coreyspowell

coreyspowell, 1 month ago to space

Only three humans have ever witnessed an eclipse of the Sun by the Earth. It happened while the Apollo 12 crew was returning home from the Moon, on November 21, 1969.

Fortunately, the astronauts filmed the moment so you can share in the experience.

https://archive.org/details/Apollo1216mmOnboardFilm [at the 4:50 mark] #space #science #nasa #eclipse

Footage of the eclipse of the sun was taken with a 16mm motion picture camera from the Apollo 12 spacecraft during its trans-Earth journey home from the moon. The fascinating view was created when the Earth moved directly between the sun and the Apollo 12 spacecraft. Aboard Apollo 12 were astronauts Charles Conrad Jr., commander; Richard F. Gordon Jr., command module pilot; and Alan L. Bean, lunar module pilot. While astronauts Conrad and Bean descended in the Lunar Module (LM) "Intrepid" to explore the Ocean of Storms region of the moon, astronaut Gordon remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Yankee Clipper" in lunar orbit. Source: NASA/Johnson Space Center

coreyspowell, 7 months ago to fediverse

The difference in engagement here vs the ex-bird site is staggering.

I did an experiment. My last post was shared 12 times over there (where I allegedly have 85k followers). A nearly identical post was shared 361 times here (where I have fewer than 6k followers). Amazing.

#fediverse #mastodon

coreyspowell, 1 year ago to random

For three years, I was careful & managed to avoid getting infected. Last week I traveled for an international conference and briefly let down my guard. Foolish.
Stay safe, everyone. #COVID19

coreyspowell, 7 months ago to science

Shocking story about mRNA pioneer/Nobel winner Katalin Karikó, whose early advisor at Temple tried to have her deported & derailed her career because she dared to look for a better-paying job.

Later, UPenn demoted her, then forced her out, because her research wasn't bringing in enough funding. #NobelPrize #science [HT Paul Novosad]

coreyspowell, 1 year ago to ai

This is a really important point: From a business perspective, the goal of a Google AI is to make sure you never view primary sources on other web pages, only the chopped-and-processed information on Google's own site.
#AI #Google

https://twitter.com/jjvincent/status/1656369628711383057

coreyspowell, 7 months ago to science

The winners of this year's "Small World" micro-photo competition are out. I'm especially intrigued by this astonishing shot: a struck match, caught at the exact moment of ignition.
(It ended up in second place, go figure.) #science #photography
https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2023-photomicrography-competition

coreyspowell, 10 months ago to science

The JWST observatory just observed planet TRAPPIST-1c & took another crucial step in the search for habitable worlds in our galaxy. It's going to be a long, difficult job...but we're finally getting started. [thread 1/n]
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-125 #science #space #NASA

coreyspowell, 11 months ago to science

Humans have pumped so much groundwater that we have measurably shifted Earth's axis.

It's the kind of news that's not shocking and yet is totally shocking at the same time.

https://news.agu.org/press-release/weve-pumped-so-much-groundwater-that-weve-nudged-the-earths-spin #Earth #science

coreyspowell, 2 months ago to science

To your eye, Betelgeuse is the bright "shoulder" star in Orion. A new simulation shows what it would look like if you could get up close: an enormous, boiling cauldron of gas.

If Betelgeuse were placed where the Sun is, Earth's orbit (blue circle) would be deep inside. That's how big it is!

https://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/1094283/hl202403 #science #space #astronomy #nature

Simulation of Betelgeuse’s boiling surface: This animation shows a simulation of how convection dominates the surface of a Betelgeuse-like star. (MPA)

coreyspowell, 7 months ago to science

I love a science mystery, and this is a good one:
About once a year, a mysterious blue flash appears from a different part of the sky, then fades in a matter of days. Nobody knows what these things are. And the latest one, nicknamed "the Finch," may be the strangest one yet.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-finds-bizarre-explosion-in-unexpected-place #science #astronomy #astrodon

coreyspowell, 4 months ago to science

For three months, scientists struggled to open the canister of asteroid samples brought back by NASA's OSIRISREx mission

It was frustrating and a bit embarrassing. But at long last they have succeeded. The fasteners are off. Here come the asteroid rocks!

https://news.arizona.edu/story/nasas-osiris-rex-curation-team-clears-hurdle-access-remaining-bennu-sample #science #astronomy #space

coreyspowell, 10 months ago to space

I've seen a lot of pictures of Saturn, but there's something really magical about this new raw image from JWST.
Pixel noise + filter selection make the planet vanish -- just a set of rings floating in space.
#space #science #NASA

coreyspowell, 6 months ago to science

It amazes me how quickly people get bored with even the most remarkable achievements. Without novelty, it's hard to hold onto wonder.

In 1972, after the Apollo 17 landing, the New York Times declared that seeing astronauts exploring the Moon had become "ordinary and even tedious."
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-NASA-stop-going-to-the-Moon-after-Apollo-17/answer/Corey-S-Powell #science #history #NASA

coreyspowell, 11 months ago to space

Earth has a newly discovered quasi-moon, 2023 FW13, that orbits the Sun in rhythm with us. It's small ("between a boxcar and a large Winnebago"), but an intriguing target for future exploration.
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/does-earth-have-new-quasi-moon/ #space #astronomy #moon

The newly discovered #asteroid 2023 FW13 (a=1.00 au; see MPEC G10) seems to be a quasi-satellite of the Earth. A preliminary simulation with @tony873004's orbit simulator shows it in this configuration for several centuries at least.

coreyspowell, 6 months ago to space

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has set a new record as the fastest object ever built, hitting a velocity of 394,736 mph (635,266 kph) relative to the Sun.

That's about 300 times as fast as a speeding bullet. Damn!
https://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Show-Article.php?articleID=193 #NASA #space #science

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 17th close approach to the Sun on Sept. 27, breaking its own distance record by skimming just 4.51 million miles (7.26 million kilometers) of the solar surface. Credit: NASA-JHUAPL

coreyspowell, 1 year ago to random

This is real: Astronomers have zoomed in on the supermassive black hole in galaxy M87, revealing both the shadow of the event horizon & jets of hot plasma shooting outward.
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2305/
#BlackHole #Alma #M87

video/mp4

coreyspowell, 8 months ago to space

Over 16 test runs, NASA's MOXIE experiment on Mars has generated enough oxygen to keep a Chihuahua alive for 10 hours.
It's a landmark test of the tech needed to survive using local resources on another world. #NASA #space #Mars
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-oxygen-generating-experiment-moxie-completes-mars-mission

A thoughtful Chihuahua.

coreyspowell, 1 month ago to space

The astronauts aboard the ISS were amazed by the April 8 solar eclipse, just like the rest of us, and went crazy snapping photos from orbit.

They got some amazing views of the Moon's shadow sweeping across southern Canada & Maine, seen from 420 km (261 miles) above: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/with/53645140833 #space #eclipse #space #astronomy

The Moon's shadow, or umbra, is pictured covering portions of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick and the American state of Maine in this photograph from the International Space Station as it soared into the solar eclipse from 261 miles above.
The Moon's shadow, or umbra, is pictured covering portions of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick and the American state of Maine in this photograph from the International Space Station as it soared into the solar eclipse from 261 miles above.

coreyspowell, 9 months ago to science

There's a dent in Earth's gravitational field, centered on the Indian Ocean, and nobody really knows why.

(Put another way: "There's a hole in the bottom of the sea. There's a hole. There's a hole...")
https://eos.org/science-updates/seismologists-search-for-the-indian-oceans-missing-mass #science #earth #ocean

coreyspowell, 1 year ago to science

I did a double take when I read the title of the paper: "Ultrafast reversible self-assembly of living tangled matter"
Then I did another (a triple take?) when I saw the video. https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.03384
#Biology #LifeFindsAWay

video/mp4

coreyspowell, 11 months ago to Astronomy

Our galaxy is shedding stars. The fastest ones are fleeing at 2500 kilometers a second (1500 miles/sec) -- fast enough that they'll escape the pull of the Milky Way and fly off like intergalactic dandelion seeds.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.03914 #astronomy #science

coreyspowell, 6 months ago to space

For decades, astronomers have dreamed of setting up an observatory on the far side of the Moon. I read about it as a kid. Now it's happening!

The LuSEE-Night radio telescope is under construction, and is scheduled to land on the lunar farside in 2025. It's a pathfinder for a much bigger radio telescope that would follow. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2023/09/26/listening-to-the-radio-on-the-far-side-of-the-moon/ #space #nasa #science

coreyspowell, 7 months ago to Weather

Ancient pine stumps in the French Alps record the most powerful known solar storm. It struck Earth 14,300 years ago & seeded the atmosphere with radioactive carbon-14.

A storm like that today would devastate our satellites & could trigger a global blackout. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2022.0206 #sun #weather #space

This is a model run used to examine the consequences if a large coronal mass ejection (CME) such as The Carrington-Class CME of 2012 had actual hit Earth. Such model runs allow us to estimate consequences of a large event hitting Earth so we can better protect power grids and satellites. The movie opens with a close-up view of Earth with geo-magnetic field lines. The camera pulls out and fades in a profile slice of the plasma density data.

coreyspowell, 1 year ago to space

I was a NASA intern in the '80s when I heard that astronomers had discovered a mysterious disk around the nearby star Fomalhaut.
Now JWST has revealed exactly what they are: three enormous, dusty asteroid belts around another star!
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-109 #JWST #space #astronomy

JWST observations of the Fomalhaut system at 25.5 μm. The image shows the observations deprojected by the best fitting inclination angle.

coreyspowell, 7 months ago to science

A billion years of plate tectonics, condensed into 40 seconds.
This dance of continents and oceans has gone hand in hand with the emergence of complex life on Earth.
https://set.adelaide.edu.au/news/list/2021/02/12/tectonic-time-lapse-one-billion-years-of-earths-history-in-40-seconds #earth #science #history

Full-plate tectonic animation of the last billion years. White areas represent oceanic crust, green areas are modelled continental lithosphere, and blue areas are additional present-day continental crust. Spiked lines are subduction zones; blue lines are mid-ocean ridges; black lines are transform boundaries. Ma = Millions of years ago. 1 second = 25 million years. Credit: Merdith et al. 2021 (Earth Science Reviews).