A Wintry Shower

By: vivian on sexta-feira, dezembro 15, 2017

Four Geminids flash through northern skies in this wintry night skyscape. The bright fireball and 3 fainter meteors were captured in a single 10 second exposure, near the peak of December's Geminid meteor shower. Reflecting the fireball's greenish light, a partially frozen Lake Edith in Alberta Canada's Jasper National Park lies in the foreground, with the Canadian Rocky Mountains ranging along the northern horizon. Of course, the glacial lake is cold even in summer. But photographer Jack Fusco reports that he experienced -9 degree C temperatures that night while enjoying one of the most active meteor showers he's ever seen.

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About 2,000 years ago, a Roman politician celebrated his victory...

By: vivian on sexta-feira, dezembro 15, 2017

About 2,000 years ago, a Roman politician celebrated his victory by commissioning a sundial and putting it in public so everyone could read his name each time they checked the time. On the base of the sundial is inscribed “M(arcus) NOVIUS M(arci) F(ilius) TUBULA” — or Marcus Novius Tubula, son of Marcus. Another engraving on the rim of the bowl says that Tubula (literally, “small trumpet”) held the office of “TR(ibunus) PL(ebis)” — that is, plebeian tribune, and paid for the sundial “D(e) S(ua) PEC(unia),” or “with his own money.”

The sundial was found in the town of what was then Lirenas, about 90 miles southeast of Rome. The style of the letters suggests to researchers that the sundial was erected in the mid-first century BCE or onward.

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New Research Launches to Space Station Aboard SpaceX Resupply Mission

By: vivian on sexta-feira, dezembro 15, 2017

The two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Dragon will bring supplies, equipment and new science experiments for technology research to the orbiting laboratory.

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The Psychology of Dreams

By: vivian on sexta-feira, dezembro 15, 2017

The Psychology of Dreams

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After Lyndon Johnson died 1973, there were zero ex-presidents still living. This had not happened...

By: vivian on sexta-feira, dezembro 15, 2017

After Lyndon Johnson died 1973, there were zero ex-presidents still living. This had not happened since 1933, and has not happened since.

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Geminids of the North

By: vivian on sexta-feira, dezembro 15, 2017

Earth's annual Geminid meteor shower did not disappoint as our fair planet plowed through dust from active asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Captured in this northern hemisphere nightscape, the meteors stream away from the shower's radiant in Gemini. To create the image, 37 individual frames recording meteor streaks were taken over period of 8.5 hours during the night of December 12/13. In the final composite they were selected and registered against the starry sky above a radio telescope dish of MUSER, a solar-dedicated radio telescope array at astronomically-named Mingantu Station in Inner Mongolia, China, about 400 kilometers from Beijing. Sirius, alpha star of Canis Major, shines brightly just above the radio dish and the Milky Way stretches toward the zenith. Yellowish Betelgeuse is a standout in Orion to the right of the northen Milky Way. The shower's radiant is at top left, high above the horizon near Castor and Pollux the twin stars of Gemini. The radiant effect is due to perspective as the parallel meteor tracks appear to converge in the distance. Gemini's meteors enter Earth's atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second.

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