eyeone | seeking heaven

Amazing time lapse video of Earth shot from the International Space Station between August and October 2011. Read the full details here.

The mad scientists at CERN just announced that they trapped antimatter atoms using the aptly named Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus (ALPHA.) Since I can't even pretend to explain how amazing this is, I'll just cheat and quote from the press. (I can't, however, stop hearing the voices in my head saying "It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt." How long before they make antimatter rayguns?)

From CERN: "Antimatter – or the lack of it – remains one of the biggest mysteries of science. Matter and its counterpart are identical except for opposite charge, and they annihilate when they meet. At the Big Bang, matter and antimatter should have been produced in equal amounts. However, we know that our world is made up of matter: antimatter seems to have disappeared."

From National Geographic: "Theories predict that antimatter particles and matter particles have opposite electrical charges but are otherwise nearly identical. Whenever the matter and antimatter meet, they self-annihilate in a shower of pure energy."

• CERN press release here.
• National Geographic article here.
• Really good video interview explaining the whole thing here.
• The ALPHA Collaboration website is here.
• CERN website is here.

Astronomers at UC Santa Cruz have identified an exo-planet named Gliese 581g that lies in the habitable zone of its own solar system. This means the planet is a suitable place for life.

Lead astronomer Dr. Steven Vogt states: "Personally, given the ubiquity and propensity of life to flourish wherever it can, I would say that the chances for life on this planet are 100 percent. I have almost no doubt about it."

No wonder I subconsciously sculpted a mini Devil's Tower out of mashed potatoes at dinner. (Not really.)

More info at Space.com

Jupiter is currently visible in the sky, and it will be at its closest to Earth the night of September 20. You can look low in the east at sundown and higher in the southeast into the night to see the gas giant shining like a star.

P.S. Uranus will also be visible (ha ha!) but you'll need some binoculars!

Source: Wired.

The Perseids will be at peak visibility between tonight and tomorrow night. If you can get away from city lights you will catch a falling star (or perhaps a thousand.)

Info at NASA Science.

Hand in the sky? Get the scoop on the APOD site here.

Tempty pointed me to this video of his homies from F.A.T. Labs collaborating with some peeps from the Carnegie Mellon University's Digital Fabrication Lab on developing the next generation of tagbangers.

This is part one of a documentary spear-headed by Stephen Hawking dealing with the fundamentals of our universe. A must-watch if you're into those things.

Not quite. The Mars Reconaissance Orbiter snapped this flick a couple of years ago (waaaaay back in April 2008) of dark sand leaving mean streaks on the surface of Martian sand dunes. (Too bad, I was secretly hoping the photo proved the Ents had moved to Mars from Middle Earth...)

A better explanation can be found here.

The homie Tempt One has been collaborating with the dope peeps at F.A.T. (Free Art and Technology), the Graffiti Research Lab, OpenFrameworks, and The Ebeling Group on the development of some awe-inspiring technology that allows people suffering from paralysis (in this case brought on by ALS) to draw using the movement of their eyes. The website eyewriter.org is the central hub for the EyeWriter Initiative.

“Art is a tool of empowerment and social change, and I consider myself blessed to be able to create and and use my work to promote health reform, bring awareness about ALS and help others”
– Tempt One

Dust and the Helix Nebula

From APOD: "Dust makes this cosmic eye look red. The eerie Spitzer Space Telescope image shows infrared radiation from the well-studied Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) a mere 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius.

The two light-year diameter shroud of dust and gas around a central white dwarf has long been considered an excellent example of a planetary nebula, representing the final stages in the evolution of a sun-like star."

More info on the APOD site here.

Not a fan of the stand-up (usually) but this vid (arrived upon via BoingBoing) had me LMAFO'ing all morning. "Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar... and doesn't." Ha!

From NPR: "Three different space probes have gathered evidence that the top layer of the moon's surface contains hidden stores of water."

The thing that blows me away is that the water they have identified is neither solid, gas, or liquid. What the heckers??? "The water seems to appear and disappear during the course of the lunar day, as temperatures rise and fall."

How soon before they find the black monolith?

Full article on NPR here.

NASA will hold a media briefing at 2 p.m. EDT today to discuss the new data from the moon. Peep it here.

The journal Science will also be presenting the findings as of 2 p.m. EDT on their Science Express site here.

The Smithsonian Magazine posted a nice selection of photographs of our solar system from their October 2009 issue. Just in case the photos I took while travelling up in space come out blurry, I'm swiping some of NASA's and posting 'em here.

1. Victoria Crater / Mars
2. North polar region / Saturn
3. Rings / Saturn
4. Rover in action / Mars
5. Erupting prominece / Sun

Complete article here.
Straight to the gallery here.

People in Asia witnessed the longest total solar eclipse of the century today. NASA's website has some in-depth info. I saw a total solar eclipse in Mexico City in 1991. I'll take that as a sign.

Photos from AP via zitalee_jingyi's Flickr stream.
UPDATE: PicFog is aggregating eclipse photos in real time here.