Tag: The Solar System

Amusing Information

Image Worth Spreading: Cosmic Eye

You will never feel so small in your entire life…

This video was generated using the iOS App “Cosmic Eye”, written by Danail Obreschkow at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research at the University of Western Australia. Cosmic Eye drew inspiration from a progression of increasingly accurate graphical representations of the scales of our Universe, including the classical essay “Cosmic View” (1957), the short movie “Cosmic Zoom” (1968), directed by Eva Szasz, and “Powers of Ten” (1977), directed by Charles and Ray Eames. Where possible, it displays real photographs obtained with modern objectives, telescopes, and microscopes. Other views are phenomenal renderings of state-of-the-art computer models. All scientists and sources have given permission and are fully credited in the app.

 

 
 

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NASA | STEREO Reveals the Entire Sun

On Feb. 6th, NASA’s twin STEREO probes moved into position on opposite sides of the sun, and they are now beaming back uninterrupted images of the entire star—front and back.

“For the first time ever, we can watch solar activity in its full 3-dimensional glory,” says Angelos Vourlidas, a member of the STEREO science team at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, DC.

Video Description:

Launched in October 2006, STEREO traces the flow of energy and matter from the sun to Earth. It also provides unique and revolutionary views of the sun-Earth system. STEREO, when paired with SDO, can now give us the first complete view of the sun’s entire surface and atmosphere.

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Scale

Scale from Brad Goodspeed on Vimeo.

Video Description:

Here’s an animation I did to make you feel small, and also convey the deep awe I feel at the feet of the Universe.

While watching the video of the lunar eclipse I posted the other day I was looking at the curvature of the earth’s shadow on the moon. It made me think about how large the earth might look if an exact copy of it was up there instead of the moon. Soon curiosity got the better of me, and I was animating!

So the basic idea is, each planet you see is the size it would appear in the sky if it shared an orbit with the moon, 380,000 kms from earth. I created this video in After Effects, and because of certain technical considerations had to keep the field of view at 62 degrees. That means the foreground element is not precisely to scale. I realized this after the fact and may update the video at some point in the future. All planets are to correct scale with one another in any case.

Please watch full screen in HD if possible. Oh! And please consider sharing with your friends on Twitter or Facebook.

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Spanish Woman Claims to Own the Sun, Plans On “Charging” Users

I can’t wait till the skin cancer lawsuits start coming her way.

After billions of years the Sun finally has an owner — a woman from Spain’s soggy region of Galicia said Friday she had registered the star at a local notary public as being her property.

Angeles Duran, 49, told the online edition of daily El Mundo she took the step in September after reading about an American man who had registered himself as the owner of the moon and most planets in our solar system.

There is an international agreement which states that no country may claim ownership of a planet or star, but it says nothing about individuals, she added.

“There was no snag, I backed my claim legally, I am not stupid, I know the law. I did it but anyone else could have done it, it simply occurred to me first.”

The document issued by the notary public declares Duran to be the “owner of the Sun, a star of spectral type G2, located in the centre of the solar system, located at an average distance from Earth of about 149,600,000 kilometers.”

Duran, who lives in the town of Salvaterra do Mino, said she now wants to slap a fee on everyone who uses the sun and give half of the proceeds to the Spanish government and 20 percent to the nation’s pension fund.

She would dedicate another 10 percent to research, another 10 percent to ending world hunger — and would keep the remaining 10 percent herself.

“It is time to start doing things the right way, if there is an idea for how to generate income and improve the economy and people’s wellbeing, why not do it?” she asked.

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