An Eclipse As Seen From Space. 

Star Formation in the Tadpole Nebula by Francesco Antonucci

Jeff Williams: Record Breaker

Astronaut becomes U.S. record holder for most cumulative time in space!

The Olympics are over, but Americans are STILL breaking records. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams just broke Scott Kelly’s record of 520 cumulative days spent in space. When Williams returns to Earth on Sept. 5, he will have racked up 534 days in space. To celebrate this amazing achievement, here are some of the best images taken during his four spaceflights.

STS-101 Atlantis:

During May 2000, Williams made his first spacewalk during space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-101 mission. On this 10-day mission, Williams’ first spacewalk lasted nearly seven hours. He is pictured here outside the space station.

Expedition 13:

Williams experienced his first long-duration mission in 2006, when he served as flight engineer for Expedition 13 space station mission. During his time in orbit, he performed two spacewalks, saw the arrival of two space shuttle missions and resumed construction of the orbiting laboratory during his six-month tour. While on one of those spacewalks, Williams took this selfie.

Expedition 21/22:

Williams returned to space for another six-month mission in 2009 as a flight engineer on Expedition 21 and commander of Expedition 22. During that time, he hosted the crews of two space shuttle missions. The U.S.-built Tranquility module and cupola were installed on station. Here is an image of the then newly installed cupola.

Expedition 47/48:

This time around, Williams has been onboard the space station since March 2016, where he served as flight engineer for Expedition 47 and now commands Expedition 48. With over 7,000 retweets on Williams’ photo of an aurora from space, his Twitter followers were clearly impressed with his photography skills.

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is there anything you can tell us to expand on the space time ripples found in simulated black hole collisions?

Hi!

In one of my other responses I explained the whole concept of space time, here’s how i explained that:

A way that you can picture the bending of space time is this:

Picture two chairs, the backs facing each other. Then tape one end of a blanket to one of the chair backs and the other end of the blanket to the other chair back. What you have now should like this:

Now, if you were to place a tennis ball somewhere on the light blue blanket (top blanket), that blanket would no longer be flat, there would be a bend or a curve in it. Let’s say you put a basketball on the top blanket instead of a tennis ball. Since the basketball is bigger, the bend/curve that it makes will be a lot bigger than the tennis ball’s because the basketball has more mass.

So that blue blanket at the top of the chairs represents space time. If there were to be two large objects, let’s say basketballs, that were to “collide” (representing two black holes). Since they’re so large, they’d create these ripples in the blanket that can be observed.

Another easier way to think about it is like dropping a pebble into a lake. The bigger the pebble, the stronger and more frequent the ripples are. So since black holes are very massive, they create larger ripples compared to something smaller!

Astronomers haven’t been able to directly observe these ripples in space time, they were theorized by Einstein, however there’s an announcement being made all over the world today about data obtained from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)!

Here is a link talking a bit about that press conference!

I hope that helped to clarify everything! If not, feel free to ask again and I’ll try my best to clarify!

UPDATE: HERE are the findings of the conference, they’ve detected them for the first time!

The Perseid meteor shower over Mt. Hood

Source: https://imgur.com/ssijwh2

SwRI’s Parker discovers moon over Makemake in the Kuiper Belt A Southwest Research Institute-led team has discovered an elusive, dark moon orbiting Makemake, one of the “big four” dwarf planets populating the Kuiper Belt region at the edge of our solar system. The findings are detailed in the paper “Discovery of a Makemakean Moon,” published in the June 27 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“Makemake’s moon proves that there are still wild things waiting to be discovered, even in places people have already looked,” said Dr. Alex Parker, lead author of the paper and the SwRI astronomer credited with discovering the satellite. Parker spotted a faint point of light close to the dwarf planet using data from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. “Makemake’s moon – nicknamed MK2 – is very dark, 1,300 times fainter than the dwarf planet.”

A nearly edge-on orbital configuration helped it evade detection, placing it deep within the glare of the icy dwarf during a substantial fraction of its orbit. Makemake is one of the largest and brightest known Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), second only to Pluto. The moon is likely less than 100 miles wide while its parent dwarf planet is about 870 miles across. Discovered in 2005, Makemake is shaped like football and sheathed in frozen methane.

“With a moon, we can calculate Makemake’s mass and density,” Parker said. “We can contrast the orbits and properties of the parent dwarf and its moon, to understand the origin and history of the system. We can compare Makemake and its moon to other systems, and broaden our understanding of the processes that shaped the evolution of our solar system.”

With the discovery of MK2, all four of the currently designated dwarf planets are known to host one or more satellites. The fact that Makemake’s satellite went unseen despite previous searches suggests that other large KBOs may host hidden moons.

Prior to this discovery, the lack of a satellite for Makemake suggested that it had escaped a past giant impact. Now, scientists will be looking at its density to determine if it was formed by a giant collision or if it was grabbed by the parent dwarf’s gravity. The apparent ubiquity of moons orbiting KBO dwarf planets supports the idea that giant collisions are a near-universal fixture in the histories of these distant worlds.

top Image: illustration shows Makemake’s bright red surface and the inferred darker surface of the moon, known as MK2. Image Courtesy of NASA/SwRI/Alex Parker

lower Image: Different views of the Makemake system taken two days apart. Image Courtesy of NASA/Hubble WFC3/SwRI/Alex Parker

Which U.S. state has banned some sunscreens from 2021, and why? ☀️ Find out in this month’s edition of #PeriodicGraphics in C&EN: https://ift.tt/2jSN4jl https://ift.tt/2JWdZ71

Infographic about Planet 9, the required planet to explain the trajectory of six of the most distand known Kuiper Belt Objects.

Source: http://imgur.com/S5faizX

The reverse progression of Modern Humans to simple life forms. 

Want to See the Oldest Surviving Video of a Total Solar Eclipse?

It was done in – wait for it – 1900! The first total solar eclipse to be filmed has recently been restored. The film was done by Nevil Maskelyne, an illusionist turned astronomic videographer for the British Royal Astronomical Society.

This 1900 film is actually Maskelyne’s second attempt at filming a total solar eclipse. His first attempt was in 1898, when he traveled all the way to India to be at the right place to view a predicted total eclipse. Maskelyne got there in time, but sadly, his film was stolen, and the crime remains unsolved and the film unrecovered.

Well, this is definitely the most fun I’ve had while making a post.

Inspired by this one from capnphaggit. Images & copyrights: Trifid Nebula (M20) by Marcus Davies, The Cat’s Eye Nebula and Star-forming region Sharpless 2-106 by NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Please don’t remove the credits.