geofaultline:

jtotheizzoe:

What would happen if an meteor or asteroid the size of ______________, made of ______________, hit Earth at a speed of ______________? 

There’s a web app for that. Check out Purdue’s Impact: Earth!

Have fun destroying the planet!!! (And learning about asteroid impacts of various sizes and energies, of course)

This is way cool!!

Simultaneously fascinating, terrifying, and perhaps a little buggy.

“The Earth is strongly disturbed by the impact, but loses little mass.

Depending on the direction and location the collision, the impact may make a noticeable change in the tilt of Earth’s axis (< 5 degrees).

Depending on the direction and location of impact, the collision may cause a change in the length of the day of up to 303 hours.

The impact does not shift the Earth’s orbit noticeably.”

“Global Damages: Day change: not significant.”

(via official-which)

ruckawriter:

Wired Science Space Photo of the Day - Galactic Pinwheel 120,000 light years across. Pretty photo of a ring galaxy.

kat8brains:

thor-in-midgard:

westernwon:

if science doesn’t make you want to write poetry you’re doing it wrong

YOUR ANCESTORS CALLED IT MAGIC, BUT YOU CALL IT SCIENCE. I COME FROM A LAND WHERE THEY ARE ONE AND THE SAME.

…science makes me want to write porn, does that count?

(via kat82beamup)

‘Orphan’ Alien Planet Found Nearby Without Parent Star

Astronomers have discovered a potential “rogue” alien planet wandering alone just 100 light-years from Earth, suggesting that such starless worlds may be extremely common across the galaxy.

Image: This artist’s impression shows the free-floating planet CFBDSIR2149, at 100 light-years away the closest such “rogue” world to our own solar system. It does not orbit a star and hence does not shine by reflected light; the faint glow it emits can only be detected in infrared light. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/P. Delorme/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org)/R. Saito/VVV Consortium

The free-floating object, called CFBDSIR2149, is likely a gas giant planet four to seven times more massive than Jupiter, scientists say in a new study unveiled today (Nov. 14). The planet cruises unbound through space relatively close to Earth (in astronomical terms), perhaps after being booted from its own solar system.

“If this little object is a planet that has been ejected from its native system, it conjures up the striking image of orphaned worlds, drifting in the emptiness of space,” study leader Philippe Delorme, of the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble in France, said in a statement.

Orphan planet, or something else?

Delorme and his team discovered CFBDSIR2149 using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, then examined its properties with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.

The newfound object appears to be among a stream of young stars called the AB Doradus moving group, the closest such stream to our own solar system.

Scientists think the AB Doradus stars all formed together between 50 million and 120 million years ago. If CFBDSIR2149 is indeed associated with the group — and researchers cite a nearly 90 percent probability — then the object is similarly young.

And if the discovery team is right about CFBDSIR2149’s age, the body is likely a planet, with an average temperature of 806 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius), researchers said.

There’s still a slight chance that CFBDSIR2149 is a brown dwarf — a strange object that’s larger than a planet but too small to trigger the internal nuclear fusion reactions required to become a full-fledged star. Additional observations should help decide the matter.

“We need new observations to confirm that this object belongs to the AB Doradus moving group,” Delorme told SPACE.com via email. “With a good distance measurement and a more accurate proper motion, we will be able to increase (or decrease) the probability that it is indeed a planet.”

The new study was published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

(via fyeahlilbit2point0)

religiousragings:

expose-the-light:

Ten things you may not know about the Moon

1. The Moon formed out of the Earth

Scientists now think that the Moon was formed when a Mars-sized object crashed into our planet about 4.5 billion years ago. The collision was so large that a huge spray of material was ejected into space. The orbiting ring of debris gathered itself into a sphere, and formed the Moon. How do we know that this is how the Moon probably formed? The Moon seems to be much less dense than the Earth and lacks a lot of iron in its core. Scientists think that the Moon is made up of the upper crust material, which has mostly lower density, than the composition of the Earth.

2. The Moon only shows one face to the Earth

Although the Moon used to rotate in the sky compared to our point of view, it has been slowing down billions of years. And at some point in the distant past it just stopped turning from our perspective. The Earth’s gravity holds the Moon in orbit, but it pulls differently at various parts of the Moon. Over a long period, gravity slowed down the Moon’s rotation so that it finally stopped, and always displayed one face to the Earth. A similar situation has happened with most of the large moons in the Solar System. In fact, in the case of Pluto and Charon, but objects are tidally locked to each other, so they present only one face to the other.

3. The Moon is slowly drifting away

Although the orbit of the Moon seems nice and stable, our only natural satellite is actually drifting away from us at a rate of 4 centimeters a year. This is happening because of the conservation of momentum in the orbit of the Earth. In about 50 billion years from now, the Moon will stop moving away from us. It will settle into a stable orbit, taking about 47 days to go around the Earth (it takes 27.3 days today). At that point, the Earth and the Moon will be tidally locked to each other. It will look like the Moon is always in the same spot in the sky. Of course, the Sun is expected to consume the Earth in about 5 billion years, so this event may not happen.

4. The Moon looks the same size as the Sun

This is an amazing coincidence. From our perspective here on Earth, but the Moon and the Sun look approximately the same size in the sky. Of course, the Sun is much much bigger than the Moon. The Sun happens to be 400 times larger than the Moon, but it’s also 400 times further away. This wasn’t always the case. Billions of years ago, the Moon was much closer than the Sun, and would have looked larger in the sky. And the Moon is moving away from us, so in the distant future, the Moon will look much smaller than the Sun.

5. The Moon causes most of the tides… but not all

You might know that the tides on Earth are caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon. But it’s not the only thing pulling at the Earth’s water, the Sun is helping out too. This is why we get very high and low tides from time to time. When the gravity of the Moon and the Sun line up, we get the biggest and smallest tides. Did you know that the Moon is also pulling at the crust of the Earth causing it to bulge up? You actually move a few meters every time the Moon is overhead, but you just don’t notice.

6. Gravity on the Moon is only 17% of the Earth

Want an easy way to lose some weight? Take a trip to the Moon and stand on its surface. Since the pull of gravity on the Moon is only 17% the pull of gravity on the Earth, you’ll feel much lighter. Just imagine, if you weighed 100 kg on the Earth, you would feel like you only weighed 17 kg on Earth. You would be able to jump 6 times further and carry objects 6 times as heavy. In fact, you had wings attached to your arms, you could even fly around inside a dome on the Moon under just your own muscle power.

7. The official name for the Moon is… the Moon

I know it’s kind of confusing, but the only real name for the Earth’s Moon is “the Moon”. When the Moon was given its name, astronomers didn’t know that there were moons orbiting other planets. And so they just called it the Moon. Now that we know there are other moons, it all comes down to the capitalization. The Earth’s moon is referred as “the Moon”, with a capital “M”. Other moons are given a lowercase “m” to show the difference.

8. The Moon is the 5th largest natural satellite in the Solar System

You might think that the Moon is the largest satellite in the Solar System. I mean look at it, it’s huge! But there are actually larger moons in the Solar System. The largest moon is Jupiter’s Ganymede (5,262 km), followed by Saturn’s Titan, Jupiter’s Callisto, Jupiter’s Io, and finally, the Earth’s Moon with a mean diameter of 3475 km.

9. Only 12 people have ever stepped onto the surface of the Moon

Only a tiny group of astronauts have ever set foot on the surface of the Moon. These were the astronauts on board the Apollo missions going from 1969 to 1972. The first person to ever walk on the Moon was Neil Armstrong. And the last person on the Moon was Gene Cernan, who followed his partner Jack Schmitt into the lunar lander on December 14, 1972.

10. And we’re going back to the Moon

NASA has been given the mission to return humans to the Moon, and set up a permanent research station. At the time of this writing, astronauts are expected to set foot on the surface of the Moon again in 2019.

GIF by 40 Licks

I knew all of this except the last one, but the last one is the awesomest!!!

(via peppers-pray)

patchworkmatryoshka:

enter-caliborn:

evaupallnight:

remotecomics:

gdfalksen:

In August 

It’s the Perseid meteor shower, kind of a big deal guys.  Look towards the big dipper for the highest concentration of meteorites.

Ajsjsjsksusjakwi

Excited about this.

/geek

i’m still doubting i’ll even get to see this

I live in Washington.

Chances are it will be cloudy during both those nights.

(via makspetrov)

andythenerd:

Fermi Epicycles: The Vela Pulsar’s Path 
Credit: NASA, DOE, International Fermi LAT Collaboration

Explanation: Exploring the cosmos at extreme energies, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope orbits planet Earth every 95 minutes. By design, it rocks to the north and then to the south on alternate orbits in order to survey the sky with its Large Area Telescope (LAT). The spacecraft also rolls so that solar panels are kept pointed at the Sun for power, and the axis of its orbit precesses like a top, making a complete rotation once every 54 days. As a result of these multiple cycles the paths of gamma-ray sources trace out complex patterns from the spacecraft’s perspective, like this mesmerising plot of the path of the Vela Pulsar. Centered on the LAT instrument’s field of view, the plot spans 180 degrees and follows Vela’s position from August 2008 through August 2010. The concentration near the center shows that Vela was in the sensitive region of the LAT field during much of that period. Born in the death explosion of a massive star within our Milky Way galaxy,the Vela Pulsar is a neutron star spinning 11 times a second, seen as the brightest persistent source in the gamma-ray sky.

(via Astronomy Picture of the Day)