What you’re looking at there is something called The Local Cavity–although in this case “local” takes on a meaning somewhat larger than in typical conversation. It’s essentially a 300-light-year in diameter hole in space. Maybe ‘hole’ is stretching it a bit, since it’s not so much that it’s empty, as that it’s WAY less full than the average across the… Read more →
Tag: cosmology
Matters of Gravity
What you’re looking at there is the sad and beautiful story of the death of two stars, and the casting of two other survivors into the darkness. I’ve been sitting here playing with the My Solar System gravity simulator since reading about it in Discovery–it’s a cool educational toy for modelling interaction of bodies under gravity. You can use it… Read more →
Even Deeper Field
You may recall that I was pretty seriously geeked a while back by the implications of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Well, they’ve taken a new image, using infrared light this time, which lets them see even deeper. There is information, images, videos, and more about the newly release survey at the Hubble site. Read more →
Utterly Thought-Stoppingly Awesome.
Watch this. Just watch it. Read more →
Space Porn
Well, the moving thing and some insane workload at work have kept me from posting enough here lately–and may continue to do so until after we actually move. However that doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped seeing things that fascinate, challenge, or enrage me, and when I get a chance I’m going to keep posting about them here. So let’s start… Read more →
Saturday Night Shotgun Post
While I’m uploading some MP3s for a music post a little later tonight, let’s do the tab closing dance: Did you see the story about the scientists who unfroze the blob of 120,000 year old life in the Arctic? I can’t do my usual thing of making the news sound like a creepy SF or Lovecraftian story, since the actual… Read more →
Professor Membrane Spotlight On: The Millennium Simulation
“Hooray for science!” Today we’re talking about the Millennium Simulation. I know this is an old story, dating as it does to 2005, but it’s got three different angles that appeal to my inner science geek plus a little something extra. You could start by reading a summary, or the Guardian article about the project, to get an idea of… Read more →
