Nikola Tesla Once Paid An Overdue Hotel Bill With A ‘working Model’ Of His ‘death Beam’. He Warned

A faint view of the Milky Way from the Namib Desert

What a trillion stars look like; a sharp view of the Andromeda galaxy. From twitter @ WorldAndScience

Not Only Didn’t We Find Water On An Earth-Like Exoplanet, But We Can’t With Current Technology

“Over the past few decades, astronomers have uncovered thousands of new exoplanets. Some of them are rocky; some are temperate; some have water. However, the idea that exoplanet K2-18b is rocky, Earth-like, and has liquid water is absurd, despite recent headlines. Light filters through K2-18b’s atmosphere when it passes in front of its star, enabling us to measure what’s absorbed. Based on those absorption lines, the presence of many chemicals can be inferred, including water. K2-18b is, truly, the first known habitable-zone exoplanet to contain water. However, it is not rocky; its mass and radius are too large, necessitating a large gas envelope around it.”

How incredible was that report that came out last week: the first Earth-like, rocky exoplanet with liquid water on its surface has been discovered! If it were true, it would be incredible. Well, what we did find is still pretty remarkable, but it’s very different from what you’ve likely heard.

We did find water on the exoplanet in question, K2-18b, but only in the vapor phase and only in the atmosphere.

The exoplanet is closer to Earth in terms of mass and radius than any other with water on it, but the planet is still too massive and large to be rocky. It must have an envelope of hydrogen and helium, and both have had their presence detected.

If we want to find atmospheric biosignatures around Earth-like worlds, we need better observatories. Let’s build them! Here’s the real story.

I think I’m in love. 

Jupiter and its fifth moon, Io. Credit: NASA

This is Earth, our amazing home. The only planet in the solar system with the ability to harbor life (that we know of).

This is the distance between our awesome planet and the moon. 

Doesn’t look that far does it? How about if I told you that you could fit EVERY planet in our solar system neatly in that distance. 

Speaking of the other planets in our solar system, this is them & this is where our amazing planet resides.

The moon’s our cute little companion. This is the United States compared to it.

The planets in the solar system are so cool. This is what North America looks like in comparison to Jupiter. 

Speaking of Jupiter and the moon, this is what it would look like if Jupiter was in the place of the moon. (The white dot is our moon). 

Earth compared to Saturn (well 6 Earths…)

Ever wonder about what Earth would look like if it had rings like Saturn? Well wonder no more.. 

Amazing right? Want to see something cooler? Here is the Earth compared to our Sun. 

Here’s what we look like from the moon

And from Mars

From Saturn 

From Neptune…

Here is what the Sun looks like from Mars

Remember what Carl Sagan said? There are more stars in space than grains of sand on every beach in the Earth. 

That’s a lot right? That only means there are stars way larger than our Sun..like this one for example: 

And there are stars bigger than that….

Stars are huge, but the galaxy is even bigger. If you shrunk the Sun down to the size of a white blood cell, the Milky Way Galaxy would be the size of the United States. 

This is where the Earth is in our huge galaxy 

You know all the stars we see in the sky? These are the ones we only ever see (this isn’t our galaxy but its very similar)

The Milky Way is so big that the last time the Earth was in this exact position in the galaxy, the dinosaurs were here

Even though our galaxy is huge, there are galaxies that are even bigger…

This picture from Hubble shows thousands of thousands of thousands of galaxies that each have their own stars with their own planets…

Here is one of the galaxies in that picture. It is 10 BILLION light years away. When we look at it, we are looking 10 BILLION YEARS BACK IN TIME

And just to keep this in mind, this is a very small portion of the sky that was believed to be empty…

Everything is relative. 

Next time you’re stressed out or worried about something, stop and take a step back. Look up at the sky and think about all of the things that are out there. All the stars being born, the stars dying, galaxies colliding. 

We live in such an amazing universe, and we are only an extremely tiny part of it. 

Credit- pictures from: Buzzfeed on Facebook

Petition to put James Veitch on the pedestal he deserves, next to Brian David Gilbert, John Mulaney and Bo Burnham on the chart of Skinny Twinkish Chaos Elementals who are Doing Their Best.

Custom cursor malware that destroyed your computer in 2008 and got you yelled at by your mom moodboard 

need a cheat sheet for the astrological symbols? here’s one!