Top 10 Reasons Why the World Won't End in 2012
This list from the Discovery Channel might come in handy to give to someone you know who might get too nervous about the 2012 doomsday predictions and the movie about them. Each scenario is debunked with what scientists really know. For example,
1. Changes in the Sun’s magnetic field will lead to powerful flares.
So what else is new under the sun? The sun goes though a well-documented 11-year sunspot cycle that is driven by its magnetic field entangling, reforming and flipping polarity. Yes, the peak of the next cycle is in 2012 (or 2013), and some predictions suggest it might be 30 to 50 percent stronger than the last peak.
But experts say it will certainly not be the biggest peak ever recorded.
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Space-Themed Quilts
Photo: Jimmy McBride
Artist Jimmy McBride makes quilts inspired by stunning astronomical photographs, such as this depiction of galaxy M64. It’s currently on display at the City Quilter, a quilt shop in New York City. McBride writes:
they say in space, “no one can hear you scream.” well, they can’t hear the low drone of the internal power generators kick on again when you’re half way to nowhere. i can. i work for a shipping company called “intergalactic transport.” i travel back and forth from rock to rock carrying those two all important gems- salt and vinegar. there’s a lot of time to kill up here so i downloaded a grandma program and she’s been teaching me how to quilt. there’s no “log cabins” or “poinsettias” around so i just stare out the window until something catches my eye. it’s nice every once in a while to shoot the shit with a fellow traveler, or get caught up in the new dawn celebrations in the outer rim, but mostly it’s just me; with a lot of time on my hands.
Link via Make | City Quilter
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New Saturn Ring Discovered
Using infrared, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted an enormous ring encircling Saturn, previously undetected by other telescopes. The ring is likely composed of ice crystals shed by Phoebe, the farthest Saturnian moon. The new ring reaches 11 million miles (18 million km) away from the planet.
“This is one supersized ring,” said Anne Verbiscer, an astronomer at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. “If you could see the ring, it would span the width of two full moons’ worth of sky, one on either side of Saturn.”
The discovery may help solve an age-old riddle of one of Saturn’s moons. Iapetus has a strange appearance — one side is bright and the other is really dark, in a pattern that resembles the yin-yang symbol… The ring is circling in the same direction as Phoebe, while Iapetus, the other rings and most of Saturn’s moons are all going the opposite way. According to the scientists, some of the dark and dusty material from the outer ring moves inward toward Iapetus, slamming the icy moon like bugs on a windshield.
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A Picture of a Sunspot
Image: University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
The image above is a computer-generated model of what a 3,700-mile wide sunspot looks like. It was created by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado for their ongoing efforts to understand the physics of sunspots:
“This is the first time we have a model of an entire sunspot,” says lead author Matthias Rempel, a scientist at NCAR’s High Altitude Observatory. “If you want to understand all the drivers of Earth’s atmospheric system, you have to understand how sunspots emerge and evolve. Our simulations will advance research into the inner workings of the Sun as well as connections between solar output and Earth’s atmosphere.”[...]
The new computer models capture pairs of sunspots with opposite polarity. In striking detail, they reveal the dark central region, or umbra, with brighter umbral dots, as well as webs of elongated narrow filaments with flows of mass streaming away from the spots in the outer penumbral regions. They also capture the convective flow and movement of energy that underlie the sunspots, and that are not directly detectable by instruments.
The models suggest that the magnetic fields within sunspots need to be inclined in certain directions in order to create such complex structures. The authors conclude that there is a unified physical explanation for the structure of sunspots in umbra and penumbra that is the consequence of convection in a magnetic field with varying properties.
Link via Popular Science
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Gigagalaxy Zoom
This is what I ended up with after just a minute of playing around with Gigagalaxy Zoom, a project by the European Southern Observatory. Start with the Milky Way galaxy as seen by the naked eye, zoom into a section of it, then zoom to the next stage! There are lots and lots of variations, and cool nebulas to explore!
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Why settle for a boring computer mouse when you can surft in style with Road Mice, a cool wireless computer mouse that looks just like the car of your dreams? Road Mice is available in various Chevy, Chrysler, Dodge, and Ford models including the popular Black Mustang with White Stripes shown to the left. It's the perfect gift for the auto-enthusiast in your life! |
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Observatory Intruders Caught
There were strange things showing up on the telescopic images at the Smithsonian’s Whipple Observatory in Arizona, but astronomers knew they weren’t UFOs. An unidentified perpetrator had been leaving dusty footprints on the telescope’s mirrors for a year, eventually marring five expensive mirrors. Over the summer, employees at the observatory set out traps and captured ringtail cats on three occasions. The ringtail cat {wiki} is the official state mammal of Arizona. They are related to raccoons. The captured animals were taken some distance away from the observatory and released.
“We’re considering making the ringtail cat the unofficial mascot of the MEarth project,” said project leader David Charbonneau. “With those big eyes, they’ve certainly got the night vision to be natural-born astronomers!”
The observatory now has a webcam, in case anyone wants to watch for more intruders. Link (with video) -via Metafilter
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Super Massive Black Hole
Scientists have detected a black hole 12.8 billion light-years away, which means it was around when the universe was very young. This one is a billion times the size of our sun! The light from the black hole (or more correctly, from burning objects being sucked into it) has traveled so long to get to earth that its wavelengths have shifted. The process, known as redshift, help astronomers to calculate the huge distance to objects in space.
To see the supermassive black hole, the team of scientists used new red-sensitive charge-coupled devices (CCDs) installed in the Suprime-Cam camera on the Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea.
CCDs are used in many light detecting gadgets from photocopiers to bar-code readers. In astronomy they are used to collect analogue information (such as light or an electrical charge from a distant object) and convert it into digital information that can be analyzed by computer software.
(image credit: University of Hawaii)
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Giant Planet Orbits Backwards
Astronomers with the Wide Area Search for Planets have discovered a planet, dubbed WASP-17, that is twice the size of Jupiter. That makes it the largest planet ever discovered. Unlike any other planet discovered so far, it orbits opposite to its star’s direction of rotation. Astronomer David Anderson from Keele University:
“Newly formed solar systems can be violent places. Our own Moon is thought to have been created when a Mars-sized planet collided with the recently formed Earth and threw up a cloud of debris. A near collision during the early, violent stage of this planetary system could well have caused a gravitational slingshot, flinging WASP-17 into its backwards orbit.”
But why is WASP-17 so big? The discovery team suggests that have been subjected to intense tides as it travelled in its strange and highly-elliptical orbit, causing it to become stretched and bloated.
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Soap Bubble in Space
You would be forgiven if you thought this picture was a soap bubble in front of an astronomical picture. This is a picture of a planetary nebula that was overlooked until this month. Astronomers say it is either spherical or column-shaped, in which case the camera is looking down the barrel of the column. Records indicate that the nebula, officially named PN G75.5+1.7 and nicknamed the “Cygnus Bubble”, was recorded sixteen years ago during the second Palomar Sky Survey, but was overlooked at the time because it was so faint. Link -Thanks, healthylivinggal83!
(image credit: Travis A. Rector/U of Alaska Anchorage/Heidi Schweiker/NOAO)
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Solar Eclipse Wednesday
The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century will move across part of the earth tomorrow. You’ll be able to see it if you are certain parts of India, China, or Japan.
The first who will be able to see it are the inhabitants of the Gulf of Khambhat, India. Instead of the sunrise, people will see a black hole rising in the sky and birds will be unsure if the day is beginning or not.
The eclipse will last exactly 6 minutes and 39 minutes, being the longest of the 21st century and will only be surpassed on June 13, 2132. After those from the Gulf of Khambhat, also Chinese and Japanese will be able to see the solar eclipse.
Link -via Metafilter
Follow the eclipse live on this Japanese site.
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Four-Galaxy Collision
NASA’s orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory snapped this shot of Stephan’s Quintet, a group of five galaxies, four of which are currently in collision. Follow the link for a larger picture.
Previously on Neatorama:
The Hand of God
Smiley Face Galaxy
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Sixty Symbols
Are you familiar with these sixty symbols from physics and astronomy? The University of Nottingham is following up on the success of their Periodic Table of Videos (previously at Neatorama) by posting this guide with a video explaining each symbol. You can access the videos by clicking a symbol at the site. The question marks indicate symbols and videos that aren’t yet ready to launch. Link -via Metafilter
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Milky Way Time-Lapse
(Vimeo link)
William Castleman shot this video of the night sky at the Texas Star Party in Fort Davis, TX April 21-22. Watch as the core of the Milky Way passes over. -via reddit
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The Most Important Telescopes in History
This year is the International Year of Astronomy, so to help all of us armchair astronomers celebrate, New Scientist has a nifty gallery of the most important telescopes in history (from Eyes on the Skies: 400 Years of Telescopic Discovery
This one to the left is the Galileo Refractor (c. 1609):
Though he didn’t invent the telescope, Galileo improved on its design – gradually increasing its magnification power. And he was the first to realise that it could be used to study the heavens rather than just to magnify objects on Earth.
Here you can see Galileo demonstrating one of his telescopes to the ruler of Venice in August 1609 (Galileo is standing to the right of the telescope). In the years to come, Galileo’s observations – including the discovery of four large moons orbiting Jupiter – would lend credence to the sun-centred worldview of Nicolaus Copernicus, who removed the Earth from its central position in the universe.
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Amazing Picture of the Sun
Astrophotographer Thierry Legault took what is probably one of the most incredible photographs of the Sun. What’s the big deal about the big yellow ball? Look closely:
OK, so you look at it and say, “So what? It’s a picture of the quiet Sun seen in overcast conditions. Big deal!”
Ah, but a big deal it is. See those spots in the lower left quadrant of our nearest star? Those aren’t sunspots… here, let me show you what those are:
Yes, that is in fact the Space Shuttle Atlantis silhouetted against the Sun. But wait, there’s something else, isn’t there. What’s that spot below the Shuttle?That, me droogs, is the Hubble Space Telescope. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.
Holy Haleakala!
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Scientists Spot Oldest Object in Universe
I don’t know about you, but each time I read this kind of news my head spins. Scientists have detected a gamma ray burst that dates back 13 billion years, 95 percent back to the beginning of time. That makes it the oldest thing ever seen. Astronomer Edo Berger was blown away by the information.
The star which exploded was 30 to 100 times larger than our own sun, and when it died, it gave off “about million times the amount of energy the sun will release in its entire lifetime,” Berger told CNN by phone from Harvard University, where he is an assistant professor of astronomy.
Its death throes produced so much energy that “momentarily, we can essentially see it anywhere in the universe,” Berger said.
The object, known as GRB 090423, is about 200 million years older than the previous record-holder for oldest object ever seen.
Berger isn’t just interested in the record books, though — the gamma ray burst extended the frontiers of human knowledge about the history of the universe.
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Saturn by Cassini
The Big Picture Blog from the Boston Globe has pictures from NASA sent back by the Cassini spacecraft as it passed Saturn and its moons. Cassini has been functioning in space for almost five years now, and the pictures are awesome!
Cassini looks toward Rhea’s cratered, icy landscape with the dark line of Saturn’s ringplane and the planet’s murky atmosphere as a background. Rhea is Saturn’s second-largest moon, at 1,528 km (949 mi) across. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired on July 17, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million km (770,000 mi) from Rhea.
Link -via Metafilter
(image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI)
See also: Saturn’s Newest Moon
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Cartwheel in the Sky
This is the magnificent Cartwheel galaxy, a stellar structure which measures more than 100,000 light years across.
It was released to promote a 24-hour webcast from observatories around the world, marking the International Year of Astronomy.
The kaleidoscopic galaxy lies 500million light years from Earth, and its unusual shape is due to a catastrophic collision with one of the smaller galaxies on the lower left hundreds of millions of years ago.
The smaller galaxy produced compression waves in the gas of the Cartwheel as it plunged through it, which triggered bursts of star formation, lighting up the rim.
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Around the World in 80 Telescopes
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching, Germany presents a 24-hour webcast involving astronomical observatories around the world. Live streaming video will be available, plus links for each participating observatory and the times they will be online in Universal Time (GMT). The webcasts will start Friday morning at 5AM Eastern Daylight Time, or 9AM UT/GMT with the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii, then move around the world. The webcast is part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy project to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy. Link -via Metafilter
(image credit: Gemini North Observatory)
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The Milky Way Galaxy Over the Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert in South America is one of the driest places on Earth. It is so dry that it is virtually sterile (indeed, a team of scientists who tested the soil for life in simulation of NASA’s Viking missions called the soils of Atacama "Mars-like").
But in the hand of French astronomer Serge Brunier, the beauty of the Atacama Desert is revealed at night:
At night, the purity of the sky is unmatched. When the Sun goes down in Atacama, the sky quickly turned dark blue and the glow of thousands of stars awakened while the desert – invisible, empty and silent – seems to disappear.
Check out the time lapse video clip of the Milky Way galaxy over the Atacama Desert: Link | If you like that, check out Sky Time Lapse’s website as well.
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The Life of a Star
A fascinating video clip depicting the 12 billion years life cycle of a Class G type star in 6 minutes (actually 6:29). From its conception, birth, death – and the deaths of surrounding celestial bodies – and then its remnants contributing to the growth of future stars and planets are all shown. No narration just great music and animation so sit back and relax.
* Interesting note for those who don’t know: our Sun (Latin name Sol) is a Class G type star.
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You Can Choose Hubble’s Next Target
As part of the International Year of Astronomy, the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s telescopic observations, you get to decide where to point the Hubble next.
“Hubble’s Next Discovery – You Decide allows people across the world to vote online and select the next object modern astronomy’s most famous telescope will view. Six objects, which the Hubble has never before viewed, are available for voting.”
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Milky Way over Mauna Kea
Photo by Wally Pacholka
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Solstice Sunrise at Newgrange
Photo: Cyril Byrne/The Irish Times
Tomorrow is the winter solstice, the instant where the Sun is at its southernmost point. It is also the shortest day (or longest night, depending how you look at it) of the year. Ancient astronomers knew the significance of this event, and constructed the tomb of Newgrange to mark the arrival of winter solstice. APOD has the story:
Newgrange dates to 5,000 years ago, much older than Stonehenge, but also with accurate alignments to the solstice Sun. In this view from within the burial mound’s inner chamber, the first rays of the solstice sunrise are passing through a box constructed above the entrance and shine down an 18 meter long tunnel to illuminate the floor at the foot of a decorated stone. The actual stone itself would have been directly illuminated by the solstice Sun 5,000 years ago. The long time exposure also captures the ghostly figure of a more modern astronomer in motion.
Link | You can watch a webcast of the solstice sunrise from Newgrange here
Previously on Neatorama: 10 Most Fascinating Tombs in the World
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Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2008
Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy blog has selected his ten favorite astronomy pictures from the year 2008. His descriptions are as entertaining as the pictures! This one shows spiral galaxy NGC 7331, which is about 50 million light years away. Link -Thanks, Amos Kenigsberg!
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