NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory was only designed to fly for five years, but it has celebrated six years of 24/7 solar observation on February 11th. The ultraHD video below the fold is a timelapse that stitches together images the spacecraft captured during that sixth year, from January 1st, 2015 to January 28th, 2016. Since each frame represents two hours and the photos were taken in extreme ultraviolet range, you can clearly see the sun’s corona dancing and undulating throughout the video.
Extreme ultraviolet is commonly used in solar imaging. Photos taken in that wavelength shows parts of the corona — the aura of plasma that surrounds the sun — burning at around 1,079,540 degrees F. As Paris Hilton used to say: that’s hot. Besides the undulating plasma, you might also notice that the sun gets bigger and smaller ever so slightly in the video. That’s because SDO takes images from various distances as it orbits the Earth.
NASA sent out SDO to monitor the sun in order to better understand its electromagnetic system and solar phenomena like flares and coronal mass ejections. CMEs, in particular, can cause geomagnetic storms that can disable satellites and even power grids.
This is what the sun looks like over the course of a year. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the Sun and all of its fiery grace from January 1, 2015 to January 28, 2016. That beautiful burning orb looks unbelievable in this amount of detail.
SDO’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) captures a shot of the sun every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths. The images shown here are based on a wavelength of 171 angstroms, which is in the extreme ultraviolet range and shows solar material at around 600,000 kelvins (about 1,079,540 degrees F). In this wavelength it is easy to see the sun’s 25-day rotation.
During the course of the video, the sun subtly increases and decreases in apparent size. This is because the distance between the SDO spacecraft and the sun varies over time. The image is, however, remarkably consistent and stable despite the fact that SDO orbits Earth at 6,876 mph, and Earth orbits the sun at 67,062 mph.
Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
While building a 3D model of the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia, archivists at the Smithsonian uncovered hand-written notes and markings in areas of the spacecraft not seen in more than 40 years. The remarkable etchings offer a new glimpse into what life was life on the way to the Moon.
Recently, every single nook and cranny of Columbia was scoured as curators, collectors, and conservationists from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and Digitization Program Office built a detailed, high-resolution 3D model of the spacecraft. This project allowed them to view areas inside the capsule that hadn’t been seen for decades, and they found some pretty interesting things. The archivists observed and recorded hand-written notes, math figures, and a calendar. These items reveal the degree of improvisation that took place during the historic first mission to the Moon.
Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
These notes (above), written by Michael Collins, shows how he tried to pinpoint the exact location of the Lunar Module (LM) Eagle on the lunar surface as he orbited the Moon alone in Columbia. At the time, Collins was using coordinates sent to him from Houston, and he referenced them to this map. He wasn’t successful in this task, but given this new information, historians may actually be able to figure out how and why NASA and Collins went wrong. And in fact, this effort is currently underway.
Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
Storage spaces were made available to the astronauts, along with a detailed stowage list of where everything was supposed to go. During the mission, however, it appears the astronauts started improvising a bit on where certain things should go. Locker R5 was supposed to store auxiliary equipment related to the spacecraft’s waste management system. As this photo shows (above), however, the astronauts decided to use it for something else: a place to store their urine bags. According to the Smithsonian, they stored their urine in these lockers early in the flight before the normal waste disposal system went online. They must have written this note on the wall to remind themselves that this locker should probably be left alone for the duration of the mission.
Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
A small hand-drawn calendar was also discovered, located just below one of the lockers. Each day of the mission can be seen, from July 16 to 24, and every day is crossed out except the final one. The capsule splashed down in the early hours of July 24, a date that remains untouched.
Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
In this archive photo above, NASA’s John Hirasaki can bee seen inside the capsule during the quarantine period. If you look carefully behind him, you can see the calendar. Love the duct tape framing.
Really, incredible stuff. Analysis of these items is ongoing, so the Smithsonian may reveal more insights soon.
The Columbus Chamber of Commerce gave its top honor, the Columbus Award, this year to OhioHealth Corp. CEO Dave Blom.
"You embody everything this award is meant to be," John McEwan, outgoing chamber chairman, said in presenting the award at Thursday’s annual meeting.
McEwan, managing partner in Columbus for Deloitte LLP, cited Blom’s role in building the $3.3 billion health system to 10 hospitals and one of the region’s largest employers, and as being one of the leaders behind creation of the Columbus…
If you’re a stickler for details and accuracy, don’t assume that making your own cosplay props and costumes is cheaper than buying a replica. Often it can cost thousands of dollars to get it right, so Hasbro and Marvel are teaming up on a line of detailed role play accessories that will make accurate cosplay slightly more affordable.
The new Marvel Legends role play items won’t hit stores until sometime in the fall later this year. So they’ll arrive too late for Comic-Con, unfortunately, but should be just in time for your next Halloween costume.
For $100 there is a surprising amount of detail, especially on the inside, packed into this full-sized Iron Man helmet featuring a removable face plate—but there are some compromises that help keep it affordable. While the helmet does use three AAA batteries to power light-up features and sound effects, it isn’t animated in any way. So you’ll still need plenty of imagination to pretend you’re Iron Man, but isn’t that what cosplay is all about?
For those who feel they can pull off a Steve Rogers costume better than a Tony Stark, the Marvel Legends Captain America shield will also be available for just $100, and at 24-inches across it’s the exact same size as the shield used in the current crop of Marvel movies.
Its perfect faux-metal finish makes it seem like it could stop anything, but the shield’s not actually made from a vibranium-steel alloy, so you won’t want to try to shield yourself from a bullet or knife attack with it. It does, however, come with adjustable straps so you can wield it just like the Cap’ does. And while it’s just a recreation, it’s probably still not advisable to try throwing it like a giant frisbee.
“Police said the man walked into the [Nazareth Restaurant and Deli], had a conversation with an employee and then left,” cbsnews.com reports. “He returned about a half hour later. That’s when police said he approached a man and … Read More
Things are heating up in the Democratic presidential campaign, and so are the debates. There’s another one tonight, this time hosted by PBS. It’ll be live on PBS stations, but if you want to watch online or on the go, here’s how to tune in.
Tonight’s debate will start at 9pm ET/6pm PT, with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, both fresh from the New Hampshire primary. If you’ll be on the go, want to watch on your computer, or on a set-top box, here are some mobile and internet-only ways to watch:
PBS also has apps for a variety of set-top boxes, including Android TV, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, and more—they’re worth a look if you have them, but some people report that they usually offer on-demand streaming, not live.
The debate will also simulcast on CNN, so you can watch it there if you have cable, but if not, try these, where they should be streaming even if you don’t have a provider to choose from:
Of course, since the debate is on PBS, if you have a good over-the-air antenna, odds are it’ll be on whatever PBS affiliate is in your area, so you can tune in that way as well.
In this video multiple scenarios are tested for the time it takes to fire 30 rounds from two 15 round magazines, three 10 round magazines and five 6 round magazines. Watch below.
Most consumer-grade locks aren’t that secure. To wit, if you ever need to open a basic padlock or combination lock without a key, all you need is a soda can, a boxcutter, and a little precise cutting.
As the video above from Howcast demonstrates, you can (carefully!) cut a small piece of metal out of an aluminum can that’s sturdy enough to pop open the mechanisms on padlocks and combination locks. Be forewarned, the technique above requires cutting sharp metal very precisely, so you’ll need to use extra caution with this method.
Since 1988, Warner/Chappell has had an iron grip on the copyright for "Happy Birthday to You." Artists couldn’t sing it on a recording without paying up, even though it’s virtually ubiquitous in real life — it’s widely considered the most popular English-language song in history. At last, though, logic appears to be taking hold. In the wake of a lengthy class action lawsuit, Warner has agreed to a $14 million settlement that will put "Happy Birthday" in the US public domain well ahead of 2030, when the label expected the copyright to run out. So long as the ruling holds, you can expect to hear those very familiar strains all over music, movies and TV shows in the near future.
As you might guess, Warner isn’t doing this as a kindness. It’s estimated to have raked in $50 million through licensing "Happy Birthday" in the past few decades, and the plaintiffs believe the label would have scooped up to $16.5 million more if the lawsuit hadn’t happened. Rather, the settlement will head off an outright loss that would have proven much more costly. A federal judge had already ruled that Warner’s lyrics copyright was invalid — the company faced the real possibility of having to pay full compensation to everyone who’d licensed the tune in the past.
It’s rare to see any company settle a licensing case like this by agreeing to a public domain release. However, this suggests that copyright isn’t alwayssacrosanct among media giants. They’re willing to end their battles if the cost of holding on to royalties is too high. You probably won’t see this happen very often, but the fact that it happened at all is noteworthy.