afronaut:

physicsphysics:

An interesting model of our solar system’s path as it travels through space in the Milky Way.

Certainly a departure from usual models that show the Sun as a static object, which it certainly isn’t

I have been waiting for this picture to come back around for so long to show it to someone.

I spent several minutes just staring at this. Mesmerized.

subbieblackgrl:

nevver:

Replace the Moon with a Planet

Glad we’re not that close to Jupiter because that shit would be creepy. 

Not to mention it’s gravity would pull us into it and we’d all die.

8 Minutes of the Earth’s Rotation

How I wish our planet’s movement was this apparent while staring at the night sky. It could probably make a lot more people realize just how tiny we are compared to this vast unexplored galaxy above our heads.

This is a stack of 70 pictures with a 5 second exposure each at ISO 3200 and f/2.2.

Photographed by: Paolo Nacpil

momothedelightful:

Astronomers Spot Black Hole Spinning Near Speed of Light - diagrams and article from The Escapist:

“NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have teamed up to, for the first time, measure the spin rate of a black hole with a mass 2 million times that of our own sun. In their findings the scientists analyzed data from several satellites to put Einstein’s theory of general relativity to a real test - which says gravity can bend space-time and light. The black hole is about 2 million miles across, and according to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics report has a surface spinning at nearly the speed of light. “We can trace matter as it swirls into a black hole using X-rays emitted from regions very close to the black hole,” explans NuSTAR principal investigator Fiona Harrison. “The radiation we see is warped and distorted by the motions of particles and the black hole’s incredibly strong gravity. Learning about the spin rates of supermassive black holes is intended to help scientists understand the origins of the universe.

“These monsters, with masses from millions to billions of times that of the sun, are formed as small seeds in the early universe and grow by swallowing stars and gas in their host galaxies, merging with other giant black holes when galaxies collide, or both,” said study lead author Guido Risaliti. Supermassive black holes are surrounded by accretion disks of matter being pulled inward, which emit X-rays due to the high rate of friction. In theory, the faster the hole spins, the closer the accretion disk should be to the hole. The closer the disk, the more gravity will warp X-ray light from the disk. ESA’s XMM-Newton proved that light was being warped, and NASA’s NuSTAR higher energy X-ray showed that gravity must be causing the warping.”

laboratoryequipment:

Every Detail Must Be Planned for Marsonauts’ Survival

When humans eventually travel to the Red Planet, the voyage will be long and difficult. The simulated Mars500 mission showed that every detail must be planned, including diet and sleep. The findings will also benefit those of us who stay behind.

Mars500 locked six “marsonauts” in a simulated spaceship near Moscow, Russia for 520 days, the time it would take to fly to Mars and back plus 30 days spent exploring its surface. During their simulated mission, the crew lived in isolation without fresh food, sunlight or fresh air.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/01/every-detail-must-be-planned-marsonauts-survival

The scale of Saturn

This image shows, of course, the ringed planet itself, with the rings seen edge-on and their shadow cast across the planet’s southern hemisphere cloud tops. But look to the left, just below the rings; see that half-lit disk? That’s Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn. It’s about 500 km (310 miles) across, which may start to give you an idea of how much area this picture covers. Even though it’s as big as my home state of Colorado, it’s positively dwarfed by the looming presence of Saturn behind it… and we’re not even seeing very much of the planet here! Saturn is over 120,000 km (75,000 miles) across, nine times the diameter of Earth.

infinity-imagined:

The Sombrero Galaxy

whatswrongwithmychin:

ikenbot:

This is a GIF set of Astronauts falling on the Moon

“aw shit there i go again”

“goddammit, neil”

“fucK me and this moon”

“this is why we can’t have nice things”

“oh- oh wait- waIT— I GOT— nope don’t got it”

“just get back on the fucking ship, neil”

So Ive been thinking about this picture. Of course I moved out of Ohio, so I tend to make fun of it a little, but still. Here’s what Ive been thinking of as a reply to this pic.

We Dream Bigger.

Kids from other states may dream about going to New York, or Hollywood, or Paris. Kids from other states may want to be a policeman, or a fireman! Other kids want to create film, or music, or paint. We dream bigger. We aim higher, so high we leave the atmosphere. 

We want the Cosmos.

we-are-star-stuff:

spaceplasma: 

Dark Matter Hunters Construct a New Weapon

According to physicists, only around five percent of what makes up the universe can presently be detected. The existence of dark matter is inferred from the behavior of faraway galaxies, which move in ways that can only be explained by a gravitational pull caused by more mass than can be seen. They estimate dark matter represents around 20 percent of the universe, with the other 75 percent made up of dark energy, a repulsive force that is causing the universe to expand at an ever-quickening pace.

At the heart of Abancens’ team’s detector, which is called a scintillating bolometer and resembles a prop from The Golden Compass, is a crystal so pure it can conduct the energy ostensibly generated when a particle of dark matter strikes the nucleus of one of its atoms.

To prevent interference by cosmic rays, the bolometer is sheathed in lead and kept underground, under half a mile of rock. It’s also frozen to near-absolute zero, the temperature at which all motion stops. At the edge of absolute zero, it’s possible to measure expected changes of a few millionths of a degree Fahrenheit.

[Read More] 

thedailywhat:

Space Shuttle Photo of the Day: In case you missed it this weekend, space shuttle Endeavour took a stroll through the streets of Los Angeles.

[nerdcore]

This.

The Milky Way by *torivarn

mal-luck:

did-you-kno:

Source

I think this did-you-kno is very missleading. Looking into it, “Grand Design” spiral galaxies account for 10% of all spiral galaxies. The surprising thing about this galaxy is how old it is. 10.7 billion years old. That makes it the oldest “Grand Design” spiral galaxy ever discovered.

“The fact that this galaxy exists is astounding,” said University of Toronto’s David Law, lead author of the study. “Current wisdom holds that such ‘grand-design’ spiral galaxies simply didn’t exist at such an early time in the history of the universe.”

The article goes on to talk about why they think a galaxy this old could be a grand design spiral is because of the interactions with it’s dwarf galaxy (the cluster in the middle right of the picture).

It’s awesome because it’s old and unusual.