Comet plunge reveals solar secrets
In December 2011, space telescopes witnessed an event that astonished astronomers. A comet plunged deep through the atmosphere of the Sun and survived.
Comets are reckoned to be pretty insubstantial things, despite their sometimes lengthy, spectacular tails. So this ball of rock and ice, called Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3), had been expected to break up and become vaporised in the encounter.
In fact the comet came out relatively unscathed, grew a fresh magnificent tail and became an impressive sight for astronauts on the International Space Station as well as on Earth.
Lovejoy’s close encounter has been extremely useful for solar scientists because it has allowed them to study a region deep within the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona, that is otherwise near impossible to observe.
Now views in the extreme-ultraviolet region of the spectrum from three solar spaceprobes have provided new information on the characteristics of the magnetic fields embedded in the region through which Comet Lovejoy passed.
Lagrangian points, I like it how you can see that the center of gravity isn’t at the center of the star.
An 87 Year Old College Student Named Rose
The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t already know.
I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned round to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me
with a smile that lit up her entire being.
She said, “Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?”
I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze.
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked.
She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids…”
“No seriously,” I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me.
After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake.We became instant friends. Every day for the
next three months, we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this “time machine”
as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.
Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and
she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.
At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us. She was
introduced and stepped up to the podium.
As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, “I’m sorry I’m so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I’ll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell
you what I know.”
As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, “We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop
playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day.
You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.
We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it!There is a huge difference between growing
older and growing up.
If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old.
If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.
Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change.
Have no regrets.
The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those
with regrets.”
She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Rose.”
She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives.
At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died
peacefully in her sleep.
Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s
never too late to be all you can possibly be .When you finish reading this, please send this peaceful word of advice to your friends and family, they’ll really enjoy it!
These words have been passed along in loving memory of ROSE.
REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS
OPTIONAL.
We make a Living by what we get, We make a Life by what we give.I am about to cry this is so sweet.
Star sizes
by *MartinSilvertantThis is a design to showcase the biggest star (VY Canis Majoris) and compare it with increasingly smaller but also increasingly familiar bodies.
The color given to each body is its average color, and in case of the stars reflects how hot it is. Stars that emit blue or even ultraviolet light are the hottest, while stars that emit red light are significantly cooler.
Below each name of the star you will find how many solar radii big they are (1 solar radius is the size of the Sun). In case of the planets, it shows how many Earth radii each body is.
VY Canis Majoris is 1,800 to 2,100 solar radii big, which means that 5,832,000,000 to 9,621,000,000 Suns will fit into VY Canis Majoris.
Our sun is the only star close enough to make proper photographs of, so all other photos were unusable in this presentation. Artists’ impressions aren’t always equally accurate. For example, the Sun looks red in all photo’s, yet it’s classified as a yellow dwarf, and it emits yellow to greenish light.
That’s why I chose to make an abstract representation of each body, because in this presentation only size and color matters; not what the body actually looks like. Browse the web if you want to find out what they look like.
New Mobius Strip Building Proposed in Taiwan
Mobius strips hover somewhere in between 2D and 3D, creating an infinite surface in the process. While the idea of Mobius strip architecture has been tackled before, perhaps no scheme has been so ambitious as Vincent Callebaut’s “Swallow’s Nest,” a proposed arts and literature center for the Taiwanese city of Taichung.
Composed of a series of isosceles triangles gradually rotated around an ellipse, the building creates a dramatic division between interior and exterior while allowing the integration of public space into the center of the building by means of “the Infinite Patio.” The twisting of the structure also allows for three large vaulted spaces for the display of art objects.
The Swallow’s Nest incorporates three living-wall-clad cores that serve as circulation, and also to mark one’s position within the ellipse. These cores touch down as the building does—aside from the three footings, the structure is lifted above the ground to allow access to the courtyard space.
(via: Archetizer)
All images: Vincent Callebaut Architectures
The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog.I feel like I’ve been preparing for this image all my life.
The internet is over, everyone can go home
It’s just as beautiful as I always imagined.
My life is complete.
Life is over as we know it
(Source: theamericankid)
![medicalschool:
New technology is changing how doctors save livesA medical breakthrough using a 3D printer helped save this baby boy when he couldn’t breathe. The creation? An artificial bio-plastic airway that will dissolve into his body when he no longer needs it.[Mark Stahl/AP Photo]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/aad160f558066e9517323ed35ed6a1ba/tumblr_mob0kdu2GR1qzcf71o1_500.jpg)
New technology is changing how doctors save lives
A medical breakthrough using a 3D printer helped save this baby boy when he couldn’t breathe. The creation? An artificial bio-plastic airway that will dissolve into his body when he no longer needs it.
[Mark Stahl/AP Photo]
