Science Art: The Kepler Orrery II
A visualization of every solar system discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope as of February 2012 – that’s 885 plaents in 361 systems. There’s… Read the rest “Science Art: The Kepler Orrery II”
astronomy
The impossible planet.
SEN has us baffled by a recently discovered planet that shouldn’t be there:
… Read the rest “The impossible planet.”The new world is the farthest out from its home star of any previously found. It is 11 times more massive than
Exomoon spotted. Maybe. (And, well, it probably won’t happen again.)
Nature celebrates (sort of) a discovery that makes it just a smidge more likely that there’s life somewhere else out there – a little blip that probably means there’s… Read the rest “Exomoon spotted. Maybe. (And, well, it probably won’t happen again.)”
Science Art: Theoria Lunae from Harmonia Macrocosmica by Andreas Cellarius.
In 1660, Dutch-German cartographer Andreas Cellarius created an atlas of the stars.
This map shows how people thought the moon moved in 1660 – in epicycles. Before… Read the rest “Science Art: Theoria Lunae from Harmonia Macrocosmica by Andreas Cellarius.”
Science Art: Cumulative Absorption Spectrum, Hubble Telescope by NASA/STScI.
This is how spectroscopy works – how you can tell what’s floating around in space even when you can’t see it, only light that passes *through* it. The Hubble Space Telescope… Read the rest “Science Art: Cumulative Absorption Spectrum, Hubble Telescope by NASA/STScI.”
Wet planets – we’ve got their names.
Science Daily has Hubble’s latest clue to finding life elsewhere in space. The telescope has found five distant, watery worlds:
… Read the rest “Wet planets – we’ve got their names.”The five planets — WASP-17b, HD209458b, WASP-12b,
Science Art: Solar System by Johannes Kepler, Mysterium Cosmographicum
In the book Mysterium Comsmographicum, Johannes Kepler started mapping out how planets worked.
The idea here is that the solar system is structured according to the Platonic solids, one… Read the rest “Science Art: Solar System by Johannes Kepler, Mysterium Cosmographicum”
SONG: “The Hardest of Carbon”
SONG: “The Hardest of Carbon” (To download: double right-click & “Save As”)
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Based on “Diamond drizzle forecast for Saturn… Read the rest “SONG: “The Hardest of Carbon””
Remember that exploding meteorite? They just found a half-ton chunk of it.
That space rock that blew up over the Urals (and was captured on a few different cameras)… well, BBC reports that they’ve just hauled a 5-foot-long fragment out of Russia’s… Read the rest “Remember that exploding meteorite? They just found a half-ton chunk of it.”
Sooty, with a chance of diamonds.
Pennies from Heaven? P’shaw! Nature looks over the vastly overvalued weather report on Saturn and Jupiter:
… Read the rest “Sooty, with a chance of diamonds.”…Mona Delitsky of California Specialty Engineering in Flintridge,
Utopia or catastrophe: How long do civilizations live? (And how can we find another?)
Those questions were raised in, of all publications, Astrobiology Magazine. Why are astrobiologists so concerned about human culture? Because if civilizations can really die out, that… Read the rest “Utopia or catastrophe: How long do civilizations live? (And how can we find another?)”
A Super-Earth (with Plasma Water Skies).
Space.com reveals the weirdness of water – neither ice, nor liquid, nor vapor – found on a faraway planet:
… Read the rest “A Super-Earth (with Plasma Water Skies).”Astronomers have determined that the atmosphere of super-Earth
These guys are tracking the Space Station with coat hangers.
GigaOm has a great DIY project for space fans:
… Read the rest “These guys are tracking the Space Station with coat hangers.”Signals picked up by the antenna, which is made of a 10-foot wooden board and metal coat hangers, are converted into tones that differ depending
Not solid, liquid, gas or plasma. Nuclear pasta.
Space.com looks hungrily to the stars… neutron stars, where a whole new form of matter makes seriously strange space spaghetti:
… Read the rest “Not solid, liquid, gas or plasma. Nuclear pasta.”A rare state of matter dubbed “nuclear pasta”
I don’t know that quasar – can you hum a few bars?
Smithsonian joins the celestial chorus singing the praises of a new way to process astronomical data. A software package called xSonify is turning the sounds of space into music:
… Read the rest “I don’t know that quasar – can you hum a few bars?”For most