Snow that doesnt melt! Is it a government conspiracy?! (Hint: no.) TheBadAstronomer 2026-09-22 | Snow that doesnt melt! Is it a government conspiracy?! (Hint: no.)
Under Alien Skies ARC unboxing TheBadAstronomer 2022-11-17 | I got my advanced reading copies (or ARCs) of my next book, Under Alien Skies! This is my first unboxing video, so I hope you like it. NOTE: The actual book will be a hardcover, not paperback, and it comes out on April 18, 2023! You can preorder a copy at wwnorton.com/books/under-alien-skies More info: badastronomy.substack.com/p/announcing-my-next-book-under-alien
Mars helicopter Ingenuitys 25th flight! TheBadAstronomer 2022-06-03 | On April 8, 2022, NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity took off on a record-breaking flight: Its 25th that was also its longest at 704 meters and fastest at a top speed of 5.5 meters per second — a decent pace on a bicycle. Wow. From 10 meters up it saw sand ripples blown by wind, fields of rocks, and then a fairly flat surface before landing again. The shadow of Ingenuity is obvious, too.Ingenuity is part of the Perseverance rover mission, designed to get a bird's-eye view of the territory ahead for the rover, looking for interesting things to look at more closesly as well as potential hazards.Original story + video: jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-captures-video-of-record-flight
Visibility of the lunar eclipse on the evening of May 15/16 2022 TheBadAstronomer 2022-05-13 | On the Sunday evening/Monday morning May 15/16, the Moon will pass into Earth's shadow, creating a night-long total lunar eclipse! This event takes many hours to unfold, but the partial/umbral phase starts at 02:27 UTC, totality runs from 03:29 to 04:54 UTC, and the partial phase ends at 05:55 (use timeanddate.com to get your local times). This NASA video shows when and where the different parts are visible. The parts of Earth clearly seen are where you can see the current phase of the eclipse. So, for example, when totality begins (0:30 in the video) it's visible in all of South America, nearly all of the US, Canada, and Africa, and parts of western Europe. The time and appearance of the Moon are shown at the bottom. Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization StudioOriginal video: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4981
Solar spicules make the Sun look like a shag carpet TheBadAstronomer 2022-03-24 | The Sun's surface seethes with activity, including the creation of spicules: tall, narrow spikes of plasma that can reach heights of 12,000 km. They continuously form and collapse, and the cause is not well understood. New research shows that it might be similar to Faraday excitation, where plumes are created in a liquid when it vibrates at a specific frequency — similar to how fluids appear to dance when placed on a loudspeaker.Original link: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12604Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
How did the James Webb Space Telescope unfold? TheBadAstronomer 2022-01-09 | This animation shows the deployment sequence of the James Webb Space Telescope, which was designed to fold up to fit inside the launch rocket's payload fairing. First the solar panel unfurls, then the sunshield unfolds, extends, and undergoes tension to keep its shape. After that the tripod holding the secondary mirror comes out from behind the primary, then the two "wings" holding three of the 18 hexagonal primary mirror segments rotate into position. There are several other small subsystems that had to deploy as well that aren't shown. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image LabOriginal video: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20339
The rotation of asteroid 2016 AJ193 seen by radar TheBadAstronomer 2021-09-07 | The near-Earth asteroid 2016 AJ193 passed just 3.4 million kilometers from Earth in August 2021, close enough for NASA's Goldstone radar facility to ping it with radio waves (like a cop measuring car speeds on the highway) and see it rotating (it spins once every 3.5 hours). For info on how this works see planetary.org/articles/3248Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechOriginal video: jpl.nasa.gov/images/radar-reveals-the-surface-of-asteroid-2016-aj193
Saturn ring ripples reveal the planets interior TheBadAstronomer 2021-08-16 | This animation shows the interior of Saturn in a cutaway, which, according to a new model, has a huge fuzzy core with no distinct boundary. As Saturn rotates the core sloshes around, which changes the gravity felt by orbiting particles in Saturn’s C ring. Waves created in the ring make them sensitive seismographs, allowing scientists to probe what’s going on deep within the planet. The new work indicates the core extends to 60% of Saturn’s radius and has 17 times the mass of Earth in rock and ice alone, and over twice that in gas mixed in. Credit: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)More info: syfy.com/syfywire/saturns-core-is-big-and-fuzzy-and-its-gravity-is-written-in-the-rings
This color square illusion that will make you distrust your brian TheBadAstronomer 2021-08-13 | A fantastic color illusion by the genius illusion maker and professor of psychology Akiyoshi Kitaoka. Your eyes see color by contrasting it with other colors, so when the square slides back and forth it appears to change color. There is no trick here; this is just an illusion based on how we perceive color. Credit: Akiyoshia Kitaoka, used by permissionOriginal: http://www.psy.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/colorgradation01-00240.mp4Kitaoka's website loaded with illusions: http://www.psy.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka
Animation of the asteroid Psyches rotation based on shape models TheBadAstronomer 2021-08-12 | The asteroid 16 Psyche is ~250 km across and — unlike most asteroids — is made predominantly of iron! Although it's too small to see details of its surface directly, observations of it using various telescopes have allowed astronomers to build a model of its shape. This animation, created by planetary scientist Michael Shepard, shows the model spinning (first looking up from the south then down from the north). The red stub marks the long axis of the asteroid. Credit: Michael ShepardJournal paper: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/abfdba/pdf
Blue flash animation TheBadAstronomer 2021-07-26 | Animation (i.e., it’s not actual footage) showing a blue flash in a thunderstorm seen by the International Space Station, hundreds of kilometers above (note the panels to the upper left corner). It sparks both a blue jet — the tendril reaching upward — and an ELVES (Emission of Light and Very low frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic pulse Sources), an expanding circle of light as electrons accelerated by the electric fields in the storm slam into the air above. Credit: DTU Space, Mount Visual / Daniel SchmellingOriginal video: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Genesis_of_blue_lightning_into_the_stratosphere_detected_from_the_International_Space_Station
Alien stars seeing Earth transit the Sun TheBadAstronomer 2021-06-25 | We discover exoplanets via the transit method, where we see those planets' orbits edge-on. But other stars can see Earth's orbit edge on, and therefore could detect us. How many nearby stars in the sky are in the right position to do this? This video, by the authors of a paper investigating this idea, expalins how this works.Credit: OpenSpace/American Museum of Natural History
What will you see during the total lunar eclipse on May 26, 2021? TheBadAstronomer 2021-05-23 | On May 26, 2021 the Moon's orbit will sweep it across Earth's shadow on the sky, creating a total lunar eclipse. This NASA animation shows the path of the Moon across the sky as it first enters Earth's outer, dimmer penumbral shadow, then into the darker umbra, when the Moon should turn an eerie reddish color. It cuts a shallow chord across the umbra so totally is only 16 minutes long. This eclipse favors people farther to the west, so the Pacific coast, Alaska, and Hawaii get great views, as well as eastern Australia. All times listed are Pacific. Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization StudioOriginal video: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4903
GOES West actinoform clouds TheBadAstronomer 2021-05-05 | Animation of images from the GOES West weather satellite showing a bizarre actinoform cloud forming over the Pacific Ocean. "Actinoform" means "with rays" or spokes, which makes sense. However, it's not clear how these clouds form. The clouds around it are stratocumulus, a layer (stratus) of puffy (cumulus) clouds. The animation plays four times. Credit: NOAAOriginal video: nesdis.noaa.gov/content/converging-cloud-cluster-swirls-over-pacific
Mars Ingenuity helicopter sees its own shadow on 3rd flight TheBadAstronomer 2021-05-03 | The Mars helicopter Ingenuity flew for the third time on April 25, 2021. During that flight it took many images, including looking straight down at the terrain underneath it. Some of these images were assembled into an animation showing the helicopter's shadow on the ground! The animation repeats twice.The blades don't seem to move due to the way the images were taken; the shutter is synched to the blade movement. The bright spot around the shadow is due to the opposition effect: The lack of shadows from rocks and other irregularities on the surface makes it look brighter, plus dusty surfaces tend to reflect more light straight back in the direction the light came from, making it look brighter around the shadow.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechOriginal video: jpl.nasa.gov/images/ingenuitys-shadow-during-third-flight
Zooming in on a monster black hole TheBadAstronomer 2021-04-16 | In 2017, 19 different observatories observed the giant elliptical galaxy M87, probing it on scales from billions of kilometers to a million light years. On the smallest scale we see the material swilring around the supermassive black hole in the galaxy's center, then zoom out to see the vast beam of material being shot away from the black hole, then even further to see the galaxy itself. The observatories detect light across the spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays.Credit: NASA/GSFC/SVS/M.Subbarao & NASA/CXC/SAO/A.JubettOriginal video: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2021/m87/animations.html
Mars InSight buries a cable TheBadAstronomer 2021-04-02 | NASA's Mars InSight lander has a seismograph on it that has measured more than 500 quakes on Mars. Thermal expansion and contraction of a cable connecting the instrument to the lander, however, makes noise that masks the seismic waves from quakes. To mitigate that, engineers are using a scoop on the lander to pick up material from the Martian surface and drop it on the dome covering the instrument (which in turn protects it from wind), so that the material will cover the cable and insulate it. This video is made from a series of images taken by a camera on the lander showing the procedure.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechOriginal video: mars.nasa.gov/resources/25771/insight-starts-burying-seismometers-cable
Ferrovolcanism flow experiment TheBadAstronomer 2021-03-22 | Lava flow experiments done by NCSU scientists using the Syracuse Lava Project facility in NY show how a mix of metal and rocky (silicaceous) lavas would behave in a ferrovolcanic (metal lava) eruption. The rocky lava flows slowly and forms a smooth billowy surface. The molten metal can flow on top in rivulets (along the top edge) but the bulk of it is denser and less viscous, so it can push is way through underneath the rocky lava. It breaks through at the lead edge of the flow, forming intertwining tendrils and eventually pooling. Ferrovolcanism may have once occurred on the metal asteroid Psyche, and experiments like this can help scientists identify any lava flows and their composition. NASA is planning a mission to Psyche to arrive in 2026.Credit: Arianna Soldati, et al. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International LicenseOriginal video: nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21582-w#Sec11
Perseverance Mars rover landing overview TheBadAstronomer 2021-02-17 | On February 18, 2021, the NASA Mars rover Perseverance lands on Mars. Slowing from the interplanetary velocity of 20,000 kph to just 2 — yes, 2 — upon landing is not easy. This video shows how it rams through the atmosphere, then uses a parachute, and finally a rocket-powered sky crane to descend to the surface.The mission is to look for signs of ancient life on Mars, searching in a crater called Jezero which was once a lake filled with water. It will collect samples for a future mission to send to Earth. It also carries a small helicopter which will test technology for future drone missions to Mars, too!Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechOriginal video: mars.nasa.gov/resources/25583/nasas-perseverance-mars-rover-landing-in-most-difficult-site-ever-attempted
Weird moving beam of light across the nebula M 2-9 TheBadAstronomer 2021-01-04 | M 2-9 is a planetary nebula, a structure formed by the winds of gas blown out by a dying star. The central star in this one, though, is a binary system, two stars orbiting each other. One, a red giant, blows out a dense, slow wind, and the other, a white dwarf, has a faster wind. Because they're next to each other, the white dwarf wind gets bent to the side when it hits the gas from the other star's wind. This illuminates the gas in the nebula lobes, which you can see sweeping around as the stars orbit. The orbital period is about a century, so if we had images over that time you'd see that line move all the way around the nebula lobes.I have a more detailed explanation in my newsletter: badastronomy.substack.com/p/ban-285-new-years-new-banner-funOriginal video: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070618.htmlCredit: R. Corradi, M. Santander-Garcia (Isaac Newton Group, IAC), Bruce Balick (U. Washington)
A full day on Neptune on January, 2020 TheBadAstronomer 2020-12-16 | Hubble Space Telescope observations taken in January 2020 show a full day's rotation — which takes 16 hours — on Neptune, the giant planet that guards the outer solar system. You can see a pair of dark spots in the northern hemisphere; the big one recently was migrating south but for unknown reasons turned around and headed north again. The smaller spot may have spun off it during that maneuver. Credit: NASA / ESA / M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), L.A. Sromovsky and P.M. Fry (University of Wisconsin-Madison), and J. DePasquale (STScI)Original video: hubblesite.org/contents/media/videos/2020/59/1299-Video?news=true
Philae hits a comet and carves a skullface TheBadAstronomer 2020-12-06 | When the Philae lander hit the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko the second time after initially bouncing off it, it hit a patch of surface made of incredibly lightweight fluffy ice, compressing it 25 cm and leaving behind a bright patch. That area of the surface is nicknamed "skullface" because it looks like, well, a skull's face. Original video: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2020/10/Where_is_skull_faceCredit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Philae second touchdown sequence TheBadAstronomer 2020-12-06 | The sequence of events when the Philae lander hit the surface of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko the second time. It hit and then slid down a big boulder, impacted the surface, compressing it, bounced up, hit an overhang, hit the surface again, and then moved about 30 meters away to its final resting spot.Original video: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Rosetta/Philae_s_second_touchdown_site_discovered_at_skull-top_ridgeCredit: Images: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA; Data: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/ROMAP
SDO sees two weeks in the life of the Sun TheBadAstronomer 2020-12-06 | This animation shows two very different weeks in the life of the Sun as seen from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. They show our nearest star in ultraviolet light (wavelength = 13.1 nanometers) where magnetic activity can be seen. The first 20 seconds is a week of the Sun in late January 2020, when a single relatively small (Earth-sized) sunspot rotated into view. The second 20 seconds shows the Sun in late November/early December 2020, when activity had increased, and a larger sunspot (3X Earth) rotates in. You can see loops of magnetic energy carrying superhot plasma from the Sun’s surface up and back down again. For scale, the Sun is 1.4 million kilometers in diameter, and over 100 Earths could fit across its face! [Note: Sometimes you see the Sun image shake a bit; that’s usually due to the telescope re-centering on the Sun after slight pointing movements.] Images courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, created using Helioviewer: helioviewer.org
Gaia shows the motions of nearby stars for 1.6 million years TheBadAstronomer 2020-12-03 | The Gaia satellite has measured extremely precise data for nearly 2 billion stars, including their positions in the sky, distances, and motion as they all orbit the center of the galaxy. This animation shows the projected motion of 40,000 stars with 326 light years of the Sun over the next 1.6 million years. Longer trails mean faster motion, and the length of the trails represents motion over 80,000. Some stars appear to move more rapidly or more slowly over time, which is due to perspective as they get closer or farther from the Sun. You may notice more stars on the right side versus the left toward the end of the animation; this is due to the Sun’s motion with respect to the stars. The stars chosen for this animation are the closest now, but as the Sun moves in one direction the stars appear to move in the other. At the end of the animation is a brief display showing the trails representing 400,000 years of motion. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Acknowledgement: A. Brown, S. Jordan, T. Roegiers, X. Luri, E. Masana, T. Prusti and A. Moitinho. Original video: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2020/12/Gaia_s_stellar_motion_for_the_next_1.6_million_years/(lang)
SDO sees sunpot region AR12786 TheBadAstronomer 2020-11-25 | A big sunspot is comin' round the Sun! Active Region 12786 is a big area of magnetic activity that was predicted to exist by scientists even when it was on the other side of the Sun. On 23 November 2020 it appeared on the Sun's western side, rotating into view. This movie represents 3 days of ultraviolet (1700 Angstrom) observations by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Active Region 12783 is the spot you can see at the beginning, then 12785 rolls into view, and then the much larger 12786. The big spot is roughly 50,000 kilometers wide — nearly four times biggger than the Earth!Credit: NASA / SDO / Helioviewer.org
GALEX Blue Ring Nebula model TheBadAstronomer 2020-11-18 | A thousand years ago, two huge thick-shelled cones of gas were expelled from the star TYC 2597-735-1, with one headed toward us and the other away. The shells are cold molecular gas that glows in the UV, and the open ends glow red as hydrogen gas hits the thin material between stars. This animation starts with observations of the object, then fades into a model of the open cones which spins around to show the true geometry. The blue ring we see is actually where we see the cones overlap. There’s a funny illusion that you may experience watching this where, as the structure rotates, it looks like the cones are suddenly moving in opposite directions. Our brains have a hard time interpreting symmetric structures like this and can be fooled that way. Another example of this that makes it more clear can be found at youtube.com/watch?v=-hBdPyefpGs. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/NASA/JPL-Caltech/M. Seibert (Carnegie Institution for Science)/K. Hoadley (Caltech)/GALEX Team
GALEX Blue RIng Nebula model — solid shell version TheBadAstronomer 2020-11-18 | A thousand years ago, two huge thick-shelled cones of gas were expelled from the star TYC 2597-735-1, with one headed toward us and the other away. The shells are cold molecular gas that glows in the UV, and the open ends glow red as hydrogen gas hits the thin material between stars. This animation starts with observations of the object, then fades into a cartoon model of the open cones showing them as thick solid shells, and then spins around to show the true geometry. The blue ring we see is actually where we see the cones overlap. There’s a funny illusion that you may experience watching this where, as the structure rotates, it looks like the cones are suddenly moving in opposite directions. Our brains have a hard time interpreting symmetric structures like this and can be fooled that way. Another example of this that makes it more clear can be found at youtube.com/watch?v=-hBdPyefpGs. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/NASA/JPL-Caltech/M. Seibert (Carnegie Institution for Science)/K. Hoadley (Caltech)/GALEX Team
The trajectory of object 2020 SO as it makes a near-miss and then orbits the Earth TheBadAstronomer 2020-11-17 | The object 2020 SO is possibly the upper stage of a rocket that sent the Surveyor 2 lander to the Moon in 1966. It passes within about 50,000 km of Earth in December 2020, and this animation shows two views of it. The first, from an oblique angle, shows it making a wide loop around the Earth that takes about 4 months, then passes us again before heading out (the orbits of the Moon and geosynchronous satellites are shown, too). The second is a top-down view. It may use slightly different numbers for the orbit, but the overall trajectory is the same. Credits: Video 1: NASA/JPL-Caltech (jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2020-216)Video 2: Tony873004 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_SO#/media/File:2020SO_b.gif)
Asteroid 2020 VT4 orbital simulation TheBadAstronomer 2020-11-16 | An animation of the orbit of the small (5-10 meter) asteroid 2020 VT4, which passed a mere 400 km from Earth's surface on 14 November 2020. The first view shows the path looking down from Earth's north pole, and you can see how close it got. The second is from the asteroid's point of view, and the third with the Sun at the center (that one starts pretty much at closest approach). This was all done by Tony Dunn using his amazing Orbital Simulator (http://www.orbitsimulator.com/gravity/articles/what.html), and he kindly let me upload it to YT so I could use it on my Bad Astronomy Blog. Full credit to him!Credit: Tony Dunn Original video and tweet: twitter.com/tony873004/status/1327699921462386688
Birth of a magnetar TheBadAstronomer 2020-11-12 | Animation depicting the birth of a magnetar. First, two neutron stars orbit each other. They slowly spiral together over billions of years, ever faster, until they merge. A huge explosion ensues, called a kilonova, also creating a short gamma-ray burst when two beams of matter are expelled at high velocity. The merged remnant forms a magnetar, a magnetized neutron star, with field lines around it like a tremendously strong bar magnet. A magnetar can have a magnetic field a quadrillion times stronger than Earth’s. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Player (STScI) Original video: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2020-29
OSIRIS REx approaches asteroid Bennu: Sample collection and retreat TheBadAstronomer 2020-11-02 | On 20 October 2020, the OSIRIS-REx navigational camera captured these images as the spacecraft dropped to the surface of the asteroid Bennu, angled in on its touchdown site, blasted it with nitrogen, and created a cloud of debris so it could capture material from the asteroid to return to Earth. This all occurred over 300 million kilometers from Earth, and was done autonomously by the spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin Original video: asteroidmission.org/navcam2_tag_single_loop_complete_small_gif
OSIRIS REx closes its sample lid TheBadAstronomer 2020-11-02 | After the sample collector containing material from the asteroid Bennu was safely stowed on the OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule, the lid closed down and everything is ready to send the capsule to Earth. The spacecraft will leave the asteroid in March 2021 and the capsule will come back to Earth in September 2023. For scale, the capsule is 80 cm wide and 50 tall. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin Original video: asteroidmission.org/?attachment_id=26630
ESA Ariane 6 rocket engine F120C hot fire test (sound up) TheBadAstronomer 2020-10-26 | The solid rocket booster F120C, which will help propel the European Space Agency's next-gen Ariane 6 rocket into space, was test fired in French Guiana on 7 October, 2020. It fired for 130 seconds, the full duration of flight, genertaing a *million* pounds of thrust. The engine is now fully qualified for flight. Credit: ESA / CNESOriginal video: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2020/10/P120C_motor_configured_for_Ariane_6_is_test_fired
OSIRIS-REx sample collection: Approach and aftermath TheBadAstronomer 2020-10-22 | This video is made of *actual images* taken by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft as it approached the asteroid Bennu, made contact, blasted it with nitrogen gas to create a cloud of debris, collected samples, and backed away. There are two parts: A smoother stream showing approach and the blast, and a second one displaying individual images for a second or two so you can see them more clearly.This all occurred on 20 October 2020, and was a major goal of the mission to study the asteroid. The collected samples will be brought back to Earth for scientists to study in the lab. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
OSIRIS REx TAGSAM animation TheBadAstronomer 2020-10-22 | This CGI animation shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft descending to the Nightingale region near the north pole of the asteroid Bennu. The TAGSAM (Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) is on the end of an extended arm. When contact is made, nitrogen gas blows material off the surface and into collection chambers in the TAGSAM head, then the spacecraft fires thrusters to back away. Note the surface of Bennu is much more rugged than depicted, and this maneuver, successfully implemented on 20 October 2020, was fiendishly difficult. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of ArizonaOriginal video: arizona.app.box.com/v/OsirisRExTAG/file/730117757479
Cameron Peak wildfire smoke plume time lapse TheBadAstronomer 2020-10-15 | The Cameron Peak wildfire in north-central Colorado has been burning since 13 August 2020. As I write this on 14 October it's burned 135,000 acres and is one of the biggest wildfires in Colorado history [Update (15 Oct.) It is now past 160,000 acres and is the single biggest wildfire in state history.]. Climate change is making fire season longer, drying out fuel more, allowing tree-boring insects to live longer and have two generational cycles per summer instead of just one, and keeping Colorado in a drought longer. This is the result.It's about 80 km from me to the northwest-ish, so the plume is easy to spot. It was absent yesterday; recent snow and temperature drops slowed the fire. But this morning I woke up to a huge plume lit by the low Sun, so I took a time-lapse of it. This one minute of footage is a half-hour of real time. The winds to the east are pretty fast today so the movement is rapid. There was also a decent pyrocumulus cloud head to it earlier, a giant cloud caused by the heat of the fire forcing air to rise above it. As of right now the fire is 56% contained. More info on the fire: inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6964
Ripples of acoustic waves scream away from a solar flare TheBadAstronomer 2020-10-14 | Animation of observations by SOHO’s MDI instrument show sound wave ripples in the Sun’s surface expanding away from a solar flare that occurred on 9 July 1996. For 20 years these have been a mystery, but new observations indicate their source is actually inside the Sun, below the surface, somehow triggered by the flare above them. Credit: NASA / ESA / SOHO / MDIOriginal video: http://quake.stanford.edu/~sasha/FLARE/
How Mars Express found underground water on Mars TheBadAstronomer 2020-09-29 | The Mars Express spacecraft has been orbiting Mars since 2013. It has an instrument called MARSIS that uses radar to penetrate the ground and examine materials there. Using it, a team of scientists has found a large (30 x 20 km) lake of liquid water 1.5 km under the surface near the Martian south pole, surrounded by at least three other sizable bodies of water (ponds or lakes). They are probably intensely salty, which is why they haven't frozen. Credit: ESAOriginal video: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2020/09/Mars_Express_finds_more_underground_water_on_Mars
How a comet makes an aurora TheBadAstronomer 2020-09-28 | An animation of how an aurora is generated by the solar wind and a comet’s coma. Electrons form the Sun stream away in the solar wind. Ionized atoms around the comet create an electric field that accelerates the solar electrons. They slam into water that's escaped from the comet, breaking it up into hydrogen and oxygen, which then glow in the ultraviolet: an aurora. Credit: ESAOriginal video: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Rosetta/Unique_ultraviolet_aurora_spied_at_Rosetta_s_comet
A year in the life of the black hole in the center of M87 TheBadAstronomer 2020-09-23 | A year in the life of M87*, the supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87. The first part shows complicated simulations of the hot material orbiting the black hole using the math of General Relativity and the behavior of plasma. At 92 days the simulations are blurred to show how it would look to the Event Horizon Telescope. The gray bar that appears points toward the average position of the bright spots in the ring. The scale bar shows 40 microarseconds, a very tiny angle on the sky; the ring is about 100 billion kilometers across and 55 million light years from Earth. Credit: G. Wong, B. Prather, Ch. Gammie, M. Wielgus & the EHT Collaboration
You too can be a scientist by doing Citizen Science! TheBadAstronomer 2020-09-18 | This video is sponsored by Fox and “Cosmos: Possible Worlds”, which premieres on Fox on 22 September at 8:00 p.m. Eastern / 7:00 Central.I explain how you — yes, YOU — can do real research with citizen science projects. These take minimal training — just a few minutes, usually! — and provide critical support to research scientists looking at huge piles of data. You never know: You might just get your name published in a science journal, too. I love citizen science programs, as they help kindle the flame of scientific curiosity in the public, and inspire a generation of new scientists, people who can help us solve some of humanity’s greatest problems. They give me great hope for the future of humanity.As I mention in the video, watch Cosmos Future Fair, a day of science demos that will be streamed LIVE on 21 September starting at 9am PT: http://www.youtube.com/foxtv
Exploring exoplanets from home TheBadAstronomer 2020-09-15 | This video is sponsored by Fox and “Cosmos: Possible Worlds”, which premieres on Fox on 22 September at 8:00 p.m. Eastern / 7:00 Central.Did you know that astronomers have discovered over 4,000 exoplanets: alien planets orbiting aliens stars? We can learn a lot about them from investigating the light we get from their host stars, which I explain with a short demo you can do at home. This is one of the most fascinating and exciting new fields in astronomy, and just the idea that the galaxy may be filled with Earth-like worlds gives me incredible hope for the future, and the future of humanity. There’s so much of the cosmos left to explore, and we’re making these discoveries now. Today. As I mention in the video, watch Cosmos Future Fair, a day of science demos that will be streamed LIVE on 21 September starting at 9am PT: http://www.youtube.com/foxtv
Astronomers find evidence of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus TheBadAstronomer 2020-09-14 | Phosphine is a biomarker, a molecule made by life on Earth. Finding it in the atmosphere of another planet *could* mean the presence of life. Astronomers found what looks like phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus at levels of 20 parts per billion. They ruled out a number of non-biological processes to make it, though it's impossible to rule out everything. Credit: ESOOriginal video: eso.org/public/videos/eso2015a
Global map of Venus showing coronae locations TheBadAstronomer 2020-07-22 | This rotating map of Venus shows the location of coronae, weird circular volcanic features on the surface of Venus due to plume of rising mantle material hitting the crust and deforming it. This process may still be going on *today*; white circles are inactive plumes but red circles show very young features indicating current activity. Credit: Anna GülcherOriginal: https://cmns.umd.edu/news-events/features/4631
Comet NEOWISE spiral arms creating shells of dust TheBadAstronomer 2020-07-21 | This amazing animation shows comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) creating shells of dust around it. As the nucleus spins, vents of material spew gas and dust into space in a spiral pattern. These move away from the comet creating the "hoods" or shells around it. This time-lapse shows 80 minutes of observations, and repeats three times. Credit: Damian Peach (by permission)Original GIF: twitter.com/peachastro/status/1284834309082419200
Solar Orbiter sees lots of small flares on the Sun TheBadAstronomer 2020-07-17 | The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter mission dived toward the Sun, taking very high resolution images in the far ultraviolet from just 77 million km away. It saw the Sun is covered in small bursts of light they nicknamed "campfires", which may be long sought-after nanoflares predicted to exist. More info: Credit: Solar Orbiter/EUI Team (ESA & NASA); CSL, IAS, MPS, PMOD/WRC, ROB, UCL/MSSLOriginal video: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2020/07/Solar_Orbiter_sees_campfires_on_the_Sun
Hubble sees cosmic shadow play as a star flaps its wings. TheBadAstronomer 2020-06-26 | The star EC 82 has a disk of material around it, and that disk is casting an enormous shadow into space and onto nebulosity around it. But images taken over time show the shadow... flapping! The disk may be warped like a Pringles potato chip, which is making the shadow look like a bird flapping its wings. This video alternates several times between two Hubble images taken about a year apart. The warp may be caused by a planet orbiting in the disk.Original video: hubblesite.org/contents/media/videos/2020/22/1281-Video?news=trueCredit: NASA, ESA, and K. Pontoppidan and J. DePasquale (STScI)
How to make a ring galaxy TheBadAstronomer 2020-05-26 | This animation shows the formation of a ring galaxy, when a smaller galaxy plows through a much larger disk galaxy in a direct hit through the center. The gravity of the “bullet” galaxy creates an expanding wave of increased density in the target galaxy, creating a ring of compressed gas that forms stars at a furious rate. This video was created to schematically show the formation of the ring galaxy R5519, located a whopping 10.7 billion light years from Earth, so we see it when the Universe was only about 3 billion years old.Credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions More info: syfy.com/syfywire/one-ring-galaxy-to-bring-them-all-and-in-the-darkness-bind-themOriginal video: https://www.scienceinpublic.com.au/media-releases/ring-galaxy
Gemini telescope observes Jupiter TheBadAstronomer 2020-05-08 | On 29 May 2019, the huge 8.1-meter Gemini North telescope observed Jupiter as part of a program that looks at the planet at the same time as Hubble and the Juno spacecraft. Gemini took nearly 350 short exposures of the Jupiter to minimize the blurring of Earth's air (shown on the left), then the best were assembled into an amazing image (right), one of the highest resolution images ever made from the ground (features only 400 km across can be seen, while Jupiter is 140,000 km wide). Gemini sees in thermal infrared, so bright area are where heat from inside Jupiter leaks out through clear air, and dark areas are where clouds block that heat from escaping.More info: syfy.com/syfywire/jaw-dropping-images-of-jupiter-from-ground-and-space-display-its-massive-stormsCredit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, M.H. Wong (UC Berkeley) and team Acknowledgments: Mahdi Zamani.Original video: https://www.gemini.edu/pr/gemini-gets-lucky-and-takes-deep-dive-jupiter-s-clouds
