MetaFilter posts tagged with Planet

Saturn Equinox

netbros — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:17:16 -0800

Cassini Reveals New Ring Quirks, Shadows During Saturn Equinox. "It's like putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the first time," said Bob Pappalardo, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "This is among the most important events Cassini has shown us." Latest press images.

Planetary gear

twoleftfeet — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:14:13 -0800

♥☐➔5 ▼❀?

Pop Rocks

Smedleyman — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:47:55 -0800

The Little Fox has gas. Giovanna Tinetti using the Hubble Telescope says (in Nature - subscription required) there's Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere of the Jupiter sized, hot, extrasolar planet HD 189733b. Scientists have also found methane clouds in its atmosphere, as well as water vapor. Tinetti (who looks a bit like Kari Byron from mythbusters if you squint) also found evidence of methane.

The 4th degree

Artw — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:38:04 -0800

80 percent of Americans say global warming is real and poses a threat to humanity. Which is good because if the global temperature raises by 4 degrees we're all dead. However only 44 percent would be willing to face any financial hardship in the name of a solution.

In tribute to Charlton Heston, Russia has begun a real-life Planet of the Apes.

myopicman — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:50:15 -0800

By 2020, Mars may have monkeys, adding to the impressive roster of primates in space.

Create your own planet

Terminal Verbosity — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:24:36 -0800

Planet Sydney. Planet Joshua Tree. Planet Kyoto. Sadly, you can't visit any of these worlds, but you can make your own.

September 2007 polar sea ice anomaly

sergeant sandwich — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:49:59 -0800

Video (8MB, MPEG) of arctic sea ice extent, recorded from January to September 2007. [other formats] This summer a dramatic decrease compared to previous years in the extent of the north pole ice cap was observed. Scientists are freaked out [bugmenot]. This summer, the Northwest Passage was open for a few weeks, allowing three ships to traverse it. This data was taken by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. Comparison with past years. More information here.

Tom Cruise, ooohhhh!

milarepa — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:27:01 -0800

A gay boy wished for a planet full of unicorns, Planet Unicorn, Unicorn Planet! Episode: two, three.

Recycle your computer junk

Dave Faris — Thu, 31 May 2007 11:27:51 -0800

Recycle your computer junk. A large US office supply retailer just became the first to offer everyday, in-store recycling for computers & other office technology, and will recycle them using EPA guidelines. Only $10 an item (smaller stuff like mice and keyboards are free).

Ice hot planet

Artw — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:09:15 -0800

Scientists have discovered a planet composed of scorching hot ice. Originally thought to be a gas giant due to its mass, its actually only four times the size of Earth and most likely composed of exotic forms of ice, such as Ice VII and Ice X with s surface temperature of 300° C.

A home away from home?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:53:41 -0800

Spacefilter: ESA telescope detects planet 20 lightyears away with a temperature between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, dubbed "most Earth-like planet yet."

For, it is not the center of all the revolutions.

thatwhichfalls — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 23:19:20 -0800

Planetocopia - have some new planets for the New Year.
Future ones; tilted ones; wrong ones.
Plus instructions on how to make your own.
via Making Light.

Armageddon's Deep Impact

blahblahblah — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 22:47:01 -0800

An interactive map of the 174 major meteor impact craters. The largest crater we know of is the Vredefort Dome in South Africa, caused by a meteor some 10 km in diameter. Almost as large in the Sudbury Structure, located in Ontario, which contains some of the world's richest nickel and copper reserves, and has been only confirmed recently to be a crater. Third largest is the now-famous Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan, which probably killed the dinosaurs. Then take a look at an animation of asteroids near Earth [animated gif] and the list of minor planets that could hit us. Want to find out what happens when an meteor impacts in your area? Use the handy Earth Impacts Effects Program!

support democracy

thirteenkiller — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 05:24:00 -0800

SAVE PLUT O

Years of basic science textbooks down the drain...

twiggy — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 06:47:36 -0800

My very elegant mother just sat upon ninjas ... the textbooks, mnemonic devices and more will have to be changed today. Pluto has been demoted from its status as planet to a dwarf planet. We now have 8 in our solar system. The debate is not at all new, and its apparent resolution may not matter to our everyday lives, but it's just a little weird to think of all of the things that will have to be retroactively edited or amended as a result.

"The new Audrey Hepburn?"

Sinner — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 10:46:23 -0800

"Damn, Natalie, you a crazy chick!" (video) Natalie Portman, rapper and riot grrl? Maybe Lazy Sunday (video;mefi post) wasn't a freak occurence after all. Personally, I had expected the Lonely Planet guys to end up a one-hit wonder, but in my book they've (at least) moved up a notch to talented one-trick pony. Another very well-done digital short that should be seen by a lot more people than SNL's dismal ratings will allow.

Man Very Early Made Jars Stand Up Nearly Perfectly Ummm...

mosch — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 18:31:03 -0800

A new planet has been found. The new planet, named 2003 UB₃₁₃ is the farthest known object in the solar system, larger than pluto and a lousy tourist destination. Slacker Astronomy has an interview with co-discoverer Dr. Chad Trujillo.

Rocky Planet

vacapinta — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 13:44:47 -0800

"This planet answers an ancient question," said team leader Geoffrey Marcy, professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. "Over 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Epicurus argued about whether there were other Earth-like planets. Now, for the first time, we have evidence for a rocky planet around a normal star."
The star, Gliese 876, visible in the night sky, lies only 15 light-years away.

Alien planet

dhruva — Mon, 09 May 2005 22:41:07 -0800

Alien planet "The drama takes place on Darwin IV, a fictional planet 6.5 light-years from Earth, with two suns and 60 percent gravity. Having identified Darwin as a world that could support life, Earth sends a pilot mission consisting of the mothership and three probes." Discovery channel feature, Flash heavy site, via Pharyngula.

300 miles up

crunchland — Mon, 15 Sep 2003 20:45:57 -0800

300 miles up.

Doomed planet found

kaemaril — Tue, 28 Jan 2003 10:28:15 -0800

A Doomed planet orbiting a distant star has been located. No, not Krypton. The planet is going to be consumed by the star soon, but astronomers are not going to wait up for it.

keli — Tue, 03 Sep 2002 12:25:27 -0800

World on Fire is brought to us by the fun kids at NASA, showing satellite images of active fires around the planet on July 11, 2002. "Across the world, the widespread fires that burn each year in the savannas of Africa, Australia, and Brazil dwarf even the most significant fire season in the western United States as far as total acreage and number of fires." NOVA Online has its own set of images from 2000 as well.

hob — Fri, 14 Jun 2002 11:16:54 -0800

Solar System Akin to Earth's Is Discovered Any minute now, I imagine somebody at a listening station on a smaller, bluer planet a few in from this one making a minute adjustment to their equipment and promptly spraying warm stimulant-laced beverage over their console...

crasspastor — Tue, 11 Sep 2001 18:00:41 -0800

Reflections on a Mote of Dust "We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam." Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

holgate — Wed, 11 Apr 2001 19:22:00 -0800

"Having flown around the earth in the first satellite I saw how beautiful our planet is, let us not destroy it!"

Remembering Yuri Gagarin, 40 years on.