Life is just a theory

Solar eclipses are more fun when you can see them in person. But the most recent one, on November 14, was impossible for Americans to see. Our friends Down Under, however, got to see a partial or total eclipse—depending on which part of Australia they inhabit. In Melbourne, Brayden McLean snapped this image. Pretty awesome!

Via Geeks Are Sexy

Edit: Check out more photos at LiveScience and a video via NPR.

discoverynews:

Giant Marble Harvests Energy from Sun and Moon

It looks like a giant, glass marble. But this globe is no game. It’s a sun-tracking, solar energy concentrator.

This sun-tracking glass globe is able to concentrate sunlight and moonlight up to 10,000 times and that the system is 35 percent more efficient than traditional photovoltaic designs that track the sun.

cool…

ikenbot:

Solar Tornadoes as Big as the US Heat Sun’s Atmosphere

For years, scientists have struggled to determine why the sun’s atmosphere is more than 300 times hotter than its surface. But a new study has found a possible answer: giant super-tornadoes on the sun that may be injecting heat into the outer layers of our star.

While comparing images from the Swedish Solar Telescope with others taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, an international team of scientists noticed bright points on the sun’s surface and atmosphere that corresponded with swirls in the so-called chromospheres, a region that is sandwiched between the two layers. The finding indicates that the solar tornadoes stretched through all three layers of the sun.

The scientists went on to identify 14 solar super-tornadoes occurring within an hour of each other. By using a three dimensional simulation, the team then found that the swirls could play a role in elevating the sun’s outer layer.

jtotheizzoe:

The Sunny Side

Bill McElligott drove a milk delivery truck in the Chicago area for almost thirty years. The left side of his face, the side that absorbed the sun’s rays through his window on those countless delivery runs, has aged almost twenty years beyond the right side. From one side, he’s 66. From the other he’s 86.

This phenomenon is called photoaging. Your skin’s outer layer, the epidermis, is where pigment producing cells reside. UVB rays stimulate these cells to darken, causing freckles and tanning. Too much UVB exposure is the primary cause of sunburn.

The next layer of the skin, called the dermis, contains “structural support” for the outer layers. Fibrous molecular webs like collagen and elastin allow the outer layers to lay smooth and stretch evenly. In response to being showered with UVA rays (which can penetrate deeper than UVB) like Bill was for so many years, cells in the lower dermal layer respond by making proteins that eat up the collagen and other elastic molecules.

The result is the appearance of bumps, wrinkles and stiffened skin … and a stark reminder of what years of even “normal” sun exposure can do to your skin (not to mention that whole cancer thing).

So wear some sunscreen. Maybe stay out of the tanning bed. You only get one set of skin, and you’ll be far more attractive with less of a tan than you will be after photoaging grabs hold.

ikenbot:

Picturesque Venus Transit

alanfriedman:

Firecrackler

Meet solar active region 1476. It’s a corker and it’s rotating in our direction. Will it grow and send flares in our direction, or subside and shrink? When the clouds depart - hopefully by midweek, I’ll have another chance to look and shoot. In the meantime, keep an eye on Spaceweather.com. To be continued!

matthen:

The 100 nearest stars, with the Sun in the middle.  Colours are correct, when mathematica has data on the star’s temperature.  Can you spot any constellations? [code]