Author Archives: Chompsky

Behold: the Lamborghini SC20 track car – a bespoke one-off build for a private customer, combining styling cues from the Diablo VT Roadster, Veneno, and Concept S.

Powered by a 759bhp, 6.5 litre V12 and most likely capable of sub-3 second 0-100km/h and a top speed of 360+km/h, the buyer, destination country and build cost remain undisclosed.

Until yer man rocks up at the golf club and then no one will hear the end of it.

uncrate

A solargraph taken at the University of Hertfordshire’s Bayfordbury Observatory featuring 2,953 light trails of the sun’s movement captured over eight years and one month. The apparatus comprised a pinhole camera made from a beer can attached to one of the observatory’s telescopes by student Regina Valkenborgh in 2012, then forgotten. Valkenborgh sez of it:

It was a stroke of luck that the picture was left untouched, to be saved by David after all these years. I had tried this technique a couple of times at the Observatory before, but the photographs were often ruined by moisture and the photographic paper curled up. I hadn’t intended to capture an exposure for this length of time and to my surprise, it had survived. It could be one of, if not the, longest exposures in existence.

Fancy having a go yourself?

colossal

Behold: the 1965 427 Cobra Roadster – an already desirable vehicle made moreso by the fact that it was built for the legendary auto designer himself and remained in his ownership from its completion in March 1966 to his death in 2012.

Restored to its original specification and factory colour by specialists Legendary Motorcar Company, the car is currently up for auction and can be yours for a price most likely in excess of the €11.5 million paid for Shelby’s old 289 Cobra. 

uncrate

Behold: the colliding galaxies of the Bullet Cluster, as you’ve never heard them before. To wit:

This massive cluster of galaxies (1E 0657-558) creates gravitational lens distortions of background galaxies in a way that has been interpreted as strong evidence for the leading theory: that dark matter exists within. Different analyses, though, indicate that a less popular alternative — modifying gravity– could explain cluster dynamics without dark matter, and provide a more likely progenitor scenario as well. Currently, the two scientific hypotheses are competing to explain the observations: it’s invisible matter versus amended gravity. The duel is dramatic as a clear Bullet-proof example of dark matter would shatter the simplicity of modified gravity theories. The featured sonified image is a Hubble/Chandra/Magellan composite with red depicting the X-rays emitted by hot gas, and blue depicting the suggested separated dark matter distribution. The sonification assigns low tones to dark matter, mid-range frequencies to visible light, and high tones to X-rays. The battle over the matter in the Bullet cluster is likely to continue as more observations, computer simulations, and analyses are completed.

(Image: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI, Magellan/U.Arizona; Lensing Map: NASA/STScI, ESO WFI, Magellan/U.Arizona; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

apod