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2017 January 14

Stardust in the Perseus Molecular Cloud Image Credit & Copyright: Lorand Fenyes

Explanation: Clouds of stardust drift through this deep skyscape. The cosmic scene spans nearly 2 degrees across the Perseus molecular cloud some 850 light-years away. A triangle of dusty nebulae reflecting light from embedded stars is captured in the telescopic field of view. With a characteristic bluish color reflection nebula NGC 1333 is at left, vdB13 at bottom right, and rare yellowish reflection nebula vdB12 lies at the top. Stars are forming in the Perseus molecular cloud, though most are obscured at visible wavelengths by the pervasive dust. Still, hints of contrasting red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, the jets and shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars, are evident in NGC 1333. At the estimated distance of the molecular cloud, legs of the triangle formed by the reflection nebulae would be about 20 light-years long.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170114.html

Anahita and Ishtar: Connections to the Planet Venus

Anahita was a goddess associated with water, fertility, wisdom, warfare, and eventually the planet Venus. During the Achaemenid dynasty in Persia, she became incorporated into the Zoroastrian religion as a Yazata, a type of minor divinity. Her association with warfare and the planet Venus was not very prominent before the Achaemenid Period, leading some to conclude that her cult and persona may have become influenced by the goddess Ishtar. In becoming associated with Ishtar, she may have taken on the characteristics of a Venus god/Venus goddess, a type of god which appears to occur across cultures associated with the planet Venus.  

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Nice

Scans of the inside covers of Strang’s Calculus, which you can legally-download for free here from the MIT website. This is my all-time favorite math or physics textbook. Scanned it so I could cut and paste it into my new sketchbook, wanna try and make a ~cool artistic~ reference poster out of it, ‘cuz I’ve been real into that idea since I took notes about rings for the algebra midterm on a big piece of watercolor paper.

November 14, 1969 – Thirty-six-and-a-half seconds after the launch of Apollo 12, the space vehicle triggered a lightning discharge through itself and down to the earth through the Saturn’s ionized plume. Protective circuits on the fuel cells in the Service Module falsely detected overloads and took all the fuel cells offline, as well as much of the Command/Service Module instrumentation. At 52 seconds after liftoff, a second strike knocked out the “8-ball” attitude indicator. The telemetry stream at Mission Control was garble, but Apollo 12 continued to fly correctly. The strikes had not affected the Saturn V rocket’s Instrument Unit.

000:09:02 Conrad (onboard): I think we got hit by lightning.

000:09:04 Gordon Bean (onboard): I do, too.

000:09:06 Gordon (onboard): Something took care of those panels, I’ll say that for it.

Pete Conrad from the 1969 technical debrief: “Because I could see outside, I made the comment to them several times. I told the ground that I thought we had been hit by lightning. I was the only one that had any outside indications. Dick didn’t note anything over his little hole in his center window. I was the only one who noticed anything and that was only the first time. I was aware that something external to the spacecraft had happened. I had the decided impression that I not only saw it, but felt it and heard it.”

Alan Bean from the 1969 technical debrief: “I knew we had power, so I didn’t want to make any changes. I figured we could fly into orbit just like that and that’s exactly what we did. The ground came up a little later and said to put the fuel cells back on the line. I was a little hesitant about doing that, because I didn’t understand that we had been hit by lightning. I gave it a go and, sure enough, things started working very well after that.”

(NASA/Wikipedia/NASA)

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Dancers in Light Blue (Rehearsing in the Dance Studio) by Edgar Degas

Medium: oil on canvas

page 590 of “Science and literature in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance” (1878)

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CYGNSS rockets into orbit atop Pegasus

The first Cygnus launch from Cape Canaveral in nearly 10 years successfully placed NASA’s eight CYGNSS satellite into orbits Thursday, December 15. Pegasus, attached to the belly of Orbital ATK’s L-1011 Stargazer aircraft, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Skid Strip runway at 7:38am EDT.  After reaching an altitude of 39,000 feet and within the 10 by 40 mile launch box, Pegasus was commanded for release, falling away from the mothership at 8:37am. Less than five seconds later, the first stage ignited, beginning a 14-minute climb to orbit for Pegasus and the eight CYGNSS satellites. 

CYGNSS, short for Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System, will use high-fidelity GPS signals to help forecasters better measure and predict hurricanes. In honor of the storm recently affecting the space coast, the Pegasus rocket launching CYGNSS was named Matthew. This was the 43rd launch of the Pegasus rocket, which made history in 1990 as the world’s first successfully-launched commercially-developed rocket vehicle. It remains the only air-launched rocket system in operation. CYGNSS was originally scheduled for launch Monday, but a faulty hydraulic pump in the rocket’s release mechanism promoted a delay into today. P/C: NASA.

A very neat visual proof for the formula of the first n square numbers.

Correction: as pointed out by @othermaterial, the right-hand side of the formula should have variables n instead of k.

The Pork Butcher by Camille Pissarro

Size: 66x54 cm Medium: oil on canvas

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Space station flyover of Gulf of Aden and Horn of Africa

European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti took this photograph from the International Space Station and posted it to social media on Jan. 30, 2015. Cristoforetti wrote, “A spectacular flyover of the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa. #HelloEarth”

Image credit: NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti