fiery milky way

the royal observatory greenwich has posted the new "astronomer's gallery" for the month of may. this month's astronomer is stuart lynn who blogs at we are all in the gutter and works at oxford university with the makers of galaxy zoo and the new moon zoo.

stuart's gallery is called stories in the stars and shows an impressive collection of space imagery. this is my favorite:


it was taken by bobshots on flickr. i love the ancient tribal feel of the photo. the light from the huge fire sets the stage for the fresh outdoor atmosphere, and it almost looks like the milky way rises up as the smoke from the fire!

click through to stories in the stars to read stuart's impressions on these lovely images, and share your own!

moon zoo

from the great group of people who brought you the wildly exciting, fun, and scientifically productive galaxy zoo, comes the new moon zoo!


using images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, you can explore the surface of the moon in great detail, helping to identify and describe craters so that scientists can learn more about the history of our moon.

from the website: "Craters can tell us more than just the history of the lunar surface though. In particular, you're asked in Moon Zoo to look for craters with boulders around the rim. Boulders are a sign that the impact was powerful enough that it excavated rock from beneath the regolith (the lunar 'soil') and so by keeping an eye out for these we can begin to map the depth of the regolith across the surface of the Moon."

enjoy the moon zoo!

sixty symbols does the solar system

now that we've completed videos on each of the major bodies in the solar system, brady has created an offical sixty symbols does the solar system webpage. you can go there for the full collection!


mercury's symbol kinda looks like a little devil, no?

sixty symbols: earth

may the fourth be with you

after having a pleasantly productive week last week, i'm heading out of town this week for a couple different adventures.

i'm going to london tomorrow to support a colleague who made the final cut for the Institute of Physics Award for the Very Early Career Woman Physicist of the Year. i wrote her a letter of recommendation and i'm so proud of her achievements, that i'm going to the ceremony they're holding tomorrow to honor the nominees. each "very early career" physicist finalist will give a short talk summarizing their research and there are a few other invited speakers as well.

while in london, i'm hoping to see the Hubble 3D IMAX movie which is only playing in the UK at the science museum. also, happy 20th anniversary to the hubble space telescope! the hubblesite released this image of the carina nebula in honor of the occasion:


the hubble has taken some amazing images for us - after receiving an eye treatment soon after its launch. i wonder how many of you remember when it was discovered that hubble had a flawed mirror and needed fixing? what was your reaction when you heard the news?

i was twelve or so at the time and remember thinking: oops, that was a big mistake, wasnt it?! i also remember seeing before and after images from the hubble in the newspaper after they fixed it. i was amazed at what a difference there was between the blurry before shot and the crisp, detailed after shot. while i remember feeling slightly embarrassed for the scientists because they had made such a huge mistake when making the original mirror, i was really impressed that they could fix the problem, considering the telescope was already floating in space.

anyway, after the quick 2-day trip to london, i'll leave the next day for a 4-day musical escapade at the ATP festival, curated by matt groening. i think i'm most excited to see daniel johnston live, but there are several great bands playing!

oh yeah, and happy star wars day.

carnival of space #152

the 152nd installment of the carnival of space is up at the martian chronicles. i submitted the story of the science ninja, even though its a bit light for the material that is usually highlighted.

to my delight, ryan included the article in the carnival, and shared this excellent image:


it's the cover art for music by reincarnation fish :)

apple pi

clever.



found here

robin hood is coming....

thanks to the upcoming release of the new robin hood movie (yes, an australian actor is playing mr hood), the month of may is officially "robin hood month" in the fair city of nottingham!

i saw this display in the main window of the downtown library:


i'll probably go out with some friends in a couple weekends and get dressed up in medieval garb, or at least wear a bunch of green. the challenge will be to make robin hood costumes that dont look too much like peter pan! maybe i'll play it safe and go with maid marian. any suggestions?

imagine if the tea party was black

a very interesting perspective about the tea party protests in the US is given in this article by tim wise. i'll share some from the beginning, then you can read the rest if you like.

"Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure - the ones who are driving the action - we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins.

So let’s begin.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington."