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High ResolutionWhat the Death of the Sun Will Look Like
About 1.1 billion years from now, the sun will begin to change. As the hydrogen fuel in its core is used up, the burning will spread outward toward the surface. This will make the sun grow brighter. This increased radiation will have a devastating effect on our planet. Here’s what that might look like.
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High ResolutionA really cool solar system scale graphic by 3D artist Roberto Ziche (via Bob’s Spaces)
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solar flares (up to 300 000 km long) and sunspot (approx 27 000 km across) captured by the swedish solar telescope in 2002.
That close up is fantastic.
(via expose-the-light)
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Making Stars on Earth
Nuclear fusion is the reason our sun shines. It’s the process by which two atomic nuclei fuse into one, heavier nuclei—and the process by which stars produce energy. The heart of our Sun is a vast powerhouse, where the nuclear fusion of two hydrogen atoms into one helium atom radiates huge amounts of energy. Earth’s current nuclear reactors use nuclear fission, which produces energy by splitting one atom into two. This process creates harmful radioactive waste, but nuclear fusion is cleaner, safer, and more efficient. If we could effectively build our own star here on Earth—our own celestial power plant—we would have access to unlimited clean energy, but although decades of research has created glimpses of fusion reactions such as the JET (Joint European Torus) experimental fusion reactor pictured above, we have yet to learn how to usefully harness this energy. But what we’ve managed to create so far is still amazing. In Brian Cox’s words: “Scientists have learned how to create and hold star matter—a cocktail of gases heated to 100 million degrees. For a moment, a little piece of the sun springs into life on the Earth.”
(Image Credit: Wonders of the Universe)
(via we-are-star-stuff)
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The American flags on the moon are all white
Hmm, I didn’t know it at the time, but apparently those all-white American flags that I posted not only look cool but they actually have some truth behind them. Gizmodo reports that the flags posted on the Moon’s surface have all lost their color due to the extreme conditions and lack of atmosphere on the lunar surface. Just like things fade in the sun here on earth, they also do so on the moon but at a much quicker pace.
(via andrewharlow)
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High ResolutionNorthern sun
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Fun With Feynman: Fire
You can’t help but smile when you watch this wonderful man get excited about the “catastrophe” of fire, to see his hands slamming carbon and oxygen atoms together like a little kid! I mean, just behold the amazingness of science!
You just let him remind you that trees grow out of the air, and not the ground, and tell me you aren’t beaming from ear to ear!!
If you’ve ever wondered what exactly fire is, watch this.
(Source: youtube.com)
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In Focus: The Transit of Venus
Observers around the world (at least those who who were blessed with clear skies) were able to look up yesterday and view our neighboring planet Venus as it passed directly between us and the Sun. This rare event will not reoccur for another 105 years. Scientists used the six-hour transit as an opportunity to perform experiments, helping refine techniques to observe and measure distant exoplanets. Gathered here are images of yesterday’s event, seen from from orbit and from here on Earth.
See more. [Images: NASA/SDO, Reuters]
(via itsfullofstars)
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Morning on Mars
6 Martian sunrises, as seen by the HiRISE orbiter. Once again, not artist’s renditions.
Morning on another world.Absolutely wonderful.
(via we-are-star-stuff)
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Happy Equinox
Hundreds of pictures of Earth, each taken at about 6AM , showing the terminator - the day/night line - over the course of one year (2010sep-2011sep).
Taken by METEOSAT-9 Earth-observing satellite.
Watch the Video here
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory -
Radiolab: Is There an Edge to the Heavens?
Edward Dolnick tells an escape story involving God, humanity, and a huge rewrite of cosmic laws. It began in 1665. A plague hit Cambridge University. All of the students were sent home. One of them is a twenty-something Isaac Newton, who spent his forced summer vacation solving “the problem of the moon” and explaining why that heavenly rock will never be free.
Sucks for the moon. But Newton’s mental leap ultimately lead to humanity leaving the confines of planet Earth. And as producer Lynn Levy explains, we’re about to reach yet another new frontier. The Voyager probe (which we talked about in our Space episode) is about to become the first human-made object to leave the solar system. And the information it’s been sending us along the way has upended what we thought we knew about our little corner of the universe. Merav Opher is an astronomy professor at BU and a Voyager guest investigator. Ann Druyan is one of the creators of the 1977 Golden Album traveling on the Voyager probe. Together they describe how Voyager continues to surprise us.
That was the best explanation I’ve ever heard of how Isaac Newton figured out gravity and orbits, building on the work of Galileo before him. The segment on Voyager is also fantastic.
Divine Irony
is a rich archive of religious delusions, scientific truths and political implications.
"Tell people there’s an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure."
-George Carlin
“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed”.
-Albert Einstein
