...are ready to party down. What R all of U up to tonight?
Anyone gotz any good resolutions?
Kittenz, astronomy, science, photography and other four-legged snarky stuff.
"Time traveling" astronomers have decoded echoes from a centuries-old supernova, allowing them to see light from the event as it appeared when the distant star first exploded.Via National Geographic News.
In 1572 Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe mistook the supernova for a new star, and he studied it extensively until it disappeared from view. Modern telescopes allow us to see the remnant of the blast, which appears like a colorful piece of cosmic algae in the above composite image.
The new study, in last week's issue of the journal Nature, is the first confirmation that Brahe witnessed what's known as a normal Type Ia supernova—when a white dwarf star in a binary system gathers so much matter from its partner that it compresses until it explodes.
At sunset, Monday's western sky showed off stunning colors and dramatic clouds reflected in Brisbane Water on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. It also featured the remarkable conjunction of the crescent Moon, Venus, and Jupiter forming a twilight smiley face. While the gathering of the two bright planets and Moon awed skygazers around planet Earth, astronomer Mike Salway reports taking special pains to record this gorgeous view, braving mosquitos and rain squalls along a soggy shore. His southern hemisphere perspective finds brilliant Venus at the highest point in the celestial grouping. For now, a bright pairing of Venus and Jupiter continues to dominate the western horizon after sunset but the Moon has moved on and tonight is near its first quarter phase.