Friday 23 January 2015

Hubble's Sharpest View of the Orion Neb Powiscases iPad Mini Covers

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: hubble's, sharpest, view, of-the, orion, nebulae, powiscases

Thousands of stars are forming in the cloud of gas and dust known as the Orion nebula. More than 3,000 stars of various sizes appear in this image. Some of them have never been seen in visible light. Credit: NASA,ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

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Technology quickly traces source of tainted food

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Foodborne illnesses kill roughly 3,000 Americans each year and about 1 in 6 are sickened, according to the

The post Technology quickly traces source of tainted food has been published on Technology Org.

 
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New space telescope concept could image objects at far higher resolution than Hubble

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University of Colorado Boulder researchers will update NASA officials next week on a revolutionary space telescope concept selected by the agency for study last June that could provide images up to 1,000 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope.



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Rosetta data reveals more surprises about comet 67P

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As the Rosetta spacecraft orbits comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, an international team of scientists have discovered that the comet's atmosphere, or coma, is much less homogenous than expected and comet outgassing varies significantly over time.

via Science Daily

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Rosetta data give closest-ever look at a comet

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On Nov. 12, 2014, the Rosetta mission's Philae lander touched down on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. While this achievement gained lots of headlines, it was only the beginning for researchers back on Earth. New data provides the closest and most detailed look at a comet that scientists have ever seen.

via Science Daily

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Gas variations are suggestive of seasons on comet Chury

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Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko continues to reveal more of its secrets: Researchers have detected considerable variations in the gas escaping from the comet. This could amount to seasonal changes on the tiny celestial body. Meanwhile, the camera OSIRIS on board the Rosetta comet probe is revealing new details of the surface of Chury.

via Science Daily

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Yes, black holes exist in gravitational theories with unbounded speeds of propagation

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Gravitational theories with broken Lorentz invariance have attracted a great deal of interest as they provide a test-bed of LI and offer a mechanism to improve their ultraviolet behavior, so that the theories may be renormalizable. However in such theories, particles can travel with arbitrary velocities and black holes may not exist at all. In contrast to this expectation, it has been shown that an absolute horizon exists, which traps signals despite infinitely large velocities.

via Science Daily

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H.E.S.S. finds three extremely luminous gamma-ray sources

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The High Energy Stereoscopic System telescopes have again demonstrated their excellent capabilities in searching for high-energy gamma rays.

via Science Daily

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Vintage Astronomy, Celestial Star Planisphere Map Poster

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


tagged with: antique, constellations, retro, americana, nostalgia, nostalgic, vintage illustration, celestal map, star chart, astronomy, antique celestial

Vintage illustration astronomy and celestial map or star chart image featuring a planisphere of the constellations of the southern night sky including some signs of the zodiac by English mathematician and physician Thomas Hood (1556-1620). Created in 1590.

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The 5 biggest scientific breakthroughs of 2014

Science Focus

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New hope for the paralyzed
A pioneering surgical procedure enabled a paralyzed man to walk again. Bulgarian firefighter Darek Fidyka, 40, was paralyzed from the chest down when a knife attack severed his spinal cord. Doctors bridged the tear with nerve tissues from his ankle and injected the area with cells from his nasal cavity that help the sense of smell return after nasal damage. The theory was that the cells' regenerative function would help the "bridge" reconnect the spinal cord. Within five months, Fidyka regained some feeling in his legs; two years later, he could walk. "It's like you were born again," says Fidyka.

Stem cell breakthroughs
It was a huge year for stem cell technology. In August, scientists revealed that infusing stem cells into the brains of stroke victims dramatically improved their recovery. Severe strokes usually result in death or serious disability, but all the patients treated with stem cells showed signs of recovery after six months. A second breakthrough came in October, when Harvard University scientists cured type 1 diabetes in mice by injecting them with insulin-secreting cells derived from stem cells. If the procedure works in humans, people with the disorder could potentially be cured with a single injection. "We are now just one pre-clinical step away from the finish line," says lead researcher Douglas Melton.

Touchdown on a comet
For millennia, mankind has wondered at the appearance of comets in the night sky. This year, earthlings finally reached up and touched one. A European Space Agency probe landed on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, an icy rock streaking through the solar system at 41,000 mph 311 million miles from Earth. Launched from the ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, which began orbiting the comet in August, the refrigerator-size probe drilled into the space rock's surface to examine its chemical makeup. Composed of ice, dust, rocks, and other organic materials, comets are leftovers from the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago and may have played a crucial role in the development of life on Earth.

The biggest dinosaur found yet
This September, fossil hunters in Patagonia announced they had unearthed the remains of the largest dinosaur ever to walk the Earth. Paleontologists estimate that the herbivorous Dreadnoughtus schrani was as long as a basketball court and weighed nearly 65 tons, equivalent to a dozen African elephants. The creature's neck vertebrae were almost a meter wide, while the bones at the end of its 9-meter tail appear to have been covered with powerful muscles. "It's time the herbivores get their due," says paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara.

Preserving donated hearts
New methods for treating donated organs promise to shorten the long wait times endured by patients in need of transplants. Doctors at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney were able to revive a heart that had stopped beating by placing it in a machine that bathed the organ in warm, oxygenated blood and other nutrients, preventing deterioration of its muscle cells. Similar methods were also used to treat livers, lungs, and kidneys before transplantation. "This breakthrough represents a major inroad to reducing the shortage of donor organs," said Peter MacDonald, head of St. Vincent's heart transplant unit. Some 2,000 patients receive heart transplants in the U.S. every year. Doctors hope this new method will increase that figure 30 percent.

 
#science 
 » see original post http://theweek.com/articles/441322/5-biggest-scientific-breakthroughs-2014
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What would happen if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today?

Science Focus

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Earth's climate is changing rapidly. We know this from billions of observations, documented in thousands of journal papers and texts, and summarized every few years by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The primary cause of that change is the release of carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil, and natural gas.

Negotiations about reducing emissions grind on. But in the meantime, how much warming are we already locked into? If we stop emitting greenhouse gases tomorrow, why would the temperature continue to rise?

The basics of carbon and climate

The carbon dioxide that accumulates in the atmosphere insulates the surface of the Earth. It's like a warming blanket that holds in heat. This energy increases the Earth's surface average temperature, heats the oceans, and melts polar ice. As consequences, sea level rises and weather changes.

Global average temperature has increased. Anomalies are relative to the mean temperature of 1961-1990. | (Finnish Meteorological Institute and Finnish Ministry of the Environment/The Conversation US)

Since 1880, after carbon dioxide emissions took off with the Industrial Revolution, the average global temperature has increased about 1.5F (0.85C). Each of the last three decades has been warmer than the preceding decade, as well as warmer than the entire previous century.

The Arctic is warming much faster than the average global temperature; ice in the Arctic Ocean is melting and the permafrost is thawing. Ice sheets in both the Arctic and Antarctic are melting. Ecosystems on both land and in the sea are changing. The observed changes are coherent and consistent with our theoretical understanding of the Earth's energy balance and simulations from models that are used to understand past variability and to help us think about the future.

Slam on the climate brakes

What would happen to the climate if we were to stop emitting carbon dioxide today, right now? Would we return to the climate of our elders? The simple answer is no. Once we release the carbon dioxide stored in the fossil fuels we burn, it accumulates in and moves amongst the atmosphere, the oceans, the land, and the plants and animals of the biosphere. The released carbon dioxide will remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years. Only after many millennia will it return to rocks, for example, through the formation of calcium carbonate — limestone — as marine organisms' shells settle to the bottom of the ocean. But on time spans relevant to humans, once released the carbon dioxide is in our environment essentially forever. It does not go away, unless we, ourselves, remove it.

If we stop emitting today, it's not the end of the story for global warming. There's a delay in temperature increase as the climate catches up with all the carbon that's in the atmosphere. After maybe 40 more years, the climate will stabilize at a temperature higher than what was normal for previous generations.

This decades-long lag between cause and effect is due to the long time it takes to heat the the ocean's huge mass. The energy that is held at the Earth by the increased carbon dioxide does more than heat the air. It melts ice; it heats the ocean. Compared to air, it's harder to raise the temperature of water — it takes time, decades. However, once the ocean temperature is elevated, it adds to the warming of the Earth's surface.

So even if carbon emissions stopped completely right now, as the oceans catch up with the atmosphere, the Earth's temperature would rise about another 1.1F (0.6C). Scientists refer to this as committed warming. Ice, also responding to increasing heat in the ocean, will continue to melt. There's already convincing evidence that significant glaciers in the West Antarctic ice sheets are lost. Ice, water, and air — the extra heat held on the Earth by carbon dioxide affects them all. That which has melted will stay melted — and more will melt.

Ecosystems are altered by natural and manmade occurrences. As they recover, it will be in a different climate from that in which they evolved. The climate in which they recover will not be stable; it will be continuing to warm. There will be no new normal, only more change.

Glacial ice loss over Greenland and Antarctica from 2003 to 2010.

Best of the worst case scenarios

In any event, it's not possible to stop emitting carbon dioxide today, right now. Despite significant advances in renewable energy sources, total demand for energy accelerates and carbon dioxide emissions increase. I teach my students that they need to plan for a world 7F (4C) warmer. A 2011 report from the International Energy Agency states that if we don't get off our current path, then we're looking at an Earth 11F (6C) warmer. Our current Earth is just over 1F warmer, and the observed changes are already disturbing.

There are many reasons that we need to essentially eliminate our carbon dioxide emissions. The climate is changing rapidly; if that pace is slowed, the affairs of nature and human beings can adapt more readily. The total amount of change, including sea-level rise, can be limited. The further we get away from the climate that we have known, the more unreliable the guidance from our models and the less likely we will be able to prepare. The warmer the planet gets, the more likely reservoirs of carbon dioxide and methane, another greenhouse gas that warms the planet, will be released from storage in the frozen Arctic permafrost — further adding to the problem.

If we stop our emissions today, we won't go back to the past. This is not reason, however, to continue with unbridled emissions. We are adaptable creatures, with credible knowledge of our climate's future and how we can frame that future. We're already stuck with some amount of guaranteed climate change at this point. Rather than trying to recover the past, we need to be thinking about best possible futures.

More from The Conversation US...

 
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 » see original post http://theweek.com/articles/441503/happen-stopped-emitting-greenhouse-gases-today
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PXIE progress: LEBT successfully delivers maximum current

Science Focus

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Fermilab has paved the first few feet of the long road to a dramatic upgrade of its injection

The post PXIE progress: LEBT successfully delivers maximum current has been published on Technology Org.

 
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 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/4M9YSr3DPZw/
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Interior View

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Some prefer windows, and these are the best available on board the International Space Station. Taken on January 4, this snapshot from inside the station's large, seven-window Cupola module also shows off a workstation for controlling Canadarm2. Used to grapple visiting cargo vehicles and assist astronauts during spacewalks, the robotic arm is just outside the window at the right. The Cupola itself is attached to the Earth-facing or nadir port of the station's Tranquility module, offering dynamic panoramas of our fair planet. Seen from the station's 90 minute long, 400 kilometer high orbit, Earth's bright limb is in view above center.
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Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Star Birth in Constellation Cygnus, The Swan Sticker

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


tagged with: envelope sealers, nebulae, gstlnrsr, rcw120, breathtaking astronomy images, star nurseries, ionised gas clouds, star forming regions, european southern observatory, clusters of stars, galaxies, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous star forming region in Constellation Cygnus (The Swan). This Hubble image shows a dust-rich, interstellar gas cloud with a new-born star in the centre of the hour-glass shape. The glowing blue of the hydrogen in this nebula is due to the jets being emitted from the forming star as dust falls into into it and this causes the heating and turbulence of the hydrogen. The star, known as S106 IR, is reaching the end of its birth and will soon enter the much quieter period of adulthood known as the main stage.

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Image code: cygsb

Image credit: NASA, the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI) and ESA

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Boomerang Nebula Hubble Astronomy Wall Decals

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: boomerang nebula, nebula, stars, nasa, astronomy, universe, outer space, hubble telescope, nature, cool space, nebulae, esa, hubble space telescope, hubble photo, cosmos, astronomical, astrophotography, cosmology, deep space, space, natural, science, space picture, space photo, space image, nebula picture, nebula photo, nebula image, blue, cool astronomy

Hubble photograph of the Boomerang Nebula

This photograph of the Boomerang Nebula was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1998. It shows the bow-tie-shaped nebula in beautiful bright blue and white colours, against a dark starry background.

Credit: NASA, ESA, R. Sahai and J. Trauger (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and the WFPC2 Science Team

You can personalise the design further if you'd prefer, such as by adding your name or other text, or adjusting the image - just click 'Customize it' to see all the options. IMPORTANT: If you choose a different sized version of the product, it's important to click Customize and check the image in the Design view to ensure it fills the area to the edge of the product, otherwise white edges may be visible.

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The cosmic chemistry that gave rise to water

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Earth's water has a mysterious past stretching back to the primordial clouds of gas that birthed the Sun and other stars. By using telescopes and computer simulations to study such star nurseries, researchers can better understand the cosmic chemistry that has influenced the distribution of water in star systems across the Universe.



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DARPA Developing New Materials For Energy Transduction

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Transduction involving the conversion of energy from one form into another is common in many military and space

The post DARPA Developing New Materials For Energy Transduction has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Vintage Astronomy, Constellations of Southern Sky Poster

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


tagged with: sky, constellations, nostalgic, stars, nostalgia, retro, antique, americana, vintage, celestial map, antique celestial

Vintage illustration Renaissance era astronomy and celestial image featuring a star chart of the southern sky, created in 1660 by Andreas Cellarius. Map of the constellations of the southern hemisphere including some signs of the Zodiac, from The Celestial Atlas, or the Harmony of the Universe. Andreas Cellarius (c.1596-1665) was a Dutch-German cartographer, best known for his Harmonia Macrocosmica of 1660, a major star atlas, published by Johannes Janssonius in Amsterdam.

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Carina Nebula - Breathtaking Universe Sticker

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


tagged with: stlrnrsry, star clusters, galaxies, awesome astronomy pictures, constellation puppis, the stern, star nurseries, nebulae, outer space exploration, universe photographs, starfields, european southern observatory, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

A gorgeous set of oval stickers showing the area surrounding the stellar cluster NGC 2467, located in the southern constellation of Puppis ("The Stern"). With an age of a few million years at most, it is a very active stellar nursery, where new stars are born continuously from large clouds of dust and gas.

The image, looking like a colourful cosmic ghost or a gigantic celestial Mandrill, contains the open clusters Haffner 18 (centre) and Haffner 19 (middle right: it is located inside the smaller pink region - the lower eye of the Mandrill), as well as vast areas of ionised gas.

The bright star at the centre of the largest pink region on the bottom of the image is HD 64315, a massive young star that is helping shaping the structure of the whole nebular region.

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Image code: stlrnrsry

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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Boomerang Nebula Hubble Astronomy Wall Graphic

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: boomerang nebula, nebula, stars, nasa, astronomy, universe, outer space, hubble telescope, nature, cool space, nebulae, esa, hubble space telescope, hubble photo, cosmos, astronomical, astrophotography, cosmology, deep space, space, natural, science, space picture, space photo, space image, nebula picture, nebula photo, nebula image, blue, cool astronomy

Hubble photograph of the Boomerang Nebula

This photograph of the Boomerang Nebula was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1998. It shows the bow-tie-shaped nebula in beautiful bright blue and white colours, against a dark starry background.

Credit: NASA, ESA, R. Sahai and J. Trauger (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and the WFPC2 Science Team

You can personalise the design further if you'd prefer, such as by adding your name or other text, or adjusting the image - just click 'Customize it' to see all the options. IMPORTANT: If you choose a different sized version of the product, it's important to click Customize and check the image in the Design view to ensure it fills the area to the edge of the product, otherwise white edges may be visible.

See more in my shop
If you like this product, you can find more like it in my store:

Click here to view all the other items with this design.

Click here to see a wide range of other astronomy & space designs.

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