I’m no astronomer. The number of celestial bodies I can identify by shape is highly limited, and I don’t know a lot of the science around the way Hubble makes pictures that are so breathtaking. Today, someone made a comment about just that, and it occurred to me that the only thing separating me from an understanding of the topic was air and opportunity. So I went to good ole’ Google and typed in “why do they color hubble photos?” and got the answer immediately.
On HubbleSite, there is a really explanation of this called Behind the Pictures. I figured I’d pass the link along to anyone who was similarly curious about these gorgeous photos, and what they represent. You know, cuz I’m so neat.
And while I’m at it, here’s a link to Awesome Antennae!, a post on Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy web site talking about the Antennae Galaxies and including the gorgeous picture I borrowed for this entry. Very interesting stuff indeed!
Holy cow. And the timing of this video… will some kid in middle school watch this video, wonder what it would be like to really do this, and then, in 25 more years, be sitting at the stick of a Martian flyer?
All I can say from my perspective is that this is absolutely incredible. Thanks to Emily, I have a feeling that my fellow Meddling Kid Boy Infidel will be curling up with dreams of Mars tonight.
While I was out with my back muscles all a-spazz, an article got sent my way that I immediately dismissed around the so-called consensus of the scientific community that the earth was struck by an asteroid, and that’s why the dinosaurs all died out and us mammals got our day in court. I dismissed this because it sounded like another fine example of the error science reporting makes all the time, that being that they don’t understand the difference between three scientists and all scientists.
It turns out I was wrong. Having read more on the topic, it definitely sounds like the vast majority of scientists are now in agreement that this is the only logical explanation for all the data. To help explain that, let me show you this article over at Neurologica, which does a fine job of talking about scientific consensus. It’s related to the topic of the dinosaur extinction, but uses that as a backdrop to talk about what consensus is. He also talks quite a bit about the problem of science journalism. It’s a good read, so enjoy!
Oh, and the picture? It comes from a web site that’s all about how a comet (or group of comets) will hit the earth in 2012, which they claim was pulled directly from the Bible Codes. It even has a brutal animated gif of a comet hitting the earth. If you didn’t enjoy the science above, at least enjoy the paranoia below!
Well, it looks like Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, has all the right ingredients for life. Or at least so says Science Daily, and they seem to be fairly reasonable at reporting facts. This may mean that there is the potential for living things in some form or another, be they things that are there now or things that might go there from here on their way to somewhere else. In short, it’s a pretty exciting discovery.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released an absolutely gorgeous photo of the Cat’s Paw Nebula that I wanted to share. There’s some details here at¬†the ESO website¬†about the nebula that I found quite interesting, and I strongly encourage you to go take a read through.
The ESO, for those who aren’t familliar, is an “intergovernmental science and technology organisation in astronomy…” that “carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities for astronomy to enable important scientific discoveries.” They have some extremely powerful telescopes in three locations in Chile, and they have been taking some of the most amazing photos with them.
¬†NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has brought us¬†an incredible new infrared photograph of the Small Magellanic Cloud. There’s also a whole mess of information about the cloud and it’s bigger brother (aptly named the Large Magellanic Cloud), the Spitzer Space Telescope, the concept of infrared photography as it relates to astronomy, and how our understanding of the Small Magellanic Cloud is changing. It’s well worth the read, and the image is truly stunning. Give it an eyeballing!
This is an absolutely incredible six minute video that starts out on the highest reaches of the earth and then zooms us out to the cosmic horizon as we know it. It reminds me very much when I watch it of how amazingly large the universe around us is, and what an unexplored frontier it presents to us. Seeing things in this scale, it’s hard to imagine the odds on finding nothing else alive out there, and, at least for me, hard to imagine anyone thinking that this was all the product of some God who could create something so immense and still care if I say his name when I stub my toe.
I was just reading a blurb on Science Dailyabout the latest release of findings from NASA’s most recent lunar mission. I know, you’re probably wondering how they can release this information because THEY FAKET TEH MOON LANDIN, but they did it anyway, probably just to spite you.
Some of the findings are really interesting. One thing in particular struck me as amazing, given that I’ve just sat through a nasty few days of cold winter weather. And it was nasty. It hovered around the -25 Celsius mark (-13 Fahrenheit, a balmy 248 Kelvin) for the most part, but with a nasty wind that sort of bit through you and tore out your lungs. However, that doesn’t hold a candle to what they’ve been recording on the moon:
LRO’s Diviner instrument has discovered that the bottoms of polar craters in permanent shadow can be brutally cold. Mid-winter nighttime surface temperatures inside the coldest craters in the north polar region dip down to 26 Kelvin (416 below zero Fahrenheit, or minus 249 degrees Celsius). “These are the coldest temperatures that have been measured thus far anywhere in the solar system,” said David Paige, Diviner principal investigator at the University of California, Los Angeles. “These regions are cold enough to trap a wide range of compounds such as water, carbon dioxide, and organic molecules. There could be all kinds of interesting compounds trapped there.”
26 KELVIN? Yikes!
To me, the more interesting part of that of course is the possibility for trapped organic molecules. I’m fascinated by the work that NASA has been doing of late! There’s so much that we have to learn about the moon, so much we’re only just now figuring out thanks to their diligence. But the real question is, if the moon is made of cheese, where’d they get the cow?
Two interesting articles from Science Daily today regarding the lovely cosmos we find ourselves in. The first is entitled Young Star Cluster Trumpler 14 Revealed in Stunning Image and entirely lives up to it’s name. It’s a photograph (pictured all tiny to the left) of the Trumpler 14 cluster in the Carina Nebula, and it’s quite stunning. Taken by the good folks at ESO with their Very Large Telescope!
The second is entitled First Direct Observation of a Planet-Like Object Orbiting Star Similar to Sun and offers some insight into some research from Hawaii’s Subaru Telescope focussed on GJ 758. It looks like a fairly near (in space-boy terms, 300 trillion miles is fairly near) planet or possibly a brown dwarf star.¬† At any rate, read the articles and find out more!
I just read a couple of great articles on ScienceDaily that I thought I’d share. Both are astronomical in nature, and are pretty damned neat.
The first is entitled Blushing Dusty Nebula, and talks about the image to the left,¬†a section of the Iris Nebula. It’s a fabulous clop of cosmic dust, and is lit up by a nearby star, and it appears that there’s something very special in this photograph, a section of the cloud appears to be made up of something new to us. Very cool stuff.
The second is entitled Black Hole Caught Zapping Galaxy Into Existence? and discusses an alternative theory on the relationship of black holes and galaxies. It’s quite a fascinating read, and definitely raises a few questions. This is a good summary of what they are discussing: Read more…
I’m no astronomer. The number of celestial bodies I can identify by shape is highly limited, and I don’t know a lot of the science around the way Hubble makes pictures that are so breathtaking. Today, someone made a comment about just that, and it occurred to me that the only thing separating me from an understanding of the topic was air and opportunity. So I went to good ole’ Google and typed in “why do they color hubble photos?” and got the answer immediately.
While I was out with my back muscles all a-spazz, 
Well, it looks like Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, has all the right ingredients for life. Or at least 
¬†NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has brought us¬†an 
This is an absolutely incredible six minute video that starts out on the highest reaches of the earth and then zooms us out to the cosmic horizon as we know it. It reminds me very much when I watch it of how amazingly large the universe around us is, and what an unexplored frontier it presents to us. Seeing things in this scale, it’s hard to imagine the odds on finding nothing else alive out there, and, at least for me, hard to imagine anyone thinking that this was all the product of some God who could create something so immense and still care if I say his name when I stub my toe.
I was just reading a 
Two interesting articles from Science Daily today regarding the lovely cosmos we find ourselves in. The first is entitled 
I just read a couple of great articles on ScienceDaily that I thought I’d share. Both are astronomical in nature, and are pretty damned neat.