Dubious Radical


Astronomy

crookedindifference:

Helios B

Helios-A and Helios-B (also known as Helios 1 and Helios 2), are a pair of probes launched into heliocentric orbit for the purpose of studying solar processes. A joint venture of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and NASA, the probes were launched from the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Dec. 10, 1974, and Jan. 15, 1976, respectively.

The probes are notable for having set a maximum speed record among spacecraft at 252,792 km/h (157,078 mi/h or 43.63 mi/s or 70.22 km/s or 0.000234
c). Helios 2 flew three million kilometers closer to the Sun than Helios 1, achieving perihelion on 17 April 1976 at a record distance of 0.29 AU (or 43.432 million kilometers), slightly inside the orbit of Mercury. Helios 2 was sent into orbit 13 months after the launch of Helios 1. The Helios space probes completed their primary missions by the early 1980s, but they continued to send data up to 1985. The probes are no longer functional but still remain in their elliptical orbit around the Sun

(via itsfullofstars)

christinetheastrophysicist: Mysterious hot spots observed in a cool red supergiant Astronomers have released a new image of the outer atmosphere of Betelgeuse – one of the nearest red supergiants to Earth – revealing the detailed structure of the matter being thrown off the star. The new image, taken by the e-MERLIN radio telescope array operated from the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, also shows regions of surprisingly hot gas in the star’s outer atmosphere and a cooler arc of gas weighing almost as much as the Earth. Read More.

christinetheastrophysicist:

Mysterious hot spots observed in a cool red supergiant

Astronomers have released a new image of the outer atmosphere of Betelgeuse – one of the nearest red supergiants to Earth – revealing the detailed structure of the matter being thrown off the star.

The new image, taken by the e-MERLIN radio telescope array operated from the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, also shows regions of surprisingly hot gas in the star’s outer atmosphere and a cooler arc of gas weighing almost as much as the Earth.

Read More.

ghostsofcygnus:

I look up — many people feel small because they’re small and the Universe is big — but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars. There’s a level of connectivity.

That’s really what you want in life, you want to feel connected, you want to feel relevant, you want to feel like a participant in the goings on of activities and events around you.

That’s precisely what we are, just by being alive…

- Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson

(via subatomiconsciousness)

Schenectady Gazette - Google News Archive Search

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The photo and the link is to the 1, Thursday, January 1987 Schenectady Daily Gazette.

See that photo guys? On the right is an article about Peking Uni students. The writers, those amazing damn journalists, predicted freaking Tienanmen Square indecent.

On the left is an article that while the title states Gorbachev wants his people to work harder, the article is about how he wishes for peace.

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“And in the odd chance there are any Astronomy afficianados amongst you, the North Star is that way”. Alright, that quote doesn’t make much sense and the only relevance it holds is that it has something to do with astronomy.

The picture above is from the 2 January 1987 Schenectady Daily Gazette. The paper used to run a monthly section called “Star Talk”. They still do, at least online.

Anyway, the article states that at that time Voyage 1 hadn’t even passed Neptune yet, and now scientists have reason to believe it’s not even in our solar system!

More importantly, it was only 26 years ago when we questioned the validity of Neptune being the farthest planet. The author stated however that in 1999 Pluto shall take its rightful place. Of course how quick we are to de-thrown! Only 7 year later the nefarious International Astronomy Union (IAU) decided all planets to be must follow the following criteria:

1. Have enough mass to form a round shape.(hydro-static equilibrium)

2. Orbit around the Sun

4. Be a dominant mofo ie cleared its neighbors so that essentially it is the major mass and the other objects around it are satellites (like the moon) 

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(and not that it’s particularly relevant but this picture just reminded me, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CENTRIPATAL/CENTRIFUGAL FORCE)

okay have a nice day and a smiling Sun cuz good morning y’all :)

Bright sunny day with a few passing clouds

tl;dr I love reading old newspapers. It’s like traveling back to the past.