Tag Archives: Space

RECOMMENDED IMAGE(S): 10 fascinating images from the sky and beyond (click on any image to enlarge it)

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  1. Via the European Space Agency, the microwave sky as seen by Planck:

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  2. Mesospheric clouds captured by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station:

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  3. Via HubbleSite, a Starburst Cluster:

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  4. Via the Gemini Observatory, the first image of an extrasolar planet, or exoplanet:

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  5. Via the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Saturn’s moon Daphnis. According to NASA, “the moon can be seen orbiting in a rift known as the Keeler Gap in one of Saturn’s rings.”

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  6. Via the Eberly College of Science, “The brightest gamma-ray burst ever seen in X-rays temporarily blinded Swift’s X-ray Telescope on 21 June 2010.” According to David Burrows of Penn State University, “This gamma-ray burst is by far the brightest light source ever seen in X-ray wavelengths at cosmological distances.”

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  7. Via The Daily Galaxy, a star is born near the Orion Nebula: “This object has a remarkable, very complicated appearance that includes two opposite jets that ram into the surrounding interstellar matter.”

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  8. The galaxy—Messier 87—as captured by the Hubble space telescope. The image shows a jet of material being ejected out of the center of Messier 87. The material is being spewed by “a supermassive black hole [at the core of this galaxy] with an estimated (3.2 ± 0.9) × 109 times the mass of the Sun and a diameter larger than the orbit of Pluto. This is one of the highest masses known for a black hole.” Image via Wikipedia.

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  9. HE 0437-5439 is a star that is escaping from the Milky Way. It’s a rare example of a hypervelocity star, and “for every 100 million stars in the Milky Way’s population of 100 billion stars, ‘there lurks one hypervelocity star.’” According to Wikipedia, “the star appears to be receding at an extremely high velocity of 723 km/s, or 2.6 million kilometres per hour. At this speed, the star is no longer gravitationally bound and will leave the Milky Way galaxy system and escape into intergalactic space.”

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    Via HubbleSite, the Antennae galaxies, which are two colliding galaxies that are located a staggering 62-million light years from Earth.

On the Net

  1. Top 10 Star Mysteries

ASTRONOMY: Why don’t gas clouds in space dissipate?

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Have you ever wondered why massive gas clouds in space don’t disperse or slowly vanish? TheBadAstronomer provides an explanation, but don’t ask a creationist.

SCIENCE FICTION: “V” is back, “Battlestar Galactica” is gone

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V is now a 2009 TV series: ABC is resurrecting the “one-hour weekly television series that aired in the United States on NBC in 1984-85.” The plot summary from Wikipedia:

The world awakens to find spaceships hovering over all major cities. Though the aliens claim to come in peace, some do not believe them. Homeland Security agent Erica Evans discovers that the aliens have plans to infiltrate our governments and businesses in a plot to take over the planet. Erica joins the resistance movement, which includes Ryan, an alien who wants to save humanity. However, the aliens have recruited earth’s youth, including Erica’s son, to serve unknowingly as spies.

Personally, I want Battlestar Galactica, the 2004 TV series, back (but everything must end). I enjoyed Battlestar Galactica for its underlying message: Although science and technology is supposed to be a tool that promotes, produces, and results in good things (like religion ironically), it can be contaminated and twisted by people (and I don’t hold anti-science, anti-technology, or anti-religion sentiments). As a result, Battlestar Galactica was more “hard social fiction, [or] a realistic look at the future of human culture” than science fiction, and “the show [ended] with a strong suggestion that humans’ devotion to science and technology will only lead to their downfall – again and again and again.”

NUP_111710_1900

Via io9

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RECOMMENDED IMAGE(S) from the Hubble Space Telescope

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You can view some amazing images from the Hubble Space Telescope at Hubblesite.

saturn-moon

Image found here.

galaxies

Image found here.

interacting-galaxies

Image found here.

Planetary Nebula NGC 2818

Image found here.

galactic-center

Image found here.

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SCIENCE FICTION: Spaceship size comparison charts (updated)

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For the science fiction fans: Here is a fascinating chart (sans Death Star of the “Star Wars” series) that compares the size of various spaceships found in popular science fiction culture. Imagine the amount of resources (and technology that doesn’t yet exist) needed to construct even the smallest of these spacecraft. More discussion about this poster can be found at BuzzFeed. You can click on the chart to view a larger size.

spaceship-size-comparison-chart

Image Found Here

UPDATE 1 (22 Oct. 10): Why no Death Star? Apparently, it’s too big. Via Star Trek Minutiae:

But what about the Death Star? That’s too obvious to miss!
First, the Death Star is so friggin’ huge that it doesn’t fit on even the largest chart I’ve made. And that’s even for the low-ball estimate of the size, which brings me to my second point: No one can agree just how big the Death Stars actually were, so there’s no point in doing their sizes.

Furthermore, the starship size comparison charts were recently updated. You can click on any chart to view a larger size. Via Star Trek Minutiae:

UPDATE 2 (22 March 11): Which astronautical engineering project consumes the most energy? Via io9:

The Enterprise-D, from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Power source: matter-antimatter reactor.
Energy output: 6.8 x 10^16 joules, based on the amount of energy it would take for the Enterprise to do significant damage to a Borg cube, according to this guy.

The Narn’s Q’Guan Heavy Cruiser, fromBabylon 5.
Power source: nuclear fusion.
Energy output: 7.08 x 10^22 joules, according to this site.

Omega Class Destroyer, from Babylon 5.
Power source: four General Fusion 650 high-energy fusion reactors, using gelled deuterium as fuel.
Energy output: 1.83 x 10^23 joules, according to the Cycrow site again.

Colonial Battlestar, from Battlestar Galactica.
Power source: Tyllium reactor.
Energy output: 4.6 x 10^24 joules, according to the Battlestar technical site.

Babylon 5 Station, from Babylon 5.
Power source: eight fusion reactors.
Energy output: 2.5 x 10^24 joules, according to several sites.

Zero Point Module, from Stargate.
Power source: Vacuum energy, from a pocket of subspace.
Energy output: 10^28 joules, according to this guy’s back-of-the-envelope calculations.

The Death Star, from the original Star Wars.
Power source: Some kind of “hypermatter” fusion reactor.
Energy output: It would need to generate 2.4 x 10^32 joules of energy to destroy a planet such as Alderaan. Upper estimates of its power run to around 10^38 joules, or as much energy as our sun generates in 8,000 years, according to this site.

Ringworld, from Larry Niven’s Ringworld novels.
Power source: Solar energy, collected by “shadow squares.”
Energy output: To keep the whole shebang spinning at 770 miles per second, you’d need 1.6 x 10^39 joules, or our sun’s output over 130,000 years, according to this site and a few others. We have a winner!