Clipmarks | ruralart's 'space' clips

Space Junk Descending

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:36:40 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Now that's trash!

BIG SPACE JUNK: Weight: 1400-lb. Size: Like a double-wide refrigerator. It is, in short, one big piece of space junk:

The Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS), pictured above, was thrown overboard from the International Space Station on July 23, 2007, almost one year ago. At the time, the castaway was in a high orbit and barely visible from Earth's surface. Not anymore: Twelve months later, with its orbit decaying, the EAS has become easy to see.

The EAS is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate near the end of 2008 or early 2009. Until then, you can see it, growing brighter as it descends, with your own eyes. Europeans are favored with flybys this week, North Americans next week. Check our Simple Satellite Tracker to find out when to look.

VIDEO BONUS: On July 15, 2008, Kevin Fetter used a low-light video camera to photograph the EAS orbiting over his home in Brockville, Ontario: movie.

Life in Outer Space?

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:38:56 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Science fiction come true!

Clip Source: sciencenow.sciencemag.org

Space seed? Fragments from the Murchison meteorite contain DNA precursors.

The odds are improving that life exists beyond Earth. A European-U.S. team reports that a meteorite that formed billions of years ago and eventually crashed on our planet harbors two important components of RNA and DNA, the fundamental molecules of life. The findings could help explain how life got started on Earth, and they suggest that the ingredients for life have been liberally sprinkled throughout the solar system, if not the galaxy.

So far, the clues for extraterrestrial life are tantalizing but inconclusive.

suggest that life's most important molecule could form off our planet. The researchers dissolved and purified fragments from the Murchison meteorite, which was found in Australia in 1969. Chemical analysis showed that the meteorite contains xanthine and uracil, substances called nucleobases that are necessary for RNA and DNA to form their base pairs as part of their replication process.

Tags: life, science, physics, astronomy

Comprehensive Picture of Milky Way

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:17:57 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: www.spitzer.caltech.edu

Spitzer Captures Stellar Coming of Age in Our Galaxy

More than 800,000 snapshots from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have been stitched together to create a new "coming of age" portrait of stars in our inner Milky Way galaxy.

The image depicts an area of sky 120 degrees wide by two degrees tall. It was unveiled today at the 212th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in St. Louis, Mo.

Because Earth sits inside our dusty, flat, disk-shaped Milky Way, we have an edge-on view of our galactic home. We see the Milky Way as a blurry, narrow band of light that stretches almost completely across the sky. With Spitzer's dust-piercing infrared eyes, astronomers peered 60,000 light-years away into this fuzzy band, called the galactic plane, and saw all the way to the other side of the galaxy.

Tags: mildy way, astronomy, space, photography

Youngest Supernova discovered by NC scientist

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:33:19 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: ncsu.edu

A North Carolina State University researcher has discovered the youngest known supernova in our galaxy. Estimated at a mere 140 years old, this celestial whippersnapper is at least 200 years younger than the next oldest known supernova, and its discovery may pave the way to a greater understanding of exploding stars.

Dr. Stephen Reynolds, an astrophysicist at NC State, led a team of researchers who suspected that a celestial object known as G1.9+0.3 was a very young supernova remnant. They examined images of the object that were taken in 2007 by NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory and compared these images to those taken of the same object in 1985 by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array radio telescope.

Tags: astronomy, space, science, supernova

Black Holes and Galactic Collisions

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:45:51 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Impressive and fascinating. I had no idea our galaxy was going to collide with another one!

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

Homing in on Black Holes

To gain insight into the most mysterious objects in the universe, astronomers shine a light at the chaotic core of our own Milky Way

Without question, the Milky Way's black hole is the strangest thing in our galaxy—a three-dimensional cavity in space just ten times the physical size of our sun but with four million times the mass, a virtual bottomless pit from which nothing can escape. Every major galaxy, it turns out, has a black hole at its core. Now, for the first time, scientists have the chance to study the havoc these mind-boggling entities wreak.

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

However, a fearsome collision looms. The closest large galaxy, called Andromeda, is on a collision course with the Milky Way. The two will start to merge about two billion years from now, gradually forming a massive galaxy that Loeb and his Harvard-Smithsonian colleague T. J. Cox call "Milkomeda."

Tags: astronomy, astrophysics, stars, space, galaxy

Deep Sky web site with star maps and databases

Wed, 07 May 2008 02:21:19 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Lots of great info and pics on deep sky observing, including maps you can print.

Clip Source: www.uv.es

Welcome to this website, which is devoted to Deep Sky (DS) observing, my favorite hobby since long time ago, around 25 years. Deep Sky (or Deep Space) is the astronomy topic that covers all what is found beyond the Solar System, namely stars, stellar systems, dust and gas clouds, whose different manifestations ‑mainly nebulae, star clusters and galaxies‑ are not only physically amazing, but also awe‑inspiring sights to enjoy. The night sky is within reach of everybody. You just need binoculars, a dark place beyond the city lights, pristine skies, and a star atlas. I'd like to contribute to the promotion of deep sky observing offering you some articles and tools, the subjects I am more interested in:

In the frame on the top (if you don't see frames, click here), several tools, deep sky maps, articles, observation reports, pictures, tools and a deep space catalogue

Tags: astronomy, deep sky, nebula, galaxy

Planetarium for your computer

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:46:08 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: This looks really neat - enjoy!

Clip Source: www.stellarium.org

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go. view screenshots

Sourceforge

Sourceforge is the central website where we collaborate on Stellarium, and where you can be heard too!

Tags: planetarium, computers, stars, space, astronomy

February Lunar Eclipse

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:11:38 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Great site with wonderful photos and info on astrophysics, solar system, etc.

Clip Source: sci.esa.int

Total Lunar Eclipse from ESAC

Date: 21 Feb 2008
Depicts: Lunar Eclipse
Location: ESAC, Spain
Copyright: Manuel Castillo

Image of the total lunar eclipse on 21 February 2008 captured at ESAC, Spain. The difference in surface brightness across the lunar surface due to the position of the Earth's shadow is clearly evident.

____________________________________
Last Update: 21 Feb 2008

Tags: lunar, eclipse, space, solar system

Video of the Moon

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:45:42 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Awesome! Enjoy. Digital moon video from a Japanese satellite.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

JAXA/KAGUYA Earth-Rise and Earth-Set image over the moon

Tags: moon, video, japanese, space

Hookah Smoking in South Carolina

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:13:44 GMT

clipped by: ruralart

Clip Source: www.thestate.com

Catch the aroma of hookah smoke

On Devine Street, families and friends gather to share tradition from Middle East

Samira Hanna and her daughter Sylvana Yaghi, left, both originally from Lebanon, meet friends to talk, have dinner and smoke shisha on Thursdays - Hookah Night at Al-Amir." />

He knows they’ll come. Students dabbling in the exotic. Soldiers introduced to sweet shisha on their travels. Foreign nationals looking for a slice of social tradition from home.

He knows they’ll come because it’s Thursday — Hookah Night at Al-Amir.

“Hot tea and a hookah after a meal, that’s the tradition,” says Saadeddin.

For centuries, in Middle Eastern and Asian countries, like Saadeddin’s native Syria, people have gathered to socialize and smoke from water pipes, which go by various names in different countries, from hookah in India to shisha in Egypt to arghile in Syria.

In the case, stacks of boxed Nakhla Tobacco, from Egypt, and tea share shelf space. Beyond, along a terracotta wall, seven red and blue glass water pipes rest on a long steel table, waiting to be prepped.

Morrua Louis - fantastic exhibit of paintings

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 23:46:04 GMT

clipped by: ruralart
clipper's remarks: Morris Louis has long been one of my favorite painters. If you have the chance his works are definitely worth seeing in person. They seem to sing to you from the walls.

Clip Source: hirshhorn.si.edu

Morris Louis's
Para III, 1959

Morris Louis Now: An American Master Revisited

Morris Louis's
Seal, 1959, Estate of Morris Louis.

(High Museum of Art through January 24, 2007 and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, Feb. 17–May 6, 2007)

“Morris Louis Now: An American Master Revisited” is the first consideration of Washington, D.C.–based artist Morris Louis’s work since 1986. The exhibition presents major paintings dating from the early 1950s until his death in late 1962, the years Louis developed an innovative method of painting by “staining” his unprimed canvases with thinned washes of acrylic pigments.

Even in cramped quarters in Washington D.C., Louis was able to make large paintings, achieving an exuberant, lyrical celebration of colors hovering in white space.

Tags: painting, art, hirshorn, museum, color field