The Massive Continuity of Ducks

Icon from a picrew by grgikau. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.

thebaconsandwichofregret:

braincoins:
freshfriedtrash:
skazuhira-miller:
glenjamin-danzig:
who was the fool who was tasked with naming the galaxy and the only adjective they could think of was ‘mmmmmmmmmmmmilky…’
scientist: (gazing up at space)
scientist: ……….. it sure is a milky boy
NO
YOU DONT UNDERSTAND
ASTRONOMERS ARE THE SHITTIEST EVER AT NAMING THINGS I KID YOU NOT.
When it came time to name the two theoretical particle types that might be dark matter THEY INTENTIONALLY CHOSE THE NAMES SO THAT THE ACRONYMS WOULD SPELL “WIMPS” AND “MACHOS” I SHIT YOU NOT
THEY ARE FUCKING TERRIBLE AT NAMING ANYTHING
I just listened to a talk by Neil deGrasse Tyson himself LAST NIGHT and he went on about this more than once.
“I’m walking down the street and I’m like ‘ooh pretty rock…’ and some Geologist is like ‘actually, that’s anorthosite feldspar’ and I’m like ‘Nevermind, I don’t want it anymore.’ Any biologists in the audience? [some clapping] Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. The most important molecule in the human body, what did you name it? It has NINE SYLLABLES and it’s so long that even YOU GUYS abbreviate it as ‘DNA’!
But astrophysicists and astronomers? No, man, we call it like we see it. Star made of neutrons? NEUTRON STAR. Small white star? WHITE DWARF. You know that big red spot on Jupiter? Know what we called it? JUPITER’S RED SPOT.”
my favourite one is rocks which they mis-identify as meteorites but then turn out to just be regular rocks,
they are called meteor-wrongs

One word: spaghettification.

Chanda Jog

importantwomensbirthdays:

Astrophysicist Chanda Jog was born on November 7, 1954 in India. Her research focuses on interstellar molecular clouds, evolution and dynamics of interacting galaxies, and theoretical problems in galactic dynamics. Jog works at the Indian Institute of Science, and serves as President of the National Committee for Astronomy in India. She is a fellow of the World Academy of Science, the Indian National Science Academy, and the Indian Academy of Sciences, as well as an active member of the International Astronomical Union.
Happy birthday, Chanda Jog!
Image credit: IAU Image License

Katherine Johnson, the NASA Mathematician Who Advanced Human Rights with a Slide Rule and Pencil

vanityfair.com

NASA chief Charles Bolden recalls the historic trajectory of the “human computer” who played a key role in the Apollo 11 moon landing, and as a female African-American in the 1960s, shattered stereotypes in the process.

selfrescuingprincesssociety:

This Vanity Fair article is so great. I might have to buy a copy on the newsstand.
“‘In math, you’re either right or you’re wrong,’ she said. Her succinct words belie a deep curiosity about the world and dedication to her discipline, despite the prejudices of her time against both women and African-Americans. It was her duty to calculate orbital trajectories and flight times relative to the position of the moon—you know, simple things. In this day and age, when we increasingly rely on technology, it’s hard to believe that John Glenn himself tasked Katherine to double-check the results of the computer calculations before his historic orbital flight, the first by an American. The numbers of the human computer and the machine matched.”

the-future-now:

follow @the-future-now

Anonymous: why is there star

nasa-official:

gas cloud get squished (gravitational collapse) then sometimes smaller elements can squish together to make bigger elements (nuclear fusion) and this continues as long as the smolest elements (hydrogen and helium) are in the core

lordsoth42:

NASA had learned the true language of the science side of Tumblr

antikythera-astronomy:

I want to reveal one of the greatest mysteries in science to you:
Look at this gif, notice any patterns in the orbits? I’m talking about the speeds. The planets orbiting around the Sun get slower the farther out they go.
Why is this? Kepler’s Third Law of Planetary Motion.
The stars in the Milky Way orbit around the Galactic Center just as our planets do around the Sun. We find that the farther you get from the center of the galaxy… there’s approximately no change in orbital velocity.
Just like that, one of our most well-established tools in astronomy (Kepler’s Third Law) becomes ineffective for some reason.
It’s become apparent to astronomers that when something orbits around a center of mass, it’s orbital speed has a relationship with the distance from the center of mass.
Right now we don’t think most of the mass of the Milky Way is focused in the galactic center, but hidden in darkness surrounding the galaxy on all sides.
What we know is that it’s impossible to see and so far has eluded detection: we’ve started calling this mysterious mass dark matter.

liamdryden:

note-a-bear:
thejunglenook:
sci-universe:
A toast to these great astronomers!
Read about Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
Wine and honoring women in science.
Cosmos doing science education right.
I keep meaning to add, because no one seems to mention it: both Annie Jump Cannon and Henrietta Swan Leavitt were both Deaf.
I feel like it’s important to acknowledge that part of their histories, because I don’t often see folks talking about disability history wrt science stuffs (without having to look for it), and it’s even more rare to see it wrt women in science.
How cool a name is “Annie Jump Cannon” though
How’re you gonna not ever give credit to someone called Annie Jump Cannon