2 edition of Serendipitous discoveries in radio astronomy found in the catalog.
1983 by Distributed by National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, WV, USA (P.O. Box 2, Green Bank 24944-0002) .
Written in English
|Statement||edited by K. Kellermann and B. Sheets.|
|Contributions||Jansky, Karl G., Kellermann, Kenneth I., 1937-, Sheets, B., National Radio Astronomy Observatory (U.S.)|
|LC Classifications||QB475.A1 S47 1983|
|The Physical Object|
|Pagination||viii, 321 p. :|
|Number of Pages||321|
|LC Control Number||84206045|
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The Mists of Avalon. Book 3
Serendipitous Discoveries in Radio Astronomy First Edition by K. Kellermann (Author), B. Sheets (Editor) ISBN Cited by: Title: Book-Review - Serendipitous Discoveries in Radio Astronomy: Authors: Kellermann, K.; Sheets, B.; Scheuer, P.
Publication: The Observatory, Vol, NO. Not Available adshelp[at] The ADS is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under NASA Cooperative Agreement NNX16AC86AAuthor: K.
Kellerman, B. Sheets, R. Schorn. ADS Classic is now deprecated. It will be completely retired in October Please redirect your searches to the new ADS modern form or the classic info can be found on our blog.
Serendipitous discoveries in radio astronomy. Green Bank, WV, USA (P.O. Box 2, Green Bank ): Distributed by National Radio Astronomy Observatory,  (OCoLC) Named Person: Karl G Jansky; Karl G Jansky; Karl G Jansky: Material Type: Conference publication, Internet resource: Document Type: Book, Internet Resource.
SERENDIPITOUS DISCOVERIES IN RADIO ASTRONOMY Proceedings of a Workshop held at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Green Bank, West Virginia on May 4, 5, 6, KU (7) Honoring the 50th Anniversary Announcing the Discovery of Cosmic Radio Waves by Karl G.
Jansky on May 5, Edited by K. Kellermann and B. Sheets. Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was inwhen Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories observed radiation coming from the Milky uent observations have identified a number of different sources of radio emission.
Serendipitous Discoveries in Radio Astronomy: How. Why. Ken Kellermann NRAO Innovation and Discovery in Radio Astronomy A celebration of the career of Ron Ekers The faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. Many of the serendipitous discoveries made in astronomy came about because of new technologies that let astronomers look at previously invisible parts of the night sky, such as radio, X-ray and.
Book Review: Greenwich Time: Greenwich Time and the Discovery of the Longitude Article (PDF Available) in Journal for the History of Astronomy 13(1) January with 20 ReadsAuthor: Steven J. Dick. Four hundred years ago, Galileo Galilei turned his newly constructed spyglass to the skies, and thus began astronomers' use of novel telescopes to explore a universe that is invisible to the unaided eye.
The search for the unseen has resulted in many important unexpected discoveries, including Jupiter's four large moons, the planet Uranus, the first asteroid Ceres, the large recession. The book is structured as a series of articles on serendipitous discoveries from the time of Archimedes right up into the late twentieth century.
Sometimes romance and scientific legend are employed, especially in the early half of the book, in order to entertain and support the thesis of serendipity, but I think little is lost by such by: Serendipitous Discoveries in Radio Astronomy: Honoring the 50th Anniversary Announcing the Discovery of Cosmic Radio Waves by Karl G.
Jansky on May 5, Accompanying 3 photos: fromfrom c (with Grote Reber), and one of Karl Jansky, another astronomy pioneer, from cBorn: OctoNorman, Oklahoma, U.S. Inastronomers Arno A. Penzias and Robert W. Wilson found themselves cleaning pigeon poop out of the Holmdel Horn Antenna, a radio telescope in New Jersey.
The data from the instrument had weir. Seeing the Unseen Sun January issue of Astronomy magazine. Prospects for the solar probe Ulysses. Unveiling the Hidden Milky Way November issue of Astronomy magazine. Good explanation of how radio astronomers map the Milky Way. Serendipitous Discoveries In Radio Astronomy Great collection of interesting papers.
Serendipitous Discoveries in Radio Astronomy, Proceedings of a workshop held at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, WV on May 4,5,6,edited by K.I. Kellermann and B. You can write a book review and share your experiences. Other readers will always be interested in your opinion of the books you've read.
Whether you've loved the book or not, if you give your honest and detailed thoughts then people will find new books that are right for them. Sullivan (82 Classics in Radio Astronomy, Reidel) has published a collection of the major historical papers in radio astronomy, and collections of papers discussing the historical development have been published by Sullivan (84 Early Years of Radio Astronomy, Cambridge Univ.
Press) and by Kellermann and Sheets (84 Serendipitous Discoveries in. The sweetest discoveries in science are often the ones nobody ever expected to make.
Such is the story of the discovery of pulsars 40 years ago by Irish physicist Jocelyn Bell-Burnell and her Ph.D. thesis advisor, Antony Hewish. To earn her doctorate in physics, Bell-Burnell was to use a new radio telescope at the University of Cambridge, England, to study quasars, about which little was.
Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was inwhen Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories observed radiation coming from the Milky Way.
Subsequent observations have ident. The excursion into serendipity comes on page in the hardback edition and forms a prelude to several serendipitous discoveries in radio astronomy. This is the same Simon Singh who lately became a science hero when he risked financial ruin in the interests of exposing false science and how the UK libel law works to protect rich companies Author: Peter Household.
Kenneth Kellermann is a senior scientist at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory headquarters in Charlottesville, VA. His book, Serendipitous Discoveries in Radio Astronomy, which he edited with B. Sheets, provides accounts of the dramatic growth and unexpected discoveries of radio astronomy by those who made it happen.
Break. An inquisitive mind Surprising or anomalous results sometimes stimulate new discoveries, but it takes a scientific perspective to look beyond an anomaly and see it as something worth following up. Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of the X-ray started with a serendipitous observation, but explaining it required careful g by himself in the lab, Roentgen was trying to make electrons.
Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio initial detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was made in the s, when Karl Jansky observed radiation coming from the Milky uent observations have identified a number of different sources of radio emission.
Since Karl Jansky's first observations inimprovements in technology have increased the sensitivity of radio telescopes by an average of about two orders of magnitude per decade, improved the angular resolution of radio images from tens of degrees to better than a thousandth of an arcsecond, and extended the short wavelength limit of radio astronomy from meter to millimeter and sub.
“Classics in Radio Astronomy”, edited by W. Sullivan (Reidel, ) “The Evolution of Radio Astronomy”, by (Science History Publications, ) “Serendipitous Discoveries in Radio Astronomy”, edited by Kellermann and Sheets.
(published by NRAO, ) “The Early Years of. Radio astronomy expanded greatly in the twentieth century. The study of astronomy using radio frequen-cies started with unsuccessful attempts to find solar radio waves. Such attempts will be discussed in more detail later in this article. As mentioned earlier, the first significant ap-plication of radio waves in the beginning of theFile Size: KB.
Ideas include the theory of the big bang, tissue culture, radio astronomy, and the discovery of DNA. Such archeological discoveries as the Rosetta stone, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the ruins of. The serendipitous moments in the middle of the book that focused on chemistry were less fun and interesting and made me think, "they were chemists In the middle, the author spent a bit too much time in his area of expertise, chemistry/5.
Serendipitous Discoveries In Radio Astronomy Great collection of interesting papers. Available through NRAO Greenbank Observatory, P.O. Box 2, Greenbank, WVA () At The Edge of The Universe () - Universe Books, ISBN Today’s bite looks at two new serendipitous discoveries that owe their thanks to the Atacama Large Millimeter Array.
ALMA’s 66 radio dishes utilize radio interferometry to achieve unprecedented resolution in the millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths that can be seen through the atmosphere.
While looking at a couple of nearby stars in. Inside Chile’s amazing radio telescope. including deep searches primed for serendipitous discoveries. We are about to truly harness the power of ALMA.” As game-changing as they will be. Kraus, J.
The first 50 years of radio astronomy, part 1: Karl Jansky and his discovery of radio waves from our galaxy. Cosmic Search, 3 (4), 8, Kraus, J. Universe beyond the galaxies.
Science, Kraus, J. The first 50 years of radio astronomy, part 2: Grote Reber and the first radio maps of the sky. Cosmic Search, 4 (1), The invention of the humble Post-It Note was an accidental collaboration between second-rate science and a frustrated church-goer.
InSpencer Silver, a researcher for the large American corporation 3M, had been trying to formulate a strong adhesive, but ended up only managing to create a very weak glue that could be removed almost effortlessly. Great Discoveries Made by Radio Astronomers During the Last Six Decades and Key Questions Today Govind Swarup 1.
Introduction An important window to the Universe was opened in when Karl Jansky discovered serendipitously at the Bell Telephone Laboratories that radio waves were being emitted towards the direction of our Galaxy .File Size: KB.
Most scientific breakthroughs take years of research – but often, serendipity provides the final push, as these historic discoveries show. This piece accompanies Marcus Chown's feature on the discovery of cosmic background radiation, from the Spring edition of New Humanist.
Perhaps the most famous accidental discovery of all is. electrical, or optical engineering. High-performance computing has become necessary to make full use of many observations. For example, powerful algorithms have greatly enhanced imaging telescopes that operate in the radio and in the optical domains (Figure ; see also Plate ).The VLA that astronomers use today is much more powerful and flexible than the one that was originally designed.
A serendipitous discovery in science is often accidental, as its name implies. Some scientists try to design their experiments in a way that increases the chance of serendipity, though. Many discoveries in science are interesting and meaningful.
A serendipitous discovery goes Reviews: The book is structured as a series of articles on serendipitous discoveries from the time of Archimedes right up into the late twentieth century. Sometimes romance and scientific legend are employed, especially in the early half of the book, in order to entertain and support the thesis of serendipity, but I think little is lost by such speculation/5(29).
This book is based on a long experience and feeling on the modern medical breakthroughs of one talented and experienced abdominal radiologist. In his book, Dr. Meyers is saying that medical discoveries in history came about because someone stumbled upon an answer and after some creative thought, figured out what problem had to be inadvertently.
A detailed map of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) in the radio continuum at 11cm wavelength (E. M. Berkhuijsen, R. Wielebinski,AA 34, ) First discovery of an extragalactic water maser () First discovery of an extragalactic water maser in M33 (E.
Churchwell et al.,A&A.National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Serendipitous Discoveries in Radio Astronomy: Honoring the 50th Anniversary Announcing the Discovery of Cosmic Radio Waves by Karl G. Jansky on May 5, ; Accompanying 3 photos: fromfrom c (with Grote Reber), and one of Karl Jansky, another astronomy pioneer, from cFor some, this has been enough.
For others, unsatisfied with such a passive approach, it has been enough to attempt detection through unconventional applications of radio astronomical instrumentation.
Had detections occurred during such searches, they too would have been serendipitous to the development of the field of radio by: 6.


БЫСТОЕ ЗАПОМИНАНИЕ ПРОИСХОДИТ, ПРИ ОБЩЕНИИ С НОСИТЕЛЕМ ЯЗЫКА, КОГДА ТЫ УЧИШЬ АНГЛИЙСКИЙ, А ОНА РУССКИЙ - ПЕРЕЙТИ
The word star in English refers to a celestial object that generates light and heat through nuclear fusion reactions in its core. Stars come in many different sizes, temperatures, and brightness levels, and they are an essential component of the universe and its evolution. In this article, we will explore the role of stars in astronomy, physics, and culture, and how they have inspired human imagination and curiosity throughout history.
ТРЕНАЖЁР АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА - ПЕРЕЙТИ
Stars are born from vast clouds of gas and dust, called nebulae, which collapse under their own gravity and ignite into nuclear fires. The energy released by these reactions keeps the star stable and balanced, as the intense heat and pressure counteract the gravitational pull. Depending on their mass, stars can have lifetimes ranging from millions to billions of years, and they go through various stages of evolution, from protostars to main-sequence stars, red giants, white dwarfs, neutron stars, and even black holes.
One of the most fascinating aspects of stars is their diversity of colors and spectral types. For example, our own Sun is a yellow dwarf star, with a temperature of around 5,500 degrees Celsius and a luminosity of 4 million times that of Earth. Other stars can be blue-white, red-orange, brown, or even black, depending on their temperature, size, and chemical composition. By studying the properties of stars, astronomers can learn about their age, distance, composition, and motion, and use them as probes of the cosmos.
Stars are also important for understanding the structure and dynamics of galaxies, which are vast systems of stars, gas, and dark matter. Galaxies come in different shapes and sizes, from elliptical to spiral to irregular, and they contain billions of stars, each with its own story and destiny. By mapping and analyzing the distribution and motion of stars in galaxies, astronomers can infer their mass, structure, and history, and unravel the mysteries of the universe’s evolution and fate.
Moreover, stars have played a significant role in human culture and mythology, inspiring stories, legends, and beliefs from ancient times to modern times. In many cultures, stars were associated with gods and goddesses, natural phenomena, seasonal cycles, and celestial navigation. In astronomy, the constellations, which are patterns of stars in the night sky, have been used for millennia as a way to map and organize the heavens and to mark the seasons and the agricultural calendar.
In conclusion, stars are fascinating and essential objects of the universe, which offer a window into the mysteries of physics, astronomy, and culture. They have captivated human minds for thousands of years, and they continue to inspire scientists, artists, and dreamers to explore the cosmos and to seek answers to the questions of our existence. As Carl Sagan famously said, We are made of starstuff, and therefore, we owe the stars our gratitude, our curiosity, and our awe.
УЧИТЬ С НАПАРНИЦЕЙ - ПЕРЕЙТИ


While SpaceX worked to fix an issue that thwarted an attempt to launch a crew of four to the International Space Station, on Monday SpaceX pushed for the launch of another Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 next-generation Starlink internet satellites.
The last-minute scrubbing of a Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon capsule at Kennedy Space Center was caused by problems with the rocket’s engine first-stage ignition system. To allow time to fix the problem and to avoid expected inclement weather on Tuesday, another attempt to get the Crew Dragon fliers on their way has been pushed back to Thursday.
But that didn’t affect work at the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, where another SpaceX team counted down to the launch of another Falcon 9 from Pad 40. This time, after a delay due to high levels of electrified solar wind particles, the countdown rolls smoothly to zero at 6:13 p.m. EST.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket thunders away from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which carries 21 second-generation Starlink internet satellites. The California rocket builder has now deployed more than 4,000 broadband relay stations, with thousands more to come. William Harwood/CBS News
The first stage sped away to the southeast a few minutes before sunset, spectacularly propelling the craft out of the dense lower atmosphere before crashing and landing on an offshore drone ship.
Click here to view related media.
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The second stage continued to climb into orbit and an hour after launch, the 21 Starlinks were cleared to fly alone in a 230 mile high orbit that will carry them 43 degrees on either side of the equator. In this orbit, the satellites will fly over all points as far north as Boston and south to New Zealand.
The Starlink system was designed to provide customers anywhere in the world with relatively high-speed internet using thousands of broadband relay stations in multiple low-altitude orbits. The satellites maintain links with customers by using laser links to pass streams of data from one to the other as they fly overhead.
Including Monday’s launch, SpaceX has now launched 4,002 Starlinks, “offering high-speed internet in more than a million locations around the world, most of which are homes,” the company said in an online summary.
“Starlink continues to grow rapidly, and SpaceX has struggled to keep up with increasing demand for connectivity around the world, particularly in areas where previously there were few or no broadband connectivity options.”
To meet this demand, the company is now building two versions of a larger, more powerful Starlink satellite. One to fly on the company’s planned Super Heavy/Starship rocket and a slightly smaller variant to be airborne by the less powerful Falcon 9.
The Version 2, or V2, satellites launched on Falcon 9 “are a bit smaller, so we affectionately refer to them as ‘V2 Mini’ satellites,” SpaceX said. “But don’t let the name fool you, a V2 mini-satellite has four times the capacity to serve users compared to its previous counterparts.”
Twenty-one second generation “V2 Mini” Starlink satellites are shown stacked for launch before being encapsulated in a Falcon 9 nose cone fairing. The satellites are larger and more powerful than the models launched so far. SpaceX
SpaceX is one of several companies building space-based internet delivery systems and has raised concerns about the possibility of malfunctions and collisions with debris threatening other spacecraft.
But SpaceX says its satellites are designed to operate in relatively low orbits that allow atmospheric drag to quickly knock spacecraft out of orbit at the end of their lives or in the event of a malfunction disabling, minimizing the chance of collisions .
The satellites can automatically change course to avoid potential close encounters with other spacecraft or debris, and the company is releasing detailed tracking data to provide detailed situational awareness to governments and other satellite operators.
A major concern with Starlinks and other proposed “mega-constellations” of space-based Internet relay stations is their reflectivity and their potential impact on ground-based optical and radio telescopes.
SpaceX said it is actively working with the astronomical community to develop mitigation measures, including advanced coatings and operational procedures, aimed at minimizing the reflectivity of the V2 satellites.
“Although our V2 mini satellites are larger than previous versions, we still expect them to be just as dim or dimmer once the full range of mitigation measures are implemented and the satellites reach operational orbit,” SpaceX said.
“However, we would like to emphasize that although brightness component measurements, ground modeling and analysis show effective brightness reductions, we will only see the full effectiveness of our efforts once observations of the in-orbit satellites have been made and data collected and analyzed.”
More William Harwood


Total Solar Eclipse on 3rd November 2013 right over Gulu
A total solar eclipse is one of the most beautiful events of the natural world. It is an extraordinary quirk of geometry that the apparent sizes of the Moon and Sun are nearly equal in our sky and when the Moon passes directly between Earth and the Sun the result is a spectacular piece of natural theatre for those lucky enough to be within the narrow band of the Earth’s surface beneath the shadow. During the minutes of totality the sky darkens and the earth is bathed in a dusky light. Stars and planets become visible and the wispy sun’s corona and solar prominences can also be seen. The final act of totality is the stunning ‘diamond ring’ which occurs as the first rays of sunshine can be seen emerging around the moons limb.
Eclipses can occur anywhere in the world so chasing these extraordinary events can take you to some very unusual locations. You can be sure that our eclipse tours will always include great travel experiences too.
The eclipse of November 3rd, 2013 is a “hybrid” eclipse. That means that along the central section of the path it will be a very short total eclipse while at the beginning of the path there will be an annular eclipse.
Path of Solar Eclipse 2013
Hence the unoffical term “hybrid” being associated with this very special type of eclipse. The reason is that the darkest shadow of the moon doesn’t quite reach the surface at that locations.
For the experienced eclipse chaser in these locations, such a narrow and abrupt eclipse will come with a prominent presentation of the colorful innermost atmospheric layer of the Sun (the chromospheres) and a spectacular view along the axis of the Moon’s shadow.
Start Partial Eclipse 16:06:11.4
Start of Total Eclipse 17:22:18.4
Sun Altitude 17.5°
End of Total Eclipse 17:22:29.5
End of Partial Eclipse 18:27:48.3
Duration of Totality: 22.3 seconds
Distance From Centre Line: 350 m (1,150 ft)
Path Width: 18.9 km (11.75 mi)
Whether you want a short dash to experience the eclipse or make use of your trip to travel more widely in East Africa we can help.
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Gravity. We’re all familiar with it—it’s the unseen force that keeps our feet firmly on the ground and our world in constant motion. Yet, despite its constant presence in our lives, gravity remains one of the most mysterious forces in the universe.
It all started with a falling apple. When young Isaac Newton saw an apple drop from a tree, he wondered why it fell straight down and not sideways or upwards. This led him to propose the universal law of gravitation: every object in the universe attracts every other object with a force directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Simply put, massive objects have a strong pull, and the closer objects are, the stronger the gravitational pull between them. This idea served us well, explaining why planets orbit the sun and even why the tide rises and falls.
But gravity had more secrets to unveil, and it took the genius of Albert Einstein to crack them open with his Theory of Relativity.
Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity
In 1905, Einstein introduced the Special Theory of Relativity, built on two fundamental ideas:
- the laws of physics are the same for everyone, and
- the speed of light is constant for all observers, no matter their speed or direction.
Imagine you’re standing by a railroad track as a train speeds by. According to Einstein, if a passenger on the train and you both measured the speed of light, you’d both get the same answer—even though one of you is moving and the other is standing still!
This leads to some mind-bending implications, like time dilation, which suggests that time can slow down for an object moving really fast compared to an object at rest.
Time Dilation: the secret to time travel?
This key concept of time dilation in Einstein’s theory of relativity, can indeed cause some interesting effects that seem a lot like time travel. However, it’s important to note that it doesn’t allow for time travel in the way you might see in science fiction, with people hopping back and forth between the past and the future.
According to special relativity, time slows down for an object moving fast compared to an object at rest. This is known as time dilation. For instance, if you were to travel in a spaceship near the speed of light, time would pass more slowly for you compared to someone who stayed back on Earth. To you on the spaceship, it might feel like you’ve only been gone a few years, but when you return to Earth, you could find that decades have passed. In a sense, you’ve traveled into the future.
As for traveling into the past, our current understanding of physics doesn’t allow for it. General relativity allows for the existence of “wormholes” — shortcuts through spacetime that could, in theory, allow for backward time travel. However, we’ve never observed a wormhole, and even if they do exist, many scientists believe they’d collapse too quickly for anything to travel through.
So while time dilation can give us a sort of one-way trip into the future, the idea of time travel as we often imagine it — with the ability to freely move back and forth through time — remains firmly in the realm of science fiction based on our current understanding of the universe.
So why does E equal M C squared?
Einstein’s formula, “E=mc2“, is part of his Special Theory of Relativity, and it has deep implications for our understanding of energy and matter. Here’s what the equation means in simple terms:
- E stands for energy.
- m stands for mass.
- c is the speed of light in a vacuum, which is a constant.
The formula says that energy (E) equals mass (m) times the speed of light (c) squared. In other words, mass can be converted into energy, and energy can be converted into mass. They are different forms of the same thing.
This equation explains why the sun and other stars shine: in the core of the sun, hydrogen atoms combine to form helium in a process called nuclear fusion. During this process, a small amount of the mass of the hydrogen atoms is converted into energy, as described by E=mc2. This energy is then emitted as light and heat.
It also explains the workings of nuclear power plants and atomic bombs, where a small amount of matter is converted into a large amount of energy.
Finally, it even relates to the time dilation and the increase of mass with speed, as mentioned earlier. As an object with mass gets closer to the speed of light, its energy (and therefore its mass, according to E=mc2) must increase, because the energy required to keep accelerating it gets larger and larger. This is why no object with mass can reach or exceed the speed of light: it would require an infinite amount of energy.
Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity
Einstein didn’t stop with his first theory. Ten years after his “Special Theory of Relativity”, he took things a step further with his “General Theory of Relativity”, offering a radical new understanding of gravity. Instead of seeing it as a force pulling objects together, Einstein pictured gravity as the warping of space and time (collectively called spacetime) by mass and energy.
Imagine a rubber sheet stretched out flat—a stand-in for spacetime. If you place a heavy ball (like a bowling ball) on the sheet, it will sag, creating a sort of well around it. Now, if you roll a smaller ball (like a marble) near the heavier one, the smaller one will fall towards the heavier ball. Not because there’s an invisible force pulling them together, but because the heavier ball has warped the rubber sheet. The marble moves along the curves created by the heavier ball.
In this view, Earth isn’t pulling us down; instead, it’s warping spacetime around it, creating a ‘well’ that we’re stuck in. The Moon orbits the Earth not because it’s pulled by an invisible force, but because it’s rolling along the curves of spacetime that Earth creates.
Some examples to prove Einstein’s points
Many of the technologies and scientific understanding we take for granted today are based on or provide evidence for Einstein’s theories of relativity. Here are a few:
- GPS Systems: Global Positioning System technology relies heavily on the principles of relativity. The satellites are moving at high speeds relative to the Earth and are further from the Earth’s gravitational field. Both of these factors cause the clocks on the satellites to run at slightly different rates than clocks on Earth, and these differences need to be accounted for in the calculations that the GPS system uses to determine your position.
- Particle Accelerators: Particle accelerators, like the Large Hadron Collider, accelerate particles to incredibly high speeds, close to the speed of light. The particles gain mass as they speed up, exactly as predicted by Einstein’s theory of special relativity.
- Atomic Clocks and Time Dilation Experiments: The most accurate timekeeping devices we have are atomic clocks, and they’ve been used to directly confirm the time dilation predicted by both special and general relativity. For example, in one experiment, two atomic clocks were synchronized, then one was flown in an airplane. When it returned, it was slightly behind the clock that stayed on the ground, just as Einstein’s theories predicted.
- Black Holes and Gravitational Waves: Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicts the existence of black holes, and we’ve since observed them indirectly through their effects on nearby objects. In 2015, we made the first direct observation of gravitational waves—ripples in spacetime caused by the collision of two black holes, which was another prediction of Einstein’s theory.
- Cosmology: General relativity is used in cosmology to model the evolution of the universe itself. For instance, the Big Bang theory is grounded in Einstein’s equations.
From falling apples to bending spacetime, our understanding of gravity has come a long way. And yet, there’s still much to learn. Gravity continues to dance its cosmic dance, inviting us to understand the universe’s profound and elegant workings. So, the next time you feel the solid ground beneath your feet, remember that you’re feeling the echo of cosmic processes at work, the invisible dance of gravity and relativity.


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This acclaimed portrait of heroism and ingenuity captures a watershed moment in human history. The astronauts themselves have called it the definitive account of their missions. On the night of July 20, 1969, our world changed forever when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Based on in-depth interviews with twenty-three of the twenty-four moon voyagers, as well as those who struggled to get the program moving, A Man on the Moon conveys every aspect of the Apollo missions with breathtaking immediacy and stunning detail.
A Man on the Moon is also the basis for the acclaimed miniseries produced by Tom Hanks, From the Earth to the Moon, now airing and streaming again on HBO in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.
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The moon is a celestial body that appears during the Minecraft night.
Nighttime[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]
Nighttime begins after the sun fully sets and the moon rises. (On the Computer and Console Editions, the moon rises in the east and sets in the west; on Pocket Edition, it rises in the north and sets in the south.) As time passes, the moon will slowly move across the sky toward the opposite horizon. Overall, nighttime lasts about 7 minutes (in real time). Players can track the moon's position in the sky using a clock.
During the night, the moon illuminates the surface in the same manner as the sun; however, light levels will fall to a minimum of four. This allows hostile mobs such as zombies and creepers to spawn. To prevent spawning, you can swap the difficulty to peaceful or turn off the day-night cycle.
Nighttime can be skipped entirely using a bed, provided there are no monsters nearby.
Stars[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]
Together with the moon, the night sky also consists of stars. Stars appear as bright points, and the starfield rotates with the moon as the night progresses. Because they rise in the east or north and descend in the west or south (depending on the edition), you can navigate by the stars even when the moon is not visible.
Phases[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]
The Moon goes through eight lunar phases, and changes phase every night. This allows the player to keep rough track of the passage of time, even after spending a few game days underground.
The phases are (in chronological order as they appear in-game):
- Full Moon
- Waning Gibbous
- Last Quarter
- Waning Crescent
- New Moon
- Waxing Crescent
- First Quarter
- Waxing Gibbous
There is no explicit command to change the moon's phase, but using
/time add 24000 will advance it to the next phase. Using
/time add 168000 will advance it to the previous phase (of the next lunar cycle).
Effects on mobs[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]
The phase of the moon has two subtle effects on mob spawning:
- The number of slimes that spawn in swamps is proportional to the moon's fullness: They are most numerous during the full moon, and none will spawn during the new moon. (The moon's phase does not influence the normal spawning of slimes in designated chunks at altitudes below y=40.)
- The fuller the moon, the higher the chance skeletons and zombies have to pick up items and spawn with weapons and armor. Furthermore, there is a higher chance for their equipment to be enchanted, and if it is the enchantment levels will be higher. A fuller moon also gives spiders a higher chance to spawn with random beneficial status effects, including invisibility. All of these effects combine with the world's difficulty, with higher difficulty levels increasing the chance of mob buffs.
History[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]
|?||During the beta period, the Minecraft moon used to rise in the north, not in the east. This was a bug, but was left in the game.|
|1.0.0||Beta 1.9-pre4||The moon now rises in the east.|
|Added eight lunar phases to the moon.|
|The moon was changed from being square to having a more rounded look to it.|
|Beta 1.9-pre6||Moon is reverted back to original square form and lunar phases converted to square form.|
|Previously, the moon graphics used to be in /terrain in the minecraft.jar. They are now contained in /environment.|
|1.3.1||12w21a||Updated stars texture. They are now smaller and brighter.|
|Pocket Edition Alpha|
|0.7.3||Added moon and stars.|
|0.10.0||The night sky is now dark blue instead of black. (version exclusive)|
Issues[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]
Issues relating to “Moon” are maintained on the issue tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]
- One Minecraft lunar cycle (from full moon to full moon) takes 2 hours 40 minutes of play time. This means there are approximately 9 lunar cycles in one real-world day (24 hours) of play.
- Whereas the moon moves independent of other celestial bodies in real life, the Minecraft moon is fixed in the sky relative to the stars.
- Thus, solar eclipses are currently impossible in Minecraft.
- Standing or flying at a height above the terrain of approximately 1.4x the render distance, the sun will appear opposite to the moon in the sky, making it seem almost as if the player is in space.
- The moon appears to be lit from a source at right angles to the sun-moon line, whereas it should be lit directly by the sun.
- For that matter, being fixed opposite to the sun, it should be constantly full and should result in a total lunar eclipse every night at midnight.
- The star pattern is based on a seed, but not the current world's seed. Like the bedrock pattern, the stars are always based on the same seed (number unknown). According to Mojang this is to prevent people on multi-player from working the seed out by studying the star pattern.
- The eight lunar phases actually occur in reverse sequence in the game, from New Moon, then Waning Crescent, then 3rd/Last Quarter, then Waning Gibbous, then Full Moon, and so on. (Note that in the gallery image they are in the correct natural order.)
Gallery[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]
- Moon Phases dev1.png
The separate moon phases in Minecraft.
References[επεξεργασία | επεξεργασία κώδικα]


Sushant Singh Rajput Two years have passed since he left the world, but it is not easy to forget the late Bollywood actor who talked about the moon and stars. Not only fans and family, but Sushant, who stepped into Bollywood from TV, is also badly missed by Bollywood celebs who have worked together. Sara Ali Khan’s first film was with Sushant. The actress also learned a lot from Sushant during the shooting, which she is unable to forget.
Sara Ali Khan started her film career in the year 2018 with the film ‘Kedarnath’. Sara was opposite Sushant Singh Rajput in this debut film, since it was Sara’s first film and there was a good bonding while working with Sushant, so this film is very special for Sara. The actress is very emotional on Sushant’s death anniversary.
a lot happened the first time because of you
Sara Ali Khan has shared a beautiful picture on Instagram, in which she is sitting holding Sushant Singh Rajput and both are laughing. Sharing this picture, Sara wrote, ‘From facing the camera for the first time to seeing the moon and Jupiter with your telescope, a lot happened because of you for the first time. Thank you for giving me those moments and memories. Today in Full Moon Night, when I look up at the sky, I know that you must be spreading your glow among your favorite stars and constellations. Now and forever. Jai Bhole Nath’.
(Photo Credits: saraalikhan95/Instagram)
sushant singh rajput used to carry telescope
Sushant Singh Rajput used to look calm and shy, but once someone met him, he used to be his admirer. Apart from films on the set, Sara Ali Khan was also informed about the moon and stars. Sushant had a lot of interest in Astro Physics. For this interest, he bought an expensive telescope, which he often took to set shooting.
Late actor Sushant was unique in himself
During the shooting of ‘Kedarnath’, Sushant Singh Rajput used to give information about the sky and stars and constellations to Sara Ali Khan and also used to see through his telescope. Which actor usually does this, so Sushant was special.
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 14, 2022, 16:58 IST


Sunday, September 26, 2010
"Any intelligent aliens living elsewhere in the universe [like that pea in the photo] should be considered God's children, no matter what they look like" ... and "any entity - no matter how many tentacles it has [or hasn't got ... like the pea] - has a soul," the Pope's astronomer, Brother Guy Consolmagno, has said.
This comes only a few months after physicist, Steven Hawking, claimed that there is no need for a god to explain the origin of the universe (which, as an atheist, I naturally agree with).
Brother Consolmagno also says that "the whole idea of what creation means is not a case of who wound up the clock and set it going, it's the fact there's a clock to be wound up in the first place. A god that started things up would be a pagan god. The god I believe in is outside space and time."
What the hell is that suppose to mean!
The Vatican always finds a way to confuse the shit out of people by talking utter nonsense.


Lost in space / New Line Cinema presents a Prelude Pictures Production in association with Irwin Allen Productions ; a Stephen Hopkins film ; produced by Mark W. Koch, Stephen Hopkins, Akiva Goldsman, Carla Fry ; written by Akiva Goldsman ; directed by Stephen Hopkins.
- ISBN: 0780622650
- ISBN: 9780780622654
- Physical Description: 1 videodisc (130 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in.
- Publisher: [Place of publication not identified] : New Line Home Video,
- Copyright: ©1998
Originally produced as a motion picture.
Hi fi, stereo, Dolby surround.
"This DVD also contains these enhanced features for your PC: five interactive games, orginal screenplay with direct links to the film, website access links and more and requires DVD-ROM drive with Windows 95 or higher to operate the enhanced features.
The year is 2058. With the Earth's resources severely depleted human survival depends upon "The Jupiter Mission." This daring plan will launch an entire family-- the Robinsons-- into the farthest reaches of hyperspace to colonize "Alpha Prime," the only other habitable planet in the galaxy. But when a stowaway sabotages the mission, the Robinsons find themselves hurtling through uncharted space, facing alien invaders, time- warp wonders and non-stop excitement.
|Target Audience Note:||
Rated PG 13.
|System Details Note:||
Search for related items by subject
|Subject:||Interplanetary voyages > Drama.
Families > Drama.
Time travel > Drama.
Science fiction films.
Video recordings for the hearing impaired.
- 9 of 10 copies available at Missouri Evergreen. (Show)
- 0 of 1 copy available at Albany Carnegie.
- 1 current hold with 10 total copies.


According to reports, Captain Kirk himself – William Shatner – will be one of the passengers aboard the next civilian flight of Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard spacecraft when it launches in October.
Like the previous flight in July of which Bezos himself was a part, the launch will see Shatner and his fellow passengers reach the edge of space on a trip that will last only around 15 minutes.
If he does go, the Star Trek veteran will become the oldest person in history to venture into space.
There are rumors that a documentary will be filmed of the event, however Discovery allegedly rejected the concept and Shatner’s team is now looking for an alternative channel to pick up the project.
While neither Bezos or Shatner have officially confirmed the flight, Shatner had previously mentioned it during a San Diego ComicCon panel earlier this year.
“There’s a possibility that I’m going to go up for a brief moment and come back down,” he said.
The current record holder for oldest person in space is 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk who joined Bezos during Blue Origin’s previous flight in July.
If Shatner’s flight does go ahead, Funk’s record will have been broken within a matter of months.


In late November 2017, the United Arab Emirates released a virtual reality tour of “the City of Wisdom,” which gives the world a detailed glimpse into how they envision humanity’s first settlement on Mars. In conjunction with this release, the UAE also announced that they intend to establish the first colony on Mars by 2117—in just 100 years.
In addition to releasing the VR video, the UAE plans to send their first probe to Mars by 2021. Here on Earth, they’re also planning to build a simulated Mars colony in the Emirati desert to develop the food, energy and water systems needed to someday support potential life on Mars.
The year 2117 is too far away to make any hard and fast predictions, and this VR tour release is most likely just a creative effort to promote the UAE’s programs. Realistically, we won’t see the dawn of human life and commercial development on Mars in our lifetimes. But if the UAE keeps up with their plans, CRE on Mars could be a strong possibility in the next century.
With the help of VR videos like the one the UAE just released, brokers here on Earth could have the opportunity to promote and lead tours of properties on another planet. Of course, the day that could happen is a long way away.
In the meantime, you can utilize VR technology to give more customized, immersive tours of your current listings—from anywhere—with tools like Matterport and Virtual Xperience. If you want to learn more about VR and how it affects the CRE industry today, download our resource.


Title: Adjunct Professor of Astronomy
Degree: Oklahoma Christian University - B.S.; Oklahoma State University - M.S.
Mr. Compton teaches OC’s nighttime section of Astronomy and enjoys getting students to look in the eyepiece. He graduated from Oklahoma Christian with a degree in electrical engineering and works as a telecom engineer for the Air Force at Tinker AFB. He was fascinated by astronomy after receiving a telescope as a wedding present from his wife JJ Compton, who is the Technical Services Librarian at the OC Beam Library.
Like many amateur astronomers, he learned about the subject by trial and error with the telescope by attempting to take quality astrophotos. Mr. Compton’s goal is to encourage students to a sense of wonder and awe at God’s creation, and to let them know it is perfectly okay to believe in both God and science.


The DEFY 21 Double Tourbillon features the fastest tourbillon currently seen on a luxury watch. Both watches feature clear cases that allow for the mechanisms to be viewed from all angles. The Zero-G design is inspired by outer space with inspiration from cosmic bodies such as meteorites and mars. The Double Tourbillon features a futuristic aesthetic modeled in sapphire made to look like a starry sky.
On top of owning one of the most exclusive timepieces in the world, the 20 owners will be given an opportunity to experience true gravity-defying weightlessness through a partnership with Novespace. Novespace is a subsidiary of the French National Space Center, and this experience will involve the twenty passengers being flown up into the sky then dropped in a freefall to simulate the weightlessness of space.
Image Credit: Zenith
TrendHunter.com – Luxury Trends


SpaceX has reported it will send two visitors around the moon late one year from now. The organization’s CEO Elon Musk, expressed in a phone news gathering that the sightseers have effectively paid a huge store for the voyage, without unveiling the correct sum or the personality of the visitors. SpaceX, for the individuals who don’t have a clue, is a US-based private rocket organization that expects to reform space innovation.
The two travelers would spend about seven days inside one of one of SpaceX’s Dragon 2 containers, propelled on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, which has a recorded cost of $90 million. The robotized shuttle is set for its initially unmanned practice run in the not so distant future.
Mr Musk said that the voyage couldn’t have been arranged without the help of NASA, America’s space organization. Certainly, the space flight does not come without potential dangers, and SpaceX has resolved to do whatever it can to guarantee that the hazard level in limited. The two travelers will experience wellbeing and wellness tests, and will likewise start introductory preparing in the not so distant future.
Elon Musk said the organization would do “all that we can to limit” dangers (Credit: Reuters)
Energizing as this space trip sounds, the flight won’t really be arriving on the moon; the space sightseers would make a circle around the Moon, skimming the lunar surface, and after that going admirably past it. By the by, the two travelers “will travel quicker and assist into the nearby planetary group than any before them,” as per Mr Musk. While SpaceX certainly has the specialized abilities to make this voyage a reality, industry specialists are in uncertainty if the adventure could really happen as ahead of schedule as 2018.
Space tourism can, best case scenario, be depicted in its early stages. Seven space sightseers have paid a huge number of dollars to fly on Russian Soyuz rockets to visit the International Space Station, which is around 200 miles over the Earth’s surface. Nonetheless, the SpaceX flight would be an a great deal more far off trek, taking the case 300,000 to 400,000 miles from Earth. Truth be told, no space travelers have wandered past low-Earth circle since the remainder of NASA’s Apollo moon arrivals in 1972, so the SpaceX flight would clearly be downright uncommon.


Beauty spot on his visage
He gave her brightness and warmth
She innocent love
© copyright skm, 7th June , 2012
Star-gazers, astronomers and science enthusiasts worldwide looked skywards on wednesday to catch a once in 100 year specatacle of Venus making its transit across the face of the sun. The last Venus transit occurred on June 8, 2004, and the next one will not be visible again until the year 2117. The rare celestial phenomenon saw people gather around telescopes to view the beautiful spectacle in the sky.


The Chinese of 3500 years ago believed that the earth was a chariot, and the sky was a curved canopy(天空)stretched above it. The canopy was nine layers thick, and it sloped slightly to the northwest, as a cataclysm(地陷)had broken one of its supporting columns. This gentle slope explained the movement of the stars from east to west.
According to these ancient Chinese beliefs, the sun spent the night on earth and ascended to the sky each morning from the luminous valley of the earth by climbing the branches of an immensely tall sacred tree. To the Chinese people, the sun was the incarnation of goodness, beauty, and truth. In popular imagination, the sun was represented as a cock that little by little assumed human form. His battles with the dragons, which personified evil in their beliefs, accounted for momentary disappearances of the sun that men now call eclipses. Many of the Chinese people worshiped the sun, but in the vast and complicated organization of the Chinese gods, the sun was of only secondary importance.
Along with these unsophisticated beliefs about the sun, the Chinese evolved a science of astronomy based upon observation—though essentially religious—which enabled them to predict eclipses of the sun and the movement of the stars. Such predictions were based on calculations made by using a gnomon(【天文】日晷儀指針)—an object whose shadow could be used as a measure, as with a sundial or simple shadow pointers. Moreover, with the naked eye, the Chinese observed sunspots, a phenomenon not then known to their contemporaries.
1. The ancient Chinese believed that the earth ______.
A. was a chariot B. sloped to the northwest
C. was supported by columns D. had nine layers
2. To the Chinese people, the sun represented ______.
A. the primary god B. evil
C. goodness, beauty and truth D. combat
3. The sun‘s disappearances were thought to be caused by ______.
A. fights with cocks B. fights with dragons
C. a scientific phenomenon D. eclipse
4. Ancient Chinese astronomy could be accurately described as ______.
A. entirely religious in nature B. based on legendary figures
C. advanced in some areas D. completely unsuccessful
5. Implied but not stated: ______.
A. The sun was worshiped by all the Chinese people
B. The sun was thought of as a cock
C. Chinese religion and astronomy were closely interrelated
D. Sundials were first used by the Chinese


Cortona3D and the European Space Agency team up to design and develop an authoring environment that can build 3D interactive procedures
27 July 2011
The European Space Agency (ESA) heads all major European space activities, including cooperation to build and operate the International Space Station. Fail-safe astronaut training for the Automatic Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is pivotal for docking, bringing water and gas on board, off-loading waste, and then undocking the craft.
Cortona3D has previously worked with ESA to replace bulky, multilingual, old manuals with computer-based training solutions. The new training solutions had to cover the many control panels, tools, levers, valves, and racks of the ATV. It also had to simulate complex tasks in zero-gravity with unfailing accuracy. The latest 3D training technology from Cortona3D puts graphics, text, and interactive animations on one notebook PC screen or mobile device, making the previously used paper manuals obsolete. ESA has decided to take the next step and use interactive 3D documentation not only for their training but also for the task execution both in the spacecraft and the space station. This is mostly accomplished by the astronaut following “ground prepared” validated crew procedures as XML documents, with pictures and illustrations interspersed. Interactivity offered is limited mainly due to simple viewer controls like the high-lighting of the current instruction.
In the human space flight domain, there are currently no tool-sets available for authoring of 3-dimensional interactive animated crew procedures. Building upon the existing relationship with Cortona3D, ESA has once again made the decision to work with Cortona3D to design and develop an authoring environment that can build 3D interactive procedures (3D-PAT). This environment will support the interactivity of the 'VCR' control panel for the animation, camera management, physics simulation (e.g. speed, acceleration (incl. gravity)), collision detection, and illumination. The procedures authored are also aimed to be used in Augmented Reality scenarios.
As the space community looks forward to sending humans to Mars, it is clear that tools such as Cortona3D’s 3D interactive documentation tools will be critical in ensuring the success of dangerous missions. In theory, all future critical space operations and procedures could someday be learned, drilled, and rehearsed in the safety of highly interactive animated simulation.


On 10th April 2019, humans got their first photograph of an actual blackhole. After years of seeing black holes in sci-fi blockbusters (though to be fair, the most accurate depiction on screen has to be the black hole from Interstellar), the real image seems underwhelming to say the least. But what we have achieved is a major milestone in our understanding of our universe.
The remarkable feat was achieved by an international team of scientists working on The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a program transformed our planet Earth to become one enormous telescope by combining the power of all radio telescopes around the world.
Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicted the existence of black holes but no one has ever “seen” one. How do you detect an object which emits no light? So far, we have been able to infer by looking at blank spaces in our skies where light seems to bend because they come in contact with a body with a large gravitational field.
The photo above shows a centre of darkness surrounded by a ring of light. The bottom part of the ring seems brighter than the other portions of the ring. My mind is blown for the following reasons:-
- Black holes do not emit light
- Therefore, light seen around blackhole are photons that were captured by the gravitational field
- The border between the dark and the light is the event horizon of the back hole
- This is where the gravitational pull of the blackhole is strong enough to make a photon orbit in place but not strong enough to pull it into the core
- The powerful gravitational pull of a black hole will actually bend light around it, making the light skimming the side of the black hole that’s rotating towards us appear brighter than the light on the side that’s spinning away
What is also remarkable was how close we came to predicting what the blackhole would optically look like:-
I sit here in a Starbucks with Cheryl. Saturday mornings is when we drive the girls to music class. I look around and I see people going about their daily lives. There’s an event promoting a(nother) mobile wallet app happening outside. To most people, this major discovery makes no difference in their lives.
Hundred of years from now, all of us- our lives, our names, our concerns, our hopes, our dreams- would have been washed away by the tides of time. It makes me happy that our generation have managed to work together on a discovery that will be lodged firmly in the shores of our fragile and fleeting existence.
See Katie Bouman on TED talking about photographing a black hole years before this remarkable feat of discovery. Her algorithm is the one that is used to render the EHT image of the black hole.


ON SALE NOW
A journey through the history of science, and humanity’s relationship with the night sky and the cosmos beyond.
For most of human history we have led not just an earthly existence but a cosmic one. Our innate relationship with the stars shaped who we are – our religious beliefs, power structures, scientific advances and even our biology. But over the last few centuries we have separated ourselves from the universe that surrounds us. And that disconnect comes at a cost.
In The Human Cosmos, Jo Marchant takes us on a tour through the history of humanity’s relationship with the heavens. We travel to the Hall of the Bulls in Lascaux and witness the winter solstice at a 5,000-year-old tomb at Newgrange. We visit Medieval monks grappling with the nature of time and Tahitian sailors navigating by the stars. We discover how light reveals the chemical composition of the sun, and we are with Einstein as he works out that space and time are one and the same. A four-billion-year-old meteorite inspires a search for extra-terrestrial life. And we discover why star-gazing can be really, really good for us.
It is time for us to rediscover the full potential of the universe we inhabit, its wonder, its effect on our health, and its potential for inspiration and revelation.
Praise for The Human Cosmos:
“Science journalist Marchant explores the relationship between humans and the celestial in this luminous and fascinating journey through science, religion, culture and everything in between.” Newsweek
“A tour de force on par with Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.” Booklist (starred review)
“A thought-provoking look at how human fascination with the stars has influenced beliefs throughout history… Marchant’s epic account is one for readers to savor.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Extensively researched and fascinating… ought to be essential reading for all who are curious about what we really are and what our lives are really about.” Journal of the British Astronomical Association
“Erudite… entrancing… makes that sight [of the stars], once so common and now so rare, seem more meaningful than I’d ever imagined.” Book and Film Globe
“[A] multifaceted meditation on humanity’s relationship with the cosmos.” Nature
“The Human Cosmos invites us along for a journey, retelling the story of our wondrous relationship with what lies above us, and how its mysteries continue to captivate, and facilitate, the human imagination and catalyze our innovation.” Agustín Fuentes, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, author of The Creative Spark
“An important and delicious book. Jo Marchant, whipsmart, sensitive, and eloquent yet unforced as ever, mines the history of stargazing to show that today’s cosmology can’t reveal the “intrinsic nature” of anything, whether stars, stardust, or human existence, because omitting human consciousness from its equations impoverishes not just our comprehension of the universe, but the notion of understanding itself.” David Dobbs, author of Reef Madness
“Marchant lifts our gaze skyward and reawakens our awe for humanity at a time when we so desperately need it.” Amanda Mascarelli, Managing Editor of SAPIENS
“A dazzling cultural account of our enduring and ever-changing relationship to the cosmos. Beginning with cave paintings and stone circles, Marchant traces humanity’s epic journey from a sky filled with gods, spirits and celestial events that shaped people’s lives and beliefs to the Big Bang and the search for alien life. This book will change the way you look at the night sky.” Manjit Kumar, author of Quantum
“Vast in scope and meticulously researched, this brilliant book traces humanity’s enduring relationship with our physical and cultural ancestors: the stars. Full of fascinating stories, The Human Cosmos weaves astronomy with astrology, mathematical physics with gods and spirits. It will make you question your reality. It left me starstruck.” Gaia Vince, author of Adventures in the Anthropocene and Transcendence
“This thematic, engaging overview of our stars and skies has something for all readers of geography, exploration, religion, philosophy, and politics” Library Journal
Science Bookshambles Jo Marchant chats to Robin Ince
Little Atoms Jo Marchant chats to Neil Denny
The ultimate destination of the journey The Psychologist September 2020
An ancient site with human skulls on display Nautilus September 2020
Obsession and desire in an ancient Assyrian Library Literary Hub September 2020
The oysters that knew what time it was Wired September 2020
The moon really may have strange effects on our health New Scientist September 2020
Life on Mars: The story of meteorite ALH84001 BBC Science Focus September 2020


The Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival or the Lantern Festival, takes place each year on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. This is the date of the Autumn Equinox, when the moon is at its farthest point from the earth and hence appears bright and completely round.
Traditionally the Moon Festival marks the end of the summer harvest. To the farmers of China, the festival is a celebration of thankfulness for heaven's bounty. It has been celebrated by the Chinese people since at least the first century.
Various legends are associated with moon viewing. One of the most popular concerns Chang-0, the wife of Hou-I, the Divine Archer. The legend tells of Hou-I who, having shot down nine out of ten suns that were causing havoc on earth, was rewarded by the goddess Xiwangmu with the herb of immortality. However, the beautiful and vain Chang-0 Found and ate the herb herself. Realizing that her husband would be angry, she fled to the moon where she coughed up the herb that turned into the Jade Rabbit, another mythical figure associated with immortality.
Today, children look for Chang-O and the Jade Rabbit in the shadows visible on the moon's surface. On the night of the Festival they carry paper lanterns in the shape of rabbits, phoenixes, fish and other auspicious animals. The Moon Festival is a time of gathering for family and friends, and moon cakes filled with ground lotus and sesame seeds are given as gifts.


What are King Tides?
Between January 29th, 2018 and February 2nd, 2018, the NC coast will be susceptible to the highest of high tides. To that end, we’ll be subject to the lowest of low tides as well. This phenomenon is called King Tides. King Tides occur when the moon is closest to Earth in its elliptical orbit. This must also co occur with a full or new moon. It’s not a rare event by any means as they occur multiple times of year.
Why are King Tides Important?
King Tides are important because they show what water levels may look like in the future, based on the rise in sea level predictions.
Can King Tides be Problematic?
King Tides can certainly become problematic when they occur at the same time as storm conditions. Imagine the highest of tides under normal weather conditions, and then add in the storm surge that is created when another weather event happens. You will absolutely see localized flooding, if not more widespread flooding, in our coastal regions.
What’s Going on This Week?
Special this week is the fact that on January 31st, there will also be a blue moon and a supermoon. For 77 minutes, the full moon will pass through the Earth’s shadow, casting an orange hue over the moon. It will also be a blue moon because it’s the second full moon in the calendar month. The first occurred on Jan. 2. This type of event hasn’t happened in over 100 years. This is called a Blue Blood Moon!


“The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities.”
The very fact that you are here, breathing, reading, living, is a true miracle. It’s the greatest miracle of all, and it has been that way since your start. Don’t ever forget that.
Man tends to get so caught up in the small things. The daily, time-eating routines of society that he forgets his place in this mighty universe.
When last have you looked up? When last have you stared out into the skies? There is an endless space above our heads. A mysterious, intriguing beauty of the unknown. How can one, so mindlessly go on with their day to day and not realize just how crazy this all is?
A burning, fiery star fueling our very existence. How our tiny sanctuary fixedly spins around this massive energy, whilst rotating around its own axis to share this vitality. How is it that we are so perfectly positioned as to neither freeze nor burn up? How is it that we just happen to have this smaller rocky debris orbiting our planet, providing a natural satellite in which to control our waters?
Man can ponder on these thoughts forever. Dream, hypothesize and speculate on how it all came to be, and why. But will we ever truly know how things came to be? Magic, science, reason and religion try to put it into perspective, but the universe, and it’s sheer size and complexity is far too abstract and out of this world to explain.
But looking up, just for a few seconds, has the ability to emancipate the most enslaved of men. It can stir reverence in the most resented. And inspire the extinguished. There is untold tranquility in this canvas that wraps around our world. It puts us in place. It reminds us of how precious this life is.
Spend more time appreciating the incomparable splendor of the endless space around us. Admire the moon and the stars. Take each rising sun as a gift and not a given. And most importantly, don’t get too caught up living, that you forget about your life.


Water and No Life...Yet
The discovery of water embedded in the Martian soil is an enormous find. If 2% of the soil on Mars is water, the planet can provide enormous amounts of water wherever it is needed. This means that Martian settlers won't have to carry large amounts of water with them from Earth in order to create a viable settlement. They won't even have to go to the poles or find the right place to drill.
Meanwhile, the fact that life has persistently refused to show itself on Mars is a good sign for potential settlers -- however disappointing it may be to those who are eager to find life beyond Earth. If Mars proves to be completely lifeless, settlers won't have to worry about disrupting or damaging an existing ecosystem.


Just an outstanding video rendering of a $2.5 billion project from the NASA that will start next week far away from troubled-earth on planet March.
If you have 15 minutes to spare and a fast connection, then enjoy 2 YouTube HD videos:
When NASA’s newest and largest robotic rover lands on Mars early Monday morning, it will use a supersonic parachute, a tether and rockets to safely alight 350 million miles from home.
Seven minutes will elapse between the time the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere and the time it touches down on the planet’s surface. NASA engineers say this will be the seven scariest minutes of the mission.
“Entry, descent and landing is referred to as the ‘seven minutes of terror’ because we’ve got literally seven minutes to get from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars, going from 13,000 miles an hour to…
View original post 111 more words


After eleven years examining pulsars for evidence of the elusive gravitational waves predicted by Einstein’s theory of relativity, a team of scientists at CSIRO have failed to find anything conclusive.
The existence of gravitational waves is relativity’s largest unresolved prediction.
Using the Parkes telescope in Australia, a team of astronomers led by Dr. Ryan Shannon searched for the miniscule time delays between pulsar signals that would indicate ripples in spacetime caused by gravitational waves.
I spoke to him about the research and what it means on 2SER’s the Daily. It’s located here !


Supermoon May 5, 2012 – as seen over Vancouver, Canada.
The supermoon on May 5, 2012 was an indicator for increased global earth change activity.
On May 20, 2012 a very powerful solar eclipse will occur that will further set in motion universal and global energies as well as global conditions for earthquakes, tsunamis, major storms, floods, etc.; problems with electronics and computers, and even war-like activity for those who are out of balance. This eclipse will also effect changes in the consciousness of humanity, which will rise in coming years.
I ask all to pray for peace during this eclipse. Ask for forgiveness for self and past actions as well as for forgiveness for others.
Be a participant in creating peace, compassion and kindness for a new tomorrow. Help to save the planet. As I have forewarned in my prophecies, this is a time to “be in the know” and to be prepared for planetary adjustments.


Referencing poems in an essay wyatt i am navigating the virtual halls of @usclibraries looking for chicano historiographical essays sigh 'tis harder than i thought. Essays report on the hubble space telescope the hubble space telescope is one of the most important telescopes in the history of astronomy. Introduction the telescope is an instrument which increases our ability to observe far away objects through the collection of electromagnetic radiation, the most. The telescope’s invention is often pegged in 1608 with the award of a patent to lippershey by the states-general, the name for parliament in the. History of the telescope telescope history in 1609 an italian physicist and astronomer named galileo became the first person to point a telescope skyward.
Science — a history of the telescope the venerable telescope has changed markedly over the centuries, with wayne hardman - jun 29, 2010 4:30 am utc. A brief history of telescopes 1608 ad – hans lippershey, german-born dutch lens maker, applied for a patent for his refracting telescope (using 2 lenses. How to write a conclusion on compare and contrast essay james telescope invention of essays the december 13, 2017 @ 12:54 pm citations in research paper apa. From galileo to hubble philosophy essay many other scientists in history were developing their own telescopes if you are the original writer of this essay.
The paper describes the origins of the telescope it includes a brief history of the magnifying glass and the first spectacles from which the beginnings of the first. History of telescopes essay writer, essay on coaching classes and tuitions are necessary evil mrs midas poem analysis essay definition assignation justice. Development of the periodic table, x rays and the telescope essay example 853 words more about the history of the x-rays essay history of chemistry.
History of the telescope - a visual essay home traditions telescopes bibliography tycho brahe's great mural quadrant, 1582, uraniborg observatory, isle of hven. The telescope essays: over 180,000 the telescope essays, the telescope term papers, the telescope research paper, book reports 184 990 essays, term and research. Important inventions, technological developments - the history of the telescope.
King, henry c, ed (1955), the history of the telescope, london: history of telescope articles the galileo project – the telescope by al van helden. Page 2 report on the hubble space telescope essay the hubble space telescope is one of the most important telescopes in the history of astronomy. The history of the hubble in the year of 1958 nasa was born 1962 rocomendations made by national academy of science to construct large telescope as long range goal.


TESIS DOCTORAL New strategies to improve the sensitivity of the ANAIS-112 experiment at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory .- Viernes 22 de septiembre
La imparte David Cintas González
Tendrá lugar en la Sala de Grados de la Facultad de Ciencias,
El Viernes 22 de septiembre a las11:00 horas
Numerous astronomical and cosmological observations point to the existence of Dark Matter, which constitutes 26% of the mass-energy density of the universe. Since its nature is still unknown, its detection is currently one of the most important challenges in physics. Despite the intense experimental effort to detect this matter, only the DAMA/LIBRA experiment has observed an annual modulation in its detection rate consistent with the signal that would be produced by dark matter particles distributed in the galactic halo following the most standard model. To test the DAMA/LIBRA result independently of the dark matter model, it is necessary to use the same target material, and this is the goal of the ANAIS-112 experiment, which is taking data since August 3, 2017 at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory.
In parallel to the ANAIS-112 data acquisition, several complementary lines of research have been followed in this work with the aim of improving the sensitivity of the experiment.
The light emission response of NaI(Tl) crystals to sodium and iodine nuclear recoils has been analyzed. The so-called Quenching Factor (QF) is a key factor in the comparison between experiments. In this study, QF values have been determined for iodine and sodium nuclear recoils in different crystals, for the first time in the same setup and using the same analysis protocol, obtaining compatible values for all of them and identifying and quantifying the main sources of systematic error present in previous analyses. In particular the calibration method in electron equivalent energy has proved to be critical and allows understanding the discrepancies between previous measurements.
A GEANT4 simulation of an ANAIS-112 module has been developed including the optical processes of light emission and propagation after an energy deposit. This is the first step in an effort to understand the origin of some of the spurious event populations observed in the experiment.
Finally, the possibility of improving the sensitivity of NaI scintillators applied to the search for Dark Matter by replacing Photomultiplier Tubes with Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) as light sensors has been studied. SiPMs offer very interesting opportunities within the new project ANAIS+. In this work we have characterized SiPMs from different manufacturers, established measurement protocols for the most relevant parameters, studied the properties of NaI and NaI(Tl) crystals at different temperatures and designed a NaI+SiPM prototype that will allow to evaluate limitations and opportunities of this new technology.


Russia talks about abandoning NASA on the International Space Station. Although the news shocked many and inspired a flurry of headlines, the threat is neither new nor particular.
A NASA-Russia agreement on the International Space Station is under renewal in 2024. NASA has already committed to maintaining the station until 2030, but the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, has been questionable about the partnership for years. On Tuesday, the head of the agency made an official statement on this issue to President Vladimir Putin.
“Of course, we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to withdraw from the station after 2024 was made,” Yuri Borisov, the new director general of Roscosmos, told Putin at a meeting. times.
“I think that by this time we will begin to form the Russian orbital station,” he added. “Good,” Putin said.
While space enthusiasts wring their hands, the exchange didn’t shock space policy enthusiasts. Borisov’s predecessor, Dmitry Rogozin, who was sacked by Putin earlier this month, has repeatedly made similar threats.
“This has been seen as coming for the past two or three years,” John Logsdon, founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, told Insider, adding, “It’s nothing new.”
NASA officials told reporters that Russia had not informed them of any new decisions.
“We’ve seen this story many times before. Color me skeptical of any immediate changes,” Casey Dreyer, senior space policy advisor at The Planetary Society, said. He said on Twitter on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Kathy Luders, chief of human spaceflight at NASA, told Reuters she had received word from Russian officials that they intend to continue cooperating on the International Space Station until the completion of their own space station. In a statement on Friday, translated by Google, Borisov predicted a “torrent” of technical malfunctions in the Russian part of the International Space Station after 2024. He added that at that point, investing in a new Russian space station would be more economical.
“Whether it’s in the middle of 2024 or in 2025 – it all depends,” Borisov said.
When Russia leaves the International Space Station, it won’t necessarily be a disaster for NASA. The agency had been preparing to operate the station without Russia for nearly a decade, as relations between the two space powers soured.
“The Russian announcement is not surprising, and a repeat of their current commitment to 2024 is helpful for planning,” Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute, said in a written statement shared with Insider. “What will happen after 2024 is still not fully known, and the real question is when to begin in-depth technical discussions about *how* the transition will be managed (rather than whether there will be a transition).”
NASA has been preparing for a break from Roscosmos for nearly a decade
Roscosmos and NASA have had a strained partnership from the start. Even while the two agencies were building the first parts of the International Space Station, NASA was making contingency plans. In the late 1990s, Russia was behind schedule to build the Zvezda service module that would be an essential component of the station. NASA has built a backup unit in case Zvezda never shows up.
A decade later, NASA became dependent on Russian hardware. When the space shuttle program ended in 2011, only the United States could transport its astronauts to and from the International Space Station aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
To roll back this dependence, the Obama administration began funding private development of human-classified spacecraft. The result, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship, regularly transports astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
NASA’s remaining dependence on Russia is based on the ISS itself. The station is built for interdependence: the Russian side relies on solar arrays in the western section for energy, and the station cannot maintain altitude without regular boosters from progressive Russian spaceships, which fire their boosters to push the station a little higher about once. Month.
NASA is learning how to perform “orbital re-enhancement” maneuvers with the Cygnus spacecraft developed by contractor Northrop Grumman. It conducted a successful test of the maneuver in June, a week after the initial test attempt failed.
It’s unclear what a move to the International Space Station without Russia might look like. According to Pace, the main challenges will be orbital recycling operations, replacement of ground support for Moscow, and deciding what to do with Russian modules and other ISS hardware.
“I am confident, without having any specific information, that the United States and its partners have considered what can be done,” Logsdon said. Otherwise, he added, they would be “negligent in the performance of their duty.”
The space alliance between the United States and Russia is becoming increasingly tense
Over the years, the NASA-Roscosmos partnership has involved public squabbles. In 2014, Russia announced that it would expel NASA from the International Space Station by 2020 in response to US sanctions over its invasion of Crimea. The threat did not come to fruition.
Last year, a Roscosmos official accused a NASA astronaut of having a mental breakdown and drilling holes in the Soyuz spacecraft in 2018. NASA has vehemently denied the accusations.
In November, Russia launched a missile at one of its defunct satellites as a weapons test. The explosion scattered thousands of pieces of high-speed debris through Earth’s orbit, forcing the International Space Station crew to retreat to their spaceships in case they had to exit in an emergency, drawing condemnation from NASA.
Tensions escalated when Russia invaded Ukraine. Rogozin, who at the time led Roscosmos and is known for his flamboyant tweets, got into heated Twitter discussions with former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a NASA contractor. Rogozin even I suggested Russia may abandon the International Space Station to collide with Earth.
Astronauts projected flags and pictures on the International Space Station supporting the Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine, citing reprimands from NASA officials.
The United States and Russia are planning to go their own way after the International Space Station
Outside the International Space Station, the American and Russian tracks diverge. NASA is funding the development of commercial space stations by three companies – Blue Origin, Nanoracks and Northrop Grumman. Her plan is to become a client, renting a room and a laboratory at an orbital station operated by a private company.
Roscosmos says it is planning its own space station, but it hasn’t shared many details.
“You can take that with caution, given the general economic situation,” Logsdon said.
NASA and Roscosmos aim to build new space stations on the Moon, but not together.
NASA has concluded a set of agreements for the new age of lunar exploration, called the Artemis Agreements, which have been signed by 20 other countries. Russia and China have not signed the agreements. Instead, they said they plan to build their own base, together, on the moon.
“I think there will be international cooperation among like-minded nations, and the addition of Russia to the ISS will be seen as a policy artifact at a point in time, not as setting a pattern for the future,” Logsdon said. .
Read the original article on Business Insider


Sat, Jun 15|
RITUAL-- A Full Moon Celebration
Celebrate the Full moon with music, fire, & Ritual
Time & Location
Jun 15, 2019, 7:30 PM – 11:30 PM
Sekrit Theater, 1145 Perry Rd, Austin, TX 78721, USA
About the event
Calling all freaks, geeks, brujas and lunar lovers to celebrate the full moon!
Celebrate the Stawberry Moon at our last Full Moon Party of the Spring!
We’ll have LIVE BLUES music, TELESCOPES for a closeup with the Strawberry Moon, and a FIRE CIRCLE for your purging pleasure.
The Full Moon is a time of coming together and letting go of the past to embrace what's before us. We will practice a releasing ritual. Join us -- Write down what you need to let go and toss it in the fire to set yourself free!
All proceeds from our mystical merriment benefit Sekrit urban farm project!
BUT-- if you come in costume, bring a telescope or donate some firewood, we’ll let ya in on the house! (FREE) must RSVP!!!
Ride sharing is encouraged, so grab your gang and come on over.
RSVP for tickets here, and we’ll see y’all under the light of the full moon!
great for a good time$10.00
COSTUME - TELESCOPE - FIREWOOD
Must show up in costume -- or bring a bundle of firewood or telescope$0.00


Hot off the press at the Johns Hopkins Gazette, apparently there is a raging debate on whether Pluto is actually a planet. I know I have been off for a while, but who knew that this debate would be raging across the United States.
That debate may finally end next week, when members of the International Astronomical Union meeting in Prague will vote on a formal definition of the word "planet." According to the proposed definition, a planet is any star-orbiting object with enough mass for its own gravitational force to pull it into the shape of a ball. Furthermore, the object must orbit a star, without being a star itself.I don't know about you, but I really think that Pluto is a dog and not a planet. It's pretty apparent to me, but listen to Professor Richard Henry:
I think the notion that Pluto is a planet is absurd. When it was initially discovered, it was thought to be vastly more massive than it turned out to be. Its orbit is radically different from that of all the other planets. Down with Pluto is what I say!So, I ask you to join me in this crusade. Call your senator and congressman today. Tell all your friends and neighbors. The future of the universe is at stake here. Save Pluto! *LOL*


Founder & Lead, Space Exploration Initiative, MIT Media Lab
Ariel Ekblaw is the founder and lead of the MIT Media Lab's Space Exploration Initiative, a team of over 50 students, faculty, and staff actively prototyping our sci-fi space future. For the initiative, Ariel coordinates space research and launch opportunities across the spectrum of science, engineering, art, and design, and builds collaborations on this work with MIT and space industry partners.
Ariel is simultaneously a graduate research assistant at the MIT Media Lab, where she is completing a PhD in Aerospace Structures in Dr. Joseph Paradiso's Responsive Environments group. Her current research includes designing, testing, and deploying self-assembling space architecture for future space tourist habitats and space stations in orbit around the Earth and Mars. Ariel brings an interdisciplinary approach to her research at the Media Lab, with undergraduate degrees in Physics, Mathematics, and Philosophy from Yale University and a master's in blockchain research from MIT. Her past work experience includes blockchain product development, cloud computing analytics at Microsoft Azure, big-data programming at the CERN Particle Physics Laboratory, microgravity research with NASA, and Mars2020 rover hardware systems engineering at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Ariel's work has been featured in AIAA, IEEE, Wired, Ars Technica, Ars Electronica, MIT Technology Review, Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, PRI's Science Friday, and more.
Previously, in the Viral Communications group at the Media Lab, Ariel researched and prototyped technologies that "scale with user inventiveness." Her projects explored digital currencies, applications for blockchain (Bitcoin's cryptographic protocol), and decentralized networks.


3-D: Short for three-dimensional. This term is an adjective for something that has features that can be described in three dimensions — height, width and length.
astrophysics: An area of astronomy that deals with understanding the physical nature of stars and other objects in space. People who work in this field are known as astrophysicists.
Big Bang: The rapid expansion of dense matter that, according to current theory, marked the origin of the universe. It is supported by astronomers’ current understanding of the composition and structure of the universe.
colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.
cosmic: An adjective that refers to the cosmos — the universe and everything within it.
cosmologist: A scientist who studies the origin and development of the cosmos, or universe.
dark matter: Physical objects or particles that emit no detectable radiation of their own. They are believed to exist because of unexplained gravitational forces that they appear to exert on other, visible astronomical objects.
filament: Something with a thin, thread-like shape. For instance, the fragile metal wire that heats up to emit light inside an incandescent light bulb is known as its filament.
force: Some outside influence that can change the motion of a body, hold bodies close to one another, or produce motion or stress in a stationary body.
galaxy: A group of stars — and usually dark matter — all held together by gravity. Giant galaxies, such as the Milky Way, often have more than 100 billion stars. The dimmest galaxies may have just a few thousand. Some galaxies also have gas and dust from which they make new stars.
galaxy cluster: A gathering of many galaxies held close to one another by gravity.
light-year: The distance light travels in one year, about 9.46 trillion kilometers (almost 6 trillion miles). To get some idea of this length, imagine a rope long enough to wrap around the Earth. It would be a little over 40,000 kilometers (24,900 miles) long. Lay it out straight. Now lay another 236 million more that are the same length, end-to-end, right after the first. The total distance they now span would equal one light-year.
mass: A number that shows how much an object resists speeding up and slowing down — basically a measure of how much matter that object is made from.
matter: Something that occupies space and has mass. Anything on Earth with matter will have a property described as “weight.”
moon: The natural satellite of any planet.
perpendicular: An adjective that describes two things that are situated approximately 90 degrees to each other. In the letter “T,” the top line of the letter is perpendicular to the bottom line.
simulation: (v. simulate) An analysis, often made using a computer, of some conditions, functions or appearance of a physical system. A computer program would do this by using mathematical operations that can describe the system and how it might change over time or in response to different anticipated situations.
star: The basic building block from which galaxies are made. Stars develop when gravity compacts clouds of gas. When they become hot enough, stars will emit light and sometimes other forms of electromagnetic radiation. The sun is our closest star.
theory: (in science) A description of some aspect of the natural world based on extensive observations, tests and reason. A theory can also be a way of organizing a broad body of knowledge that applies in a broad range of circumstances to explain what will happen. Unlike the common definition of theory, a theory in science is not just a hunch. Ideas or conclusions that are based on a theory — and not yet on firm data or observations — are referred to as theoretical. Scientists who use mathematics and/or existing data to project what might happen in new situations are known as theorists.
torque: A force that produces rotation, twisting or turning.
universe: The entire cosmos: All things that exist throughout space and time. It has been expanding since its formation during an event known as the Big Bang, some 13.8 billion years ago (give or take a few hundred million years).
velocity: The speed of something in a given direction.


The majestic constellation of Orion is the highlight of the winter skies. It was listed by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century AD. Orion is the hunter of the sky seen marching with his two hunting dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor.
You’ll easily recognise Orion by the three bright stars in a line. These are the stars that make up Orion’s belt. You’ll also notice two very bright supergiant stars at upper left and lower right. Betelguese is upper left and is an orange red gigantic star so large in diameter that if placed where our Sun sits, both Earth and Mars would orbit within its radius! Rigel is the other supergiant blazing blue white at an intense 11,000 Kelvin. Pretty hot considering stainless steel turns to liquid at just over 1500 K!
Looking down from the middle belt star is a small grouping of faint stars. This little region is made up of very young hot ‘baby’ stars shrouded in a high concentration of interstellar dust and gas. It is a stellar nursery known as the Great Orion Nebula where new stars are born. Binoculars will reveal a tiny misty patch of sky with small stars within.
Orion is currently due south at around 8pm.
Wrap up warm and happy viewing!


Wednesday, March 14, 2018
R.I.P. STEPHEN HAWKING -- 1942 - 2018
Neil deGrasse Tyson Verified account @neiltyson
His passing has left an intellectual vacuum in his wake. But it's not empty. Think of it as a kind of vacuum energy permeating the fabric of spacetime that defies measure. Stephen Hawking, RIP 1942-2018.
NASA Verified account @NASA
Remembering Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist and ambassador of science. His theories unlocked a universe of possibilities that we & the world are exploring. May you keep flying like superman in microgravity, as you said to astronauts on @Space_Station in 2014


50 years ago, we went to the moon. Now, we’re going back with an augmented reality experience that takes you along for the ride. The speech that inspired that one small step gave an entire generation something to shoot for, and now the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library has built a first-of-its-kind AR documentary app to bring the Apollo 11 mission to life for the next generation.
JFK Moonshot recreates the entire five day Apollo 11 mission minute-by-minute allowing users to track the journey in real time between July 16 and 20. Users at the JFK Library can explore a full-scale 363 foot tall augmented reality model of the Saturn V Rocket, users at home can get a smaller table top version.