Archive
Time-Lapse Auroras and Flyovers
Sometimes capturing things on video is the only way to truly express their beauty and magnificence.
And sometimes, its the only way to express the extent of their AWESOME!
This time-lapse video shows how circling the planet looks from the International Space Station:
The next one is a time-lapse of an aurora (my fav, as you all know) over Finland:
Aurora Borealis in Finnish Lapland 2011 from Flatlight Films on Vimeo.
The awesome is just…too much sometimes :)
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Ryan
Awe Arousing Appearance of Aurora
I love aurorae. Possibly one of the most beautiful and spectacular natural phenomena to grace this planet.
Astronaut Ron Garan recently posted a fantastic photo of an aurora from Earth’s orbit on his Twitter feed:
Makes me feel like a 9 year old kid again, wishing he could be an astronaut when he grows up.
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REMINDER: This blog is moving! The new location is http://www.aquantumofknowledge.com/
Remember to update your subscriptions! This site will no longer be supported after September 30, 2011.
Thanks!
Ryan
Realistic Simulation of the Formation of a Milky Way-Like Galaxy
The first realistic simulation of a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way has been generated by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Zurich.
The simulation, called ERIS, took 1.4 million processor hours to complete. And that was on the 7th most powerful supercomputer in the world, NASA’s Pleiades supercomputer, which runs at 1.09 petaflops per second.
The simulation follows the formation of a galaxy equivalent to 7.9 × 1011 solar masses (1 solar mass is equal to the mass of our Sun) and has a total of 18.6 million particles.
The resulting galaxy has a radius of 2.5 kilo-parsecs (about 7.7 × 1016 kilometers). Previous attempts at simulating a realistic galaxy have failed, resulting in simulated galaxies which have too large of a central bulge. The finding of this study, which has been accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal, found that,
A high star formation threshold appears therefore key in obtaining realistic late-type galaxies, as it enables the development of an inhomogeneous interstellar medium where star formation and heating by supernovae occur in a clustered fashion. The resulting outflows at high redshifts reduce the baryonic content of galaxies and preferentially remove low angular momentum gas, decreasing the mass of the bulge component.
Another important result of this work is that it supports the idea that cold dark matter constitutes a large portion of the mass in the universe.
Last Shuttle Launch and A Comet Across the Sun’s Bow
Some cool stuff happening in and around space these last couple days.
This video from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a comet streaking across the face of the Sun!!
And of course, the final shuttle launch EVER happened earlier today.
Screen grab of video from NASA website.
Moon Motion Movie Madness!
Alliteration is fun.
Anywhooo…a lot of people know that only one side of the moon faces the Earth. That is because the moon rotates on its axis at roughly the same rate that it orbits the Earth.
The side of the moon which faces away from the Earth is commonly referred to as the Dark Side of the Moon (also one of the best album’s of all time).
In actuality, through the course of a year we see about 59% of the Moon’s surface. That is because the moon tilts and wobbles a bit, so sometimes we get a little more moon for our buck.
This video by the Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio shows one whole year of moon motion in a 2.5 minute time lapse video.
Pretty cool stuff!
Also, don’t forget to check out today’s Google Doodle, which is a nifty little animation showing today’s total lunar eclipse.
Astronomy Headline #Fail!
The story fails to mention that ALL total lunar eclipses occur during a full moon.
Thanks to Phil Plait for pointing this out, further proving the usefulness of Twitter.
Big-Ass Explosion on the Sun
A magnificent solar flare erupted from the Sun yesterday.
Here’s a really cool video put together at Helioviewer.org in the UV range. (Watch it in HD for the full ‘KABOOM!’ effect)
No More Tears in Heaven
Photo: NASA/JPL
Drew Feustel, an astronaut currently in space with the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, had a small problem with his spacewalk on Wednesday.
Some anti-fog solution he had rubbed onto his visor started to flake off during the spacewalk. Since the anti-fog solution is really just dish soap, it caused a problem because it flaked off into his eye.
If you have ever gotten soap in your eye, you know its terrible, terrible sting.
Aside: I used to put dish soap on my glasses when I played hockey so they wouldn’t fog up. I didn’t realize this was a “space-age” solution.
So poor Drew’s eyes started to water. But because of the lack of gravity, the tears would not fall down, they just sort of hung around on his eyeball.
“Tears in space don’t run down your face,” he said, according to lead spacewalk officer Allison Bollinger
“They actually kind of conglomerate around your eyeball,” Bollinger recounted.
Eventually, he was able to rub his eye on a device inside his helmet to release the fluid from the surface of his eye.
So disaster averted. This indeed sounds like one of the ultimate #firstworldproblems
Sweet Photo of Shuttle Launch Goes Viral
I’ve been out of the loop for a few days, and look at the cool stuff I miss!
Stefanie Gordon was on a plane heading from New York to Florida on Monday, May 16. She was fortunate enough to look out her window and see an amazing sight: the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour.
Space Shuttle Endeavor from Delta flight 2285 - Photo by Stefanie Gordon
The photo has since appeared in a plethora of news outlets, including MSNBC, Time, and CBS.
You can also see a short video of the launch by Stefanie on TwitVid.
She has written about the experience and the ensuing media barrage of attention on her blog, ‘Not a Typical Girl’, which you should definitely check out. In short, the experience sounds quite overwhelming,
This whole viral situation has completely caught me off guard. I never thought anything of the magnitude my photo would have when I sent an innocent tweet moments after I landed in West Palm Beach. I am still in shock about it all.
Well congratulations to Stefanie for her internet notoriety. Hopefully it will lead to good things for her!
Keep those cell phone cameras handy, cause you never know…
Can You Imagine the Nads on that Guy?
Yuri Gagarin observes the Air Parade, Air Base near Cairo, Egypt, 1962
The big news today is that it is the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s historic flight into space. Gagarin was the first human to ever be shot into orbit. Also, as a side note, he landed back on Earth safely.
It was April 12th, 1961 aboard the Russian flight Vostok 1 that Gagarin made his epic journey. The trip lasted 108 minutes; in order to land Gagarin had to eject from his capsule while still 23,000 feet above the Earth’s surface.
Upon reaching orbit, Gagarin had this to say:
“I feel splendid, very well, very well, very well. Give me some results on the flight!”
Shortly after saying this, Gagarin went out of radio range from mission control, and was on his own for a short while.
How freakin’ scary is that!?
Path of Gagarin's complete orbit; the landing point is west of the takeoff point because of the eastward rotation of the Earth.
The site on which Gagarin eventually landed is now a monument park. The Vostok 1 capsule is on display in the museum, and a new documentary showing exactly what Gagarin would have seen from his window, shot from the International Space Station, has been released.
And now, Gagarin has received the most magnificent of all accolades: his very own Google Doodle!
So hurray for manned spaceflight, and for the incredible courage of those who were the first to go into space inside a metal tube full of flammable material!
A Quantum of Knowledge 