jupiter in a blue sky

have you ever spotted jupiter during the daylight hours?   i have not, but philip cruden has, and captured this great photo that even shows one of the galilean moons!

resolutions? me? what are you implying?

i'm not a huge fan of resolutions, even if i mentally throw out a few challenges for myself on new years day after reflecting on the accomplishments of the previous year.

new years day is posed as a "magic" day where we can overhaul our bad behaviours (usually overindulgence of the holiday season) and start anew.  we build elaborate time justifications to assuage our guilt.

i'm all for positive improvements in daily life, but i like to think in terms of the big picture, nicely summarized in the top five regrets of the dying, posted by the guardian. 

and of course the great bill watterson provides amusing perspective with his wonderful characters calvin and hobbes.  

flowerworks

almost time to enjoy sydney's famous end of the year ritual - FIREWORKS!  

but first, a slightly different perspective of the festive explosions... Flowerworks by Sarah Illenberger

merry beachmas

i'm staying in the southern hemisphere this year for the holidays, which is a change of plans due to still recovering from surgery.  i've been house-sitting for some friends who live on one of sydney's lovely northern beaches.  i've been taking advantage of the ocean side pool because i am finally able to swim a few laps again!  the water is cold and salty, but the activity feels great after a couple months necessary rest.

hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and manage to get some necessary down time with family and/or friends.

classic astronomy question

i did a live radio show tonight, welcoming callers to ask any space-related question they wanted. the first caller was an 8 year old girl who asked "are stars made of gas?" (yes.) then she said her brother was with her and wanted to ask a question and was that ok? (sure.) the brother grabbed the phone, took an audible breath, and TOTALLY snuck in "how big is uranus?" LIVE ON AIR! haha! props, kid!


what would your answer have been?

bouncing on a comet.

humans landed a robot on a comet last week for the first time.  yeehaw! a collaboration of scientists and engineers from 20 countries made this happen through the european space agency.

the rosetta spacecraft traveled through the solar system for 10 years, getting gravity assists from earth a few times and mars before reaching its destination: Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

space craft selfie with its solar panel and comet 67P

the philae lander drifitng away from rosetta on its way to comet 67P

the philae lander spotting its landing site

unfortunately, philae did not stick the landing and drifted and bounced twice across the surface. scientists werent exactly sure where philea drifted to at first, but this morning released this compilation of images from Rosetta's camera OSIRIS. WOW! at the time, Rosetta was 15.5 km from the comet's surface. the images have a resolution of 28 cm/pixel and the enlarged insets are 17 x 17 m.

Credit: ESA

this is what philea saw upon settling still.  captions by emily lakdawalla.

philea now rests still, in hibernation.  it landed in a spot that doesnt have enough sunlight to supply energy to its working solar panel.  luckily, the little robot managed to collect all the data it was designed to collect during its short initial lifespan, AND it successfully sent all the data back to earth.
it's an exciting time for all those scientists.  i hope they got some sleep after a few days of incredible activity.  lots of science to do now.... i cant wait to hear what they find!

for your entertainment, watch the event as is played out through randall munroe's live-comic-blogging!  relive the experience here:  xkcd1446.org

doodling with everyday objects

art by Javier Pérez (cintascotch).

but i didnt mean it like that

i'll be posting about the exciting robot landing on a comet for the first time ever very soon, but i want to quickly address an aspect of the comet landing relating to the "what not to wear to a comet landing" fiasco.

of course most people arent purposely trying to offend others with their words or actions, but sometimes it happens unintentionally and needs to be acknowledged, not ignored. it's easy to say “Oh I didn’t mean it like that” or “You’re interpreting it the wrong way,” but the intent doesn’t really matter because it’s a matter of intent versus *impact*.

As chescaleigh says brilliantly in this video (posted below),

"It doesn’t matter in these instances what you meant. What matters is what's the outcome of what you said or what you did. I use the example of stepping on somebody’s foot. I might step on your foot and break your toe. I didn’t mean to break your toe, but your toe is still broken and it still really hurts, so instead of talking about what you meant to do, talk about what you actually did."

so how should you respond if you or someone you know unintentionally offends someone? watch this video and listen to her words, or read the transcript here.

why we shouldnt ignore instances of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc...

just because someone doesnt intend to do harm doesnt make it permissible for them to do so. i've talked to people who were unintentionally making others uncomfortable. they didnt realise their behaviours were doing so and felt awful once they realised. they changed their behaviours (even if its as simple as changing some specific words they use) and everyone was much better off. these things shouldnt be ignored. 

the only way racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. will get any better is if people other than just the victims recognise, acknowledge and speak up when injustices happen. we can be easily blinded by privilege.  

light as a feather

Physicist Brian Cox visited NASA’s Space Power Facility in Cleveland, Ohio (!!!) to perform a fantastic science experiment!

did anyone ever tell you that a bowling ball and a feather would fall at equal speeds if it weren't for air resistance?  i didnt think it would be so interesting to watch the actual experiment, but they did a great job with this short clip!