New stories for 2008/02/23
Aliens Might Be Moving Stars to Communicate With Us
You've got to love the audacity of this idea. In a recent article at Discover Magazine, virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier (you know, the guy with the dreadlocks) proposes that we get working on repositioning nearby stars to form geometric patterns - or at least start looking for places that it's already been done by aliens
Time to Observe Saturn - Opposition Occurs February 23!
Are you ready to take a closer look at the real "Lord of the Rings"? Then say hello to Saturn as it reaches opposition tomorrow night. With the yellow planet rising around sunset, highest in the south around midnight, and setting around sunrise, now is the time for observers and photographers to enjoy Saturn the most!
Could Primordial Black Holes Deflect Asteriods on a Collision Course with Earth?
Primordial black holes (PBHs) are getting mischievous again. These artefacts from the Big Bang could be responsible for hiding inside planets or stars, they may even punch a neat, radioactive hole through the Earth. Now, they might start playing interplanetary billiards with asteroids in our solar system.
Knocking around lumps of rock may not sound very threatening when compared with the small black holes' other accolades, but what if a large asteroid was knocked off course and sent in our direction? This could be one of the most catastrophic events yet to come from a PBH passing through our cosmic neighborhood…
Milky Way is Twice as Thick as Previously Believed
Imagine suddenly realizing that your house was twice as big as you originally thought. Okay, maybe that's a little out there, but astronomers from Australia have calculated that the Milky Way is actually twice as thick as previously believed - doubling from the originally estimated 6,000 light-years to 12,000 light-years.
Send in Your Eclipse Pictures, Tell Your Stories
How was your view of this week's lunar eclipse? The skies actually opened up here in Vancouver, and we were able to see good portions of the eclipse. The kids were really excited, and got to stay up late watching the eclipse - it was all they were talking about the next day.
So send me your pictures of the eclipse, and I'll run a quick gallery. Email them to me at info@universetoday.com, and I'll try to post them in the next few days.
And to tide you over, here's an image captured by ESA astronomers from Spain.
An Elegant Proposal for Near Earth Asteroid Deflection
Although the chances of an asteroid hitting Earth appear to be small for any given year, the consequences of such an event would be monumental. The science community has come up with some ideas and proposals for ways to mitigate the threat of an incoming asteroid hitting the Earth. Some proposals suggest almost Hollywood type theatrics of launching nuclear weapons to destroy the asteroid, or slamming a spacecraft into a Near Earth Object to blow it apart. But other ideas employ more simple and elegant propositions to merely alter the trajectory of the space rock. One such plan uses a two-piece solar sail called a solar photon thruster that draws on solar energy and resources from the asteroid itself.
FROM Universetoday.com
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Credit: ACS Science & Engineering Team, Hubble Space Telescope, NASA
Explanation: These two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart. Known as " The Mice" because they have such long tails, each spiral galaxy has likely already passed through the other. They will probably collide again and again until they coalesce. The long tails are created by the relative difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy. Because the distances are so large, the cosmic interaction takes place in slow motion -- over hundreds of millions of years. NGC 4676 lies about 300 million light-years away toward the constellation of Bernice's Hair (Coma Berenices) and are likely members of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies. The above picture was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys which is more sensitive and images a larger field than previous Hubble cameras. The camera's increased sensitivity has imaged, serendipitously, galaxies far in the distance scattered about the frame.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
4 comments on Nothing says LUVIN like an Alien that moves the stars for you
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These pictures are awesome. The first one is so interesting. One can see an eyeball with vessels running through or a poppy with an outlandish center of crystal. Very interesting my friend.
LIFE is awesome, no wonder we keep coming back. Besides sex, and
chocolate!
I'll have my eye out for Saturn for sure!
Might have a clear sky tonight. Been raining and cloudy here.
I HUG all the Planets I know of each night, sun and moon too. Keep the LOVE LIGHT Connections.
Give my best to Saturn, my TEACHER ....