New Video On Irregular Galaxies! Enjoy!

The moon occluding the sun during an eclipse. The fine threads you can see are part of the solar corona, and actually titanic spools of ultra-hot plasma, curling and bending with the sun’s complex magnetic field.

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A photo of Jupiter. Took by Cassini with COISS on April 02, 2001 at 15:22:15. Detail page on OPUS database.

White holes

White holes are hypothetically the complete opposite of a black hole; nothing can enter it. They appear in the theory of Eternal Black holes. Einstein field equations would position white holes in the past which is also the opposite of black hole regions placed in the future. The white hole shares the same properties as matter. It has a gravitational pull but objects traveling towards it would never reach the event horizon. The white hole event horizon in the past becomes a black hole event horizon in the future thus any object heading to the event horizon for the white hole will eventually end up on the event horizon on the black hole. Stephen Hawking made the argument that because black holes can be in a time-reversal-invariant state, this would imply that black holes and white holes are the same object. The Hawking radiation from the black hole is identified being emitted from the white hole.

There is much much more to white holes than this and many different theories. I like the idea of a white hole being the output for the black hole forming an Einstein-Rosen bridge. However, there are currently no known processes for how white holes are formed, they are not like a black hole which is formed from the collapse of a very large object.

A great paper to help you understand one of the current white hole theories is found on thins like http://arxiv.org/vc/arxiv/papers/1105/1105.2776v1.pdf

May 14, 2009 – A close-up view of astronaut John Grunsfeld performing spacewalk to do some maintenance on the Hubble Space Telescope, photographed by Andrew Feustel, who can be seen in Grunsfeld’s visor. 

(NASA)

International Space Station

The International Space Station is an important and special place that is built on international cooperation and partnership. The station is a convergence of science, technology and human innovation that benefits and advances our global community here on Earth.

While the space station is an important aspect of our low-Earth orbit exploration, it is also the key to our next giant leap to deep space and our Journey to Mars. For example, our recent VEGGIE experiment aboard the space station is a critical aspect of long-duration exploration missions farther into the solar system. Food grown in space will be a resource for crew members that can provide them will essential vitamins and nutrients that will help enable deep space pioneering.

Another important experiment underway is the Twins Study that involves twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly. These investigations will provide insight into the subtle effects and changes that may occur in spaceflight as compared to Earth by studying two individuals who have the same genetics, but are in different environments for one year. You can follow Scott Kelly as he spends a year in space.

The space station is the second brightest object in the sky (after the moon, of course), and you don’t even need a telescope to see it! We can even tell you exactly when and where to look up to Spot the Station in your area!

So, as you look to spot the station in the sky, remember that even though it may look small from Earth, the crew onboard (and at home) are making contributions to international partnerships and global research.

The Earth under Saturn’s rings

A wonderful milky way over the Australia

M22 globular cluster

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