Alex Cunningham
-
“Anyone not shocked by quantum mechanics has not yet understood it.”
Niels Bohr (7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962)
-
The Great Wall of China, 1907 by Herbert G. Ponting
-
IC405 in Ha (Flaming Star Nebula) by swag72 on Flickr.
-
-
MergeMosaic_clone by pfile on Flickr.
How to Simulate the Universe on your Laptop (by minutephysics)
Complete MSL Curiosity Descent Interpolated HD (by hahahaspam)
This Is a Full Resolution Video of Curiosity Touching Down on Mars
One of the biggest bummers about Mars Rover Curiosity’s epic landing is that there was no news crew on the surface to catch footage of the descent. This full resolution video of Curiosity touching down from its own point of view is the next best thing.
This isn’t the first video of touchdown, but it’s the best. It’s the result of stringing together all the high resolution shots the rover took on its way to the surface, high resolution shots that took a lot longer to get back to Earth than the initial thumbnails. If it seems a bit choppy, that’s because Curiosity only took about four pictures per second. It might not be movie quality, but this is the best video out there of what it’s like to land on Mars. Incredible.
[via bookofjoe]
Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity’s Seven Minutes of Terror (by JPLnews)
Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (by Hubble Heritage)
<i>Via Flickr:</i>
Brash young stars vie for attention in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of a rowdy stellar nursery located in the heart of the Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus). Early astronomers gave the nebula this descriptive nickname because its glowing, spindly filaments look like spider legs.
30 Doradus is the brightest “starburst” region visible in a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. No known star-forming region in our own galaxy is as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus. Fortunately, 30 Doradus can be seen clearly from Earth, and it is nearby enough for Hubble to resolve its individual stars. This allows astronomers the rare opportunity to study stellar evolution closely in the exotic, extragalactic context of a starburst.
The Hubble composite image comprises one of the largest mosaics ever assembled from Hubble photos, including observations taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Hubble’s unparalleled eye for fine, intricate detail is composited with ground-based data that trace hydrogen gas (in red) and oxygen (in blue). These complementary observations of the Tarantula Nebula were taken with the European Southern Observatory’s 2.2-meter telescope in La Silla, Chile. NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute are releasing this image to celebrate Hubble’s 22nd anniversary.
