If archaeology was once about digging through dirt, it is increasingly—like almost every other profession—about programming computers. Bernie Frischer, an Indiana University "archaeo-informaticist," has came up with a new theory about two Roman monuments. His finding are based on 3D reconstructions of the monuments using video game technology and calculations of the sun’s position 2,000 years ago.
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Weighing a planet is a tough task. I mean, it’s not like you can just put them on a bathroom scale. And, while astronomers figured out how to measure the mass of planets in our solar system a long time ago, it’s practically impossible to weigh exoplanets. Well, it was until recently.
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China’s Chang’e-3 lander and Jade Rabbit rover launched Dec. 1 and landed on the moon yesterday without incident, and now we’re getting footage of the event. The photos and videos show the moon up close and personal. We’re also seeing shots of both robots on the moon, apparently in full working order. Chang’e-3 soft-landed on […]
China’s “Long March to the Moon” has placed a lander and a rover on the moon. The Chang’e-3 lander and her accompanying Yutu or “Jade Rabbit” rover arrived inside the right eye of the “Man in the Moon” this evening at 9:00PM Beijing time. This marks the first time in more than 40 years anyone […]
Astronomers and sky watchers around the world watched in anticipation in late November and early December as comet ISON made its close pass around the sun. The prediction was that if the comet survived its close encounter with the sun, it would be one of the brightest comets in centuries. Sadly, when the comet went […]
Looking up at the sky is a bit like a real-world Rorschach Test. During the day, it’s possible to see pretty much anything in the clouds passing by: eight-legged pigs, creepy faces, middle fingers, and a hell of a lot of peens. On clear nights, connecting the dots between the heavens can be fun; heck, stars have been mapped for millennia.
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A planet eleven times as big as Jupiter has been discovered orbiting a star at a distance of 650 astronomical units. That’s 650 times as far from its star as Earth is from our own star. Never have we discovered a planet to be orbiting a star at so nearly great a distance. The planet […]
How do you understand something you can barely see, never visited and is light years away from us? By being really, really smart at connecting dots. In this video, NASA explains its process in figuring out what alien planets are like with the limited information it has.
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The NASA Van Allen twin probes launched last year have revealed that the Earth is a giant particle accelerator. Recently it was reported that particles in the magnetosphere sometimes accelerate across distances of a few hundred meters. But the newer discovery shows the acceleration can occur across hundreds of thousands of kilometers. The data will […]
It’s been a while since we talked about the comet ISON. We mentioned back in January that if the comet survives its brush with the sun later this month, it could be the brightest comet seen in hundreds of years. So far, the comet has remained intact as it heads towards its closest rendezvous with the Sun on November 28.
If the comet survives its brush with the Sun, it will head back out of our solar system and pass the Earth again. On its return trip away from the Sun, the comet will be so bright that some scientists believe we will be able to see it during the day. The last time a comet was so bright it could be seen during the day was in 1680.
Scientists are saying that ISON has the potential to be the “comet of the century.” ISON is already bright enough to be seen with the naked eye at night in some locations. If the comet survives, it will be at its brightest in early December.
[via Telegraph]
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