What’s Up For February 2016?

The night sky. 09/03/15 Watch as the colour of the sky changes due to the rising Moon. This was a 4 hour time lapse recorded last night from 21:00-01:00.

The Gaussian Integral is a beautiful integral for which the area between the e^(-x^2) and the x-axis from negative infinity to positive infinity perfectly equals the square root of pi. Image sources: 1, 2.

These colors are amazing!

Aja Apa-Soura van gogh never saw golden gate van gogh never saw the great wall van gogh never saw christ the redeemer van gogh never saw stonehenge van gogh never saw eiffel van gogh never saw mount fuji van gogh never saw hollywood van gogh never saw taj mahal

more by Aja Apa-Soura: x

NGC 4522

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The stunning Sombrero galaxy (seriously, there should be a blog that’s just photos of the Sombrero galaxy)

I'm so glad to see this trend and I look forward to seeing it continue!

Check out our new video to see every NASA astronaut class. Some patterns emerge.

Pluto (bottom image) with various other non-planets.

Since everyone has their knickers in a knot over Pluto not being a planet, here are various different celestial objects who are also not classified as planets. You’ll notice, just because it’s not called a “planet” doesn’t mean it isn’t cool.

Let us be reminded, there is no heirarchy of celestial bodies. It wasn’t necessarily “demoted” from planethood, it was simply reclassified as something else. There’s literally no reason to be emotionally attatched to the idea of Pluto’s planetary classifaction.

But what “classifies” a planet anyway?

According to the International Astronomical Union, there are 3 basic requirements that it must meet: 1) It orbits the sun 2) Sufficient mass to assume a “hydrostatic equilibrium” (meaning it’s mostly shaped like a globe) 3) Has “cleared its neighborhood” in its orbit.

The third one is where Pluto fails. What they mean by “clearing the neighborhood” is that the orbital path is good and clear. Every planet will still collide with something now and then but their orbital paths are not occupied by anything that is similar to the size of the planet itself. They’re not really in danger of running into much of anything except maybe an asteroid or a comet that might enter their path and collide.

In addition, here is an image showcasing the dwarf planets of the solar system. Pluto isn’t alone in it’s classification.

So don’t be sad over Pluto not being a planet, you’re just being melodramatic. Wipe your tears away with some scientific literacy. ;)

Phase of the moon affects amount of rainfall

Seattle WA (SPX) Jan 31, 2016 When the moon is high in the sky, it creates bulges in the planet’s atmosphere that creates imperceptible changes in the amount of rain that falls below. New University of Washington research to be published in Geophysical Research Letters shows that the lunar forces affect the amount of rain - though very slightly. “As far as I know, this is the first study to convincingly connect t Full article

NGC 1398 in Fornax.

Source: https://imgur.com/7dzEl2s