From The Resonance Project:
It’s a challenge to even perceive how big “big” really is. Hopefully this meme helps you to realize how large our local environment is. The galaxy may seem huge, but its only a speck in Laniakea, our local supercluster of galaxies…
From The Mind Unleashed:
* And to think that the ancients discovered all this without the aid of modern technology. *
“The atoms of our bodies are traceable to stars that manufactured them in their cores and exploded these enriched ingredients across our galaxy, billions of years ago. For this reason, we are biologically connected to every other living thing in the world. We are chemically connected to all molecules on Earth. And we are atomically connected to all atoms in the universe. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.” ―Neil deGrasse Tyson
Physicists find evidence that there’s more of a similarity between the very small and the very large than first appearances suggest: http://goo.gl/dF2MIq
From earthsky.org:
n international team of astronomers has discovered an exotic young planet that is not orbiting a star.
This free-floating planet, dubbed PSO J318.5-22, is just 80 light-years away from Earth and has a mass only six times that of Jupiter. The planet formed a mere 12 million years ago—a newborn in planet lifetimes.
It was identified from its faint and unique heat signature by the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) wide-field survey telescope on Haleakala, Maui. Follow-up observations using other telescopes in Hawaii show that it has properties similar to those of gas-giant planets found orbiting around young stars. And yet PSO J318.5-22 is all by itself, without a host star.
Artist’s conception of PSO J318.5-22. Image credit: MPIA/V. Ch. Quetz
“We have never before seen an object free-floating in space that that looks like this. It has all the characteristics of young planets found around other stars, but it is drifting out there all alone,” explained team leader Dr. Michael Liu of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “I had often wondered if such solitary objects exist, and now we know they do.”
During the past decade, extrasolar planets have been discovered at an incredible pace, with about a thousand found by indirect methods such as wobbling or dimming of their host stars induced by the planet. However, only a handful of planets have been directly imaged, all of which are around young stars (less than 200 million years old). PSO J318.5-22 is one of the lowest-mass free-floating objects known, perhaps the very lowest. But its most unique aspect is its similar mass, color, and energy output to directly imaged planets.
To read more click link up top!
Some astronomy explained:
An artist’s impression of the forming massive star. (Credit: David A. Hardy/www.astroart.org)
From http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130710062240.htm
July 10, 2013 — Scientists have observed in unprecedented detail the birth of a massive star within a dark cloud core about 10,000 light years from Earth.
The team used the new ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array) telescope in Chile — the most powerful radio telescope in the world — to view the stellar womb which, at 500 times the mass of the Sun and many times more luminous, is the largest ever seen in our galaxy.
The researchers say their observations — to be published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics — reveal how matter is being dragged into the centre of the huge gaseous cloud by the gravitational pull of the forming star — or stars — along a number of dense threads or filaments.
“The remarkable observations from ALMA allowed us to get the first really in-depth look at what was going on within this cloud,” said lead author Dr Nicolas Peretto, from Cardiff University. “We wanted to see how monster stars form and grow, and we certainly achieved our aim. One of the sources we have found is an absolute giant — the largest protostellar core ever spotted in the Milky Way!
“Even though we already believed that the region was a good candidate for being a massive star-forming cloud, we were not expecting to find such a massive embryonic star at its centre. This cloud is expected to form at least one star 100 times more massive than the Sun and up to a million times brighter. Only about one in 10,000 of all the stars in the Milky Way reach that kind of mass.”
To read more click link up top!
From Gypsy Spirit Wind:
“The moon is a loyal companion.
It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human.
Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me
Thataway! Scotland’s extraterrestrial positioning system?
Sign spotted in Edinburgh.
From I fucking love science
Now all we have to do is figure out how to get there and then we can go and fuck that one up aswell!
From I fucking love science
Lunar libration.(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A full Moon tearing at my innards.
Mad wolves howling in my brain.
This ebb and flow of change…?
Dizzy, I wonder where is North?
Tidal waves of ferocious hope
crash against my fragile sanity.
A plethora of new prospects
spreads like rampant wildfire.
Drawn and quartered by indecision:
a collision of conflicting needs,
disintegrating and dispersing
on a searing wind of passion.
Destination: that alluring unknown,
Mistress of my dubious fate,
spins out of control
and cackles with irreverent glee
at the outcome only she can see.
Planets of the Solar System (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Man, born of stars:
his own galaxy.
Essence of four
birthed by the Moon.
Three times seven
reflecting the Matrix.
That illusive mirror
was always within.
Breathe sunlight
for
your progeny
is infinity.
Sirius-ly!
The Helix
is
everywhere.
Wonderful!
An image of the WorldWide Telescope viewing the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Immerse yourself in a seamless beautiful environment.
Brilliant!
I found the mother-load of cool intergalactic images and videos on http://www.youtube.com/HubbleSiteChannel.
I got there by following a link from http://hubblesite.org/
Here is an example:
Look at those colours… From Science.Memebase.com
And what about all those stars? There could be little Joes or Janes living anywhere in there!!! Or Glurckles, maybe Strontles?
My neighbour John just remarked that Orion may actually not be a nebula. He’s lying, because it’s been a while since I last cleaned my glasses and if I say it’s a nebula, then we are unanimous about that, dangit!
see more Dropping The Science
When Venus passes in front of the sun and we’re blindsided, that’s when Cupid takes out his little bow and the merry dance starts again. Be warned!
see more Dropping The Science
Image via Wikipedia
Sweet serene sky-like flower,
Haste to adorn her bower;
From thy long cloudy bed
Shoot forth thy damask head!
New-startled blush of Flora,
The grief of pale Aurora,
Who will contest no more,
Haste, haste to strew her floor!
Vermilion ball that’s given
From lip to lip in heaven,
Love’s couch’s coverlet,
Haste, haste to make her bed!
Dear offspring of pleased Venus
And jolly plump Silenus,
Haste, haste to deck the hair
Of the only sweetly fair!
See! rosy is her bower,
Her floor is all this flower;
Her bed a rosy nest
By a bed of roses pressed.
But early as she dresses,
Why fly you her bright tresses?
Ah! I have found, I fear,—
Because her cheeks are near.
Image via Wikipedia
I just read an article in “The News” (publ.07-09-2011), which is a free newspaper, that we get here in the South of Spain. According to Mr. Ken Campbell, their resident astronomer(not astrologer!), what everyone thinks is their star sign, is “almost certainly NOT the constellation where the sun was on the day they were born”!!! This is due to a phenomenon called precession.(->)
In astronomy, precession refers to any of several gravity-induced, slow and continuous changes in an astronomical body’s rotational axis or orbital path.*
If anyone would like to know their TRUE star sign, email him at kencampbell1@msn.com. You can also visit http://www.kencampbell.info to learn more.(see link up!)
