We’re Used To Radiation Being Invisible. With A Geiger Counter, It Gets Turned Into Audible Clicks.

Largest Batch of Earth-size, Habitable Zone Planets

Our Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are firmly located in an area called the habitable zone, where liquid water is most likely to exist on a rocky planet.

This exoplanet system is called TRAPPIST-1, named for The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile. In May 2016, researchers using TRAPPIST announced they had discovered three planets in the system.

Assisted by several ground-based telescopes, Spitzer confirmed the existence of two of these planets and discovered five additional ones, increasing the number of known planets in the system to seven.

This is the FIRST time three terrestrial planets have been found in the habitable zone of a star, and this is the FIRST time we have been able to measure both the masses and the radius for habitable zone Earth-sized planets.

All of these seven planets could have liquid water, key to life as we know it, under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone.

At about 40 light-years (235 trillion miles) from Earth, the system of planets is relatively close to us, in the constellation Aquarius. Because they are located outside of our solar system, these planets are scientifically known as exoplanets. To clarify, exoplanets are planets outside our solar system that orbit a sun-like star.

In this animation, you can see the planets orbiting the star, with the green area representing the famous habitable zone, defined as the range of distance to the star for which an Earth-like planet is the most likely to harbor abundant liquid water on its surface. Planets e, f and g fall in the habitable zone of the star.

Using Spitzer data, the team precisely measured the sizes of the seven planets and developed first estimates of the masses of six of them. The mass of the seventh and farthest exoplanet has not yet been estimated.

For comparison…if our sun was the size of a basketball, the TRAPPIST-1 star would be the size of a golf ball.

Based on their densities, all of the TRAPPIST-1 planets are likely to be rocky. Further observations will not only help determine whether they are rich in water, but also possibly reveal whether any could have liquid water on their surfaces.

The sun at the center of this system is classified as an ultra-cool dwarf and is so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our solar system. All seven of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our sun.

 The planets also are very close to each other. How close? Well, if a person was standing on one of the planet’s surface, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighboring worlds, which would sometimes appear larger than the moon in Earth’s sky.

The planets may also be tidally-locked to their star, which means the same side of the planet is always facing the star, therefore each side is either perpetual day or night. This could mean they have weather patterns totally unlike those on Earth, such as strong wind blowing from the day side to the night side, and extreme temperature changes.

Because most TRAPPIST-1 planets are likely to be rocky, and they are very close to one another, scientists view the Galilean moons of Jupiter – lo, Europa, Callisto, Ganymede – as good comparisons in our solar system. All of these moons are also tidally locked to Jupiter. The TRAPPIST-1 star is only slightly wider than Jupiter, yet much warmer. 

How Did the Spitzer Space Telescope Detect this System?

Spitzer, an infrared telescope that trails Earth as it orbits the sun, was well-suited for studying TRAPPIST-1 because the star glows brightest in infrared light, whose wavelengths are longer than the eye can see. Spitzer is uniquely positioned in its orbit to observe enough crossing (aka transits) of the planets in front of the host star to reveal the complex architecture of the system. 

Every time a planet passes by, or transits, a star, it blocks out some light. Spitzer measured the dips in light and based on how big the dip, you can determine the size of the planet. The timing of the transits tells you how long it takes for the planet to orbit the star.

The TRAPPIST-1 system provides one of the best opportunities in the next decade to study the atmospheres around Earth-size planets. Spitzer, Hubble and Kepler will help astronomers plan for follow-up studies using our upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, launching in 2018. With much greater sensitivity, Webb will be able to detect the chemical fingerprints of water, methane, oxygen, ozone and other components of a planet’s atmosphere.

At 40 light-years away, humans won’t be visiting this system in person anytime soon…that said…this poster can help us imagine what it would be like: 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

death of a star by a supernova explosion,

and the birth of a black hole

Métaphore d’un voyage initiatique au coeur de l’oreille adapté aux enfants :

- traversée de l’onde aérienne en avion à l’intérieur du conduit auditif jusqu’à la membrane du tympan

- découverte de l’onde mécanique sur la chaîne des osselets en vue de la fenêtre ovale

- plongée de l’onde de pression dans la cochlée qui contient l’organe de l’audition relié au cerveau

That’s Electrooculography!

The eye is a basically a dipole ( a separation of electric charges )

It was observed by Reymond in 1848 that the cornea of the eye is electrically positive relative to the back of the eye.This potential was surprisingly not dependent on the amount of light falling on the eye.

                The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye

Dipoles and Eye Tracking

This means that as the eye moves from side to side, the dipole moves as well. To capture the movement of the dipole, one places two electrodes on both sides of the eye. ( like the one placed on this guy )

If the eye moves from the center position to the right, one of the electrodes becomes slightly positive and the other negative. This leads to a spike in the positive direction.

                                                  Source

And if the eye moves from the center position to the left, the polarity of the electrodes reverses. This leads to a spike in the negative direction.

That’s about it. That’s EOG for you all. I hope you guys enjoyed this post.

Have a great day!

Sources and Extras:

More about EOG

Gif source : The backyard brains

Nearly every day Cassini sends back something amazing to sit and wonder at.

1) Saturn’s rings, 15 July 2014

2) Tethys / Saturn’s rings 14 July 2014

3) Disk of Saturn 14 July 2014

4) Prometheus / F Ring 13 July 2014

5) Pan in the Encke Gap 13 July 2014

All raw and unprocessed images from saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

Pitch Black: Cosmic Clumps Cast the Darkest Shadows

Astronomers have found cosmic clumps so dark, dense and dusty that they throw the deepest shadows ever recorded. Infrared observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope of these blackest-of-black regions paradoxically light the way to understanding how the brightest stars form.

The clumps represent the darkest portions of a huge, cosmic cloud of gas and dust located about 16,000 light-years away. A new study takes advantage of the shadows cast by these clumps to measure the cloud’s structure and mass.

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Window phone concept

Is it a window, is it a phone? No. Actually, it’s Window phone and this is the part where you are saying “Whaaat? What are you talking about?”. The phone is actually a concept with extraordinary features. Surely if this could be actually put into production, it would set a new standard for the term “cool”.

sich wie die Axt im Wald benehmen

to behave like the axe in the forest

to behave like a bull in the china shop

(via thatswhywelovegermany)

I made my 22 mo old daughter an LED light suit costume. Looks hilarious!

> This might just be the coolest baby costume in the entire world.

> Her voice and movement remind me of Boo from Monsters Inc.

> You should probably let her run loose in all the dark areas of your neighborhood on Halloween night.

> Sweet, I can’t wait to show my 421 month old girlfriend this!