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Tech NewsEarth Day 2014
NASA is concentrating on collecting photos for #GlobalSelfie this Earth Day, leaving the Earth Observatory solo to provide this cool shot of our Earth. Back in 2013, a space weather telescope caught a glimpse of home while tracking a passing comet. The Earth is, on average, one astronomical unit (AU) away from the sun. When … Continued
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Tech News
Atmospheric Signal of the Russian Fireball
When we reported another Russian fireball on Saturday, we weren’t sure if it was real or a hoax. Now, thanks to geophysical stations in the region, we can confirm that the event coincides with a sound-blast, and even pinpoint a probable location on the Kola Peninsula. Fireball observed in Murmansk, Russia on April 19th, 2014. … Continued
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Tech News
Canada is Really Big, but Not Empty
The maps showing how much of the United States is empty is visually interesting, but mostly demonstrates the importance of the data-aggregation area. A similar map for Canada is flawed by mistaking “no data available” for “no one is there.” Michael Chung‘s map follows the same colour scheme as Freeman’s and Sherwood’s: white are populated … Continued
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Tech News
The Beauty of Islands
The Earth has somewhere between 2,000 and 40,000 islands, ranging from bare rocks to tropical paradises. And all are beautiful. Some islands emerge from the sea, from a volcano growing in eruption after eruption, or a reef built by a colony of corals. Others are part of a larger landmass, cut off by rising seas … Continued
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Tech News
Dark Sky Week
This is Dark Sky Week, an international effort to promote appreciation for dark skies and reduction in light pollution. Where are your favourite places to escape the city lights and stargaze? New York during a blackout. Photograph credit: Craig Ruttle/AP Most cities have skies so bright that except for catastrophic blackouts or coordinated lights-out during … Continued
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Tech NewsMonster Machines For Delicate Equipment
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array consists of 66 individual radio telescopes that can be moved to zoom in on a patch of sky. But how do they move those 100-ton beasts around the desert? Otto, the red-railed transport crawler. Twin transporter Lore has green rails. Image credit: José Velásquez/ESO A telescope array functions by coordinating … Continued
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Tech News
Multiple Views of Galactic Chaos
Centurus A is an active galaxy 11 million light years away in the constellation Centaurus. It’s a complex knot of hot and cold gases and dust, tracing out a collision from time long gone past. By looking at it in multiple wavelengths, astronomers can get a better understanding of its structure. This top image is … Continued
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Tech News
Peeps Produce Distinctive Traces of their Motions
On Easter, a dedicated ichnologist stalked the barrier islands of Georgia to investigate the tracks left by a flight of Peeps. These sugary creatures lack wings, legs, or any other limbs, yet produce distinctive traces that leave clues as to their behavioural patterns. Professor Tony Martin at Emory University is a geologist and palaeontologist who … Continued
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Tech News
This Week in Space
Ready to lose time to link-hopping? It’s time for all the neat news we didn’t cover on Space this week. Eyewitness to the Apollo 13 explosion (because April isn’t all good news for spaceflight). Hypothesis for what we’ll see on Pluto in 2015. Book review of a fictional story starring a particle physicist. On how … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
This Baker Made a Laser-Engraved Rolling Pin. Now She Has Dino-Cookies!
A baker in Poland decided her confections were lacking a certain something, so pulled out her laser cutter to engrave rolling pins with dinosaurs. The result is edible geekiness, and further proof that baking is science for hungry people. Fossilized cookie. Photography credit: Zuzia Zuber My only real question is how to classify the imprinted … Continued
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Tech NewsAn Epic Wind Turbine is Spinning in Scotland
The world’s largest wind turbine is off the coast of Scotland. Construction started in 2012, with pieces assembled in the winter of 2013. Now the prototype is churning out enough power to supply 4,800 homes. The turbine is big enough that it makes sense to use elephants as the basic unit of weight. (Plus, I’m … Continued
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Tech NewsThis is What it’s Like to Excavate a Dinosaur Nest in Person
We are living in the future. Need proof? Now from the comfort of your computer, you can experience a first-person view of excavating and packing a dinosaur nest for further study. In August 2013, a team of palaeontologists from the American Museum of Natural History paired up with the Mongolian Academy of Science to go … Continued
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Tech News
Revealing the Structure of a Supernova
A star is a huge nuclear reactor, fusing light elements into heavier elements. Each element builds up a shell, from a light hydrogen skin to a dense core. For stars big enough to build a massive iron core, the star eventually explodes in a supernova, like Cassiopeia A. If you played around with the supernova … Continued
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Tech News
108 Years Since the Great Quake
The 1906 earthquake in San Francisco spawned fires that nearly destroyed the city, and defied all scientific theories of the day. You know the broad story; now here’s the science to fill in the details. Blended image of 1906 post-quake damage, and present-day San Francisco. Photography credit: Shawn Clover The 1906 earthquake isn’t one of … Continued
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Tech News
Ugly but Successful: Delayed SpaceX Launch Makes Orbit
After the original April 14th launch attempt was delayed, the SpaceX launch of Falcon 9 waited out ominous weather and made it into orbit this afternoon. Although successful, this is the first launch I’ve seen with a complete dearth of beautiful photographs. Everything ended up where they expected it to, so… Success! Another launch made … Continued
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Tech NewsLab Recreates Volcanic Lightning
In 2010, the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland grounded planes and made a mess of European logistics, but also provided us with spellbindingly beautiful photographs of volcanic lightning. Now, volcanic lightning has been produced in a laboratory setting. Lightning during the Eyjafjallajökull eruption. Image credit: AP Photo/ Jon Pall Vilhelmsson While we can take photographs of … Continued
Mika McKinnon
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