Oct 7 2009 New Giant Ring Discovered Around Saturn
Because space is awesome and full of mysteries (and butt-naked aliens), scientists just recently discovered a freaking huge new ice-and-dust ring around Saturn. I want it for engagement!
Although the ring dust is very cold -- minus 316 degrees Fahrenheit -- it shines with thermal radiation.
No one had looked at its location with an infrared instrument until now, Clavin said.The bulk of the ring material starts about 3.7 million miles from the planet and extends outward about another 7.4 million miles.
The newly found ring is so huge it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it, JPL said.
1 billion earths -- that's a lot! Not as many as you could fit in my stomach, but I've been expanding it with balloons. I'm gonna be a drug mule!
NASA telescope discovers giant ring around Saturn [comcastnews]
Thanks to Calabasa209, who has been to space and knows things. Things you wouldn't even believe. I'm talking wormhole shit. Makes great fertilizer!
May 16 2009 Outerspace Eye Candy: Space Shuttle And Hubble Telescope Silhouetted Against Sun
This is a photo of the space shuttle Atlantis and Hubble Space Telescope silhouetted against the sun. It really made me think about stuff. You know, like outerspace and all that. I'm really deep.
The exceptionally gifted astrophotographer Thierry Legault captured this stunning tableau just minutes before the crew of Atlantis caught up with and captured Hubble for its very last servicing mission on May 13, 2009. This shot has never been accomplished before, and it's magnificent. He used a 13 cm telescope, and camera that took a series of 16 images of 1/8000th of second each.
Awesome image, Thierry. Reminds me of the time I bet the sun I could beat it in a staring contest and kicked its shiny ass. And that, my friends, is why I'm so bright.
Hit the jump for a couple more shots, one of which may or may not look like Pac-Man from behind.
May 11 2009 Another Day, Another Cosmic Eyeball
We've already seen God's hand, God's eye and the Eye of Sauron, so why not another cosmic ball of eye? This here is the latest in a batch of images from the Hubble Space Bubblescope of planetary nebula Knockout 4-55. Enter Punch-Out tie-in here. I AM THE L337 BLOGGAR!
Planetary nebulas have nothing to do with planets. They were named so because in early telescopes, they had the fuzzy look of planets in our outer solar system. In fact planetary nebulas sit throughout our galaxy. This one contains the outer layers of a red giant star that were expelled into interstellar space when the star was in the late stages of its life.Ultraviolet radiation emitted from the remaining hot core of the star ionizes the ejected gas shells, causing them to glow.
In the specific case of K 4-55, a bright inner ring is surrounded by a bipolar structure. The entire system is then surrounded by a faint red halo, seen in the emission by nitrogen gas. This multi-shell structure is fairly uncommon in planetary nebulae.
BOOM, YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YOU WAS GETTING ASTRONOMY LESSONED! Now, for your astrology lesson: it's all bullshit. Also, you will make decisions soon. NO I AM NOT HIGH. Tell me, if eyes are the windows to one's soul, is a cosmic eye THE WINDOW TO ANOTHER DIMENSION?! And, if so, is there a dinosaur park there? ZOMG -- quick, tie me to a rocket engine!
Hubble Photographs Giant Eye in Space [yahoonews]
Thanks to Watch-303, who may or may not be operating out of Boulder/Denver region.
Apr 14 2009 'God's Hand' Spotted Using Space Telescope
That's right, son, spotted for the first time since like the year -5 billion: God's hand!
The image, taken by NASA's space-based Chandra Observatory telescope, shows an X-ray nebula 150 light years across.
NASA says the display is caused by a young and powerful pulsar, known by the rather prosaic name of PSR B1509-58.The finger-like structures are apparently caused by "energizing knots of material in a neighboring gas cloud," NASA says.
DAAAAMN! But seriously, God, you might want to have that pinky looked at.
NASA photos show giant cosmic hand [cnn]
Thanks e., I would walk 150 light years, and I would walk 150 more, just to be the man who walked 300 light years to fall down at your door.
Mar 18 2009 Rare Quadruple Moon Transit On Saturn
Will you look at that -- four of Saturn's moons (from left to right) Enceladus, Dione, Titan, and Mimas, all transiting its face at the same time. Amazing! This picture was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and just recently released by NASA. You know, pictures like this really get me thinking about the beauty of space and just how small we are compared to the vast expanse outside our own atmosphere. Also, naked-ass aliens gettin' freaky deaky on the moon.
Hit the jump for a cool time lapse photo of the transit in progress.
Dec 8 2008 ISS Orbiting Toolbag Filmed From Earth
Remember last month when a NASA toolbag accidentally floated off into space during a repair to the International Space Station (if not, video after the jump. Skip to about 0:55 to see the loss)?
Endeavor astronaut Heidi Stefanyshyn-Piper's loss has turned out to be an amateur star gazers' event of the season. The $100,000 tool bag slipped out of her reach and floated into space while she was trying to clean up a greasy mess on the starboard section of the space station. The tool bag is now dubbed ISS Toolbag and is orbiting the Earth. According to Space.com, Edward Light spotted the orbiting tool bag using 10 x 50 binoculars from his backyard in Lakewood, New Jersey.
The orbiting tool bag weighs approximately 30-pounds. It measures 20-inches wide and 12-inches long. The tool bag contains two grease guns, a scraper tool, a large trash bag and a small debris bag. Given the size and dim magnitude of the orbiting tool bag, star gazers will need binoculars or a small telescope to view it.
The video above is actual footage of the bag sailing by. Go here and enter your ZIP code to find out when and were to look to see the toolbag for yourself. Alternatively, come over to my place around six when my roommate gets home.
Hit the jump for the loss video.
Sep 18 2008 The First Glimpse Of An Actual Alien Planet
That's right folks, this is not the light at the end of the tunnel, it's a star and orbiting planet some 500 light years away.
While scientists have found numerous planets by detecting gravitational "wobble" in stars, "this is the first time we have directly seen a planetary mass object in a likely orbit around a star like our Sun," said the lead author of a paper about the discovery, David Lafrenière.
The planet is 3,106 trillion miles away and approximately 8x the size of Jupiter, but 11x further from its sun than Neptune is from ours. Interesting, very interesting. Being a town-renowned astronomer myself, I'll go ahead and spit some info about the planet that those pseudo-scientists that made the discovery failed to mention. Let's see here....round, yellowish-orange, significantly smaller than 1".
BAM! You just got Saganed!
Historic first look at an alien world, 3106 trillion miles away [dvice]
Jun 18 2008 Scientists Discover 'Super-Earths' 42-Light Years Away, Regular Earth Gets Depressed
So scientists have discovered what they're dubbing "super-Earths" circling a star 42-light years away. That's an artist's depiction of what they might look like if they were identical in appearance to earth and weren't actually pink with purple polka-dots like I know they are. Three have been identified so far, and they were detected not by sight, but by the effects they have on the star they orbit.
Using a new tool to study more than 100 stars once thought to be devoid of planets, the Swiss-French team found that about one-third had planets that are only slightly bigger than Earth.That's how the star with three super-Earths, 42 light-years away, was spotted. The European team took a second look with a relatively new instrument that measures tiny changes in light wave lengths and is so sensitive that it is precisely positioned and locked in a special room below the observatory in Chile. And the key is kept in Switzerland, scientists say.
So, you're probably still wondering what the hell a super-Earth is, aren't you? Well you're in luck, because I'm a scientist and I just happen to know. Super-Earths are planets similar to Earth, but have gained super powers -- like the ability to see through another planet's shirt and ogle its mountains.
Astronomers find 'super Earths' circling a star [yahoonews]
Thanks and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to loyal Geekologie operative Altaire
May 23 2008 Telectroscope Connects New York & London
The Telectroscope was built by artist/inventor Paul St. George and connects New York and London via a massive tunnel you can look through and see out the other end.
"The Telectroscope started off as a totally unintentional hoax in the 1870s," explains St George, who is the leading expert on this forgotten backwater of Victorian technology. "It came about through an error. A French editor misread a report about the invention of a thing called the Electroscope - which is all to do with static electricity - and called it a Telectroscope. He also misinterpreted its purpose. "The fascinating thing is that his misunderstanding of what it did - to communicate face to face over a vast distance - really caught fire.
Needless to say there is no such massive tunnel. The end portals were just made to look like they're heading through the earth. In actuality, they're connected via "fiber optic cabling, and an HD camera and projector on either end provide live streaming video. But who really cares, you can still look in one end of this device in New York and see out the other in London. You'll find one end next to the Brooklyn Bridge, and the other across the pond, next to Tower Bridge."
I've got to admit, it's a pretty neat art piece. I could get my girlfriend to stand on one end in England and show me her boobs, and then I could stand on the New York end with all my friends and make fun of how small they are.
So yeah, HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND EVERYONE! Have fun and be safe. But not too safe (the firework war is still a go).
A couple more pictures of the thing after the jump.
Continue Reading " Telectroscope Connects New York & London "
Jan 3 2008 For Photogs/Pervs: Camera Phone Telescope
The Brando (not again) Mobile Phone Telescope was made specifically for Motorola RAZRs and KRZRs and attaches to the phone for 6x magnification. They run $19.
Overcome the short coming of camera cellphone that can only near-sighted, it also makes distant view for you at the moment. The new design to run of rays can effectively avoid the contortion of image, and makes the super wide angle, the larger luminous flux, the higher visual acuteness, good for color reduction, which makes the high quality of photography. It can take a picture while fixing the telescope on back shell. (If the screen of your cellphone is analyzed degree enought, you can adjust the focus with the screen of the cellphone).
Well there you have it folks, straight from Brando, a bunch of shit that doesn't making any sense. I thought for sure they'd mention that putting the thing in your pocket would make it look like you have a raging mini-boner. Which is why I bought one, and I don't even own a Motorola.
