Scientists have found a way to use the Hubble Space Telescope as an extremely precise galactic tape measure, multiplying our previous capabilities by 10. This increase will result in a more accurate understanding of the size of the observable Universe. plus new insight into the mysterious force known as dark energy.
Space, the final frontier… for street art. No, we’re not quite ready to tag the International Space Station, but a pair of artists in San Francisco is working on bring space down to Earth with a series of murals depicting everything from constellations to nebulae. And, boy, are they pretty.
It’s not fair. Time lapses and fancy cameras get these fantastic images of star trails that paint a starry night onto the sky and yet when we look up, we see nothing. Even when the stars are glistening, we don’t get to see the mesmerizing hook of its trail spinning around us. Wouldn’t it be awesome if night looked like this?
Right now the only way you can truly sleep among the stars is to suit up in a spacesuit and have somebody push you out into the black and that ain’t cool. The next best thing is to lie in a sleeping bag in the darkened countryside and stare up, but a bear might eat you. Well, The Cosmos Bed is a remarkably safe way to sleep among the stars.
This bed designed by Natalia Rumyantsev will make you feel like you are drifting in space while you are safe in your bed. It’s almost like a mini holodeck for tired star-loving humans.
The idea here is that it is an alternative to pitching a tent and sleeping under the stars. It features twinkling starlight along with the sounds and scents of the forest. Thankfully there are no animal sounds. Unfortunately, The Cosmos Bed is just a concept for now, but maybe one day we can buy it.
[via Incredible Things via Nerd Approved]
Yeah, I can totally see it! How can you miss that? It’s right there. Clear eyes, full Earth, can’t miss. Wait, really? No of course not. Anyone who tells you that is either a liar or a hawk. Earth looks incredibly tiny up in that Martian sky. Sure, if you squint hard enough and fake it long enough, you’ll spot it the dot but it’s not unlike looking for dust on a wall.
Stardust sounds magical enough as it is, but now scientists have for the first time observed that it contains water—which, in turn, could suggest that life is universal.
The San Pedro de Atacama region of Northern Chile is one of the prettiest and most desolated places in the planet. It also has the clearest and darkest sky on Earth. Nicholas Buer went there to take one of the most beautiful time lapses I’ve seen:
A team of astronomers and engineers want to reproduce the atmosphere of a red giant like the one you are seeing in this Hubble image—right here on Earth. To make this happen, project Nanocosmos will build three five-meter-long machines working with hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon, titanium, iron and other metals at 1500 C (2732 F).
The universe is vast, seemingly infinite thing, and the Hubble Telescope is here with the latest reminder of that fact in the form of eye candy. This is the first photo from NASA’s Frontier Fields project, and it’s the deepest we’ve ever seen into space.
It’s usually one or the other. If you live in a big city, you forgo nature and stars in the sky. And if you live under the starry night sky, you’re out in the boonies far away from civilization. But what if you can have both?