Kepler mission discovers first planet orbiting two stars Artist's concept illustrating Kepler-16b, the first planet known to definitively orbit two stars (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle) Image Gallery (2 images) In news that conjures up visions of Luke Skywalker looking wistfully at the twin sunset of Tatooine accompanied by a stirring John Williams score, NASA's Kepler mission has detected the first planet orbiting two stars. The circumbinary planet, dubbed Kepler-16b, is some 200 light-years from Earth and, though gaseous and not thought to harbor life, its discovery broadens the opportunities for life in our galaxy according to Kepler principal investigator William Boruckias, because most of the Milky Way's stars are part of binary systems. Although scientists have theorized for decades that circumbinary planets were possible and previous research had hinted at their existence, the discovery of Kepler 16b is the first time the theory could be confirmed. The discovery of Kepler-16b is detailed in a new study published in the journal Science.
With a Passion for Skateboarding: Creative Art Sculptures by Haroshi |... Now that’s a sick madness! If you have never heard about Japanese wood sculptor named Haroshi, go get the wind of his most original conceptual art. As a creator of amazingly beautiful wooden sculptures out of old, crashed and broken skateboard decks, Haroshi passed for a man of considerable resourcefulness. His multicolored and meticulously sculpted art pieces simply astound with lifelike affinity, so in whichever way it’s even possible to mistake them for being real! Source Source Source Source Source Source Source Source Source Source Source Source Source Source Source Source Source Source
15 Mind-Blowing Featured Images by NASA The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the United States’ largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe. They are also home to some of the most amazing images, visualizations and videos NASA has to offer! Please do yourself a favour and check out their incredible Flickr page which has thousands of images with wonderfully detailed descriptions. Below is a collection of 15 mind-blowing featured images from NASA. 1. The STEREO (Ahead) spacecraft caught this spectacular eruptive prominence in extreme UV light as it blasted away from the Sun (Apr. 12-13, 2010). 2. This is a mosaic image, one of the largest ever taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of the Crab Nebula, a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star’s supernova explosion. The orange filaments are the tattered remains of the star and consist mostly of hydrogen. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Stagnation Temperature - Real Gas Effects As an object moves through a gas, the gas molecules near the object are disturbed and move around the object. Aerodynamic forces are generated between the gas and the object and the magnitude of these forces depend on many factors associated with the object and the gas. The speed of the object relative to the gas introduces many significant effects. We characterize the speed of the object by a non-dimensional number called the Mach number; the Mach number is the ratio of the speed of the object to the speed of sound in the gas. The speed of "sound" is actually the speed of transmission for small, isentropic disturbances in the gas. The physical state of the gas depends on the Mach number of the object. For a moving flow of gas, there are several different values for the temperature of the gas. In the process of slowing the flow, the gas is heated due to the kinetic energy of flow. For the perfect gas, the stagnation temperature is derived from the isentropic total temperature equation:
20 Cool Pictures of Earth from Space ~ Cool Pictures 20 cool pictures of Earth from Space thanks to National Geographic and a collection of amazing photographers. Bombetoka BayPhotograph courtesy Terra/ASTER/NASA and NASA Earth Observatory Sapphire waters tinged with pink sediment seem to get tangled amid emerald vegetation in a satellite picture of Bombetoka Bay, on the northwestern coast of Madagascar. To celebrate Earth Day—which today received the ultimate Internet accolade, a Google Doodle—National Geographic photo editors selected 20 of the most stunning pictures of Earth, as seen from space, including this jewel-toned shot of the island country off the African coast. Captured in 2000 by a NASA satellite, the scene shows where the salty waters of the Mozambique Channel mingle with freshwater outflow from the island's Betsiboka River. Circles of LifePhotograph courtesy NASA and NASA Earth Observatory Fields near the city of Perdizes, in the Minas Gerais state of Brazil, are seen in a 2011 astronaut photograph.
Le moteur 3D de vos rêves Le moteur 3D de vos rêves On va commencer la journée avec un peu de poésie dans ce monde de brute. Et cette fois, la poésie, c'est un moteur de jeu qui nous l'apporte. Le moteur Outerra propose tout simplement de créer des planètes entières et de s'y balader de l'espace jusqu'au plancher des vaches sans temps de chargement ou décors (murs) artificiels. De la vraie 3D sans limites... Les petits gars qui développent cette techno sont capables, une fois la planète modélisée, d'y mettre des routes, des véhicules, ou tous types d'objets 3D qui respectera les lois de la physique en vigueur sur la planète. D'autres images et vidéos sont visibles ici. [Source] Vous avez aimé cet article ?
Lagrangian point The Lagrangian points (/ləˈɡrɑːndʒiən/; also Lagrange points, L-points, or libration points) are the five positions in an orbital configuration where a small object affected only by gravity can maintain a stable orbital configuration with respect to two larger objects (such as a satellite with respect to the Sun and Earth). The Lagrange points mark positions where the combined gravitational pull of the two large masses provides precisely the centripetal force required to orbit with them. Lagrange points[edit] Lagrange points in the Sun-Earth system (not to scale) The five Lagrangian points are labeled and defined as follows: The L1 point lies on the line defined by the two large masses M1 and M2, and between them. Example: An object that orbits the Sun more closely than Earth would normally have a shorter orbital period than Earth, but that ignores the effect of Earth's own gravitational pull. The L2 point lies on the line through the two large masses, beyond the smaller of the two.
Max Horkheimer First published Wed Jun 24, 2009; substantive revision Sun Jul 21, 2013 Max Horkheimer (1895–1973) was a leader of the “Frankfurt School,” a group of philosophers and social scientists associated with the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute of Social Research) in Frankfurt am Main. Horkheimer was the director of the Institute and Professor of Social Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt from 1930–1933, and again from 1949–1958. 1. Max Horkheimer was born into a conservative Jewish family on February 14, 1895, the only son of Moritz and Babette Horkheimer. In the spring of 1919, after failing an army physical, Horkheimer began studies at the University of Munich, and transferred to the University of Frankfurt a semester later. The most important moments of Horkheimer's early academic career would come in 1930. This program was obstructed from the very beginning by social-political unrest. With the end of WWII, Horkheimer gradually considered moving back to Germany. 2. 2.1.
Des communications spatiales LASER Augmenter les vitesses de transfert de données est un doux rêve auquel nous aspirons tous. Le vide sidéral pourrait sembler propice à des débits ahurissants mais il n'en est rien. Alors la NASA travaille sur un protocole de communication basée sur le LASER. Présentation de OPALS. « Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science » (OPALS) utilise donc des LASERs pour transmettre des données à travers des faisceaux 100 fois plus fins que les ondes radio actuelles. Une grande phase de test débutera en Octobre. Cette phase de test durera trois mois et les transmissions seront de deux minutes trente. [theverge] Neutron stars and black holes illuminate dark matter It is early days yet, but astrophysicists and high energy physicists are starting to get a little nervous. We know from astrophysical and cosmological observations that much of the matter in the universe is invisible to us. Indeed, the bullet cluster—a must to mention in every article written about dark matter—provides spectacular supporting evidence for dark matter. But these observations don't do a lot to pin down the properties of dark matter, other than that it is... dark: it doesn't play with electromagnetic forces (light and charge) very often. This was all fine before the Large Hadron Collider switched on. Although this sounds like something very complicated, it is nothing more than measuring friction. This same physics applies to matter in the vicinity of stars. Moving back to dark matter and neutron stars. Chris Kouvaris, from Denmark, wanted to see if this told us anything about how dark matter interacts with itself.
Lamborghini Madura by Slavche Tanevski & Yanko Design One Sharp Black Lambo From the darkest depths of the design mind of the one called Slavche Tanevski comes THIS! The Lamborghini *Ankonian. It’s black. It’s sharp. And I don’t mean flashy in any kind of bad way. It’s not quite “green,” but it’s does have that sort of environmental friendliness in mind with it’s downsisedness. + Does this car look familiar to anyone? *NOTE from Chris Burns: originally I’d had this car marked “Madura”, when in fact it is called the Ankonian. Designer: Slavche Tanevski