astronomy
Antarctic Observatory Finds Weird Pattern of Cosmic Rays
This "skymap," generated in 2009 from data collected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, shows the relative intensity of cosmic rays directed toward the Earth’s Southern Hemisphere. Researchers from UW-Madison and elsewhere identified an unusual pattern of cosmic rays, with an excess (warmer colors) detected in one part of the sky and a deficit (cooler colors) in another. Photo: courtesy IceCube collaboration
Megameter chasm on an icy moon
I know I haven’t been posting much astronomy the past few days — Comic Con, w00tstock, and "Bad Universe" have kept me hopping — so to make up for it a little bit, here’s a lovely image sent back a billion kilometers from Cassini:
Lunar triple sunset
I never get tired of the stunning pictures being sent to Earth from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. This one is particularly cool:
It’s a little weird, isn’t it? What you’re seeing is sunset over some mountains on the Moon, with only the peaks popping up into the sunlight. It might help to pull back a bit:
[Click to embiggen.]
Stunning New Image of Wolf-Rayet Star and the Carina Nebula
The Carina Nebula around the Wolf–Rayet star WR 22. Credit: ESO
w00tstock video
I just found out that video of my talk at w00tstock has been posted on YouTube. The quality is a little shaky, since it was a handheld video taken from a distance back, so some of the pictures may be hard to discern, but I think it suffices to get the point across.
This may surprise you, but the content is pretty much Not Safe For Work. Yeah, I know: I’m not generally known for that. But hey– it’s an astronomy talk! What better place to go a little blue?
The video is in two parts; the first has the last couple of minutes of the warmup before my talk (I came on after the intermission), and the second part includes the premier of the trailer for my new TV show. The reaction of the audience was… well. It made me happy indeed.
Here are both parts. Part 1…
Future Hazard: 1-in-1,000 Chance of Asteroid Impact in 2182
This isn't an urgent call to arms, but it's a future date to consider. In the year 2182 -- 172 years time -- there's the possibility that we might be hit by an asteroid with potential to cause some significant ...
H-R Diagram of media stars
Graphing variables is a critical skill in science. If something depends on something else — like the speed of sounds depends on air density, or the surface gravity of an object depends on its size — then if you plot the two things on a graph, you should see a pattern. The result is a line, or a curve. If the two things don’t depend on each other, you get a random collection of dots: a scatter plot.
Bad Universe coming to a Discovery Channel near you
My Sooper Sekrit Project: REVEALED!
Yes, you read that right.
Finally, at last, after many months, I can now officially reveal the project that has kept me so busy over all this time. I think you’re gonna like this… so why not just jump right in to the teaser trailer posted online by a small TV network you may have heard of called THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL!
[evil laugh]
How ’bout that?
WISE Maps the Sky
I have two new articles up at Universe Today! The first is about the WISE infrared survey of the entire sky, which involved approximately a bazillion images, including the lovely view of the Pleiades shown here. You should go check it out. Filed under: Astronomy, Current Research, Universe Today
