Star Formation In The Tadpole Nebula By Francesco Antonucci

Well, this is definitely the most fun I’ve had while making a post.

Inspired by this one from capnphaggit. Images & copyrights: Trifid Nebula (M20) by Marcus Davies, The Cat’s Eye Nebula and Star-forming region Sharpless 2-106 by NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Please don’t remove the credits.

Festo’s Bionic Flying Fox, as an example of Bio-mimicry.

German automation company Festo has created a Flying Fox (Fruit Bat) made of a 580g foam body with a carbon fibre skeleton and a membrane like material for the wings.

This robot imitates the exact body and wing movements of an actual bad in order for it to fly. This idea of bio-mimicry is one that is paving the way for a host of natural moving, nature inspired machines. 

Solar System: Things to Know This Week

For the first time in almost a decade, we’re going back to Jupiter. Our Juno spacecraft arrives at the king of planets on the fourth of July. From a unique polar orbit, Juno will repeatedly dive between the planet and its intense belts of charged particle radiation. Juno’s primary goal is to improve our understanding of Jupiter’s formation and evolution, which will help us understand the history of our own solar system and provide new insight into how other planetary systems form.

In anticipation, here are a few things you need to know about the Juno mission and the mysterious world it will explore:

1. This is the Big One

The most massive planet in our solar system, with dozens of moons and an enormous magnetic field, Jupiter rules over a kind of miniature solar system.

2. Origin Story

Why study Jupiter in the first place? How does the planet fit into the solar system as a whole? What is it hiding? How will Juno unlock its secrets? A series of brief videos tells the stories of Jupiter and Juno. Watch them HERE.

3. Eyes on Juno

If you really want a hands-on understanding of Juno’s flight through the Jupiter system, there’s no better tool than the “Eyes on Juno” online simulation. It uses data from the mission to let you realistically see and interact with the spacecraft and its trajectory—in 3D and across both time and space.

4. You’re on JunoCam!

Did you know that you don’t have to work for NASA to contribute to the Juno mission? Amateur astronomers and space enthusiasts everywhere are invited to help with JunoCam, the mission’s color camera. You can upload your own images of Jupiter, comment on others’ images, and vote on which pictures JunoCam will take when it reaches the Jovian system.

5. Ride Along

It’s easy to follow events from the Juno mission as they unfold. Here are several ways to follow along online:

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Want to learn more? Read our full list of the 10 things to know this week about the solar system HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

The reverse progression of Modern Humans to simple life forms. 

When STEM people have fun.

It’s Pi Day!

Pi Day, the informal holiday beloved by math enthusiasts — and even by the math averse — is here! March 14 marks the yearly celebration of the mathematical constant π (pi).

What is Pi?

Pi (3.1415….) is the ratio of circumference to diameter in a circle. Any time you want to find out the distance around a circle when you have the distance across it, you will need this formula.

Despite its frequent appearance in math and science, you can’t write pi as a simple fraction or calculate it by dividing two integers. For this reason, pi is said to be “irrational.” Pi’s digits extend infinitely and without any pattern, adding to its intrigue and mystery.

How Do We Use Pi at NASA?

Measurements: Pi can be used to make measurements – like perimeter, area and volume. 

For example, sometimes we use lasers to explode ice samples and study their composition. In this scenario, we can uses pi to calculate the width of the laser beam, which in turn can be used to calculate the amount of energy, or fluence, that hits the ice sample. A larger fluence equals a bigger explosion in the ice.

Commanding Rovers: Pi is also used every day commanding rovers on the Red Planet. Everything from taking images, turning the wheels, driving around, operating the robotic arm and even talking to Earth!

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Some websites that I use for geography [lessons + revision] - a mix of summary notes websites, statistics, geo-located data and other goodies :D enjoy! Hope you find something useful! 

I’ve only put my faves tbh but ** = I’ve used this a lot A LOT 

Scribd: honestly some docs on here are so useful for help structuring your own notes etc. [our teacher uses this one for example for the glossary]

**Sporcle: i use this to test my place knowledge! [i’ve linked you to the world one, but you can find other continent specific ones too]

[Alternative to above that I personally haven’t used much but it looks decent so]

World Mapper: Really cool maps and omg countries look so funny distorted heu heu (HONESTLY SO USEFUL AND VISUAL) [i’ve linked to the old site haha]

**Gapminder: I’ve linked you to the program itself [so so so good omg for global trends over time GENIUS] but Hans Rosling is a cinnamon roll go watch the videos too!!

Information is beautiful: I love infographics okay fight me on this. You could have a look at this one and oh here’s the blog and just have an explore tbh [there’s isn’t a huge number of infographics on here tbh it’s a shame but i guess they’re trying to sell the book so fair]

**Datashine (UK centric): UK Census 2011 info geo-located and ahhh it’s so useful 

they also have this one on commuting if you’re about that life

*******CIA World Factbook: ALL THE STATS! LIFESAVER! 10Q America! (that maths pun stop me pls) 

Generally amazing website that is succinct and you could probably find so much on here tbh

Quizlet: really useful resource!! flashcards!! i love this site!! (and there’s an app hehe) test yourself on case studies etc!!

[tip: you can duplicate ppl’s flashcards and edit them if there’s anything you want to add!] 

BBC bitesize ayyy for gcse peeps! (and in general too :) ) 

S-cool [linked again to the gcse site cuz that’s what was bookmarked but they have an a-level section too!] Some real concise notes tbh and may be useful even if you aren’t studying gcses/alevels! :) 

my other masterpost/ramble hybrids are all (there’s like 2 others lol) here and feel free to come rant at me (or just talk lel) if any links don’t work etc! 

in hindsight a better header for this would have been ‘resources i rely on way too much for geography’ (*´◡`) 

Guide to DIY Designing It Yourself  Wedding Dress from storymixmedia 

Writers continue to reblog these infographics for their useful terminology. 

If you’ve missed any infographics, here they are:

Know Your Shoes Part 1 Lobster Claws anyone? Know Your Shoes Part 2 Know You Heels Fashion Pattern Vocabulary Part 1 Fashion Pattern Vocabulary Part 2 Know Your Check Fabrics Know Your Animal Prints Know Your Hosiery Know Your Gloves History of Hairstyles Part 1 History of Hairstyles Part 2 Know Your Braids Know Your Scarves Know Your Belts Part 1 Know Your Belts Part 2 Know Your Sleeve Lengths Know Your jacket length Know Your Skirt Lengths Know Your Pant Lengths Know Your Front and Back Yokes Know Your Yokes and Hems  Know Your Pleats Know Your Darts Know Your Denim Pockets Part 1 Know Your Patch Pockets Part 2  Know Your Pockets Part 3 Know Your Sleeves Know Your Bras Know Your Collars Know Your Hair Buns Know Your Sunglasses Infographic Know Your Necklines Sleeves and Necklines Know Your Hats Know Your Collars and Cuffs Know Your Necklines Know Your Skirts Know Your Nail Shapes and What’s Popular on Instagram Know Your Eye Liners Know Your Wedding Dresses History of Swimwear Know Your Vintage Sleeves here  Know Your Vintage Collars and Necklines Know Your Zippers and Zipper Pulls

If someone is attractive and charming, you’re more likely to assume they’re intelligent and hard working- even if they’re not. 

Known as the ‘Halo Effect’, it’s a theory that our generalized judgements of people can bleed over into the more specific judgements we make about them. Studies show that even though we understand the Halo Effect intellectually, it’s almost impossible for us to recognize when it’s actually happening. 

(Source, Source 2)

Could dark energy be caused by frozen neutrinos?

“Since its discovery in 1998, the accelerated expansion has lacked a compelling, simple explanation that didn’t hypothesize a completely new set of forces, properties or interactions. If you wanted a scalar field — a quintessence model — it had to be finely tuned. But in a very clever paper just submitted yesterday by Fergus Simpson, Raul Jimenez, Carlos Pena-Garay, and Licia Verde, they note that if a generic scalar field couples to the neutrinos we have in our Universe, that fine-tuning goes away, and that scalar field will automatically begin behaving as a cosmological constant: as energy inherent to space itself.”

The accelerated expansion of our Universe was one of the biggest surprise discoveries of all-time, and something that still lacks a good physical explanation. While many models of dark energy exist, it remains a completely phenomenological study: everything appears consistent with a cosmological constant, but nothing appears to be a good motivator for why the Universe should have one. Until now, that is! In a new paper by Fergus Simpson, Raul Jimenez, Carlos Pena-Garay and Licia Verde, they note that any generic scalar field that couples to the neutrino sector would dynamically and stably give rise to a type of dark energy that’s indistinguishable from what we’ve observed. The huge advance is that this scenario doesn’t require any fine-tuning, thanks to this dark energy arising from neutrinos “freezing,” or becoming non-relativistic. In addition, there are experimental signatures to look for to confirm it, too, in the form of neutrinoless double-beta decay!