macmankev

fishingboatproceeds:

It’s Hanko de Mayo!

It’s Hanko de Mayo! We all know Hank loves the James Webb Space Telescope, so hopefully he’ll like our gift. In addition to his gift, nerdfighteria is celebrating Hank’s birthday by letting our elected officials know that Increasing Awesome through scientific exploration is important to us. You’ll find the email I wrote my congressperson and senators below. You can copy it, amend it, or write your own. Here’s how:

AMERICANS:

Find your congressional representative here:

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

And your senators here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Click through to their contact pages to email them.

NON-AMERICANS:

I do not know how to email your representatives, but I do know that it is possible in every democratic country, and since the James Webb Space Telescope is a collaboration among many nations, it’s likely that your government is involved. So let them know how much space exploration and science funding matter to you!

Here’s my letter:

Dear Congressman Carson,

My name is John Green. I’m a voter in your district, and I’m contacting you to ask that you work to increase federal government support for NASA and other scientific initiatives. NASA projects like the James Webb Space Telescope offer us the opportunity to understand the very beginning of our universe. For centuries, government-backed scientific programs have improved the lives of every person on the planet, and they are a gift to every person who will live after us. It’s vital that the United States lead the world in increasing awesome through scientific exploration and discovery. So please support NASA and projects like the James Webb Space Telescope.

It’s a big universe. And it is our privilege and responsibility as human beings to work to understand and appreciate it.

Best wishes,

John Green

HUGE thanks to everyone at NASA and Northrop Grumman who made Hank’s present possible, especially Ron Birk, Charlie Atkinson, and Rolf Danner. And thanks to Michael Gardner at ecogeek for facilitating the whole process. Happy Hanko de Mayo!

Happy Hanko de Mayo!

Reblogged from fishingboatproceeds May 5th, 2012 at 12:49 pm 701 notes #hank green #hanko de mayo #jwst #james webb space telescope #space #astronomy

kateoplis:

Astronomers discover ‘Star Wars planet’ with two suns

An astrological discovery that would make Luke Skywalker a little homesick is making waves this week — a faraway planet has been found to have two suns.

A team of experts used the NASA Kepler space telescope to discover the planet, which orbits around two large stars — similar to Tatooine, the fictional home of Skywalker in the Star Wars films.

In this case, however, the discovery doesn’t get the Hollywood treatment in terms of a name. Its name is the far more prosaic Kepler-16b.

via: nationalpost

Reblogged from nationalpost September 15th, 2011 at 5:05 pm 1,072 notes #news #space #science #astronomy #NASA #planet #Tatooine #Star Wars #Kepler-16b #sun #News

Catching Its Tail (NASA Cassini Saturn Mission Images)

From Bad Astronomy

You can see the storm has actually wound entirely around the planet; just below the head on the left you can see light colored clouds that are actually from the tail of the storm that’s wrapped all the way around Saturn. Given Saturn’s diameter of about 120,000 km (72,000 miles) and the latitude of the storm (call it 45°), this monster system must be well over 300,000 km (180,000 miles) in length! That’s three-quarters of the way from the Earth to the Moon.

The storm is blasting out tons of radio noise, a sure sign that lightning must be dancing prodigiously beneath those clouds. The violence and raw power of this storm are amazing to ponder. Note that just the north/south extent of the storm is roughly the size of Earth.

Reblogged from ciclops.org July 9th, 2011 at 9:17 pm 33 notes #saturn #science #astronomy

roomthily:

storm on Saturn (Cassini, Feb 2011)

via Bad Astronomy

Reblogged from blogs.discovermagazine.com July 6th, 2011 at 9:32 pm 236 notes #saturn #astronomy #cassini #storm

Celestial Fireworks from Dying Stars

This image of the nebula NGC 3582, which was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, shows giant loops of gas bearing a striking resemblance to solar prominences. These loops are thought to have been ejected by dying stars, but new stars are also being born within this stellar nursery. These energetic youngsters emit intense ultraviolet radiation that makes the gas in the nebula glow, producing the fiery display shown here.

Reblogged from eso.org April 13th, 2011 at 5:59 am 46 notes #space #astronomy #ESO #nebula

fuckyeahspace:

Most Massive Galaxy Cluster of Early Universe Discovered

Astronomers at the South Pole Telescope have discovered a massive galaxy cluster from the early universe, the largest one spotted so far. This behemoth cluster contains about 800 trillion suns (compare: our Local Group—containing us, Andromeda, the Magellanic clouds and approximately 30 smaller galaxies—are home to an estimated 900 bilion stars) packed inside hundreds of galaxies. But wait, it gets bigger! The galaxy comes from the early-ish days of galaxy formation (the universe is 13.7 years old and the oldest thing resembling a galaxy is roughly 13 billion years old (well, that’s kind of up for debate)). We’ve determined that the cluster is 7 billion years old, meaning that the light from it has taken 7 billion years to reach us. The cluster in question is likely much larger now. While there are some heavier clusters in the near universe, if we could see this cluster as it is today, it would likely rank among the most massive clusters of all.

(via SPACE.com; paper in the Astrophysical Journal)

Reblogged from fuckyeahspace October 16th, 2010 at 12:03 pm 481 notes #space #astronomy #galaxies #universe #science

fuckyeahspace:

The Vela Supernova Remnant (via APOD).

Reblogged from fuckyeahspace September 13th, 2010 at 3:53 pm 192 notes #space #Astronomy

unknownskywalker:

Spiral galaxy NGC 1232

This spectacular image of the large spiral galaxy NGC 1232 was obtained on September 21, 1998, with ESO’s Very Large Telescope during a period of good observing conditions. It is based on three exposures in ultra-violet, blue and red light, respectively.

The colours of the different regions are well visible: the central areas contain older stars of reddish colour, while the spiral arms are populated by young, blue stars and many star-forming regions. Note the distorted companion galaxy on the left side, shaped like the greek letter “theta”.

NGC 1232 is located 20º south of the celestial equator, in the constellation Eridanus. The distance is about 100 million light-years, but the excellent optical quality of the VLT and FORS allows us to see an incredible wealth of details. At the indicated distance, the edge of the field shown corresponds to about 200,000 light-years, or about twice the size of the Milky Way galaxy.

[ESO]

Reblogged from unknownskywalker September 11th, 2010 at 10:59 pm 63 notes #space #Astronomy

unknownskywalker:

Sharpening up Jupiter

Amazing image of Jupiter taken in infrared light on the night of 17 August 2008. The image sharpening obtained is about 90 milli-arcseconds across the whole planetary disc, a real record on similar images taken from the ground. This corresponds to seeing details about 300 km wide on the surface of the giant planet. The great red spot is not visible in this image as it was on the other side of the planet during the observations.

The observations were done at infrared wavelengths where absorption due to hydrogen and methane is strong. This explains why the colours are different from how we usually see Jupiter in visible-light. This absorption means that light can be reflected back only from high-altitude hazes, and not from deeper clouds. These hazes lie in the very stable upper part of Jupiter’s troposphere, where pressures are between 0.15 and 0.3 bar.

Mixing is weak within this stable region, so tiny haze particles can survive for days to years, depending on their size and fall speed. Additionally, near the planet’s poles, a higher stratospheric haze (light blue regions) is generated by interactions with particles trapped in Jupiter’s intense magnetic field.

[ESO]

Reblogged from unknownskywalker September 11th, 2010 at 10:59 pm 34 notes #space #Astronomy #jupiter

invaderxan:

The fascinating spiral pre-planetary nebula AFGL 3068, forming around the dying star LL Pegasi. Possibly illuminated by galactic light!

Reblogged from invaderxan September 7th, 2010 at 3:40 pm 19 notes #space #Astronomy