It's Full of Stars

geeeronimo: Check out my new shower curtain. THE EAGLE HAS...

crookedindifference — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:15:04 +0100

Check out my new shower curtain.
THE EAGLE HAS LANDED
I WILL SEE THIS EVERY SHOWER

crookedindifference: sirmitchell: You guys, I am thrilled to...

crookedindifference — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:14:41 +0100

sirmitchell:

You guys, I am thrilled to finally share this with you. It’s the first time I’ve ever curated a show, and it’s a theme that I’m very passionate about. Take a gander at the artist list, get yourself pumped up and come to the show, it’s going to be a stellar time.

I’m going. For sure.

ianbrooks: Science and Space Posters by Ron Guyatt Part of a...

bumerangue — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:28:50 +0100

Space Rocks by Ron Guyatt / posted by ianbrooks.me

Mountain of the Gods by Ron Guyatt / posted by ianbrooks.me

ianbrooks:

Science and Space Posters by Ron Guyatt

Part of a series for spacevidcast.com to help inspire and spread the Good Word of Science! Prints available at etsy.

Artist: Tumblr / Website / Facebook

comicbookcovers: Planet OF Vampires #1, February 1975, cover by...

bumerangue — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:25:20 +0100

comicbookcovers:

Planet OF Vampires #1, February 1975, cover by Pat Broderick and Neal Adams

astrodidact: Europa Report TRAILER (2013)

propagandery — Wed, 22 May 2013 06:40:47 +0100

astrodidact:

Europa Report TRAILER (2013)

crookedindifference: Helios B Helios-A and Helios-B (also...

crookedindifference — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:21:11 +0100

crookedindifference:

Helios B

Helios-A and Helios-B (also known as Helios 1 and Helios 2), are a pair of probes launched into heliocentric orbit for the purpose of studying solar processes. A joint venture of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and NASA, the probes were launched from the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Dec. 10, 1974, and Jan. 15, 1976, respectively.
The probes are notable for having set a maximum speed record among spacecraft at 252,792 km/h (157,078 mi/h or 43.63 mi/s or 70.22 km/s or 0.000234c). Helios 2 flew three million kilometers closer to the Sun than Helios 1, achieving perihelion on 17 April 1976 at a record distance of 0.29 AU (or 43.432 million kilometers), slightly inside the orbit of Mercury. Helios 2 was sent into orbit 13 months after the launch of Helios 1. The Helios space probes completed their primary missions by the early 1980s, but they continued to send data up to 1985. The probes are no longer functional but still remain in their elliptical orbit around the Sun

Falcon Heavy: Uncertain Case for Lunar Exploration

crookedindifference — Tue, 21 May 2013 07:40:38 +0100

Falcon Heavy: Uncertain Case for Lunar Exploration

jtotheizzoe: The Earliest Days of NASA Maria Popova, at Brain...

crookedindifference — Tue, 21 May 2013 01:46:52 +0100

jtotheizzoe:

The Earliest Days of NASA

Maria Popova, at Brain Pickings, happened upon a treasure trove of early NASA (and its airplane-only predecessor NACA) archive photos. They are really something. From biplanes to the Mercury capsule, pre-1950 aeronautics seemed to live by the motto of “If we build it, then we can go there.” That’s a sentiment we could use a bit more of.

More here.

newyorker: How exploding stars might well have changed the...

bumerangue — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:05:30 +0100

newyorker:

How exploding stars might well have changed the course of evolution: http://nyr.kr/117eF9g

distant-traveller: A swirl of star formation This beautiful,...

crookedindifference — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:14:36 +0100

distant-traveller:

A swirl of star formation

This beautiful, glittering swirl is named, rather unpoetically, J125013.50+073441.5. A glowing haze of material seems to engulf the galaxy, stretching out into space in different directions and forming a fuzzy streak in this image. It is a starburst galaxy — a name given to galaxies that show unusually high rates of star formation. The regions where new stars are being born are highlighted by sparkling bright blue regions along the galactic arms.

Studying starburst galaxies can tell us a lot about galactic evolution and star formation. These galaxies start off with huge amounts of gas, which is used to form new stars. This period of furious star formation is only a phase; once all the gas is used up, this starbirth slows down. Other famous starbursts captured by Hubble include the Antennae Galaxies and Messier 82, the latter of which is forming new stars ten times faster than our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Hayes

spaceplasma: Black-body radiation When astronomers refer to the...

crookedindifference — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:04:39 +0100

spaceplasma:

Black-body radiation

When astronomers refer to the temperature of a star, they are talking about the temperature of the gases in the photosphere, and they express those temperatures on the Kelvin temperature scale. On this scale, zero degrees Kelvin (written 0 K) is absolute zero (2273.2°C or 2459.7°F), the temperature at which an object contains no thermal energy that can be extracted. Water freezes at 273 K and boils at 373 K (at sea-level atmospheric pressure). The Kelvin temperature scale is useful in astronomy because it is based on absolute zero and consequently is related directly to the motion of the particles in an object.

Now you can understand why a hot object glows, or to put it another way, why a hot object emits photons, bundles of electromagnetic energy. The hotter an object is, the more motion there is among its particles. The agitated particles, including electrons, collide with each other, and when electrons accelerate—change their motion—part of the energy is carried away as electromagnetic radiation. The radiation emitted by a heated object is called black-body radiation, a name translated from a German term that refers to the way a perfectly opaque object would behave. A perfectly opaque object would be both a perfectly efficient absorber and a perfectly efficient emitter of radiation. At room temperature, such a perfect absorber and emitter would look black, but at higher temperatures it would glow at wavelengths visible to a human eye. That explains why in astronomy and physics contexts you will see the term black-body referring to objects that glow brightly.

Black-body radiation is quite common. In fact, it is responsible for the light emitted by an incandescent light bulb. Electricity flowing through the filament of the bulb heats it to high temperature, and it glows. You can also recognize the light emitted by hot lava as black-body radiation. Many objects in the sky, including the sun and other stars, primarily emit black-body radiation because they are mostly opaque.

Credit: Michael A. Seeds, Dana E. Backman

Gif credit: caucasianmale

crookedindifference: First Solar Eclipse Photograph Berkowski...

crookedindifference — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:50:26 +0100

crookedindifference:

First Solar Eclipse Photograph

Berkowski made the first solar eclipse photograph on July 28, 1851, also using the daguerrotype process, at the Royal Observatory in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kalinigrad in Russia). Berkowski, a local daguerrotypist whose first name was never published, observed at the Royal Observatory. A small 6-cm refracting telescope was attached to the 15.8-cm Fraunhofer heliometer and a 84-second exposure was taken shortly after the beginning of totality.

propagandery: During its nine years of operations, Opportunity...

propagandery — Fri, 17 May 2013 04:36:40 +0100

propagandery:

During its nine years of operations, Opportunity has roved 35.760 kilometers, edging out the Apollo astronaut’s 35.744-kilometer drive. The champion for driving on another surface still goes to the Soviet Lunokhod 2 rover, which traveled 37 kilometers across the moon in 1973.

Charted: Extraterrestrial Driving Records

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

propagandery — Thu, 16 May 2013 06:08:41 +0100

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Chris Hadfield's 30 Best Photos From Space

bumerangue — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:39:45 +0100

Chris Hadfield's 30 Best Photos From Space:

Incredible shots tweeted by the rock-star astronaut from the International Space Station

Photo

bumerangue — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:58:19 +0100

flavorpill: A Brief History of Songs That Have Gone to Space

bumerangue — Wed, 15 May 2013 02:55:47 +0100

flavorpill:

A Brief History of Songs That Have Gone to Space

What the hell is happening on the Sun?

bumerangue — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:01:39 +0100

What the hell is happening on the Sun?:

In less than 24 hours, the Sun has unleashed a trio of X-Class solar flares. They are the first, second and third X-class eruptions of 2013, making them the most powerful of the year by a substantial margin. What’s more, each burst has been more violent than the last. So uhh… what the hell is going on here?

canadian-space-agency: Col. Chris Hadfield: “Safely home - back...

crookedindifference — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:03:03 +0100

canadian-space-agency:

Col. Chris Hadfield: “Safely home - back on Earth, happily readapting to the heavy pull of gravity. Wonderful to smell and feel Spring.”

Read about Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield’s return to Earth following historic five-month mission here: http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/media/news_releases/2013/0513.asp

Photo credits: Mikhail Metzel/AFP/Getty Images/Guardian/space-pics/NASA

NASA’s Retro Drawings of Humans on Mars

bumerangue — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:12:46 +0100

NASA’s Retro Drawings of Humans on Mars