Seven 9s and 10s

High-res (via Psychedelic Star Trails and City Lights From Orbit: Big Pic : Discovery News) “Streaks of psychedelic colors show the passage of cities below the International Space Station (ISS), airglow in Earth’s atmosphere and the circling motion of stars in this stunning new image from Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit. Pettit created the image by combining 18 long-exposure digital images taken with a camera mounted inside the ISS on March 16, 2012. Because of the limitations of digital imaging sensors, multiple exposures are needed to get such an image. “My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes,” said Pettit. “However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do: I take multiple 30-second exposures, then ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.” The bright blotches lined up at the lower portion of the image are lightning flashes within storm clouds.” I’m in love with this photograph.

(via Psychedelic Star Trails and City Lights From Orbit: Big Pic : Discovery News)

“Streaks of psychedelic colors show the passage of cities below the International Space Station (ISS), airglow in Earth’s atmosphere and the circling motion of stars in this stunning new image from Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit.

Pettit created the image by combining 18 long-exposure digital images taken with a camera mounted inside the ISS on March 16, 2012. Because of the limitations of digital imaging sensors, multiple exposures are needed to get such an image.

“My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes,” said Pettit. “However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do: I take multiple 30-second exposures, then ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.”

The bright blotches lined up at the lower portion of the image are lightning flashes within storm clouds.”

I’m in love with this photograph.

High-res I hate this phrase so much. The truth is: the chance that you actually land anywhere is incalculably small. The more likely scenario is that your lifeless body will just continue cruising through the ever-expanding vastness of space until at some point, maybe a billion years from now, you just happen to encounter the gravitational pull of a larger object and you slowly but surely spiral around it until eventually you either incinerate as you pass through its atmosphere or you get vaporized as your frozen flesh violently impacts its surface. Inspiring!

I hate this phrase so much.

The truth is: the chance that you actually land anywhere is incalculably small. The more likely scenario is that your lifeless body will just continue cruising through the ever-expanding vastness of space until at some point, maybe a billion years from now, you just happen to encounter the gravitational pull of a larger object and you slowly but surely spiral around it until eventually you either incinerate as you pass through its atmosphere or you get vaporized as your frozen flesh violently impacts its surface.

Inspiring!

High-res The Space Shuttle Discovery on its Mobile Launcher Platform slowly moves through the high bay doors of the Vehicle Assembly Building en route to Launch Pad 39A, where Discovery is scheduled to lift off on the STS-82 mission on Feb. 11. A seven-member crew will perform the second servicing of the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope (HST) during the 10-day STS-82 mission. Holy cow this is a truly gorgeous photo. Every time I see a new photo of the space shuttle I’m reminded that there was basically no angle from which it wasn’t beautiful.

The Space Shuttle Discovery on its Mobile Launcher Platform slowly moves through the high bay doors of the Vehicle Assembly Building en route to Launch Pad 39A, where Discovery is scheduled to lift off on the STS-82 mission on Feb. 11. A seven-member crew will perform the second servicing of the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope (HST) during the 10-day STS-82 mission.

Holy cow this is a truly gorgeous photo. Every time I see a new photo of the space shuttle I’m reminded that there was basically no angle from which it wasn’t beautiful.

(via itsfullofstars)

Some notable dates in the far future

intothecontinuum:

Compiled below is a selection of estimated dates for some events given certain assumptions in the evolution of Earth, the Solar System, and the Universe. Most events are of an astronomical and cosmological nature though some are geological. A more complete list from which the ones included here were taken can be found on Wikipedia.

  • In 10,000 years -  The end of humanity, according to Brandon Carter’s Doomsday argument, which assumes that half of the humans who will ever have lived have already been born.[3]

  • In 50,000 years -  Niagara Falls erodes away the remaining 20 miles to Lake Erie and ceases to exist.[6]

  • In 500,000 years -  By this time Earth will have likely been impacted by a meteorite of roughly 1 km in diameter.[9]

  • In 1 million years -  Highest estimated time until the red supergiant star Betelgeuse explodes in a supernova. The explosion is expected to be easily visible in daylight.[10][11]

  • In 50 million years -  The Californian coast begins to be subducted into the Aleutian Trench[15]

    Africa will have collided with Eurasia, closing the Mediterranean Basin and creating a mountain range similar to the Himalayas.[16]

  • In ~240 million years -  From its present position, the Solar System will have completed one full orbit of the Galactic center.[18]

  • In 250 million years -  All the continents on Earth fuse into a possible new supercontinent.[19][20]

  • In 1 billion years -  The Sun’s luminosity increases by 10%, causing Earth’s surface temperatures to reach an average of 47°C and the oceans to boil away.[22]

  • In 1.5 billion years -  The Sun’s circumstellar habitable zone moves outwards as its increased luminosity causes carbon dioxide to increase in Mars’s atmosphere, raising its surface temperature to levels akin to Earth during the ice age.[23]

  • In 5.4 billion years -  The Sun becomes a red giant.[29]Mercury, Venus and possibly Earth are destroyed.[30]

  • In 7 billion years -  Collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies.[32]

  • In 14.4 billion years -  Sun becomes a black dwarf as its luminosity falls below three trillionths its current level, while its temperature falls to 2239 K, making it invisible to human eyes.[36]

  • In 20 billion years -  The end of the Universe in the Big Rip scenario.[37] Observations of galaxy cluster speeds by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory suggest that this will not occur.[38]

  • In 100 billion years -  The Universe’s expansion causes all evidence of the Big Bang to disappear beyond the practical observational limit, rendering cosmology impossible.[41]

  • In 1012 (1 trillion) years -  Low estimate for the time until star formation ends in galaxies as galaxies are depleted of the gas clouds they need to form stars.[43],

  • In 2×1012 (2 trillion) years -  All galaxies outside the Local Supercluster are no longer detectable in any way, assuming that dark energy continues to make the Universe expand at an accelerating rate.[44]

  • In 1015 (1 quadrillion) years -  Estimated time until stellar close encounters detach all planets in the Solar System from their orbits.[43]

    By this time, the Sun will have cooled to five degrees above absolute zero.[47]

  • In 3×1043 years -  Estimated time for all nucleons in the observable Universe to decay, if the proton half-life takes the largest possible value, 1041 years,[43] assuming that the Big Bang was inflationary and that the same process that made baryons predominate over anti-baryons in the early Universe makes protons decay.[53] By this time, if protons do decay, the Black Hole Era, in which black holes are the only remaining celestial objects, begins.[46][43]

  • In 1065 years - Assuming that protons do not decay, estimated time for rigid objects like rocks to rearrange their atoms and molecules via quantum tunneling. On this timescale all matter is liquid.[49]

  • In 1.7×10106 years - Estimated time until a supermassive black hole with a mass of 20 trillion solar masses decays by the Hawking process.[54] This marks the end of the Black Hole Era. Beyond this time, if protons do decay, the Universe enters the Dark Era, in which all physical objects have decayed to subatomic particles, gradually winding down to their final energy state.[46][43]

  • In 10^{10^{50}} years - Estimated time for a Boltzmann brain to appear in the vacuum via a spontaneous entropy decrease.[55]

  • In 10^{10^{56}} years - Estimated time for random quantum fluctuations to generate a new Big Bang, according to Caroll and Chen.[56]

  • In 10^{10^{10^{76.66}}} years - Scale of an estimated Poincaré recurrence time for the quantum state of a hypothetical box containing an isolated black hole of stellar mass.[57] This time assumes a statistical model subject to Poincaré recurrence. A much simplified way of thinking about this time is that in a model in which history repeats itself arbitrarily many times due to properties of statistical mechanics, this is the time scale when it will first be somewhat similar (for a reasonable choice of “similar”) to its current state again.


I really enjoyed reading through this.

theatlantic:

In Focus: Decommissioning the Space Shuttles

Starting next month, NASA will begin delivering its four Space Shuttle orbiters to their final destinations. After an extensive decommissioning process, the fleet — which includes three former working spacecraft and one test orbiter — is nearly ready for public display. On April 17, the shuttle Discovery will be attached to a modified 747 Jumbo Jet for transport to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Virginia. Endeavour will go to Los Angeles in mid-September, and in early 2013, Atlantis will take its place on permanent display at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. Test orbiter Enterprise will fly to New York City next month. Gathered here are images of NASA’s final days spent processing the Space Shuttle fleet.

See more. [Images: NASA]

The images in this set are both beautiful and heartbreaking. It’s difficult to watch such a great chapter of human history coming to a close.

You should definitely click-through to view all of them.

(via itsfullofstars)

Space Is The Place - Spacehog
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Track:
Space Is The Place

Artist:
Spacehog

Album:
Resident Alien

Download 46 plays

Spacehog - Space Is The Place

Space is the place where I will go when I am all alone.

High-res inothernews: LOOM WITH A VIEW  This natural color view of Saturn, taken with the red, blue and green spectral filters of the orbiting NASA spacecraft Cassini in May, 2011, shows the rings of Saturn behind Titan, the planet’s largest moon, and Dione.  (Photo via NASA APOD) “People” often complain that NASA hasn’t done anything productive since sending man to the moon. “People” are stupid.

inothernews:

LOOM WITH A VIEW  This natural color view of Saturn, taken with the red, blue and green spectral filters of the orbiting NASA spacecraft Cassini in May, 2011, shows the rings of Saturn behind Titan, the planet’s largest moon, and Dione.  (Photo via NASA APOD)

“People” often complain that NASA hasn’t done anything productive since sending man to the moon. “People” are stupid.

(via itsfullofstars)

I just started a night shift job and have been looking for stuff to do in Rochester in the middle of the night (for my days off!) I'd loooove to see the Aurora Borealis- do you know of somewhere on the web that I can regularly check to see if there's activity reported at Lake Ontario?

Asked by emilyrosewords

“…night shift job…”

Hmmm… are you a crime fighter? Batma… err… Catwoman?
That’d be awesome.

Anyway. I have both of these sites bookmarked and I check them somewhat regularly. They can usually provide a few days notice when a severe CME is discovered, giving you a chance to prepare for a viewing:

Good luck!

High-res Aurora Borealis over Lake Ontario (by Steelopus) Sometimes it’s 12:03AM and you’ve got your pajamas on and you’re ready to hop into bed but then you check Twitter one last time and see local meteorologists mentioning Northern Lights activity in the area and so you sit for a minute and try to convince yourself to just go to bed because you have to be at work in less than 8 hours and you really should get some sleep because you’ve been extra tired lately. Then you snap out of it and realize that this kind of opportunity doesn’t happen often. It’s rare enough that the aurora borealis is even visible at this latitude, let alone on an autumn night. It’s even rarer that the conditions are right in the thermosphere while the troposphere is free of clouds - Rochester is, after all, completely overcast an average 200 days per year. So you quickly throw some clothes on and you get your camera gear together and you drive 25 minutes up to the Sea Breeze Pier on the shore of Lake Ontario. You walk out to the pier through nearly complete darkness until you emerge from the trees and find yourself standing alone on the concrete. The vast, ocean-esque, lake - illuminated by starlight and lighthouses - surrounds you while a forceful and biting Canadian wind blows in your face and instills temporary moments of regret (30 minutes ago you were just 5 minutes from your bed). Tripod legs are extended. Camera is mounted. You snap off a few test shots. Review and tweak. Manual focus set to infinity. ISO at 500. Aperture at f3.2. Shutter speed at 30s. Wireless remote ready. Open. Wait. Closed. Pan. Open. Wait. Closed. Pan. Open. Wait. Closed. By this point you’re colder than you’ve been since March - and very glad you remembered to bring your gloves and your ear warmers. You review again and like what you see. For the hell of it, you go a little further and snap off a couple 2+ minute exposures (you’re cold already, might as well make the most of the situation) and then you call it a night. Carefully you pack everything up while being sure to not make any technological sacrifices to the boulders that surround you. Walk back to the car, crank the heat up, and drive home. 30 minutes later you’re back home and importing the photos. You catch a glimpse of what you’ve shot and understand that you made the right decision. The regret of missing such a beautiful sight would’ve frustrated you for years. The photos are processed and uploaded and a blog post is drafted and queued. Over two hours later than you’d planned, you slip into bed as you mentally cross “Aurora Borealis” off your bucket list. (green!) (View it large.)

Aurora Borealis over Lake Ontario (by Steelopus)

Sometimes it’s 12:03AM and you’ve got your pajamas on and you’re ready to hop into bed but then you check Twitter one last time and see local meteorologists mentioning Northern Lights activity in the area and so you sit for a minute and try to convince yourself to just go to bed because you have to be at work in less than 8 hours and you really should get some sleep because you’ve been extra tired lately.

Then you snap out of it and realize that this kind of opportunity doesn’t happen often. It’s rare enough that the aurora borealis is even visible at this latitude, let alone on an autumn night. It’s even rarer that the conditions are right in the thermosphere while the troposphere is free of clouds - Rochester is, after all, completely overcast an average 200 days per year.

So you quickly throw some clothes on and you get your camera gear together and you drive 25 minutes up to the Sea Breeze Pier on the shore of Lake Ontario. You walk out to the pier through nearly complete darkness until you emerge from the trees and find yourself standing alone on the concrete. The vast, ocean-esque, lake - illuminated by starlight and lighthouses - surrounds you while a forceful and biting Canadian wind blows in your face and instills temporary moments of regret (30 minutes ago you were just 5 minutes from your bed).

Tripod legs are extended. Camera is mounted. You snap off a few test shots. Review and tweak. Manual focus set to infinity. ISO at 500. Aperture at f3.2. Shutter speed at 30s. Wireless remote ready. Open. Wait. Closed. Pan. Open. Wait. Closed. Pan. Open. Wait. Closed.

By this point you’re colder than you’ve been since March - and very glad you remembered to bring your gloves and your ear warmers. You review again and like what you see. For the hell of it, you go a little further and snap off a couple 2+ minute exposures (you’re cold already, might as well make the most of the situation) and then you call it a night. Carefully you pack everything up while being sure to not make any technological sacrifices to the boulders that surround you. Walk back to the car, crank the heat up, and drive home.

30 minutes later you’re back home and importing the photos. You catch a glimpse of what you’ve shot and understand that you made the right decision. The regret of missing such a beautiful sight would’ve frustrated you for years. The photos are processed and uploaded and a blog post is drafted and queued. Over two hours later than you’d planned, you slip into bed as you mentally cross “Aurora Borealis” off your bucket list.

(green!) (View it large.)