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The ‘Eye Of Creation’ Holds The Secrets To Cosmic Life And Death

“The Helix nebula has a disk-like and bubble-like structure to it, formed by the dying central star. An infrared view highlights the neutral, cold gas. All of it will evaporate over time, while the central star is so hot it barely shows up at these cold wavelengths.”

When it comes to dying stars, supernovae get all the press. They may be the largest and most massive stars to die, but hundreds of times more common are the planetary nebulae of the Universe, formed by dying Sun-like stars. These astronomical wonders blow off their outer layers – not just hydrogen but also heavier elements – to return them to the interstellar medium. The cool, neutral gas seen at the outskirts has been blown off for tens of thousands of years, but gets heated up by the ultraviolet radiation coming from the central, newly-formed white dwarf. It may be faint, but it’s incredibly hot, and will eventually be the cause of the total annihilation and dissociation of the nebula.

Given enough time, this cosmic death will contribute to the rebirth of new stars. Come get all the details on today’s Mostly Mute Monday!

mindblowingscience

Elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 now have official names and are included in the periodic table.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), has officially approved the names of four new elements to be added to the periodic table. The new elements, Nihonium, Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson, are now officially part of the periodic table, in spots 115, 116, 117, and 118, respectively.

Back in January the IUPAC, which handles the naming of new elements, officially confirmed that the four new elements had been found. In June, the organization put these four names to a vote. Now those names have been accepted and are going on the periodic table.

Three of the elements, Nihonium, Moscovium, and Tennessine, were named after the places the were discovered, namely Japan (Nihon), Moscow, and Tennessee. The fourth, Oganesson, was named after Russian nuclear scientist Yuri Oganessian.

With the addition of these four elements, the seventh row of the periodic table has finally been completed. Any new elements discovered in the future will require an additional row.

nanodash

Finally named. Now to relearn them all!

un-cerebro-hambriento

Ilusión Óptica: Efecto de distorsión facial

Mantén tu mirada fijada en el punto central del vídeo mientras las imágenes cambian rápidamente. Lo más probable es que, durante el proceso, tengas la sensación de haber visto una que otra cara grotesca o desproporcionada. Si crees que es un truco, ¡mira el vídeo de nuevo!, pero esta vez centra tu atención en cualquiera de los dos lados, o pausa el vídeo. No, no es ningún truco; se trata de un interesante experimento psicológico de percepción.

Al igual que muchos descubrimientos científicos interesantes, éste fue un accidente. Sean Murphy, un estudiante universitario, estaba trabajando solo en el laboratorio en un conjunto de caras de uno de sus experimentos. Alineó un conjunto de caras a los ojos y comenzó a hojear a través de ellos. Después de unos segundos, se dio cuenta de que algunos de los rostros comenzaron a aparecer muy deformes y grotescos. Miró a la cara, especialmente fea forma individual, pero cada uno de ellos parecía normal o incluso atractivo. Lo llamamos el “efecto de distorsión facial”

El efecto parece depender de procesamiento de cada rostro a la luz de los demás. Al alinear las caras en los ojos y pasarlas de forma rápida, se vuelve mucho más fácil comparar, por lo que las diferencias entre las caras son más extremas. Si alguien tiene una mandíbula grande, se ve casi como un ogro. Si tienen un frente especialmente grandes, entonces se ve particularmente bulbosa.

pbstv

Gravity waves, the sequel. LIGO detects second pair of crashing black holes.

More from PBS NewsHour.

themathkid

From “Proofs Without Words” by Roger Nelsen.

spring-of-mathematics

Derivative of a Composition of Functions

In many real life applications we can find events whose modeling are more conveniently described as a succesion of dependences of variables on other variables. Their mathematical representation is through composition of functions. The finding of “Rates of Change” will therefore be related to the finding of the derivative of compositions of functions. A simple example of the melting of an ice cube on top of the flat surface of a kitchen counter, producing a circular water puddle as illustrated in the animation above.

The change in the diameter (“D”) of the puddle depends on the change in the amount of water produced in the melting process. On the other hand, the amount (or volume) of water produced depends on the volume of ice that has melted. And finally, the volume of melted ice can be estimated by the change in size “t” of the ice cube.We can give an expression for the rate of change in the puddle diameter in terms of the change in the size of the ice cube In other words: We can obtain an expression for “d D / d t” by knowing the functional dependence of all related quantities. The expression for this rate of change can be obtained by applying the so called “Chain Rule” for the composition of functions: Given two differentiable functions f and g, the composite function fog (x) = f (g (x) :) is also differentiable, and its derivative given by: the product:

Derivative of the most external function f evaluated at the internal function g (x), multiplied by the derivative of the internal function.

Also, We need to note that ∆t = t(f) - t(i) not equal to ∆D = D(f) - D(i). I think that’s a key point to clarify this issue.

Newton 150mm, ocular 19mm, iPhone

#luna #moon #telescopio #telescope

itsokaytobesmart

Voyager 1 is in interstellar space, but hasn’t left the solar system. Here’s why:

Based on new analysis of data collected by Voyager 1, NASA determined that it entered interstellar space on or about August 25, 2012. See this post or this post from earlier today for more. But it hasn’t exited the solar system.

There’s lots more detail in this article from NASA, but in essence interstellar space begins when our sun’s solar wind ceases to blow. Normally, its outward breath of charged particles inflates the inner solar system in a protective bubble, keeping interstellar wind from sterilizing the whole lot of the planets. That point at which the solar wind ceases to push outward and the charged particles of interstellar space take over is the border it’s just crossed.

But the solar system extends far beyond that. The Oort cloud is a proposed region nearly a light year away from the sun, dating from the formation of the solar system, full of icy debris and trapped comets, that is still subject to the gravitational effects of our home star (as well as neighboring stars). Sadly, Voyager 1 won’t reach the near border of the Oort cloud for at least 300 years, and its power source will be extinguished by 2025. Makes you wonder … where does the solar system really end?

So Voyager 1 is outside of the tent, but it’s still in camp.

(view image larger)

healingvibes-collor-n-mood

cap-kira

These melt together so beautifully

dandelionofthanatos

Found the artist! His name is Rob Gonsalves :D

geometricfreedom

Rotation of a KLEIN BOTTLE (wire-frame, orthographic projection, FULL-RES)

spring-of-mathematics

sci-universe

Using the advanced adaptive optics system on the Gemini South telescope, astronomers have imaged a beautiful stellar jewel-box – a tightly packed cluster of stars that is one of the few places in our galaxy where astronomers think stars can actually collide. Stellar collisions are important because they can provide the key to understand the origin of exotic objects that cannot be interpreted in terms of the passive evolution of single stars. read more here credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA

spaceplasma

Two views of an X-class solar flare on Sept. 10, 2014. IRIS focuses on the lower regions of the sun’s atmosphere, while the SDO imagery shows a region that is hotter and typically slightly above that.

The IRIS video shows a dark sunspot in the upper right, a magnetically complex region observed on the sun’s surface. SDO, on the other hand, shows what’s happening above that – giant magnetic loops rise up off the surface. As the flare begins, crisp bright lines show up moving across the IRIS data, showing where material begins to be heated with the onset of the flare. Some of this imagery appears in the SDO side as well, but so do many other features and brightenings. It is only by comparing the two movies that one can tease out what’s happening at the lower temperatures – likely to be in the lower atmosphere – versus what is happening higher up.

spaceplasma

For more information, click here.

Watch the video

Credit: NASA/LMSAL/Wiessinger

sci-universe

Using several telescopes, including NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have found evidence that a white dwarf star - the dense core of a star like the Sun that has run out of nuclear fuel - may have ripped apart a planet as it came too close. The European Space Agency’s INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) enabled to discover a new X-ray source near the center of the globular cluster NGC 6388. The rate at which the X-ray brightness dropped agrees with theoretical models of a disruption of a planet by the gravitational tidal forces of a white dwarf. A new composite image shows NGC 6388 with X-rays detected by Chandra in pink and visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope in red, green, and blue, with many of the stars appearing to be orange or white. read more here

skunkbear

Goodbye to my favorite science officer.

Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock on the original Star Trek series, died today. Nimoy invented the Vulcan salute himself. He was inspired by the Jewish Priestly Blessing he had seen at an Orthodox synagogue.