Some Meteors From The Geminid Meteor Shower In Banff, Alberta

NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula by Michael Miller, Jimmy Walker

Uranus was almost named ‘George.’ Source Source 2 Source 3

Stephen Hawking says humans have 1,000 years to leave Earth

Famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has  grim news for humanity: We have 1,000 years to get off Earth or we’re totally screwed. The 74-year-old  delivered a speech on Tuesday at the Oxford Union in which he said “I don’t think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet.” He believes it will become impossible for us to keep living here.

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The Orion Nebula and The Running Man 

 Last night I was able to finally resolve some issues I’ve been having with my new CCD and get a decent image comprised of Luminance and RGB color channels shot through a filter wheel. 

Although I’ve done Orion before this image is substantially higher resolution, incredibly low noise, extremely well color balanced, and far more detailed than any previous attempt. This is a work in progress until I can get another hour or two worth of exposure to reveal Orion in all it’s beauty.

The Moon Just Photobombed NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory

On May 25, 2017, the moon photobombed one of our sun-watching satellites by passing directly between the satellite and the sun.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, orbits Earth and watches the sun nearly 24/7 — except when another body, like the moon, gets in the way. These lunar photobombs are called transits, the generic term for when any celestial body passes in front of another.

Transits are one way we detect distant worlds. When a planet in another star system passes in front of its host star, it blocks some of the star’s light so the star appears slightly dimmer. By monitoring changes in a star’s light over time, scientists can deduce the presence of a planet, and even determine what its atmosphere is like. This method has been used to discover thousands of planets, including the TRAPPIST-1 planets.

SDO sees lunar transits about twice a year, and this one lasted about an hour with the moon covering about 89 percent of the sun at the peak of its journey across the sun’s face.

When they’re seen from Earth, we call lunar transits by another name: eclipses.

Solar eclipses are just a special kind of transit where the moon blocks all or part of our view of the sun. Since SDO’s view of the sun was only partially blocked, it saw a partial eclipse. Later this year, on Aug. 21, a total eclipse will be observable from the ground: The moon will completely block the sun’s face in some parts of the US, creating a total solar eclipse on a 70-mile-wide stretch of land, called the path of totality, that runs from Oregon to South Carolina.

Throughout the rest of North America — and even in parts of South America, Africa, Europe and Asia — the moon will partially obscure the sun, creating a partial eclipse. SDO will also witness this partial eclipse.

Total solar eclipses are incredible, cosmic coincidences: The sun is about 400 times wider than the moon, but it also happens to be 400 times farther away, so the sun and moon appear to be the same size in our sky. This allows the moon to completely block the sun when they line up just right.

Within the path of totality, the moon completely obscures the sun’s bright face, revealing the comparatively faint corona — the sun’s pearly-white outer atmosphere.

It’s essential to observe eye safety during an eclipse. You must use proper eclipse glasses or an indirect viewing method when any part of the sun’s surface is exposed, whether during the partial phases of an eclipse, or just on a regular day. If you’re in the path of totality, you may look at  the eclipse ONLY during the brief moments of totality.

A total solar eclipse is one of nature’s most awe-inspiring sights, so make your plans now for August 21! You’ll also be able to see the eclipse cross the country that day through the eyes of NASA – including views of the partial eclipse from SDO – on NASA TV and at nasa.gov.

Learn more about the August eclipse — including where, when, and how to safely see it — at eclipse2017.nasa.gov and follow along on Twitter @NASASun.

 Why Are We Ticklish?

A new study from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has found how “ticklishness” is represented in the rat brain. The study has been published on 11th November 2016 in Science.

Of all physical sensations, ticklishness is perhaps the most mysterious. Why do we laugh in response to tickling? Why are certain body parts more ticklish? Why cannot we tickle ourselves? Indeed, the mystery of ticklish perception has been discussed for more than two millennia by great intellectuals including Aristotle and Charles Darwin. Despite such long-standing interest, the mechanism of ticklishness remained elusive.

The new study investigated tickling in rats. Earlier work had shown that young rats respond with 50 kHz ultrasonic “laughter-calls” to tickling by humans. In the novel study rats also reacted enthusiastically to the tickling: they emitted numerous calls. As judged by their calls, rats were most ticklish on the belly and underneath their feet. Rats often performed unsolicited joy jumps (Freudensprünge) after tickling, a behavior that can be seen in joyful subjects in various mammalian species. Rats also played with the researcher’s hand and chased it, and emitted similar calls during play.

“Neural correlates of ticklishness in the rat somatosensory cortex” by S. Ishiyama and M. Brecht in Science. Published online November 11 2016 doi:10.1126/science.aah5114

When Camilla Parker Bowles, the Duchess of Cornwall, visited Abu Dhabi in 2016, she was the first member of the British royal family to be protected by an all-women security team. The women wore flowing, black hijabs, are all members of the UAE’s presidential guard, are highly skilled in martial arts and combat, and each one is hiding unidentified weapons on her person. Source

Getting Closer to the Core at Pepacton Resevoir, NY

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Today in Science History: “In 2002, the first national law prohibiting ‘light pollution’ went into effect. The Czech Republic became the first nation to outlaw excess outdoor light.” 

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