Funky Light Signal From Colliding Black Holes Explained

This is what our night sky could look like guys.

Via his very first tweet, Jeff Bezos announced that his spaceflight company has accomplished a historic first. It sent a rocket to the edge of space and then landed that rocket’s main fuselage gently on dry land.

Most things humans have sent into space are pushed up there by a disposable rocket. Once the rockets do their job, they fall back to earth, usually worse for wear. They have to be rebuilt each time (though sometimes their parts can be reused). That’s an expensive process, especially if you are a private company hoping to bring tourists to space. Virgin Atlantic, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin all want to do just that. 

And now Blue Origin has paved the way, landing its rocket on its second attempt (the propulsion module was destroyed when they first tried). Here’s the video in full:

Elon Musk responded to the news on Twitter. He pointed out that it requires much greater speed to actually reach orbit than it does to reach the edge of space. (Phil Plait has some good analysis of the exchange over on his Bad Astronomy blog.)

Still, it’s a pretty amazing accomplishment. 

How you look at color is about to get all messed up…

A while back, I asked you to describe what color the moon appears to your eye. I got some pretty varied and entertaining answers, but you overwhelmingly agreed: The moon is essentially white or bright silver.

Well, you’re wrong.

The moon’s not white at all. It’s actually closer in color to an asphalt road, as we can clearly see in this 100% actually real series of images taken of the moon transiting Earth, courtesy of NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite: 

That whole “the moon is white” thing? It’s just a nasty trick played on your brain by … well, another part of your brain. It has to do with the fact that our eyes perceive illumination in a scene relatively, not absolutely. It’s also why this GIF breaks your brain a little:

Watch this week’s It’s Okay To Be Smart video above to find out more!

Bonus: The PBS Digital Studios Science Squad™ brings you a double whammy of perceptual illusions this week! White isn’t the only light that messes with your visual system, not by a long shot. Did you know that red + green can look like… yellow?

Check out the video below from The Physics Girl and let Dianna teach you why, when it comes to colors, you should never quite believe your eyes:

A Precocious Black Hole In July 2015, researchers announced the discovery of a black hole that grew much more quickly than its host galaxy. The discovery calls into question previous assumptions on development of galaxies. The black hole was discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope, and detected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, by ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Chandra.

For more amazing images and posts about how Astronomy is Awesome, check us out!

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#astronomy #space #nasa #hubble space telescope #nebula #nebulae #galaxy

What’s Enceladus?

Before we tell you about Enceladus, let’s first talk about our Cassini spacecraft…

Our Cassini mission to Saturn is one of the most ambitious efforts in planetary space exploration ever mounted. Cassini is a sophisticated robotic spacecraft orbiting the ringed planet and studying the Saturnian system in detail.

Cassini completed its initial four-year mission to explore the Saturn System in June 2008. It has also completed its first mission extension in September 2010. Now, the health spacecraft is making exciting new discoveries in a second extension mission!

Enceladus

Enceladus is one of Saturn’s many moons, and is one of the brightest objects in our solar system. This moon is about as wide as Arizona, and displays at least five different types of terrain. The surface is believed to be geologically “young”, possibly less than 100 million years old.

Cassini first discovered continually-erupting fountains of icy material on Enceladus in 2005. Since then, the Saturn moon has become one of the most promising places in the solar system to search for present-day habitable environments.  

Scientists found that hydrothermal activity may be occurring on the seafloor of the moon’s underground ocean. In September, it was announced that its ocean –previously thought to only be a regional sea – was global!

Since Cassini is nearing the end of its mission, we are able to make a series of three close encounters with Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons.

Close Encounters

On Oct. 14, Cassini performed a mid-range flyby of Enceladus, but the main event will take place on Oct. 28, when Cassini will come dizzyingly close to the icy moon. During this flyby, the spacecraft will pass a mere 30 miles above the moon’s south polar region!

This will be the deepest-ever dive through the moon’s plume of icy spray, where Cassini can collect images and valuable data about what’s going on beneath the frozen surface.

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That feel when you’re so drained of creativity that you have to ask your friend to just pick a number from 1-44. Yeah this hasn’t been my greatest week in terms of art so I’m very this isn’t that great. ANYWAYS Teddy Roosevelt is the literal embodiment the shark from the body building ad from that one spongebob episode (I overdosed my add meds today so I’d like to apologize ahead of time). But yeah, sick of being the scrawny asthmatic kid he was, Teedy (he was actually called that) wanted to buff up and oh my god did he freaking accomplish that. He turned out to be basically invincible stopping a bullet with his chest at one point while being charismatic as fuck, but he would basically just disappear into the void whenever someone would say a dick joke. Also, apparently he didn’t swear on the bible when taking office when McKinley was assassinated so that’s why he’s saying oh my god.

@wingmanoftheuniverse: thank

"He's not gone as long as we remember him."

Scientists spot the closest Earth-sized exoplanet yet

Scientists have discovered a new exoplanet that, in the language of “Star Wars,” would be the polar opposite of frigid Hoth, and even more inhospitable than the deserts of Tatooine. But instead of residing in a galaxy far, far away, this new world is, galactically speaking, practically next door. The new planet, named GJ 1132b, is Earth-sized and rocky, orbiting a small star located a mere 39 light-years from Earth, making it the closest Earth-sized exoplanet yet discovered. Based on their measurements, the scientists have determined that the planet is a roasting 500° F (260° C), and it is likely tidally locked, meaning that it has a permanent day and night side — presenting the same face to its star, much like our Moon is locked to Earth.

Read more ~ Astronomy Magazine

Image: In this artist’s rendering of GJ 1132b, a rocky exoplanet similar to Earth in size and mass, circles a red dwarf star. GJ 1132b is relatively cool at about 450° F (230° C) and could potentially host an atmosphere. At a distance of only 39 light-years, it will be a prime target for additional study with Hubble and future observatories like the Giant Magellan Telescope.    Credit: Dana Berry