-
-
RSS Feeds
: Posts
: Comments
-
The Tiki Web Group
Active Region 1002 on an Unusually Quiet Sun
Posted on October 7, 2008 by nyokki | 7 CommentsFiled Under Images and has these tags: APOD, Science!, Space, Wallpaper
(4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)
Loading ...
Explanation: Why has the Sun been so quiet recently? No one is sure. Our Sun has shown few active regions — that house even fewer associated sunspots — for over a year now, and such a period of relative calm is quite unusual. What is well known is that our Sun is in a transitional period between solar cycles called a Solar Minimum, where solar activity has historically been reduced. The stark lack of surface tumult is unusual even during a Solar Minimum, however, and activity this low has not been seen for many decades. A few days ago, however, a bona-fide active region — complete with sunspots –appeared and continues to rotate across the Sun’s face. Visible above, this region, dubbed Active Region 1002 (AR 1002), was imaged in ultraviolet light yesterday by the SOHO spacecraft, which co-orbits the Sun near the Earth. Besides the tranquility on the Sun’s surface, recent data from the Ulysses spacecraft, across the Solar System, indicate that the intensity of the solar wind blowing out from the Sun is at a fifty year low. Predictions hold, however, that our Sun will show more and more active regions containing more and more sunspots and flares until Solar Maximum occurs in about four years.
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0809/sunspot1002_soho_big.jpg
Comments(7)
Haumea of the Outer Solar System
Posted on October 5, 2008 by nyokki | 7 CommentsFiled Under Images and has these tags: APOD, Science!, Space, Wallpaper
(5 votes, average: 4 out of 5) Loading ...
Explanation: One of the strangest objects in the outer Solar System was classified as a dwarf planet last week and given the name Haumea. This designation makes Haumea the fifth designated dwarf planet after Pluto, Ceres, Eris, and Makemake. Haumea’s smooth but oblong shape make it extremely unusual. Along one direction, Haumea is significantly longer than Pluto, while in another direction Haumea has an extent very similar to Pluto, while in the third direction is much smaller. Haumea’s orbit sometimes brings it closer to the Sun than Pluto, but usually Haumea is further away. Illustrated above, an artist visualizes Haumea as a nearly featureless ellipsoid. Quite possibly, however, Haumea has interesting craters and surface features that currently remain unknown. Originally discovered in 2003 and given the temporary designation of 2003 EL61, Haumea was recently renamed by the IAU for a Hawaiian goddess. Haumea has two small moons discovered in 2005, recently renamed Hi’iaka and Namaka for daughters of the goddess.
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Comments(7)
Two Giant Galaxy Clusters Collide
Posted on October 4, 2008 by nyokki | 10 CommentsFiled Under Images and has these tags: APOD, Science!, Space, Wallpaper
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...
Explanation: What happens when two of the largest objects in the universe collide? No one was quite sure, but the answer is giving clues to the nature of mysterious dark matter. In the case of MACSJ0025.4-1222, two huge clusters of galaxies have been found slowly colliding over hundreds of millions of years, and the result has been imaged by both the Hubble Space Telescope in visible light and the Chandra Space Telescope in X-ray light. Once the above visible image was recorded, the location and gravitational lens distortions of more distant galaxies by the newly combined galaxy cluster allowed astronomers to computationally determine what happened to the clusters’ dark matter. The result indicates that this huge collision has caused the dark matter in the clusters to become partly separated from the normal matter, confirming earlier speculation. In the above combined image, dark matter is shown as the diffuse purple hue, while a smoothed depiction of the X-ray hot normal matter is shown in pink. MACSJ0025 contains hundreds of galaxies, spans about three million light years, and lies nearly six billion light years away (redshift 0.59) toward the constellation of Monster Whale (Cetus).
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Comments(10)
Government getaway vehicles?
Posted on October 2, 2008 by Seangoloid | 9 CommentsFiled Under Images and has these tags: Space, wtf
(5 votes, average: 2.6 out of 5) Loading ...
This was taken from Google Earth, maybe 20 miles north of Las Vegas in the desert. There was a long desolate road leading to these circles. Even further up the road were triangle and circle designs in the dirt, almost like they’re trying to communicate with something from space…
Comments(9)
Planets over Perth
Posted on September 30, 2008 by nyokki | 11 CommentsFiled Under Images and has these tags: APOD, Space, Wallpaper
(9 votes, average: 4 out of 5) Loading ...
Explanation: A bright trio of terrestrial planets was joined by a young Moon on September 1st, in planet Earth’s early evening skies. In this view of the celestial gathering from Perth, Western Australia, the Moon’s sunlit crescent is nearly horizontal at Perth’s southern latitude of about 32 degrees. Venus, then Mercury, and finally Mars shine above colorful city lights on the far shore of the Swan River. The six unlit towers on the left surround a large cricket stadium. For now, the planetary trio still lingers low in the west just after sunset. But in the coming days Venus will move farther from the Sun, climbing higher after sunset, while Mercury and Mars will steadily sink into the glare along the western horizon.
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Comments(11)
Ekranoplan Madness…
Posted on September 25, 2008 by Phyreblade | 4 CommentsFiled Under Images and has these tags: Military, Space, wtf
(5 votes, average: 3.6 out of 5) Loading ...
Ekranoplans are Russian “Ground Effect” planes, aircraft that rely primarily on the high pressure zone created underneath an aircraft flying very close to the ground, for lift, instead of from air flowing around it’s wings.
It’s a very efficient, though impractical, means of flight, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was the most stable launch platform for a space shuttle… But based on this pic, the Russians, at some point in the past, would apparently have disagreed vigorously with me…
www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/09/scariest-bus-ride.html
Comments(4)
Astronauts: Past and Present
Posted on September 4, 2008 by tiki god | 6 CommentsFiled Under Images and has these tags: Science!, Space, Wallpaper
(4 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5) Loading ...
Comments(6)
Earth’s Shadow
Posted on August 21, 2008 by nyokki | 1 CommentFiled Under Images and has these tags: APOD, Science!, Space, Wallpaper
(6 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5) Loading ...
Explanation: The dark, inner shadow of planet Earth is called the umbra. Shaped like a cone extending into space, the umbra has a circular cross section that can be most easily seen during a lunar eclipse. For example, last Saturday the Full Moon slid across the northern edge of the umbra. Entertaining moon watchers throughout Earth’s eastern hemisphere, the lunar passage created a deep but partial lunar eclipse. This composite image uses successive pictures recorded during the eclipse from Athens, Greece to trace out a large part of the umbra’s curved edge. The result nicely illustrates the relative size of the umbra’s cross section at the distance of the Moon, as well as the Moon’s path through the Earth’s shadow.
Comments(1)
The Crown of the Sun
Posted on August 20, 2008 by nyokki | 1 CommentFiled Under Images and has these tags: APOD, Science!, Space, Wallpaper
(10 votes, average: 4.9 out of 5) Loading ...
Explanation: During a total solar eclipse, the Sun’s extensive outer atmosphere, or corona, is an inspirational sight. The subtle shades and shimmering features of the corona that engage the eye span a brightness range of over 10,000 to 1, making them notoriously difficult to capture in a single picture. But this composite of 28 digital images ranging in exposure time from 1/1000 to 2 seconds comes close to revealing the crown of the Sun in all its glory. The telescopic views were recorded near Kochenevo, Russia during the August 1 total solar eclipse and also show solar prominences extending just beyond the edge of the eclipsed sun. Remarkably, features on the dark near side of the New Moon can also be made out, illuminated by sunlight reflected from a Full Earth.
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080808.html
Comments(1)
Space Shuttle Porn Part 6
Posted on August 19, 2008 by tiki god | 8 CommentsFiled Under Images and has these tags: Space, Wallpaper
(4 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5) Loading ...
Comments(8)
-
OBAMA 2008
-
First!
Comment by diabeetus — October 7, 2008 @ 12:31 am
Cool… Well hot, but still cool…
Comment by Phyreblade — October 7, 2008 @ 1:35 am
awesome. thanks nyokki.
Comment by storminator — October 7, 2008 @ 4:31 am
Now I have to change my S.P.F. again.
Comment by etiii — October 7, 2008 @ 6:29 am
The sunspot was in the form of a square because the square is a sacred geometry. The last minimum point will next become the solar maximum in 2012 which leads us to a point in time where we are then closer to the Aquarian Zodiac rather than the current Piscean Zodic. This should make for many changes, a peak in novelty as Terrance McKenna noted.
Comment by EVIL ILLUMINATI — October 7, 2008 @ 8:49 am
So even the sun is in a recession?
Comment by AlecDalek — October 7, 2008 @ 9:32 am
Does this mean Cillian Murphy’s mission was a success?
Comment by flintlocke — October 7, 2008 @ 6:42 pm