Clipmarks | pokkets's 'astronomy' clips

On October 13, 1994, the famous astronomer Carl Sagan was delivering a public lecture at his own university of Cornell. During that lecture, he presented this photo:

"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

Tags: astronomy, earth, planet, universe, science, technology

Space Balls. An accurate model of Planets to Sun etc

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 17:57:41 GMT

clipped by: sohil

Clip Source: webisto.com

Tags: science, space, photoshop, planets, sun, astronomy

Awesome research/ Homework resource

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 01:06:30 GMT

clipped by: cosmic_kitten1
clipper's remarks: I only found this the other day and mostly I'm clipping it for my own uses; however, it's a great resource and I thought I'd share. The site itself has pretty cool info too. 'Hope you guys like the clip.

Clip Source: www.crf-usa.org

Research Links

Subject Matter

Click for instructions on how to make CRF's Research Links your homepage.

CRF: Constitutional Rights Foundation

Programs

Publications

Free Lessons

Tags: resource, homework, research, info, links

100 Top Reference Sites

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:48:14 GMT

clipped by: skwirlinator

Clip Source: www.100tophealthsites.com

100 Top Reference Sites

Refdesk
The single best source for facts on the Net.

Dictionary.com
Online dictionary, plus fun and games, word of the day and more.

The Library Spot
An extensive online reference desk with everything from dictionaries to genealogy, library links to "Ask the Expert," and government info to reading rooms.

Ancestry.com
A top source for family history online.

National Geographic Map Machine
Map collection from the popular magazine.

MyWay.com
Find a person, business, get directions or a map.

Information Please
All the knowledge you need"--almanac, dictionary, encyclopedia, weather, and more

A.Word.A.Day
Vocabulary building resource.

Farmers' Almanac
Information on weather, gardening, astronomy and more.

Fedstats
One stop resource for federal government statistics.

RhymeZone
Find rhymes, near rhymes, homophones synonyms, and semantic siblings of any English word. Ideal for writing poetry and lyrics.

World Book
Stop looking for answers on the Internet and start finding them.

Tags: 100 top reference sites, reference, education, knowledge, research, resources

Diamond star thrills astronomers

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 05:13:49 GMT

clipped by: chriswwt
clipper's remarks: The greatest diamond mine found ever!!

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Twinkling in the sky is a diamond star of 10 billion trillion trillion carats, astronomers have discovered.

The cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallised carbon, 4,000 km across, some 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus.

It's the compressed heart of an old star that was once bright like our Sun but has since faded and shrunk.

The diamond star completely outclasses the largest diamond on Earth, the 530-carat Star of Africa which resides in the British Crown Jewels.

The huge cosmic diamond - technically known as BPM 37093 - is actually a crystallised white dwarf. A white dwarf is the hot core of a star, left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. It is made mostly of carbon.

The white dwarf is not only radiant but also rings like a gigantic gong, undergoing constant pulsations.

"By measuring those pulsations, we were able to study the hidden interior of the white dwarf, just like seismograph measurements of earthquakes allow geologists to study the interior of the Earth.

"We figured out that the carbon interior of this white dwarf has solidified to form the galaxy's largest diamond," says Metcalfe.

Astronomers expect our Sun will become a white dwarf when it dies 5 billion years from now. Some two billion years after that, the Sun's ember core will crystallise as well, leaving a giant diamond in the centre of the solar system.

"Our Sun will become a diamond that truly is forever," says Metcalfe.

Tags: science, astronomy

A wonderful new Hubble image

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:02:52 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.esa.int

Extreme star cluster in new Hubble images

Clip Source: www.esa.int

This Hubble image shows the gigantic nebula NGC 3603 located in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way, about 20 000 light-years from the Solar System.

NGC 3603 hosts one of the most prominent, massive, young clusters in the Milky Way. Hubble has been observing this prime location for star formation studies.

The images show a young star cluster surrounded by a vast region of dust and gas. Most of the bright stars in the image are hot, blue stars. They produce ultraviolet radiation and violent winds that have formed an enormous cavity in the gas and dust surrounding the cluster.

Credits: NASA/ ESA/ STScI/Aura (The hubble heritage team)

HI-RES MOV
Size: 23 924 kb

Zooming in to the centre of NGC 3603.

This annotated Hubble image shows the gigantic nebula NGC 3603 located in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way, about 20 000 light-years from the Solar System

The images show a young star cluster surrounded by a vast region of dust and gas

Tags: astronomy, science, images, hubble, ngc 3603

Thunderbolts of the Gods - Plasma Cosmology

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 04:21:19 GMT

clipped by: taksmaster
clipper's remarks: A lesser known theory of cosmology that challenges the the big bang theory.

Clip Source: video.google.com

[Video]

Tags: big bang, astronomy, cosmology, physics, science

Saurn, the Sun, and Us

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:11:08 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead

Clip Source: slightlywarped.com

The Cassini Probe sent us this mesmerizing and very rare picture of the planet Saturn backlit by the sun. Light diffuses through the rings and dust clouds that orbit the giant ringed planet showing us that it's ringed beauty is only a fraction of what the planet really has to offer.

While the beauty of this picture is a sight to behold in of itself, the true uniqueness of this image only shows itself on closer inspection. You see that pale blue dot visible through the rings? To paraphrase Carl Sagan: Everyone you've ever known, every belief you have, every nation at war, every point of view you've ever experienced, every hope, every dream, every good, and every evil resides on that small ordinary mote. Say hello to Earth seen from 930 million miles away.

the sun's harsh light could destroy Cassini's camera. However, in this instance when the sun was eclipsed by Saturn, NASA jumped on the opportunity to deliver this breathtaking shot.

Tags: astronomy, science, earth

Big Chunk Of The Universe Is Missing -- Again

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:02:35 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Big Chunk Of The Universe Is Missing -- Again

ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2007) — Not only has a large chunk of the universe thought to have been found in 2002 apparently gone missing again but it is taking some friends with it, according to new research at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The new calculations might leave the mass of the universe as much as ten to 20 percent lighter than previously calculated.

The same UAH group that found what was theorized to be a significant fraction of the "missing mass" that binds together the universe has discovered that some x-rays thought to come from intergalactic clouds of "warm" gas are instead probably caused by lightweight electrons.

If the source of so much x-ray energy is tiny electrons instead of hefty atoms, it is as if billions of lights thought to come from billions of aircraft carriers were found instead to come from billions of extremely bright fireflies.

Tags: universe, astronomy, astrophysics

Breathtaking Galaxy Pics

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:27:57 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead

Clip Source: images.lunarpages.com

Tags: astronomy, photo, science

Astronomers find largest hole in universe

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:39:56 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: "We never expected to find a void this big"
The Universe is full of surprises isn't it ? It would be disappointing if it wasn't.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

A giant hole in the universe is devoid of galaxies, stars and even lacks dark matter, astronomers say.

The University of Minnesota researchers say the void is nearly a billion light-years across, the largest found so far, and they have no idea why it is there.

"Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even expected to find one this size," says Professor Lawrence Rudnick, whose research will appear in the Astrophysical Journal.

Rudnick and colleagues say they were examining a cold spot using the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe satellite, and found the giant hole.

"We already knew there was something different about this spot in the sky," Rudnick says.

The region stands out as being colder in a survey of the cosmic microwave background,

The astronomers say the region even appears to lack dark matter, which cannot be seen directly but is usually detected by measuring gravitational forces.

The void is in a region of sky in the constellation Eridanus, southwest of Orion.

Tags: astronomy, hole, universe, void, sky

The Size of our World

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 23:36:54 GMT

clipped by: This Little Bird

Clip Source: www.rense.com

The Size Of Our World

Tags: universe, earth, size, planets, planet, star, stars, scale, world, astronomy

'Hundreds of worlds' in Milky Way

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:52:48 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Scientists say there may be many more worlds in our solar system

Rocky planets, possibly with conditions suitable for life, may be more common than previously thought in our galaxy, a study has found.

New evidence suggests more than half the Sun-like stars in the Milky Way could have similar planetary systems.

There may also be hundreds of undiscovered worlds in outer parts of our Solar System, astronomers believe.

Future studies of such worlds will radically alter our understanding of how planets are formed, they say.

New findings about planets were presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston.

Tags: astronomy, space, milky way, galaxies, life, science