BOINC : calculez pour la science BOINC is a program that lets you donate your idle computer time to science projects like SETI@home, Climateprediction.net, Rosetta@home, World Community Grid, and many others. After installing BOINC on your computer, you can connect it to as many of these projects as you like. You may run this software on a computer only if you own the computer or have the permission of its owner. Tested on the current Ubuntu distribution; may work on others. If available, we recommend that you install a distribution-specific package instead. After downloading BOINC you must install it: typically this means double-clicking on the file icon when the download is finished. System requirements · Release notes · Help · All versions · Version history · GPU computing
More Signs Of The Sun Slowing Down In my post from yesterday, I highlighted a paragraph from a NASA press release which touched on one of the final findings of the soon to be ended Ulysses spacecraft mission to study the sun: “Ulysses ends its career after revealing that the magnetic field emanating from the sun’s poles is much weaker than previously observed. This could mean the upcoming solar maximum period will be less intense than in recent history. “ A few months ago, I had plotted the Average Geomagnetic Planetary Index (Ap) which is a measure of the solar magnetic field strength but also daily index determined from running averages of eight Ap index values. Click for a larger image I had noted that there was a curious step function in 2005, almost as if something had “switched off”. Today, since it is fathers day, and I get to do whatever I want, I chose to revisit this graph. First, I’ve updated the original Ap graph to June 2008 as you can see below. Now we have almost two years. Here is my plot of the above dataset:
the peoples astronomer MilkyWay@home Strange emissions by sun are mutating matter ~UPDATED 12/01/11 Check links please…This is not a scientific paper…link at bottom for source…Thank you ~jude The angry sun For months mounting fear has driven researchers to wring their hands over the approaching solar storms. Some have predicted devastating solar tsunamis that could wipe away our advanced technology, others voiced dire warnings that violent explosions on the surface of the sun could reach out to Earth, breach our magnetic field, and expose billions to high intensity X-rays and other deadly forms of cancer-causing radiation. Now evidence has surfaced that something potentially more dangerous is happening deep within the hidden core of our life-giving star: never-before-seen particles—or some mysterious force—is being shot out from the sun and it’s hitting Earth. Whatever it is, the evidence suggests it’s affecting all matter. Strange and unknown Alarmed physicists first became aware of this threat over the past several years. Something impossible has happened. Sources
Bad Astronomy Well now, this is an interesting discovery: astronomers have found what looks like a "super-Earth" – a planet more massive than Earth but still smaller than a gas giant – orbiting a nearby star at the right distance to have liquid water on it! Given that, it might – might – be Earthlike. This is pretty cool news. We’ve found planets like this before, but not very many! Now let me be clear: this is a planet candidate; it has not yet been confirmed. The star is called HD 40307, and it’s a bit over 40 light years away (pretty close in galactic standards, but I wouldn’t want to walk there). Massive planets tug on their star harder, so they’re easier to find this way. In this case, HD 40307 was originally observed a little while back by HARPS, and three planets were found. We don’t know how big the planet is, unfortunately. That’s exciting because of the prospect for life. Here’s a diagram of the system as compared to our own: Image credits: ESO/M. Related Posts:
SETI@home Solar Influences Data Center Stellarium The Milky Way Project