Author Archives: Chompsky

Behold: a stunning new image of the Veil nebula – the wispy remnants of a Milky Way star that exploded around seven thousand years ago. To wit:

At the time, the expanding cloud was likely as bright as a crescent Moon, remaining visible for weeks to people living at the dawn of recorded history. Today, the resulting supernova remnant, also known as the Cygnus Loop, has faded and is now visible only through a small telescope directed toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus). The remaining Veil Nebula is physically huge, however, and even though it lies about 1,400 light-years distant, it covers over five times the size of the full Moon. The featured picture is a Hubble Space Telescope mosaic of six images together covering a span of only about two light years, a small part of the expansive supernova remnant. In images of the complete Veil Nebula, even studious readers might not be able to identify the featured filaments.

(Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Z. Levay)

apod

A pleasing short by Daihei Shibata – and a gentle poke in the eye for binary thinkers – In which a series of hard colours and shapes transition gradually from one form to another. Daihei sez of it:

When we gradate the boundaries between two polarized things, the two become smoothly connected. By blurring the various boundaries, we can find complexity, diversity, and richness of information.

kottke

Behold: the central black hole of supergiant elliptical galaxy M87 (it’s a big one). To wit:

The featured image represents the detected intrinsic spin direction (polarization) of radio waves. The polarization is produced by the powerful magnetic field surrounding the supermassive black hole at the center of elliptical galaxy M87. The radio waves were detected by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which combines data from radio telescopes distributed worldwide. The polarization structure, mapped using computer generated flow lines, is overlaid on EHT’s famous black hole image, first published in 2019. The full 3-D magnetic field is complex. Preliminary analyses indicate that parts of the field circle around the black hole along with the accreting matter, as expected. However, another component seemingly veers vertically away from the black hole. This component could explain how matter resists falling in and is instead launched into M87’s jet.

(Image: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration; Text: Jayanne English (U. Manitoba)

apod

Behold: The Humble One  – a conceptual electric SUV with 7.5m² of proprietary photovoltaic cells built into the roof, sidelights, doors and (yet to be revealed but necessarily sizeable) ’wings’ that will fold out from the car when it’s parked.

The solar panels add up to 100km of additional range, giving the 1020bhp car a full-charge reach of 800km.

According to the manufacturer, production starts in 2024 and the One will cost around €93,000.

hiconsumption