The Yes Archive

Just Where We Live

2012-01-15T23:58:00.000-08:00

Mind the lightning discharges, Nile and auroras! Better start appreciating our pixel in the vast universe!

Just our little planet at night.

Vimeo - The ISS flyby of Earth

Wikipedia? Wikipedia

2011-07-29T03:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, I came across this wikipage that is particularly interesting.

I need a bigger purse.

I've always searched for interesting lists of interesting wiki articles. Well, wiki did it. Itself.
I was lost for hours and I just have to archive it. Awesome.

Wiki - Unusual articles

Orphan planets discovered

2011-05-19T23:04:00.000-07:00

Floating in space. Alone. Without their fellow planet sisters and brothers. Lost in darkness.
Forever.
If I was an orphan planet I would be one very emotional planet.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/18may_orphanplanets/ -News from NASA.
http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/ - Exoplanet related NASA site.

I got you!

2011-04-02T02:35:00.000-07:00

I've been trying for some time to photograph the sunspots with my DSLR and 18-200 lenses. Today, I finally got it! The sky was clear and there was some activity on the Sun.
You can't see much but I still think it's awesome to take photo of the Sun's activity with regular DSLR and basic lenses. We're talking 150 million kilometers here!
I used welding glass for safety reasons and to darken the very bright Sun. Don't photograph without protection (mylar foil or welding glass) as you can and will seriously hurt your eyes.

Do you see it?

Let me help you.

Now you better see it!

And for comparison an animated picture from Spaceweather.com

Next stop: Prominence.

Fusion?

2011-03-30T12:34:00.000-07:00

After the Japanese earthquake accident world environmentalists want to shut down most of the world's nuclear reactors. I don't know if they know that shutting down nuclear plants means that we will become slaves of electricity. High demand and low supply pushes the price up. Way up.
So fission hasn't got such bright future ahead. How about fusion?

Fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts. Heat/energy is released. That's as detailed as I'd like to go. On the other hand, fusion is opposite of fission, the atomic nuclei merge together to form a single heavier nucleus. In that process large amount of energy is released.

ITER

ITER is actually what I wanna archive here. ITER or International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is huge research and engineering project that is currently building tokomak (fusion reactor). I did not know that it was already designed and in production. It will produce 500 MW of output power for 50 MW input power in up to 1000 seconds. 10:1 ratio. (nuclear plants produce circa 500-1000 MW per year)
That is just experimental and electricity won't be actually added to electrical network.
ITER is scheduled to begin operating in 2018-19 (some say 2016). I wonder how it goes. I sure would wanna look at this archive post in 6 years!

The ITER.

Natural fusion reactor - The Sun.

One way of using fission.

ITER - Official ITER homepage.
ITER Wiki - Wiki article with cool timeline.

Wiki Attack:
Fusion Power Wiki
Nuclear Fusion Wiki
Nuclear Fission

Sprite!

2011-03-29T14:54:00.000-07:00

I am beginning to think that I am addicted to deceiving titles! Sprites... so rare and so awesome!

This could actually be addendum to my Atmospheric Optics post. Sprites are special kinds of lighting that occur high above thunderstorm clouds (shelf clouds).
It is believed that sprites are formed only during really large storms - hence the rarity. Sprites often come in clusters. I would really like to see one day this amazing red thing! A friend of mine once caught it on the photo - blew my mind.

Sheer awesomeness.

Mind the blue jet.

Sprite observation.

Space Weather - Space weather archive about sprites.
Wiki - Wiki article about sprites.
Eurosprite - Blog about following sprites.

Super Full Moon

2011-03-17T07:59:00.000-07:00

Beware!
On March the 19th we'll be able to observe the biggest and brightest moon in almost 20 years!
Moon's orbit has an oval shape which of course means that sometimes the Moon is farther and sometimes it's closer to the Earth.
On March the 19th it's gonna be the closest in 17 years - meaning it is going to be 30% brighter and 14% bigger (visually of course). This event happens only in once about 18 years so be sure you don't miss it!
It is recommended that you look it at the sunset - just above the horizon - as it will appear even bigger because of foreground objects.

Explanation of this phenomena in more detail in the video below:

NASA Science - NASA Science article
APOD - [will add astronomy picture of the day as I'm pretty sure the super moon will be published there] [edit: added the link]

The history of sci-fi

2011-03-15T15:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm still alive!
Just a short update as I am very busy these days! I found a great picture of the history of science fiction. Looks confusing when you first look at it but it soon becomes one god-damn-awesome-picture.

http://scimaps.org/submissions/7-digital_libraries/maps/thumbs/024_LG.jpg

Goodbye Glory

2011-03-08T07:15:00.000-08:00

On march the 4th NASA's satellite Glory crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Glory was meant to collect various data of aerosols (smoke, air pollution etc.) and would have also collected irradiance information for climate study, water and energy cycles etc...
The crash was due to the Glory's launch vehicle Taurus XL which malfunctioned during the flight. Too bad, the costs were estimated to be close to 500 million US dollars. Half a billion. Poor taxpayers.

Anyway, RIP Glory, you would've served well!


Artist's impression of Glory in the space.

The launch. When everything seemed fine.

On the ground.

Twitter - Twitter of Glory program.
Wiki - Wiki of Glory satellite.
NASA - Official web page of the program.

Spot the Loser

2011-03-04T15:54:00.000-08:00

I simply have to share this article with you (and for my personal archive). It is about identifying so called "Losers" in various relationships. It introduces us some charactheristics of "The Loser" and it helps us identify these people before any emotional or physical damage is done. Another name for this article would be: How to spot a douchebag.
I have met people with such characteristics in my life, but have never really thought of putting together these "symptoms" and making a logical conclusion that the person might be a harming element in my life.
Anyway, here's a really short extract:

1. Rough Treatment "The Loser" will hurt you on purpose. If he or she hits you, twists your arm, pulls your hair, kicks you, shoves you, or breaks your personal property EVEN ONCE, drop them.

2. Quick Attachment and Expression "The Loser" has very shallow emotions and connections with others. Typically, in less than a few weeks of dating you'll hear that you're the love of their life, they want to be with you forever, and they want to marry you.

3. Frightening Temper "The Loser" has a scary temper. If your boyfriend or girlfriend blows up and does dangerous things, like driving too fast because they're mad, breaking/throwing things, getting into fights, or threatening others - that temper will soon be turned in your direction.

7. It's Always Your Fault "The Loser" blames you for their anger as well as any other behavior that is incorrect. When they cheat on you, yell at you, treat you badly, damage your property, or embarrass you publicly - it's somehow your fault.

15. Bad Stories People often let you know about their personality by the stories they tell about themselves. The stories a person tells informs us of how they see themselves, what they think is interesting, and what they think will impress you.

I guess I'll have to stop hitting my girlfriend. (j/k)

"Hey, wanna see my doughnut holder?"

Identify the Loser - The abovementioned article.
Douchebag - Encyclopaedia Dramatica definiton of a douche.

The Dark Side of the Moon

2011-03-03T04:21:00.000-08:00

Yes, again with the deceiving titles! This time I don't mean the famous Pink Floyd album but the actual dark side of the moon - the far side.
We are permanently destined to watch the near side of the Moon because the Moon rotates about its spin axis at the same rate that the Moon orbits the Earth (this is actually called synchronous rotation or tidal locking).
In my opinion, the near side of the moon is way more awesome than the far side. The dark side truly looks dark with all the craters - but the near side has all the trails and they look awesome and even awesomer when observed with telescopes. So we're quite lucky that we got "cooler" side. But those who prefer craters will probably like the dark side more!

Picture taken from Apollo 16

APOD - 1998 astronomy picture of the day with the above image
Wiki Moon - Article of the dark side of the Moon
Wiki Floyd - Article of The Dark Side of the Moon

Zoom me, baby!

2011-03-02T09:37:00.000-08:00

Universe is awesome and I found (was given actually) two links that are especially interesting if you wanna take a close look of universe and the Moon. You can zoom in a lot.
With all the craters Moon is simply amazing when magnified (1st link). So is the universe. On second link you can zoom in the entire visible universe. You can observe most of the objects from NGC and IC sky catalogue and all 110 Messier objects.

Moon Map - Zoom in the Moon.
Sky Map - Zoom in the universe.

Terminator!

2011-03-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

I bet you thought of that badass ultra-lethal robo'. Well, this post is not about him. It's about solar terminator - which is not half as deadly - but it is big. It's really big. Big as Earth, as a matter of fact.
So, solar terminator or twilight zone is acutally an imaginary line that separates the illuminated day side of planetary body from dark night side of a body.
I will not go into details, as always, because I want it to be suitable and understandable for all ages. Links below are for more information, if anyone is interested.

The grey line

Looks awesome from space, I know.

NOAA - Terminator article on NOAA
Terminator - And on Wikipedia.

Anniversary of first gamma-ray burst!

2011-02-28T06:57:00.000-08:00

Today on 28 February 1997 the first GRB was detected. It lasted for 80 seconds. GRBs are the most energetic (eletrcomagnetic radiation) events known in the universe. The sources of GRBs are billions of light years away from Earth - which means that explosions are extremely energetic and extremely rare. And awesome.
Interestingly, the burst was detected by an Italian Space Agency (with the participation of Dutch astonomers) satellite (yeah, Italy has its own space agency) and not by NASA or ESA. Imagine that.

Happy birthday GRB 970228! ♥

An artist's illustration of GRB

GRB - Wikipedia article about this particular GRB.
Hubble News - Hubble news article from 1997.

0,999...

2011-02-24T13:47:00.000-08:00

Did you know that the symbol/number 0.9999... (nines are repeated to infinity) also represents number 1?
So we've actually got two symbols for one number. Awesome, I know. In fact - as wikipedia states - every nonzero, terminating decimal has a twin with trailing 9s, such as 8.32 and 8.31999.

Cool mathematical trick. Well, it's not a trick, but still - cool. A bit connected to my fractals article.

0.999... Wiki - Check out proofs etc. Skepticism in education is interesting, too.

Feelin' cozy

2011-02-23T10:43:00.000-08:00

After I saw some pictures of this dude, I just felt I had to post some pictures for my personal archive. They really make me comfortable and I instantly loved them. I specifically like apartments, as you can see.

Hope you like them, too!

Mountain view.

Urban view.

This apartment is actually for sale. 29,5 mio $. Affordable.

Same apartment.

Ray Kappe's House - One really nice apartement. Owned by an architect, of course.
Hearst Castle - Former mansion of newspaper magnat William Hearst

Suburbs

2011-02-22T08:29:00.000-08:00

Just a short post about some awesome suburbs and pictures from here.
Don't miss the links posted below, they're an amazing read in my opinion. Please, do let me know if you know any other interesting cities.

China's Ghost-town - Amazing article with satellite pictures of empty cities.
Hackerville - How a Remote Town in Romania Has Become Cybercrime Central.
Urban Sprawls Gallery - Urban Sprawls in the United States

Auroras

2011-02-21T05:30:00.000-08:00

Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis - Northern lights and Southern lights.

Why does aurora occur? If we simplify, auroras occur when charged particles from the Sun hit Earth's atmosphere and interact with atoms present in the atmosphere - atoms get excited in the air and colourful view is created.
Auroras haven't been observed only on our planet, but also on Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mars, and some of the moons Io, Europa, and Ganymede. (all Jupiter's)
Check out this time lapse, it's pretty cool and it gives you some idea of aurora's dynamics. (although in reallity it's much much slower)

Earth's auroras observed from Earth:

Earth's auroras observed from space:

Jupiter's and its moons' auroras:

Artificial Colours


APOD 1998

Yeah, auroras are pretty damn awesome and they are worth going hundreds of kilometers north or south to observe them! Lucky those who live there...
Of course, when Sun's activity is really high, auroras are visible in other places - like in 2003, when auroras were visible throughout the Europe.
And with Sun's new maximum on its way we can hope for more continental auroras.

Space Weather - This site keeps us alert for any auroral activity as well as Sun's activity.
Space Weather's galleries - In Summary section you've got link for previous month.
POES (Satellite) - Real-time auroral activity derived from satellite.

WARP Drive?

2011-02-19T18:08:00.000-08:00

How awesome would fast interstellar travel be? Faster than light awesome, that much!

We all know WARP Drive from Star Trek. WARP Drive is a system that allows us to travel faster than light. And there is our first problem. Faster than light is a contradiction to the Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity which states that no matter can travel faster than the speed of light.
For WARP drive to work we also need to controll gravity. We don't know much about controlling gravity either. Then there is the fuel. In Star Trek the fuel is antimatter. Physicists know something about that (approximately 3rd point in the "Where are we now" list below) but not nearly enough to be used as some sort of fuel.

Interstellar Distances. Click on image to enlarge.


An artist's impression of WARP Drive.

Interesting view of mechanical part. By staus.

So, is it possible?
Well, physics is not known enough yet and physicists agree that WARP Drive is not possible in the foreseeable future! However, if we stay positive, we can say that WD is possible and we are just not evolved enough.

Where are we now?
1. Assumption/preposition - The rough idea.
2. Hypothesis - Explanation of the idea. ← Here we are at he moment.
3. Knowing - We have all the hypotheical knowledge and we know it can work. Theory, basically.
4. Technology - Technology is developed enough for the third stage.
5. Use - Practical use.

Alcubierre drive - Actual model by a scientist Miguel Alcubierre.
Not Impossible - An article on space.com discussing WARP Drive.
NASA's Article - And why is interstellar travel so tough?

Fractals

2011-02-18T06:13:00.000-08:00

Ah yes, fractals.
Beautiful geometric shapes that are basically smaller copies of itself when magnified (with certain rules) - and its length is infinite. Which means endless magnification of an object! Awesome, I know.

The first fractal was rather simple - Koch Snowflake: equilateral triangle followed by three steps. I will not go into details, there are plenty of definitons on the net - and they are quite simple so anyone can make an experiment. Koch Snowflake has an interesting feature: Its perimeter or length is infinite and its area is measurable - not infinite.

Nowadays, things got a bit more complicated...

A fractal. Awesome one.

They get even cooler.

3D Fractal

Huge gallery - Of quality fractals. A must see gallery!
Apophysis - Program for editing and rendering fractals. Open source.
3D Fractals - Fractals in 3D.

Atmospheric Optics

2011-02-17T15:31:00.000-08:00

People rarely look in the sky with intention of spotting some of the most awesome nature creations. Atmospheric optics. Surely we've all seen iridescent clouds and crepuscular rays. But there are many more awesome-sky phenomena, and they are not rare as we think - we just don't look in the sky often enough. However, they are rare enough that when we see them, we are pretty amazed.

One of the most common atoptics are halos (sun and moon), iridescents clouds, rainbows and sun dogs.

With little human help you can even see gravity waves - really awesome phenomena and you should check it out on youtube or download the video (10 MB) where waves are clearly visible. And they are awesome.
You can also see gravity waves without rockets - on clouds, airglows, etc. Rarely.

Circumhorizon arc

Anti-crepuscular rays

Gravity Wave

Atmospheric Optics - Leading site for atmospheric optics. With explanations and pictures of every one.

Mega Comics 3000

2011-02-17T04:51:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of webcomics on the net. Some are good, some are not. I will try to publish some of the best. That is, of course, just my opinion and they might as well be plain stupid to you.

I'm open for suggestions.

Oglaf - Dirty and hilarious. Mature content.
xkcd - Humour spiced with facts, internet and science.
Dr. McNinja - Story-driven webcomic.
Axe Cop - Webcomic written by a 5-year and illustrated by his 29-year old bro.
Evil Diva - Devil cursed with urges to be nice.
Goblins - Life from goblins' perspective.
Dresden codak - Looks interesting. Mulitple chars.

Bacteria Party

2011-02-16T15:34:00.000-08:00

Found this blog on another blog - DIY Science.
I was very fascinated by the work this Hell Goo guy does - basically he's just letting foods, pills, spit, animals, etc. to rot in a jar. He's occasionally changing the conditons and constantly throwing in new stuff.
With all the mold and bacteria, he's making that jar quite disgusting to look at. Supposedly hazardous, too.

Hell goo - Blog about growing bacteria in jar for half a year.

Hell goo 2 - New project, same guy.

The 60 symbols

2011-02-16T14:06:00.000-08:00

Physicists, astronomers, mathematicians and other scientists - mostly from the University of Nottingham - discuss and talk about various science themes. These themes are presented under various symbols - from eclipses, planets to Jabulani ball and famous Einstein's equation.

The Sixty Simbols - Videos about the symbols of physics and astronomy.