107 posts
Latest Posts by zwickygirl - Page 2
The Special Ingredients…of Earth!
With its blue skies, puffy white clouds, warm beaches and abundant life, planet Earth is a pretty special place. A quick survey of the solar system reveals nothing else like it. But how special is Earth, really?
One way to find out is to look for other worlds like ours elsewhere in the galaxy. Astronomers using our Kepler Space Telescope and other observatories have been doing just that!
In recent years they’ve been finding other planets increasingly similar to Earth, but still none that appear as hospitable as our home world. For those researchers, the search goes on.
Another group of researchers have taken on an entirely different approach. Instead of looking for Earth-like planets, they’ve been looking for Earth-like ingredients. Consider the following:
Our planet is rich in elements such as carbon, oxygen, iron, magnesium, silicon and sulfur…the stuff of rocks, air, oceans and life. Are these elements widespread elsewhere in the universe?
To find out, a team of astronomers led by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), with our participation, used Suzaku. This Japanese X-ray satellite was used to survey a cluster of galaxies located in the direction of the constellation Virgo.
The Virgo cluster is a massive swarm of more than 2,000 galaxies, many similar in appearance to our own Milky Way, located about 54 million light years away. The space between the member galaxies is filled with a diffuse gas, so hot that it glows in X-rays. Instruments onboard Suzaku were able to look at that gas and determine which elements it’s made of.
Reporting their findings in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, they reported findings of iron, magnesium, silicon and sulfur throughout the Virgo galaxy cluster. The elemental ratios are constant throughout the entire volume of the cluster, and roughly consistent with the composition of the sun and most of the stars in our own galaxy.
When the Universe was born in the Big Bang 13.8 billon years ago, elements heavier than carbon were rare. These elements are present today, mainly because of supernova explosions.
Massive stars cook elements such as, carbon, oxygen, iron, magnesium, silicon and sulfur in their hot cores and then spew them far and wide when the stars explode.
According to the observations of Suzaku, the ingredients for making sun-like stars and Earth-like planets have been scattered far and wide by these explosions. Indeed, they appear to be widespread in the cosmos. The elements so important to life on Earth are available on average and in similar relative proportions throughout the bulk of the universe. In other words, the chemical requirements for life are common.
Earth is still special, but according to Suzaku, there might be other special places too. Suzaku recently completed its highly successful mission.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
ok but i want luis from ant man to do a recap of all the mcu films just before infinity wars comes out????
Is it “A Matter of Convenience”?
http://archiveofourown.org/works/656793
Erik manages the small store his late parents left behind and his days bleed together in a tiresome monotony until he touches the hand of loyal customer Charles Xavier. They tip-toe around each other as they struggle with mutant rights and the resurgence of gang violence in the neighborhood.
Help finding fanfic? Erik owns a shop and Charles comes in to buy ramen and a bottle of water every week, paying with exact change. The get off on the wrong foot cause Erik doesn’t know Charles is a mutant at first. Also they were in a bad part of the city I think? And Charles has a T tattooed on his neck and I believe was in Uni.
HEY EVERYONE!!! I’m thrilled to have recently hit a radical milestone re: my webcomic and to thank you all for your ongoing support, kind words, and enthusiasm, I’m hosting a giveaway!
There will be one winner: the prize is one (1) signed copy of Hotblood! Volumes #1, 2, and 3! Three books!!! Each book is 6x9″, perfect bound, around 100 pages, and printed in full colour.
✧ HOW TO ENTER
• Like and/or reblog this post: 1 note = 1 entry! There is no limit on entries.
• Enable your askbox so I can contact you if you win! If you don’t respond within 48 hours, I will choose another winner.
• You’ll have to be comfortable sharing your address because I’ll be mailing the books to you!
• You don’t need to be following me to enter.
✧
If you aren’t familiar with the story– Hotblood! is a m/m romance/Western which follows the story of the centaur James Rook, a washed out Civil War vet and secretary to the irreverent, criminally-inclined steel tycoon Asa Langley. The year is 1871. You can read from the beginning here.
Thank you a thousand times, again!!!
T
And here they are! The first hi resolution images released by NASA from yesterday’s flawless flyby of Pluto.
The close-up is a view of a region on Pluto at the bottom of ‘the heart’, the feature seen on the pre-approach image posted on July 14, yesterday, at 7:23 am. It reveals a smooth area in the upper left, a hummocky region in the lower right, and in between mountains that are 11,000 feet high! The only material on Pluto that is strong enough to build mountains is water ice. The other volatiles, nitrogen and methane, which are escaping Pluto as vapor, are apparently no more than a thin veneer. This image has a resolution of ~ 1 mile/pixel.
The other image is Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, about ½ the size of Pluto, seen at an image scale of ~ 3 miles/pixel. It surprises in several ways: a long chasm reminiscent of Saturn’s moon Tethys, a variable surface appearance, and very few craters that indicate a relatively youthful surface.
How mind-blowing it is that we are today discussing processes operating at 32x farther from the Sun than is the Earth, and over 3x farther away than Saturn. And yesterday, it was just a dream.
Think about that! CICLOPS.org: The Icy Mountains of Pluto CICLOPS.org: Charon’s Surprising Youthful and Varied Terrain
I’ve seen a lot of posts commenting on how there is no fake Star Trek fan or Trekkie, and how which series or movies you like do not determine if you can call yourself a Trek fan. They’re right, it doesn’t matter which Star Trek you like.
However, if you are the sort of Trekkie that comments on a photo of Sulu with homophobic and racist remarks, or the sort of Trekkie that makes violent threats in the general chat on Star Trek Online, or the type that writes an angry homophobic letter to an author of a licensed Star Trek book or even the type who comments on a photo of Captain Janeway with gendered slurs… You are no “real” Trekkie. Be it racism, misogyny, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or ableism, if those are the sort of values you espouse, your interests in Star Trek are superficial at best. You have missed the core values of Star Trek, from the IDIC to Starfleet’s credo. When Star Trek came on the air it instilled hope of a better future, so why are you so eager to drag us into the past?
Boston Gothic
You head down the stairs to the T to find that the Red Line is gone. It’s just gone. The Orange Line is there, and you could take it, but you are scared of clowns. You decide to walk instead.
You walk 20 minutes from North Station and find South Station. You walk another 20 minutes and find North Station again. You have not turned around.
You find a parking space but as you get another foot closer the parking space is now occupied. There was never any parking space. There are no parking spaces. There is no such thing as a parking space. Cars pull over and blink out of existence.
A chill rolls down your spine. You thirst. You are surrounded by Dunks on all sides. You go in and order an iced coffee. As you take your first sip, it begins to snow.
You struggle to pronounce the ‘r’ in “clam chowder” but it evades you. You choke out an order for anothah bowl of clam chowdah. You can’t remember what an ‘r’ sounds like.
It is a beautiful sunny day, clear and cloudless. You close your eyes. You open them. It is now pouring. A man turns to you and says “haha only in New England.” He is weeping.
You are driving out of the city for the day. You follow the signs that say I93. You follow the signs. You take your exit. You follow the signs. You are now entering the Mass Pike instead. A decrepit hand reaches from the darkness to collect your toll. No turning back now.
Wait a second, are you telling me the Hobbit movies didn’t end with Thorin and Bilbo getting married? That’s crazy. That final scene - with Bilbo planting the first acorn for a Hobbit garden in Erebor as Consort Under the Mountain, was unforgettable. He and Thorin were so sweet…”
Me, IN DENIAL FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER AMEN (via darthstitch)
#SupernovaSunday
Supernovae are stellar explosions that are so powerful they briefly outshine entire galaxies, radiating as much energy as the Sun or any ordinary star is expected to emit over its entire life span
The Universe is so vast that it is estimated that a star explodes every second. In a galaxy the size of our Milky Way, a star will go supernova every 50 years on average.
A star can go supernova in one of two ways:
Type I supernova: star accumulates matter from a nearby neighbor until a runaway nuclear reaction ignites.
Type II supernova: star runs out of nuclear fuel and collapses under its own gravity.
Supernovae play a key role in distributing elements throughout the universe. When the star explodes, it shoots elements and debris into space. Many of the elements we find here on Earth, including life, are made in the core of stars. These elements travel on to form new stars, planets and everything else in the universe.
Supernovae as seen by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Crab Nebula | Cassiopeia A | Tycho’s Supernova Remnant | G292.0+1.8
Thank you Google for the great Doodle honoring Annie Jump Cannon today!
Annie Jump Cannon (December 11, 1863 - April 13, 1941) was an American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification. With Edward C. Pickering, she is credited with the creation of the Harvard Classification Scheme, which was the first serious attempt to organize and classify stars based on their temperatures. She was nearly deaf throughout her career.
(from Wikipedia)
The Whirlpool Galaxy - Sparkling with X-Rays
Nearly a million seconds of observing time with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way glittering with hundreds of X-ray points of light.
This galaxy’s official name is Messier 51 (M51) or NGC 5194, but it often goes by its nickname of the “Whirlpool Galaxy.” Like the Milky Way, the Whirlpool is a spiral galaxy with spectacular arms of stars and dust. M51 is located about 30 million light years from Earth, and its face-on orientation to Earth gives us a perspective that we can never get of our own spiral galactic home.
By using Chandra, astronomers can peer into the Whirlpool to uncover things that can only be detected in X-rays. In this new composite image, Chandra data are shown in purple. Optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope are red, green, and blue.
Credit: NASA/Hubble/Chandra/Harvard
Plus one more...
Supernova remnants imaged with the Chandra X-Ray space telescope.
I love my Thorin/kitten mug!
Free shipping at my Society6!
New items recently added as well.
Can I just pretend this is the plot of BOTFA?
In which Dís is fed up with idiots and fighting and decides to do something about it, saving the day with her awesomeness and now everyone can go home.
Wow, I can’t believe so many people support me in my art! I truly am grateful, and you’re all wonderful people. I don’t have anything exciting to offer but some of my own drawings and prints. Thank you so much guys.
Prizes:
1st place: A 12” x 10” Bofur poster, 2 card stock prints, 3 thorin twerkinshield lentincular cards, and 2 traditional drawings of your choice from the photo (you get first pick!).
2nd place: 1 card stock print, 2 thorin twerkinshield lenticular cards, and a traditional drawing of your choice from the photo.
3rd place: 1 card stock print, 1 thorin twerkinshield lenticular card and a traditional drawing.
So here are the rules!
You don’t have to be following me, but it would be appreciated.
Multiple reblogs are okay!
Likes do not count!
No giveaway blogs, I’ll be checking!
This giveaway ends on March 29th, 2014 winners will be chosen via random number generator. I can mail out of the US as well. v3v
My 5-year-old insists that Bilbo Baggins is a girl. The first time she made this claim, I protested. Part of the fun of reading to your kids, after all, is in sharing the stories you loved as a child. And in the story I knew, Bilbo was a boy. A boy hobbit. (Whatever that entails.) But my daughter was determined. She liked the story pretty well so far, but Bilbo was definitely a girl. So would I please start reading the book the right way? I hesitated. I imagined Tolkien spinning in his grave. I imagined mean letters from his testy estate. I imagined the story getting as lost in gender distinctions as dwarves in the Mirkwood. Then I thought: What the hell, it’s just a pronoun. My daughter wants Bilbo to be a girl, so a girl she will be. And you know what? The switch was easy. Bilbo, it turns out, makes a terrific heroine. She’s tough, resourceful, humble, funny, and uses her wits to make off with a spectacular piece of jewelry. Perhaps most importantly, she never makes an issue of her gender—and neither does anyone else.
Bilbo Baggins is a girl: Until children’s books catch up to our daughters, rewrite them. (via sashimigrade)
getting emotional over fictional couples was not how i envisioned my adult life
Beasts of Burden by Jill Thompson and Evan Dorkin. Epic creepy coolness!
Reblog if you support Maggie Smith becoming immortal.
There is a thin, semantic line separating weird and beautiful. And that line is covered in jellyfish.
Welcome to Night Vale
Episode 22 - The Whispering Forest
(via nightvalequotes)
reblog if you were born in 1985 or earlier
for science
Deforestation is important, but this particular image set is bullshit.
http://factsfromfiction.blogspot.com/2012/04/nasa-deforestation-image.html
It turns out, our planet has an interesting phenomena that some of you may have heard about before called "seasons." As a result, a picture of the earth is only going to be as green as the season it was taken in. An image taken in July for instance will naturally look greener than one taken in January after the majority of trees have shed its leaves, The picture on the left is claimed to be from 1978, but in reality was taken by a multiple picture process by Nasa from June through September 2001, and was slightly edited to look slightly greener than the original. (Source) The second image on the right was taken by Nasa on January 4th, 2012 ( Hi Res). According to Wikipedia, Most of the Deforestation in North America happened prior to 1910. Since then, forest resources have remained about the same, largely due to planting new trees to replace the ones that were removed.
Piyo Piyo Paradies and SUPERNOVA are both scanlated here:
http://arcanum-amare.livejournal.com/tag/chickens
with bonus peep!Ed icons.
Okay, so in another 20 mins, I’m gonna stream FMA 03.
I don’t know how many of you will be there but I need someone to watch it with me because you bet I’m gonna get emotional over this show