Author Archives: Chompsky

Behold: the 2022 Bugatti Chiron Super Sport Coupe – a more civilised take on its predecessor – the world’s first production car capable of 300mph (480km/h)

In order to achieve that terrifying performance, the Super Sport Chiron 300+ was stripped of every weight-adding luxury and comfort.

The Coupe puts all the transcontinental back in, while retaining the 1,578bhp quad-turbo W16 power plant and long tail body, electronically limiting the top speed to a slovenly 278mph (440km/h).

Only 60 will be made and yours will cost €3,200,000.

uncrate

The Moon, yes. But no ordinary Moon. To wit:

This moon was a full moon, specifically called a Flower Moon at this time of the year. But that didn’t make it strange — full moons occur once a month (moon-th). This moon was a supermoon, meaning that it reached its full phase near its closest approach to the Earth in its slightly elliptical orbit. Somewhat strange, a supermoon appears a bit larger and brighter than the average full moon — and enables it to be called a Super Flower Moon.  This moon was undergoing a total lunar eclipse. An eclipsed moon can look quite strange, being dark, unevenly lit, and, frequently, red — sometimes called blood red. Therefore, this moon could be called a Super Flower Blood Moon. This moon was seen through thin clouds. These clouds created a faint corona around the moon, making it look not only strange, but colorful. This moon was imaged so deeply that the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, far in the background, was visible to its lower right. This moon, this shadow, this galaxy and these colors were all captured last month near Cassilis, NSW, Australia — with a single shot. (Merged later with two lower shots that better capture the Milky Way.)

(Image: Helmut Eder)

apod

Hello you.

Behold: pareidolia in the clouds of Jupiter. To wit:

On the largest scale, circling the planet, Jupiter has alternating light zones and reddish-brown belts. Rising zone gas, mostly hydrogen and helium, usually swirls around regions of high pressure. Conversely, falling belt gas usually whirls around regions of low pressure, like cyclones and hurricanes on Earth. Belt storms can form into large and long-lasting white ovals and elongated red spots. NASA’s robotic Juno spacecraft captured most of these cloud features in 2017 during perijove 6, its sixth pass over the giant planet in its looping 2-month orbit. But it is surely not these clouds themselves that draws your attention to the displayed image, but rather their arrangement. The face that stands out, nicknamed Jovey McJupiterFace, lasted perhaps a few weeks before the neighbouring storm clouds rotated away. Juno has now completed 33 orbits around Jupiter and just yesterday made a close pass near Ganymede, our Solar System’s largest moon.

(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Jason Major)

apod