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Rare Venus Transit of Sun in June to Amaze Skywatchers
Make sure to see the June 5 passage of the planet Venus across the face of the sun: a similar event won’t happen again until the year 2117.
In the Image:
Watching the tiny silhouette of the planet Venus slowly cross the face of the sun doesn’t evoke the same drama and excitement as experiencing a total solar eclipse, but what makes a transit so unique is its rarity and historical significance.
The Walk Of Faith is a glass walkway built off the side of a cliff 1,430 meters in the air. This 60 meter long walk is not meant for the faint of heart.
The path is located on Tianmen Mountain in China’s Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park. Would you be brave enough to take the Walk of Faith?
I WANT TO DO THIS.
Im sorry. But. FUCK, no.
^^^ this.
I THINK I’LL DIE
Simulating Mars in an Austrian Cave?
If we ever get our act together as a species and get some astronauts on over to the Red Planet, how will we prepare them? Sure, it’s far-fetched, and rovers do a fine job of interplanetary science, but Neil deGrasse Tyson and NASA aren’t the only ones interested in readying tomorrow’s space travelers.
In Austria’s Dachstein ice cave, next-generation spacesuits and instruments are being tested. Any microbial life on Mars would likely be trapped in an icy tomb much like this in order to have access to water and protection from cosmic rays.
Will we use them? No one knows. But inspiration is nothing if you don’t add a little preparation.
(via BLDGBLOG)
I just find this horrendously funny
i cannot stop laughing
Why is 6 afraid of 7….?
because 7 ate (eight) 9! LMAO
(Source: tatermo)
![jtotheizzoe:
1859’s “Great Auroral Storm” — The Week the Sun Touched the Earth
These days, with constant high-tech astronomical observation and our detailed knowledge of solar physics, solar storms are something we have come to expect, and rarely fear (remember this?).
But in 1859, a solar storm was unleashed with such power that you could read a book at midnight under the resulting aurora. Telegraph operators across the U.S. were forced to shut off their batteries, and sent messages across the wires using the current provided by the storm alone.
Painters like Frederic Edwin Church were inspired by the celestial fireworks, as shown in his 1865 painting above. Matthew Lasar has a gripping tale of that week in 1859 at Ars Technica.
Here’s a taste:
“Two patches of intensely bright and white light broke out.” … [Richard Christopher] Carrington puzzled over the flashes. “My first impression was that by some chance a ray of light had penetrated a hole in the screen attached to the object-glass,” he explained, given that “the brilliancy was fully equal to that of direct sun-light.”
The astronomer checked his gear. He moved the apparatus around a bit. To his surprise, the intense white patches stayed put. Realizing that he was an “unprepared witness of a very different affair,” Carrington ran out of his studios to find a second observer. But when he brought this person back, he was “mortified to find” that the bright sections were “already much changed and enfeebled.”
“Very shortly afterwards the last trace was gone,” Carrington wrote. He kept watch on the region for another hour, but saw nothing more. Meanwhile, the explosive energy that he had seen rushed towards him and everyone else on Earth.
(↬ Ars Technica)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3i8ybU2HO1qbh26io1_400.jpg)
1859’s “Great Auroral Storm” — The Week the Sun Touched the Earth
These days, with constant high-tech astronomical observation and our detailed knowledge of solar physics, solar storms are something we have come to expect, and rarely fear (remember this?).
But in 1859, a solar storm was unleashed with such power that you could read a book at midnight under the resulting aurora. Telegraph operators across the U.S. were forced to shut off their batteries, and sent messages across the wires using the current provided by the storm alone.
Painters like Frederic Edwin Church were inspired by the celestial fireworks, as shown in his 1865 painting above. Matthew Lasar has a gripping tale of that week in 1859 at Ars Technica.
Here’s a taste:
“Two patches of intensely bright and white light broke out.” … [Richard Christopher] Carrington puzzled over the flashes. “My first impression was that by some chance a ray of light had penetrated a hole in the screen attached to the object-glass,” he explained, given that “the brilliancy was fully equal to that of direct sun-light.”
The astronomer checked his gear. He moved the apparatus around a bit. To his surprise, the intense white patches stayed put. Realizing that he was an “unprepared witness of a very different affair,” Carrington ran out of his studios to find a second observer. But when he brought this person back, he was “mortified to find” that the bright sections were “already much changed and enfeebled.”
“Very shortly afterwards the last trace was gone,” Carrington wrote. He kept watch on the region for another hour, but saw nothing more. Meanwhile, the explosive energy that he had seen rushed towards him and everyone else on Earth.
