Monthly Archives: March 2013

GRAIL Maps the Gravity of the Moon

Posted on March 20, 2013 by JT McJunkins

  Twin NASA probes orbiting the moon for the Gravity Recovery and Interior Labority (GRAIL) mission have created the most highly detailed gravity field map of any celestial body. Pictured above, this map reveals an abundance of features includ… Continue reading →

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The Carrington Event

Posted on March 20, 2013 by rtjobe

Imagine that it’s 1am and you’re lying in your bed, when suddenly it begins to get lighter out–as if the sun is already rising. Birds are chirping, men are waking up confused, and aurorae can be seen in skies across the entire world. This phenomenon is what people around the world experienced on the morning […] Continue reading →

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“The Incandescent Sun”

Posted on March 20, 2013 by wherrysg

Source Check out this video from NASA of the Sun over a 24-hour period of time! The video frames are measuring output in extreme ultraviolet. According to this article, viewing the Sun in this wavelength allows us to view the plasma in its atmosphere (called Corona). But what is interesting is that the same magnetic […] Continue reading →

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Nuclear Fusion and the Stars

Posted on March 19, 2013 by rtjobe

Nuclear fusion, the process by which two atoms collide to form a single larger atom, has been fueling stars since the beginning of star formation. At most distances apart, two protons will naturally repel each other due to the fact that both are positive charges, and the Electromagnetic force between them pushes them apart; however, […] Continue reading →

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Mars Colonization: Would You Go?

Posted on March 19, 2013 by mirandaskunz

A recent survey by the Huffington Post found that 7% of people would volunteer for a one-way mission to Mars. It also found that 15% of people thought it was somewhat or very likely that humans would establish a colony on Mars within their lifetime. If a colony was established, there was a lot of […] Continue reading →

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Exploring Climate Change in Google Earth

Posted on March 19, 2013 by mirandaskunz

The video below is an introduction to a series of videos that utilize Google Earth to inform viewers of problems involving climate change and global warming. The “tours” can be downloaded here. These tours are very informative and allow the user to pause them to explore the Google Earth content on their own. I think […] Continue reading →

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So, what exactly is the Higgs Boson?

Posted on March 19, 2013 by fathomingthestars

Now, I’m not going to pretend that I know as much about the now famous Higgs Boson as the scientists at CERN, but I do have a conceptual understanding of what it is and why it is important.  The Higgs Boson used to the only piece of the standard model of particle physics that we […] Continue reading →

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Kepler’s Supernova

Posted on March 19, 2013 by juliettealper

In 1604 Johannes Kepler discovered a supernova explosion. Today, scientists are working to discover what caused the explosion and they are using a Digitized Sky Survey to determine it. The picture above shows colors from an X-Ray Observatory that concludes the supernova has low, intermediate and high energy. Scientists believe this explosion was caused by […] Continue reading →

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Trous Noirs And trous noirs

Posted on March 19, 2013 by ibrahim2016

For an explanation of the title, see the link at the end. If you are seriously, irreconcilably frustrated by your significant other (or lack thereof) and you never want to see your significant other (or yourself) ever again, please accept a sincere piece of advice from me: Do not- I repeat: DO NOT throw them(or yourself) in […] Continue reading →

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Relativistic Doodles

Posted on March 19, 2013 by ibrahim2016

This post explains how my illustration of general relativistic time dilation works. This is the parent post. Here is an image of a simple classical timeline: There are 2 observers: green and red. They have their own watches. The red observer shoots an arrow towards the green observer. The position of the arrow vs. the […] Continue reading →

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