Scinerds

NASA to Reveal Hubble Discovery of Milky Way’s Violent Fate

Figure: Galactic Cannibalism of two galaxies that wandered too close to each other’s orbit.

NASA will reveal new discoveries about the violent fate of our Milky Way galaxy on Thursday (May 31), the space agency has announced.

NASA will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) Thursday at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Scientists will discuss new Hubble Space Telescope findings about the inevitable crash of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, which will occur billions of years from now.

“Because of uncertainties in Andromeda’s motion, it has not been possible to determine whether the Milky Way will have a head-on collision or glancing blow with the neighboring galaxy billions of years in the future,” NASA officials said in a media alert Friday (May 25). “Hubble’s precise observations will settle this question.”

ikenbot: 24 Million Kilometers to Saturn

ikenbot — Wed, 30 May 2012 23:41:18 -0400

ikenbot:

24 Million Kilometers to Saturn

Photo

ikenbot — Wed, 30 May 2012 23:22:53 -0400

Photo

ikenbot — Wed, 30 May 2012 23:08:48 -0400

mothernaturenetwork: Killer fungus hits endangered gray...

ikenbot — Wed, 30 May 2012 23:06:49 -0400

mothernaturenetwork:

Killer fungus hits endangered gray bats
After killing 6 million bats from six other species, white-nose syndrome is now attacking one of North America’s most vulnerable varieties.

the-star-stuff: ALBERT EINSTEIN: The important...

ikenbot — Wed, 30 May 2012 23:05:39 -0400

the-star-stuff:

ALBERT EINSTEIN: The important thing

Credit: Gavin Aung Than

ikenbot: ‘Laser Comb’ May Aid Search for Earth-Like Alien...

ikenbot — Wed, 30 May 2012 22:20:59 -0400

ikenbot:

‘Laser Comb’ May Aid Search for Earth-Like Alien Planets

Image: This picture illustrates part of a spectrum of a star obtained using the HARPS instrument on the ESO 3.6-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Credit: ESO

Astronomers searching for alien planets may be a step closer to finding true Earth-like worlds around sun-like stars, by using a new tool that promises to increase the accuracy of planet-hunting instruments tenfold, scientists say.

The laser frequency comb is a calibration tool specifically designed for large ground-based telescopes that search for alien planets through the “wobble method,” which identifies extrasolar planets by the gravitational effect (the wobble) they have on their parent stars.

Today instruments such as the European Southern Observatory’s High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph on a telescope in Chile observe planets via the wobble method. But precision is key, and the hollow cathode lamps used to calibrate those spectrometers have their limitations, researchers said — they are not adjustable, can be difficult to gauge, and allow the spectrometers to track the wobble of a star only down to about 30 centimeters per second.

“To detect low-mass planets — down to the Earth mass — in Earth-like orbits requires a precision 10 times better,” study co-author Gaspare Lo Curto of the European Southern Observatory said.

Continue to Full Article..

ikenbot: The Galactic Center in Infrared from 2MASS

ikenbot — Wed, 30 May 2012 21:12:08 -0400

ikenbot:

The Galactic Center in Infrared from 2MASS

unknownskywalker: Dragon docked to the ISS With rays of...

crownedrose — Wed, 30 May 2012 14:50:23 -0400

unknownskywalker:

Dragon docked to the ISS

With rays of sunshine and the thin blue atmosphere of Earth serving as a backdrop, the SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft is berthed to the Earth-facing side of the International Space Station’s Harmony node. Expedition 31 Flight Engineers Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers grappled Dragon at 9:56 a.m. (EDT) with the Canadarm2 robotic arm and used it to berth Dragon to the at 12:02 p.m. May 25, 2012.

kidsneedscience: In mathematics, probability is a measure of...

ikenbot — Wed, 30 May 2012 12:33:24 -0400

kidsneedscience:

In mathematics, probability is a measure of the likelihood of an event to occur. Probability theory measures and quantifies these likelihoods, and many branches of science and math use the specifics of probability theory. The word itself comes from the Latin word probabilitas, meaning provable from the verb probare meaning to test. Probability is normally measured as the ratio for a given event to occur within the total possible number of occurrences, usually expressed as a positive number.

Probabilitas can also mean probity, a measure of the authority of a witness in a legal case in Europe, and is often correlated with the witness’s nobility. In a sense, this differs much from the modern meaning of probability, which, in contrast, is a measure of the weight of empirical evidence, and is arrived at from inductive reasoning and statistical inference.

Image of roulette wheel by Conor Ogle, used with permission under a Creative Commons 3.0 License. Additional and secondary definition courtesy Wikipedia.

discoverynews: Uniting the Planet for a Journey to Another...

ikenbot — Wed, 30 May 2012 12:31:38 -0400

discoverynews:

Uniting the Planet for a Journey to Another Star

Former astronaut Mae Jemison (and living legend) will spearhead the audacious 100 Year Starship plan to send mankind on an interstellar adventure.

keep reading

lightning-firelies: Drosera capensis Drosera capensis, commonly...

ikenbot — Wed, 30 May 2012 12:24:00 -0400

lightning-firelies:

Drosera capensis

Drosera capensis, commonly known as the Cape sundew, is a small rosette-forming carnivorous species of perennial sundew native to the Cape in South Africa. Because of its size, easy to grow nature, and the copious amounts of seed it produces, it has become one of the most common sundews in cultivation. D. capensis produces strap-like leaves, up to 3.5 cm long (not including the petiole) and 0.5 cm wide, which, as in all sundews, are covered in brightly coloured tentacles which secrete a sticky mucilage that traps arthropods. When insects are first trapped, the leaves roll lengthwise by thigmotropism toward the center. This aids digestion by bringing more digestive glands in contact with the prey. This movement is surprisingly fast, with completion in thirty minutes. The plant has a tendency to retain the dead leaves of previous seasons, and the main stem of the plant can become quite long and woody with time.

ikenbot: Look Out: Venus Transit On June 5, 2012, Venus will...

ikenbot — Wed, 30 May 2012 11:08:57 -0400

ikenbot:

Look Out: Venus Transit

On June 5, 2012, Venus will pass across the face of the sun, producing a silhouette that no one alive today will likely see again.

Transits of Venus are very rare, coming in pairs separated by more than a hundred years. This June’s transit, the bookend of a 2004-2012 pair, won’t be repeated until the year 2117. Fortunately, the event is widely visible. Observers on seven continents, even a sliver of Antarctica, will be in position to see it.

ikenbot: Carpenter’s Flight 50 years ago, Scott Carpenter flew...

ikenbot — Wed, 30 May 2012 03:13:09 -0400

ikenbot:

Carpenter’s Flight

50 years ago, Scott Carpenter flew the second American manned orbital flight on May 24, 1962. He piloted his Aurora 7 spacecraft through three revolutions of the earth.

In this photo, taken on May 24, 1962, Astronaut M. Scott Carpenter looks into his Mercury-Atlas 7 spacecraft, the Aurora 7, before being inserted to begin the launch.

expose-the-light: Albert Einstein

expose-the-light — Wed, 30 May 2012 01:07:03 -0400

expose-the-light:

Albert Einstein