Latest Posts by delightfulskywalker - Page 4

Hi, I need a little help. I'm 16 and few months ago started being interested in astronomy. I haven't made a big progress since then, because I don't know where to start. I'm quite good at maths, not so "strong" at physics, but I don't have lot of problems with this subject. What and where should I learn at first? (I started "brief history of time", found "crash course" and csuDH course, but didn't start them). My knowledge of astronomy is very very low, so I'd be thankful for your advice!

Hello!16 is a perfect time to start thinking about options in astronomy. Actually that was approximately the time I started to realize that astronomy/astrophysics is something I want to do in the future. :) 

PLAN YOUR FUTURE! 

First of all - congratulation! You´ve already started! :) You need to have an idea about what would you like to do in the future. If it is an astronomy field - excelent! Now, next step is to know your options - I don´t know where are you from, but I guess there is a university nearby which is offering a study of astrophysics. Mostly studying astrophysics at university requires GCSE or graduation in mathematics and physics and good school results - but you need to find out by yourself, because every educational system is quite different and I don´t know how it goes in your country.After you choose a university you want to study in, you should do next step which is realizing what are your options after you´ll finish university. I recommend you this website —> here <— you can read something about how to plan your education in astronomy/astrophysics and some tips. —> here <— is a website where many astronomers/astrophysicists are looking for jobs.  Also you can check this site —> here<— where you can find another list of jobs in this field. 

(I´ve answered similar questions not long time ago, so you should check it out >> here << and >> here << ) 

GET INTO IT!

The fun way to learn something about a field of astronomy is to check out astronomy websites…These are my favourite:~ NASA ~ Space.com~ ESO~ CERN~ New Scientist~ Physics-AstronomyIf you prefer something more personal, try these books:(These are not hard to understand and they will help you in the beginning)~ The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality ~ The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory~ The Book of Constellations: Discover the Secrets in the Stars~  The Physics Book: From the Big Bang to Quantum Resurrection, 250 Milestones in the History of Physics (Sterling Milestones) ~ Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space~ Cosmos~ NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe

If you don´t have energy or if you are not in the mood for reading, try these documentaries:~ How the Universe Works~The Universe (TV series)~ Known Universe~ Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey~ The Age of Hubble~ The Year of PlutoI also derive benefit from youtube videos…you can find many documentaries there and also many astonishing animations, tutorials and even whole lectures which can help you with better understanding math/physics/astronomy problems.~ Astronomy lectures~ Physics lectures~ Math lectures~ Astronomy animations~ Astronomy documentaries~ Physics documentaries

SOME CONCLUSION

It is important to know your options. Another important thing is to make contacts with people who know things you do not know yet. The next step is to choose what you want to achieve in the future and ensure a procedure which will get you there. Self-education is necessary :)

Don´t worry, you will get there, but it takes time and work!  

With love @astrophysicsstudent <3 

“To make this journey, we’ll need imagination, but imagination alone is not enough, because the reality of nature is far more wondrous than anything we can imagine.”

These are just a few of the beautiful visual effects from Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

Ten interesting facts about Uranus

Like the classical planets, Uranus is visible to the naked eye, but it was never recognised as a planet by ancient observers because of its dimness and slow orbit. Sir William Herschel announced its discovery on 13 March 1781, expanding the known boundaries of the Solar System for the first time in history and making Uranus the first planet discovered with a telescope.

1° Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. Uranus is similar in composition to Neptune, and both have different bulk chemical composition from that of the larger gas giants Jupiter and Saturn.

2° Like all of the giant planets, Uranus has its share of moons. At present, astronomers have confirmed the existence of 27 natural satellites. But for the most part, these moons are small and irregular.

3° Uranus’ moons are named after characters created by William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. These include Oberon, Titania and Miranda.  All are frozen worlds with dark surfaces. Some are ice and rock mixtures.  The most interesting Uranian moon is Miranda; it has ice canyons, terraces, and other strange-looking surface areas.

4° Only one spacecraft in the history of spaceflight has ever made a close approach to Uranus. NASA’s Voyager 2 conducted its closest approach to  Uranus on January 24th, 1986, passing within 81,000 km of the cloud tops of Uranus. It took thousands of photographs of the gas/ice giant and its moons before speeding off towards its next target: Neptune.

5° Uranus has rings: All the gas and ice giants have their own ring systems, and Uranus’ is the second most dramatic set of rings in the Solar System.

6° Uranus makes one trip around the Sun every 84 Earth years. During some parts of its orbit one or the other of its poles point directly at the Sun and get about 42 years of direct sunlight. The rest of the time they are in darkness.

7° All of the planets in the Solar System rotate on their axis, with a tilt that’s similar to the Sun. In many cases, planet’s have an axial tilt, where one of their poles will be inclined slightly towards the Sun. But the axial tilt of Uranus is a staggering 98 degrees! In other words, the planet is rotating on its side.

8° Uranus is approximately 4 times the sizes of Earth and 63 times its volume.

9° Uranus is blue-green in color, the result of methane in its mostly hydrogen-helium atmosphere. The planet is often dubbed an ice giant, since 80 percent or more of its mass is made up of a fluid mix of water, methane, and ammonia ices.

10° Uranus hits the coldest temperatures of any planet. With minimum atmospheric temperature of -224°C Uranus is nearly coldest planet in the solar system. While Neptune doesn’t get as cold as Uranus it is on average colder. The upper atmosphere of Uranus is covered by a methane haze which hides the storms that take place in the cloud decks.

source 1, source 2, source 2

Images credit: NASA

TRAPPIST-1 Planets - Flyaround Animation

Credit: NASA/Spitzer

What are Pulsars?

Pulsars are spherical, compact objects that are about the size of a large city but contain more mass than the sun. Discovered in 1967, pulsars are fascinating members of the cosmic community.

From Earth, pulsars often look like flickering stars. On and off, on and off, they seem to blink with a regular rhythm. But the light from pulsars does not actually flicker or pulse, and these objects are not actually stars.

Pulsars radiate two steady, narrow beams of light in opposite directions. Although the light from the beam is steady, pulsars appear to flicker because they also spin. It’s the same reason a lighthouse appears to blink when seen by a sailor on the ocean: As the pulsar rotates, the beam of light may sweep across the Earth, then swing out of view, then swing back around again. To an astronomer on the ground, the light goes in and out of view, giving the impression that the pulsar is blinking on and off. The reason a pulsar’s light beam spins around like a lighthouse beam is that the pulsar’s beam of light is typically not aligned with the pulsar’s axis of rotation.

Click here to see the animation

Click here to hear the pulsars sound

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

this is a real deleted scene from revenge of the sith

Milky way and night cherry trees, magical shots taken in Nishiyoshino (Nara prefecture), by @v0_0v______mk

False color image of Uranus taken with the Hale Telescope and the Palomar Observatory. The rings are the red pieces.

Image credit: Palomar Observatory & Hale telescope

The full rotation of the Moon as seen by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

First car in space!

Last night, Tesla Roadster went into orbit and became the fastest car in the universe:

If it was pulled over by space-police, they would have charged Elon a speeding ticket of exceeding 40'555 km per hour!

The surrealism of the situation is truly mind-blowing:

Highly amusing is the phrase “DO NOT PANIC” on the car’s dashboard, taken from the excellent book series “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”:

Elon even shoved a copy of the book and a towel into the glove box so that the space-suited manequin would have something fun to read on his infinite journeys!

Inside the car, there’s a sign “made on earth by humans”, in case aliens ever catch it adrift in space and take it apart for clues:

The car was supposed to fly towards Mars orbit, but they’ve overshot it so now it’s heading into the Asteroid Belt orbit:

Especially interesting is the fact that we’re witnessing sci-fi of 1979 come to Life. In the Heavy Metal movie, Soft Landing segment, which Elon must have seen when he was 11 years old there’s this scene:

Same scene, but in the Heavy metal magazine:

What a magical time to be alive!

Had to post this somewhere.

I’ve been thinking about Elon Musk’s Tesla.

The guy shot a car into space. A freaking car. With a fake astronaut in the seat and the words “Don’t Panic.”

And people are seeing this as this bizarre conspicuous consumption or a weird Tesla publicity stunt. As a one percenter…

…but the more I think about it, the more I realize something quite simple.

This guy had to launch a test load. He had to put something on that rocket. Given the power of the rocket, whatever they launched as a test load had to be heavy enough to properly test the biggest rocket we’ve launched since the Apollo program.

It had to be well built and solid enough to survive the launch. Now, because of the size of the load, it had to be put into a stable orbit not, as happens with smaller test loads, set to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

So, assuming everything went well, whatever they put on that rocket? It’s going to be in space for a long time. Assuming it’s not hit by a bit of debris, or an asteroid, or whatever, it could be up there for millions of years. It’s in space, so it’s not going to rust or corrode. It will eventually develop pitting from micro meteor strikes, it’s not going to last forever.

So, what does the guy send up.

A freaking car with an astronaut in the seat and the words “Don’t Panic” printed on it.

It’s corny. It’s tacky. But what else is it?

It’s art.

It’s something that’s going to still be recognizable as art in a few thousand years. After we’re all dead. Heck, it may still be recognizable as art after our species is dead - extinct or evolved into something else.

Given the fact that he had to put some kind of object into a stable orbit in the solar system, Musk picked not just art, but ridiculous art. The kind of thing that hangs from diner ceilings, the kind of thing a kid would put together.

He put something out there that screams to the void “This is us. This is humanity. This is how utterly silly we are, how completely frivolous.”

And you know what, if the first..or the only…thing an alien civilization sees of us is Elon Musk’s stupid car, I’m quite happy with that.

They might not be able to decipher the message, but they’ll know somebody was here who, given the power to fly into space used it to play.

I’m quite happy with that.

Aldebaran conjunction

by Robert Ćwikliński

harrison: *in a completely monotone voice and like he’s given up on the entire star wars franchise* bang. bang.

carrie: *actually acting* no luke, it’s too late!

harrison: *in that same monotone voice* … bang. bang.

/harrison and carrie run offstage/

It’s Bigger Than Us, David Schermann

Vienna-based artist and photographer David Schermann explores concepts of existence, space, and love in his ongoing series It’s Bigger Than Us. 

Instagram.com/WeTheUrban

Keep reading

un espejismo, una rebelión

by matialonsor

Other fandoms: VIPs are such a mature fandom, supporting a romantic relationship and celebrating the first marriage for Bigbang members…

VIPS:

What happened in 4 hours is sped to 1 minute. #SuperBlueBloodMoon

Always incredible to witness something like this. Shoutout to everyone that pulled an all nighter to see this. Captured just outside of Wichita, Kansas.