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shnize said "It didn't look like he was wearing a man bra to me..." in Science, Man Boobs and Harrison Ford
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At 10:00 a.m. Pacific, NASA will be announcing the discovery of an object in our galaxy that brings to an end a 50 year search for...whatever it is. Many theories abound, but only NASA knows for sure.
If you'd like to hear the announcement when it's revealed to the media, then you'll want to head here and listen in on the live audio conference.
Read More (Source: NASA)
NASA sent out a media advisory today, announcing a press conference for next Wednesday, May 14. What's the purpose of the press conference? NASA is being rather coy about the whole ordeal, but according to them it's to "announce the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years. This finding was made by combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with ground-based observations."
What does that mean? What could it be? We'll have to wait to find out, but based on the kind of research the Chandra X-ray Observatory performs, my guess is that they've found direct evidence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. What are your thoughts?
Read More (Source: NASA)
Our solar system may be headed for total chaos in 40-million years, according to new research by Jacques Laskar of the Observatoire in France. Jacques ran 1001 computer simulations of the solar system, each with slightly different starting positions for our planets, and in 1 to 2% of the situations, all hell broke loose.
From New Scientist:
"Once Mercury's eccentricity gets up above about 0.6, then it's getting close to crossing Venus's orbit," Laughlin told New Scientist. "Once you get orbit crossings, you sort of transition from the orderly yet chaotic configuration that the solar system is in currently to a much more violently chaotic situation. Then all bets are off – a lot of bad things can happen."
Mercury and Mars tend to get thrown around the most when the solar system destabilises, because at 6 and 11% of Earth's mass, respectively, they are relatively easy to move. It is harder to budge Venus, on the other hand, because it has 82% of Earth's mass.
In one of Batygin and Laughlin's simulations, Mercury was thrown into the Sun 1.3 billion years from now. In another, Mars was flung out of the solar system after 820 million years, then 40 million years later Mercury and Venus collided.
Hopefully, humanity will have long-since left our cradle by the time this happens, no doubt running around the universe in an attempt to escape the Cylons.
Read More (Source: New Scientist)FILED UNDER: Interviews. Science.
Our friends over at SF Signal have managed to corner Michio Kaku while he's visiting our dimension, conducting a fantastic interview about his latest book, Physics of the Impossible. Michio Kaku has become the Carl Sagan of the new millennium, doing more than any other scientist to make hardcore particle physics accessible for the common man. His latest book is a step further in that direction, clearly explaining the many wondrous inventions that await us in the near, and not-so-near future, covering everything from lightsabers to teleportation.
SF Signal: In your book Hyperspace, you trek through complex higher dimensions and explained - in simple terms - how to conceive the six dimensions beyond Height, Width, Depth and Time. What is your personal philosophy on explaining science and using plain English to do so?
Michio Kaku: Einstein once said that if a theory could not be explained to a child, the theory was probably worthless. But this, I think he meant that great theories are not just a mass of equations, but are based on simple physical principles and pictures that even a child can understand. Thus, his theory is full of pictures, such as rockets, trains, elevators, even merry-go-rounds, that children can understand.
Hence, when I try to explain hyperspace or string theory to children, I use analogies that they can understand that summarize the essence of a physical theory.
Head on over to SF Signal for the whole shebang.
Read More (Source: SF Signal)Ever since Albert Einstein stuck his tongue out at a photographer, scientists have had a bad wrap for wild hair and manic personalities. It's an image that's hard to kick, but thanks to TED posting a video of astronomer Clifford Stoll's 2006 conference lecture, we can safely put this stereotype to rest.
Fasten your seat belts.
It may be time to pull Red Bull off the market.
Read More (Source: TED)
The journal Science is slated to report in its online edition that scientists have discovered the oldest asteroids ever detected in our solar system. Three rocks in particular were observed by Hawaii's Mauna Kea telescope using infrared and visible light, offering up results that showed huge amounts of calcium and aluminum.
From Space.com:
Read More (Source: Space.com)An abundance of these elements indicates that the objects were formed when the solar system was young because during that time the first materials to condense into solid particles were rich in calcium and aluminum. These three asteroids contain two to three times the amount of calcium and aluminum-rich material of any space rock found on Earth.
It's long been theorized that farts are globally funny. No matter where you live, what language you speak, the simple act of hearing gas escape from an anus (preferably your own), is enough to evoke a minor amount of giggling, more so if you're easily amused. Why do I bring this up? Because methane, a key component in terrestrial farts, has been found on a planet 63 light years away. This marks the first time astronomers have detected the organic compound outside of our solar system. What's the significance? Well, it could mean something is living there and, like us, laughing at fart sounds.
But...probably not. From BBC:
Co-author Giovanna Tinetti from University College, London, told BBC News: "This planet is a gas giant very similar to our own Jupiter, but orbiting very close to its star. The methane here, although we can call it an organic constituent, is not produced by life - it is way too hot there for life."
Okay, well, it's not conclusive evidence that farts are universally funny, but it is evidence that we're getting ever closer to finding some kind of life out there, even if it's just a speck in a Petri dish.
Read More (Source: BBC News)FILED UNDER: Science.
According to scientists at Lancaster University in the UK, new research has revealed that ancient geysers on Mars spewed forth towering jets of...carbonated water! This is huge news for Coca-Cola, assuming they have any interest in terraforming the Red Planet.
From New Scientist:
The evidence for this appears at two sites on Mars where cracks hundreds of kilometres long called Mangala Fossa and Cerberus Fossae stretch across the surface. Both cracks are the starting points for broad channels that appear to have carried huge quantities of water – between 10 and 100 times the flow of the Amazon River.
How was Mars able to generate enough power to send a jet of carbonated water 3-4 kilometers into the air? Answers...and more questions, on page 2.
Read More (Source: New Scientist)FILED UNDER: News, Videos. Science, Tech.
The Official Google Blog made a great announcement today that should please armchair astronomers across the globe: Google Sky is now available and works like a charm. Coded in only 3 months, it allows users to search for planets, listen to Earth & Sky podcasts, view Hubble images and explore historical maps of the sky.
After playing around with it, I must say, it's quite impressive.
Video tour after the break.
Read More (Source: Google Sky)FILED UNDER: Features. Science.
One of my favorite astronomy blogs, Bad Astronomy, has posted an informative article that covers 10 things you probably don't know about our little home in the Universe.
Bet ya didn't know this!
Read More (Source: Bad Astronomy)6) You can only see 0.000003% percent of it.
When you got out on a dark night, you can see thousands of stars. But the Milky Way has two hundred billion stars in it. You’re only seeing a tiny tiny fraction of the number of stars tooling around the galaxy. In fact, with only a handful of exceptions, the most distant stars you can readily see are 1000 light years away. Worse, most stars are so faint that they are invisible much closer than that; the Sun is too dim to see from farther than about 60 light years away… and the Sun is pretty bright compared to most stars. So the little bubble of stars we can see around us is just a drop in the ocean of the Milky Way.
According to a report in the March 1st issue of Astrophysical Journal, the Earth may be destroyed within the next 100,000 years by WR 104, a pinwheel structure headlined by a massive pair of binary stairs locked in tight orbit.
From Space.com
"I used to appreciate this spiral just for its beautiful form, but now I can't help a twinge of feeling that it is uncannily like looking down a rifle barrel,"said researcher Peter Tuthill, an astronomer at the University of Sydney.
Details about our imminent demise on Page 2.
Read More (Source: Space.com)
Ever since the MESSENGER spacecraft performed a flyby of Mercury on January 14th, news has been trickling out of NASA about new discoveries. The latest strangeness involves dark halo's surrounding various craters and one crater in particular that has an unknown reflective material at its bottom.
"The halos are really exceptional," says MESSENGER science team member Clark Chapman of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "We've never seen anything like them on Mercury before and their formation is a mystery."
Possible explanations are on page 2.
Read More (Source: NASA)
The planet Venus has long mystified astronomers, but John Huw Davies, geodynamicist at Cardiff University, has developed a new theory that may explain its origins and current state of being. Simply put, Venus may have been created by a momumental collision between two proto-planets:
"A mega-collision between two bodies of roughly equal size could have provided the energy necessary to rip water, which is made of two hydrogen and one oxygen, into pieces. The hydrogen would escape into space while oxygen would bond with iron and sink to the planet's core."
More on the flipside.
Read More (Source: Space.com)
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