Saturday 5 July 2014

Moon Craters Poster

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: moon, half, craters, astronomy, space, night, closeup

Half Moon Showing Craters

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A graphic guide to all the garbage up in space

Science Focus

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Where humans go, garbage tends to follow — and space is no exception. And much like the buildup of trash on Earth, the accumulation of junk in space poses a problem for future generations. Orbital debris, or space junk, is already posing direct threats to satellites and spacecraft: The International Space Station already has to sidestep dangerous pieces of trash, and satellite launches already have to factor debris into their timetables. All the spacefaring nations are trying to find ways to clean up the mess before the ever-growing clutter makes launches impossible. Here's an introduction...

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 » see original post http://theweek.com/article/index/264176/a-graphic-guide-to-all-the-garbage-up-in-space
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50 years of discovery on the other final frontier—the deep sea

Science Focus

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"Back on deck after his dive to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Chris German is surrounded by eager scientists (and one journalist) as he describes what he saw and how the sub performed."

Fifty years ago, in June 1964, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) commissioned the Deep Submersible Vehicle (DSV) Alvin. As one of the world's first manned deep ocean research vessels, it quickly ended up on some of the most critical and fascinating missions in naval research history. After several major retrofits over the years, the Alvin celebrates its 50th birthday this weekend with no plans to slow down.

The Alvin was named after Allyn Vine, a geo-physicist at WHOI who pushed the US to develop a manned submersible rather than rely on remote methods of deep-sea exploration. As the geophysics magazine Eos notes, Vine strongly supported sending real humans into the depths of the sea. “I find it difficult to imagine what kind of instrument should have been put on the Beagle instead of Charles Darwin,” the researcher said in 1957.

Alvin was designed by General Mills on a $498,500 contract. It was able to dive 6,000 feet (or about 2,000 meters) and contained a 6-foot diameter steel sphere for pilots and scientists. In one of its first missions in 1966, the submersible was used to search for a lost hydrogen bomb that was dropped when the plane carrying it crashed. Barely a decade later, in 1973, the steel personnel sphere on the Alvin was replaced with a titanium one, which extended its drive range to 12,000 feet (or 3,650 meters) and the Alvin set out to be one of the first vehicles to explore the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, some 3,000 meters down.

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 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/UDpeFpdcyOs/
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A new way to make laser-like beams using 250x less power

Science Focus

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With precarious particles called polaritons that straddle the worlds of light and matter, University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated a new, practical and potentially more efficient way to make a coherent laser-like beam. They have made what’s believed to be the first polariton laser that is fueled by electrical current as opposed to light, and also works at room temperature, rather than way below zero. Those attributes make the device the most real-world ready of the handful of polariton lasers ever developed. It represents a milestone like none the field has seen since the invention of the most common type of laser – the semiconductor diode – in the early 1960s, the researchers say. While the first lasers were made in the 1950s, it wasn’t until the semiconductor version, fueled by electricity rather than light, that the technology took off. This work could advance efforts to put lasers on computer circuits to replace wire connections, leading to smaller and more powerful electronics. It may also have applications in medical devices and treatments and more. The researchers didn’t develop it with a specific use in mind. They point out that when conventional lasers were introduced, no one envisioned how ubiquitous they

The post A new way to make laser-like beams using 250x less power has been published on Technology Org.

 
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 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/1iKRx4kQAyY/
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Keyhole Nebula and Digitus Impudicus Stickers

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: kndigimp, envelope sealers, galaxies and stars, keyhole nebula, carina nebula, massive stars, hubble space telescope, digitus impudicus, complex structure

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Details of a mysterious, complex structure within the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) are revealed by this image of the 'Keyhole Nebula, ' obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. The picture is a montage assembled from four different April 1999 telescope pointings with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, which used six different colour filters. The picture is dominated by a large, approximately circular feature, which is part of the Keyhole Nebula, named in the 19th century by Sir John Herschel. This region, about 8000 light-years from Earth, is located adjacent to the famous explosive variable star Eta Carinae, which lies just outside the field of view toward the upper right. The Carina Nebula also contains several other stars that are among the hottest and most massive known, each about 10 times as hot, and 100 times as massive, as our Sun.

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image code: kndigimp

Image credit: Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2

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M106 Across the Spectrum

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The spiral arms of bright, active galaxy M106 sprawl through this remarkable multiwavelength portrait, composed of image data from radio to X-rays, across the electromagnetic spectrum. Also known as NGC 4258, M106 can be found toward the northern constellation Canes Venatici. The well-measured distance to M106 is 23.5 million light-years, making this cosmic scene about 60,000 light-years across. Typical in grand spiral galaxies, dark dust lanes, youthful star clusters, and star forming regions trace spiral arms that converge on a bright nucleus. But this composite highlights two anomalous arms in radio (purple) and X-ray (blue) that seem to arise in the central region of M106, evidence of energetic jets of material blasting into the galaxy's disk. The jets are likely powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole.

Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Hubble Captures a Ring iPad Folio Cases

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: galaxy, space, universe, stars, travel, exploration, science, sun, the milky way, hubble captures a ring, planets, astronomy, telescope images, moons, phenomena, supernovas, cosmos, cosmology, nebula, star cluster, solar system, space shuttle, nasa, space images, themilkyway, hubble, captures, ring

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Stem cells are a soft touch for nano-engineered biomaterials

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Scientists from Queen Mary University of London have shown that stem cell behaviour can be modified by manipulating the nanoscale properties of the material they are grown on – improving the potential of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering as a result. This photo shows cells adhering to large nanopatterns. The green dots indicate the sites of adhesions, and the red area shows where molecules responsible for contracting the cells are located. Stem cells are special because they are essential to the normal function of our organs and tissues. Previous research shows stem cells grown on hard substrates go on to multiply but do not differentiate: a process by which the cells specialise to perform specific functions in the body. In contrast, stem cells grown on softer surfaces do go on to differentiate. In this new study, published in the journal Nano Letters, the researchers used tiny material patches known as nanopatches to alter the surface of the substrate and mimic the properties of a softer material. “By changing the surface properties like the shape of the substrate at the nanoscale level, we tricked the stem cells to behave differently,” explains co-author Dr Julien Gautrot, from QMUL’s School of Engineering and Materials Science and the Institute of Bioengineering.

The post Stem cells are a soft touch for nano-engineered biomaterials has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Pale Blue Dot Clean Posters

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: pale, blue, dot, space, astronomy, earth

The pixelation from the hubble scope are cleaned up in this one to look a little more wall art friendly.

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High Energy Stereoscopic System detects its first pulsar

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The High Energy Stereoscopic System telescope in Namibia has detected gamma rays of only 30 Giga electron volts (GeV) from the Vela pulsar. This is the first pulsar to be detected by HESS and the second - after Crab in 2011- to be spotted by ground-based gamma ray telescopes.

via Science Daily

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Forecasting the development of breakthrough technologies to enable novel space missions

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A new report, Technological Breakthroughs for Scientific Progress, has been published today by the European Science Foundation. The five Overwhelming Drivers identified in this exercise are to reduce mass, maintain stiffness; Build a spacecraft and missions that can last 50 years; Deploy a 30m+ telescope into space; Enable humans to stay in space for more than 2 years; Autonomous geophysical survey of planets.

via Science Daily

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Keyhole Nebula and Digitus Impudicus Rectangle Sticker

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: kndigimp, peel off, galaxies and stars, keyhole nebula, carina nebula, massive stars, hubble space telescope, digitus impudicus, complex structure

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Details of a mysterious, complex structure within the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) are revealed by this image of the 'Keyhole Nebula, ' obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. The picture is a montage assembled from four different April 1999 telescope pointings with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, which used six different colour filters. The picture is dominated by a large, approximately circular feature, which is part of the Keyhole Nebula, named in the 19th century by Sir John Herschel. This region, about 8000 light-years from Earth, is located adjacent to the famous explosive variable star Eta Carinae, which lies just outside the field of view toward the upper right. The Carina Nebula also contains several other stars that are among the hottest and most massive known, each about 10 times as hot, and 100 times as massive, as our Sun.

more items with this image
more items in the Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

image code: kndigimp

Image credit: Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2

»visit the HightonRidley store for more designs and products like this
Click to customize.
via Zazzle Astronomy market place