Sunday, March 28, 2010

Accelerating Universe




Party Like The Universe



Credit: ESA/NASA

You owe it to yourself to see this BIG VERSION Click and click again, remember!

Galaxies on the back-drop of light bend by gravitational lenses. This is the party where ALL THE ACTION is! Can't you see? Both dark energy and dark matter are joining.

Seriously, this is the best view of the universe thus far - done by COSMOS with the help of Hubble (for the first time). Due to it's shear size (mass), galaxies bend the light in what we call gravitational lenses. It enable us to see deep into space and learn more about how the universe is accelerating. I love acceleration!






Ada Lovelace Day




When A Man Loves A Woman...



Well, you gotta love a man who loves his woman! :-)

(and married a science edition of the species)




Saturday, March 27, 2010

Cars




Stellare's Week-end Car



Fluid mechanics by NASA





Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Surface Water and Ocean Topography




Surface Water and Ocean Topography



Southern Ocean near-surface current speed from ECCO2


Satellites can do amazing things there days. I bet you haven't seen an image of ocean currents around Antarctica like the one above before. Simply über cool. The SWOT mission will give us information about water tables on land AND sea surface height - in one go. :-)

Why do we care? Because we want to know where the water is, preferably all the time, so that we know when to water our fields, know if there will be shortage of fresh water and if sea level will rise.




Sandy




Sandy on The Beach



No shocker, I suppose, the statement 'sandy on the beach'. Well, some places, like Nice, has pebbles rather than sand...

This Sandy here, is the sweets gal' you can possibly imagine. You can't help admire her guts and ALWAYS positive attitude. And she does walk the beaches as well as taking charge of her health. That is so Viking of her! :-) This magazine made an excellent choice of role model and inspiration for others - with and without illnesses.


Haystack Rock Mirrored in The Pacific Ocean

Just like Sandy, I love walking on the beach. Here is a picture I took on the lovely Oregon Cannon Beach.




Sunday, March 21, 2010

Solargraphy




Solargraphy



This is the art of looking at the sun through a pinhole and record the rays on silverpaper.

A start on the Sun-Earth Day...




Dogs




Apropos Dogs



Italian Greyhound by tanakawho

Since we are talking dogs now....:-)

Clearly waiting for the Goddess of Eternal Pregnancy. So evident!




Friday, March 19, 2010

Phobos




Phobos - Odd Looking Moon

Image Source,Photobucket Uploader Firefox Extension

Credit: ESA/DLR


This asteroid-look-alike orbiting Mars is quite an odd ball. It is a bit of a mystery how Mars, or any planet for that matter, could capture this stone simply with gravitational forces....

Oh, well. There it is anyways, orbiting Mars.




Holmenkollen Ski Jump




Holmenkollen Ski Jump



Holmenkollen by RennyBA's Terella


If you would be so lucky as to visit Oslo on Holmenkollen Sunday (as we call this HUGE sports and outdoors event) you MUST GO THERE. Even the royal family attend this incarnation of 'Norwegians born with ski' happening. More than 6000 people slept over in tents in the forest surrounding the ski jump this week-end. A long standing tradition. And this year we had perfect meteorological conditions (=sunshine, not too windy).




Thursday, March 18, 2010

St. Patrick's Day = Space Geodesy Day




St. Patrick's Day = Space Geodesy Day



My first episode on A Green Space - A Green Day was about space geodesy and the launching of GOCE satellite that will measure the Earth gravity field. All over the place. :-)

17th March is historic in space geodesy as it all started basically on this date. Thank you St. Patrick is appropriate I should think. :-)

PS. St. Patrick enters the stage at 1:13...




Avalanche Mars




Martian Avalanches



Totally Awesome!

We have avalanches both on Mars and in Norway right now. One avalanche on the West-Coast created a pressure wave that blew buses off the road. Some villages are isolated from the rest of the world. Only access is via fjords in some cases. And then there are major avalanches on Mars, too! Is this coincidental? hahaha (of course it is...)




Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Afghanistan From Space




Afghanistan by Astronaut

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This is a picture tweet from Soichi the astronaut on board International Space Station orbiting Earth. Not bad! :-)




Colliding Galaxies




Collision







Monday, March 15, 2010

Climate change and human adaptivity




Climate Change - Human Adaptivity



This article conclude by asking if the old Norse would have done better at adapting to climate change in Greenland had they had scientific knowledge - like we do today. Right now, I fear that we are not making use of the actual knowledge - but rather fight over the degree of global warming instead of realizing that changes, big or small, are about to happen...

Friday, March 12, 2010

The Sun




The Sun


Credit: SOHO

The Sun is having fun throwing stuff at us again. See the movie here, and contemplate a bit over the size of the stuff our star just throws out! No wonder it can kick out GPS, electricity grids etc!

(PS. not all the stuff the Sun gets rid of is headed in our direction. I'm not sure where this particular event ended...)




Titan




Titan

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Credit: NASA

Earth-baby look-alike.

Yeah, on the surface it seems like Titan has similarities with a very young Earth...




Craters




Mother of All Craters



In connection with Women's Day 8th March I believe it is relevant to show the Mother of All Craters on the Moon. Recently discovered by scientists at NASA....

It appears that women still are being underestimated (read comments here). In other words - nothing new under the Sun! :-)

Image Source,Photobucket Uploader Firefox Extension




Sunday, March 7, 2010

Dart Vader's Galaxy




Dart Vader's Galaxy

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Credit: ESO



I'm fond of Star Wars, but not fanatic. Still, this Dart Vader galaxy is too cool to be left in the shadows...:-)




Blue Jay




Blue Jay



Clearly one of my favorite birds, blue as it is...:-)




Tigger With Trouble




Tigger With Trouble

Tigger With Trouble

Tigger in front with Trouble chilling behind
Photo: Bente Lilja Bye


Cats approve visit to Cannon Beach, (Oregon, US West Coast) in spite of tsunami warnings.

It was approved, however, after thorough studies 'In Heaven'.

In Heaven


This is the view the cats allowed us to see:

Haystack Rock Mirrored in The Pacific Ocean

Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach, Oregon, USA
Photo: Bente Lilja Bye







Friday, March 5, 2010

Sun Pillar




"Mickey Mouse" Sun Pillar



Or the Mouse, as I learned that the Floridians call the Disney World in Orlando...:-)

Anyways, it's a great picture of the Sun.




Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The Earth




The Earth - Rotates






The Earth




The Earth



Thanks Andy!




Oregonian Tide Pool




Tide Pool



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We are going to take a closer look at the Oregon tide pools. And there is a chance we'll get to see a tsunami while we're there. The amplitude foreseen is minimal and would hardly be noticed as a tsunami were it not for the fact that we follow the development and warning sites in the wake of the enormeous Chilean earthquake.






Small Magellanic Cloud




Small Magellanic Cloud



Beauty in Violence...