first one — enough to fill a Wal-Mart parking lot, say, or to make a single line two miles long — each with a random array of salt across it. Now add one grain of salt to any table and let Bob Evans walk among them. At a glance he will spot it. That grain of salt is the supernova.”
Also remember, we have no idea when a star is going to explode. It’s chance.
Kids Discover the Darndest Supernovae of the Day: While her peers are out buying moon pies and penny whistles (or whatever the blast kids buy these days), 10-year-old Kathryn Aurora Gray of New Brunswick is busy discovering stellar explosions. This week, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada certified Gray as the youngest person to have spotted a supernova.
While not a life-altering breakthrough, “every supernova discovery goes into the body of knowledge that helps astronomers understand the universe,” Amateur astronomer Dave Lane told the Globe and Mail. “It will not change the price of bread, but it will help us understand the age of the universe and where the universe began, it is part of that puzzle.”
(Source: thedailywhat)
“The Planet and the Radio Dish”
Taken at the Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales. Have a look at the full 3D view here!
NASA’s Kepler Telescope Finds What May Be an Earth-Size Planet - NYTimes.com
Click on the image.
Rings
