Well, Neil tells it better than I can.
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The Sun is freaking out, guys. It just keeps exploding a little bit.
That picture was taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, and you can read more about how awesome that is, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Dynamics_Observatory
This is what is called a prominence eruption, and it came off the left side of the Sun, and luckily for you meatbags it was'nt directed towards the earth.
Read about it at Bad Astronomer: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronom ... re_of.html
Phil Plait is just the coolest dude. I remember reading him when he first started out on the internet. Also, he answered one of my tweets once. Classy!
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Guys! There is a meteor shower going on! It's called the l Eta Aquarid meteor shower, and it peaks tomorrow, May 5th, Cinco de Mayo. So if you are too busy punishing yourself with Corona to go outside, you can WATCH IT HERE LIVE:
http://www.space.com/20971-meteor-showe ... bcast.html
From 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. EDT.
Here is a picture of the Eta Aquarid from freaking Stonehenge, because why the heck not?
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I missed this before, but this:
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chi ... ?id=221042
Space-lady rocket scientist Amber Gell won the 2013 annual Women in Space Science award and makes sure that girls know that they should go and science the crap out of some science:
“You can do anything you can dream with science,” Gell said. “The world is limitless. There’s nothing that is really impossible. If something is impossible it just means that someone isn’t creative enough to come up with a solution. Everything we know in our reality is a byproduct of science.”
Send her some flowers. Or a cake. Or a cake shaped like flowers!
Nope, nevermind, screw that. This one:
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And in a wonderful overlap of astronomy and history, this gem:
http://www.space.com/20926-astronomer-d ... death.html
Stonewall Jackson got shot and killed by his own troops during the Civil War, and these awesome people now blame it on the moon. Stupid moon!
Olson and Jasinski calculated the moon's position and the lunar phase using astronomical software, and figured out exactly where Jackson's party, as well as the 18th North Carolina regiment, would have been at the time of the shooting, around 9 p.m. that night. They used Confederate almanacs in Richmond at the Virginia Historical Society, as well as battle maps by Robert Krick, a military historian who is an expert on the Battle of Chancellorsville, Stonewall Jackson and the Civil War in Virginia.
NERDS! Wonderful beautiful nerds.
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And lastly, Happy Star Wars Day! I already wrote about it here:
viewtopic.php?p=7904#p7904
Go read it! But most importantly, comment! That is why we are here! Just tell me about your first time seeing Star Wars, or something awesome that happened to you while Star Wars was involved. You are all wonderful, and I want to know.
Anyway, here is what it would take to build the Death Star:
http://www.space.com/20972-happy-star-w ... -star.html
And unfortunately, here is why Obama won't build one:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/respon ... re-looking
THANKS A LOT, OBAMA!
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Have a wonderful day. Share this crap on Facebook if you love me.
