fivefiftyfive

"Remove all the space within the atoms making up the human body, and every person that’s ever lived..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:23:08 -0400

“Remove all the space within the atoms making up the human body, and every person that’s ever lived would fit inside a baseball.”

- NPR’s Robert Krulwich explains. (via we-are-star-stuff)

mindisthemagic: Rene Magritte - Golconda (1953)

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:20:13 -0400

mindisthemagic:

Rene Magritte - Golconda (1953)

album-artwork: muse, “absolution” 2003

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:17:39 -0400

album-artwork:

muse, “absolution”

2003

Imagine Dragons // Radioactive

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:15:18 -0400

Imagine Dragons // Radioactive

Exploding star remnants found in fossilized bacteria Thousands...

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:11:47 -0400

Example of a magnetotactic bacterium containing a chain of magnetosomes

Exploding star remnants found in fossilized bacteria

Thousands of metres below the sea, trapped in the fossilized remains of ancient bacteria, exists the iron remnants of a supernova explosion that happened millions of years ago. An imprint, here on Earth, of a dying star.

Iron-60, an isotope of iron created only in supernovae, has been found in fossilised seabed bacteria. The preliminary findings, announced by Shawn Bishop of the Technical University of Munich at a 14 April meeting of the American Physical Society in Colorado, may be the first time that a specific star’s debris has been found in our fossil record.

Iron-60’s half-life is relatively short when compared to the age of our solar system, so traces of the isotope on Earth suggests a direct interaction with a supernova in the planet’s history. The researchers searched for the isotope in fossils from seabed samples between 1.7 million to 3.3 million years old. They likely found traces of the isotope in fossils around 2.2 million years old.

The bacteria containing the Iron-60 are magnetotactic; they are strange organisms live in the seabed and align themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field. They extract iron from the water and sediment around them and create iron oxide crystals that are then preserved in the fossil record.

“For me, philosophically, the charm is that this is sitting in the fossil record of our planet,” said Bishop in a Nature.com report. The isotope had previously been discovered in seabed samples, but not in the fossil record.

“We are all, as Carl Sagan put it, stardust,” Bishop told Wired.co.uk. “[We have now] likely discovered, within crystal nano-fossils left behind by primitive bacteria, […] still-live radioactive atoms that can only have been synthesized within the same kind of nuclear furnace — an exploding star — that forged the elements from which all live on Earth is made. The cycle comes full-circle.”

It has been estimated that the supernova happened around 2.2 million years ago, and that the stream of cosmic rays would have had an effect on the Earth’s atmosphere by increasing cloud cover. The supernova responsible for depositing the iron-60 has not yet been found, but possible suspects have been identified in the nearby Scorpius-Centarus association.

This isn’t the first time that distant astronomical events have made an impact on Earth. In 2012, researchers found a surplus of radioactive atoms in Japanese trees, hinting at a violent cosmic event around 1,200 years ago.

"There are no answers, only cross references."

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:08:44 -0400

“There are no answers, only cross references.”

- Norbert Wiener, Vita Mathematica, 1989 (via we-are-star-stuff)

staceythinx: The wonderfully clever work of Chema Madoz

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:06:07 -0400

staceythinx:

The wonderfully clever work of Chema Madoz

colchrishadfield: Sometimes Mother Nature uses a protractor,...

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:03:09 -0400

colchrishadfield:

Sometimes Mother Nature uses a protractor, like here in New Zealand’s South Island.

Photo

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:28:54 -0400

nikolawashere: NY under water. The eye-catching swimming pool...

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:25:52 -0400

nikolawashere:

NY under water.

The eye-catching swimming pool in Mumbai, India, has been built to raise awareness about the threat of sea level rises as a result of global warming.

It was constructed by attaching a giant aerial photograph of the New York City skyline to the floor of the pool.

exhibition-ism: Stephanie Jungs chaotic world through photos

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:23:16 -0400

exhibition-ism:

Stephanie Jungs chaotic world through photos

Photo

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:20:20 -0400

mister-nobody: AMY SCHISSEL. CYBERFIELDS, 2 OF 9 PANELS, 2012,...

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:17:45 -0400

mister-nobody:

AMY SCHISSEL. CYBERFIELDS, 2 OF 9 PANELS, 2012, ACRYLIC, INK, CHARCOAL, MIXED MEDIA ON PAPER (with detail views)

ikenbot: Radio Astronomy A fireball (very bright meteor)...

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:15:06 -0400

ikenbot:

Radio Astronomy

A fireball (very bright meteor) flashes against the coalsack nebula and the Southern Cross in the night sky above Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope antennas.

The fireball left a glowing trail that dissipated over several minutes. The southern Milky Way and our neighboring dwarf galaxies the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are also visible in this south-looking image.

Emerging out of the Western Australian outback MWA is a remarkable telescope for radio astronomy where more than 2000 antennas are spread across 3 square kilometers, in 128 groups of dual-polarisation dipole antennas. — John Goldsmith

Matt Bellamy agrees to play Dead Star the next night in the...

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:11:48 -0400

Matt Bellamy agrees to play Dead Star the next night in the middle of Starlight at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto (x).

“Probably no stars will physically hit each other. There’s just...

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:08:50 -0400

“Probably no stars will physically hit each other. There’s just so much space between the stars, but when Andromeda collides with us it’ll have a huge impact on the Milky Way. Some things will get thrown into the black hole in the middle, some stars will get ripped off and thrown away into space, so it’ll be dramatic. And the entire night sky will change.” - The Universe S1E9 Alien Galaxies

sagansense: “A sense of wonder is not our only starting point....

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:06:07 -0400

sagansense:

“A sense of wonder is not our only starting point. It can also be our destination.”

Sharman Apt Russell | Anatomy of A Rose: Exploring the Secret Life of Flowers

boxofquantumcats: Perfect design.

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:03:10 -0400

boxofquantumcats:

Perfect design.

erikrasmussen: Happy Fibonacci Day, everybody! It won’t happen...

Wed, 08 May 2013 17:58:47 -0400

erikrasmussen:

Happy Fibonacci Day, everybody! It won’t happen again for 3019 days!

TODAY IS THE 8TH ANNIVERSARY OF 555!!!

Sun, 05 May 2013 10:36:35 -0400

TODAY IS THE 8TH ANNIVERSARY OF 555!!!