Amateur Astronomers Catch Massive Jupiter Collision

Just when you think our tiny Solar System is at peace, news of rogue comets or ginormous asteroids hitting a nearby planet wipe all those thoughts away. Amateur astronomer Dan Peterson reported that he had captured a collision on Jupiter while doing routine observations the morning of September 10th. Dan Hall, another amateur astronomer who happen to be imaging the planet, posted this video on Flickr (seen above) showing the fiery impact.

I'm not a scientist nor a mathematician, but just mixing together a few Google image searches with a screen capture of the video leads me to believe that if we had a collision like this on Earth we would be adding ourselves to the fossil collections with the dinosaurs.

Someone tell me, is the below image pretty accurate? If it is we all owe Jupiter a huge thank you...

4 Awesome Curiosity Rover Replicas

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory costs $2.5 billion dollars (and some change) and just happens to be roving around the red surface of Mars - so your chances of ever owning it are slim to none. That is unless you happen to get your hands on one of these  awesome replicas.

If you are a LEGO enthusiast, you can get your hands on this kit or instructions on how to build this replica with your owns pieces. This was actually designed by a mechanical engineer that worked on Curiosity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory! This LEGO set doesn't stop with just a rover, you can even make the Sky Crane!

Of course when it comes to making models of out-of-this-world vehicles, your collection wouldn't be complete without a Hot Wheels car!

LEGO building is all fine and dandy, but where there real fun comes in are LEGO Mindstorms! I like to call these big boy LEGOS or LEGOS on steroids. Only thing this bad boy is lacking is a rock crushing laser!

When it comes to replicas, who wouldn't a full size one to park in your garage? Here is one that is on display at the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C.

Did I miss one? Let us see it on the comments below!

They're NASA And They Know It

What do you get when you mix a hipster LMFAO video with a geeky NASA crew?

This awesome Mars Curiosity landing parody.

Mohawk guy? They nailed it.

Amazing Footage of the Last 2 Minutes of Curiosity's Descent

Curiosity has been on Mars for almost one Earth day now and the news and footage just keeps getting more awesome.

Here is stop motion footage of the rover's last 2 minutes of descent. The footage was taken at a measly 4fps from the camera on the heat shield separator called The Mars Descent Imager (MARDI). Amazing.

(via Twitter)

Mars Curiosity's 'Seven Minutes of Terror'

Late tonight or early Monday morning (10:31 PST 1:31 EST) NASA will attempt one of the most complex spacecraft landings in humankind history.

As you will see in the video, the landing is no easy task. It will require slowing the rover from a speed of 2000+ to zero MPH in a matter of minutes. The process will use a 100 pound supersonic parachute, a state-of-the-art sky crane, and about 500,000 lines of code. All of this will take place in a 14 minute window where NASA brainiacs will have zero control. Sound intense? It will be. Make sure you stay up late or set your alarms; this will be worth losing sleep over!

Inspiring Time Lapse View Of Earth From The ISS

Here's is an amazing time lapse video showing Earth and the cosmos at night from the International Space Station. The video was produced entirely from NASA provided images by Knate Myers.

Want to learn how to make these awesome videos? Check out this mini-tutorial then get busy inspiring us!

Incredible Jupiter Occultation

Here is an incredible Moon/Jupiter occultation using a Skywatcher 12" Dobsonian. I don't know much about the astronomer that shot the footage, other than his YouTube page, but I do know that it is awesome.

(via Google+)

Stephen Hawking Loses $100 Bet on Higgs Boson Discovery

Inspiration for Humanity: The Future is Ours

Incredible Time Lapse Catches Full Venus Transit From NASA’s Little SDO

Incredible Milky Way Timelapse Over Black Desert in Egypt

Richard Dawkins Reads His Hate Mail

4 Billion Years of Evolution in 40 Seconds

This short clip is from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. I love watching this and seeing how Carl Sagan gracefully patches together the birth of life on this planet from creation until now. It’s amazing!
If you haven’t seen the show, it’s a 13 episode series that was first aired in 1980, was once the most viewed television series in US history, and has been viewed by over 500 million people worldwide. Luckily, Hulu and Netflix are both currently playing the entire series and I highly recommend it.

Incredible Timelapse of Comet Lovejoy Streaking By With A Milky Way Backdrop

The above picture was a recent NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (click to enlarge) that shows Comet Lovejoy flying over the Paranal Observatory in Antofagasta, Chile.

We showed you how Lovejoy made its death-defying lap around the Sun, but failed in showing you just how beautiful the comet is. Luckily, the below time lapse video was made that catches not only Lovejoy, but yet another awesome shot of the Milky Way.

Before watching the video, however, I strongly suggest to play it in full screen HD in the darkest room you can find; it really is breathtaking.

Night Time Lapse of Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) rising above the Andes near Santiago de Chile, 23rd December 2011, just before sunrise. Set of 4 sequences taken with different lenses “zooming in” the scene.

Solar Flares, A Stunning Perspective

If you have ever wondered why there was so much hoopla when scientists predict solar flares then this video will put them in pretty big perspective. When common flares are 30 times the size of Earth, it is no wonder why satellites and anything else in Earth’s orbit isn’t safe!

Comet Lovejoy Takes Trip Around The Sun, Lives To Tell About It

Growing up I always had this thought that if something got even remotely close to the Sun that it would just disintegrate into nothing. I mean, after all, the Sun’s surface is several million degrees.

That was not the case for a newly discovered comet named “Lovejoy”. Scientists tracked the two football field-sized comet as it traveled within 75,000 miles of the Suns surface to slingshot around it. Although the comet was only 10% the size it was before it’s encounter, it still survived only losing it’s tail.

Lovejoy isn’t expected to get that close to the Sun for another 800 to 900 years, so it has plenty of time to regain some of it’s mass and tail.

3D Printing - It's Not Just Science Fiction Anymore

By now I am sure you have heard the term “3D Printing” and if you’re anything like me you blew it off to gimmicky -easy bake oven- technology. If you are just as moronic as me then prepare to have your mind blown. Below is a clip from National Geographic’s Known Universe that shows the printer in action.

Now all we need to do is learn how to build print with other materials such as aluminum or steel or get even more scientific with some organic printing; then the world will be the limit.

Science, It Can Carve Your Pumpkin

I’m not sure what the lesson here is, but I like it. I’m also not sure if this is a cool teacher or a student demonstration. Either way, blowing up a pumpkin into an instant jack-o-lantern is instant awesomeness.

Incredible Simulations of the Milky Way - Andromeda Collision

Cannibalistic Galaxies

Billions of years just passed before your eyes

Our neighbouring galaxy Andromeda (M31) shows evidence of being a past cannibal and is 3 times the size of the Milky Way. We are predicted to be “consumed” within the next 7 billion years. “It would be a beautiful night sky, it will be quite spectacular.” -Author/Astrophysicist Mark Irwin.

The above gif is an artist simulation of what it would look like when the Milky Way is consumed by Andromeda, which the is closest spiral galaxy. It’s a fascinating image, too bad it’s not going to happen for another 5 to 7 billion years from now.

Scientist predict that the collision may not even disrupt our solar system, however life on Earth will have long since been eradicated due to “increasing luminosity of the Sun”.

Below is video showing a more detailed simulation of the collision:

Science is Awesome: Superdiamagnetism aka Quantum Levitation

Superdiamagnetism is nothing new in terms of scientific breakthroughs; it was first discovered in 1933 by Walter Meissner, but after seeing this video today I was still pretty much blown away. Below is an even more in-depth video that not only shows quantum levitation’s awesomeness, but it also gives some details on how it works.