Hubble Does It Again

“In the beginning, God created
The heavens and the earth”—
A most myopic story of
The universe’s birth

The lenses on the Hubble
Look through time as well as space
The ancients might have spied with it
Their vast Creator’s face

The skies they saw were very small
Those centuries ago
We’ve traded in those old beliefs
For things we really know

If we should keep exploring
All that science will allow…
Imagine how much more we’ll know
Two thousand years from now!

NASA just released their latest deep-field image–the XDF, or eXtreme Deep Field, which combines ten years’ worth of images. There are over 5,000 galaxies in this image. That would be over 5,000 galaxies more than the people who wrote about “the heavens and the earth” could even imagine.

How tiny a fragment of the sky is this? Take a look:
Deep Field in perspective

I wonder how long it will be before we look at these images as important but quaint artifacts, long surpassed by pictures with better resolution, more detail, surprises we can’t even imagine at present. I also cannot imagine thinking that a world view that hasn’t changed in 2,000 years is somehow superior to one that changes with each new discovery.

Feathered Dinosaurs Are Cool

It seems a consensus on whether the feathers
Of dinosaurs ought to be shown has been reached
Though Hollywood lags in their fictions’ depictions
The scientists know it’s the thing to be… um… teached.
That raptors had plumage is clear now, but hear, now,
The voice of tradition that shows them without—
In movies and books (and museums?) you see ‘em
Bereft of their feathers—what’s that all about?

For some, it’s a nod to Jurassic Park classic,
A bit of tradition—what people expect;
For others, their ignorance slows them, and shows them
An icon surviving through simple neglect.
It’s not that they like things outdated, or hated;
They’d rather be current, I think, as a rule
So, really, a new wave’s approaching, encroaching,
Cos feathers on dinosaurs… really, that’s cool

(context here at io9; cuttlecap tip to Riley Black)

Death From The Skies… But Not Quite Yet.

The missiles have not been deployed
To vaporize an asteroid;
I’m certain you are overjoyed—
You live another day.
But just in case you wish to view
The menace, QG42,
And watch it pass us, live on Slooh,
Just click here, cos you may.

Ok, I want to write more, but this is happening *now*, in real time. An asteroid the size of a 14 story building is passing by your neighborhood tonight. Within, at this writing, the next few hours.

The link in the verse itself should (hey, I’m not an astrophysicist, I’m a cuttlefish) give you your best view of a near-miss asteroid–an asteroid that did not get Michael Bay’s call-back. Mind you, we don’t know about all of the asteroids, so another one, roughly this size, could hit us. It would look roughly like this… but a degree or so different. Mass and velocity… Seven miles per second is the speed of tonight’s asteroid, so we are all happy we can watch it pass by.

Anyway, I’ll post now, so you can watch, if you want to. See you tomorrow. A degree or two, and I couldn’t say that.

Lucky us.

The Year That Santa Drowned

Twas the night before Christmas
The kids looked around
Their eyes welled with tears,
Though they made not a sound
A sleigh would need snow;
There was none to be found
Just the puddles where raindrops had pelted

They hoped in their hearts
That Saint Nick would come ‘round
With presents and toys
To amuse and astound
Then the word started spreading
That Santa had drowned
When the ice at the North Pole had melted

It’s the year every good son and daughter
Will be sighing and shedding a tear
Cos they found Santa’s corpse under water
And there won’t be a Christmas this year

No Santa appeared
To the kids who were spying
Though they’d really been good
Or at least, they’d been trying
No jingle of bells
And no reindeer a-flying
Or magically pulling a sled

If we’d only done something
Instead of denying;
Complied with Kyoto
Instead of defying
Now everywhere, everywhere,
Children are crying
Cos Santa—sweet Santa!—is dead.

It’s the year every good son and daughter
Will be sighing and shedding a tear
Cos they found Santa’s corpse under water
And there won’t be a Christmas this year

The hearth is ablaze
With a crackling roar,
And the stockings are scattered
About on the floor.
And the children don’t know
Who the cookies are for,
If Saint Nicholas won’t be around.

For the reindeer are missing,
The elves are all gone.
No more jolly ho-ho,
No red sleigh on the lawn,
No more squeals of delight
In the light of the dawn;
It’s the year that Santa Claus drowned.

It’s the year every good son and daughter
Will be sighing and shedding a tear
Cos they found Santa’s corpse under water
And there won’t be a Christmas this year

This one is by request, for commenter Johnny Vector (who is also responsible for the last verse! Yay!), who points to this article on Skeptical Science, and specifically to the comments thereof.

Feel free to try out some additional verses (crowdsourcing!), or put it to music, or whatever.

Love And God, And What Not To Say

A long one today, but it had to be said.

Over at WWJTD, JT fields one of the classic apologetic arguments from incredulity:

there are things that are undeniably real (like love, ambition, sympathy) but do not stand up to scientific rigor. We live in a world appointed with these things (love, ambition, sympathy) and they would be real even if science did not exist to explain them.

Anyone who has not seen that argument thrown around, welcome to the internet, and how have you enjoyed your first few hours here? [Read more…]

Annular Eclipse Sunday, Western US

If you live within driving distance (this link has a map of the range of the eclipse), and aren’t already planning on seeing the eclipse, allow me to urge you to do so. An annular eclipse is so much more beautiful than a full eclipse; the quality of the light is such that the entire world seems dipped in silver, shimmering and dancing.

Unless you have the proper equipment (welder’s goggles, eclipse glasses, or a properly filtered scope of some sort), you can’t (or rather, shouldn’t) look directly at the sun. With an annular eclipse, you really don’t want to, in my opinion. Instead, find a spot in the woods, where the leaves are sparse enough to let light through, but thick enough that the light comes through in patches. This is where you want to be for the eclipse.

It will get dim, but not really dark, almost as if the sun had been blocked by a cloud. But while a cloud will diffuse the light, the eclipse transforms it. There are not beams of light; there are circlets, shining rings. As the wind moves the leaves, the circlets dance, coming together, drawing apart, larger and smaller depending on how high the leaves are. It is stunningly, breathtakingly beautiful.

And then it is gone. And won’t be back for over a decade. The last one in the US was in 1994, on May 10th–I remember it well. It was a big day. Nelson Mandela was sworn in as president of South Africa. John Wayne Gacy was executed. I remember both, but I remember them because of the eclipse.

What I’m saying is, this is a memorable and worthwhile event. Go see it if you possibly can.

This Verse Could Save Your Life

The new advice for modern masses:
On your feet, and off your asses!
The hours you’re spending on your rears
Can cost your lifespan several years!
The sofa, couch, or beanbag chair
On which you rest your derriere
Is slowly, surely, killing you.
And so, of course, what you must do
Is walk. Or run. Or, simply, stand—
It’s really not a big demand—
There’s just one thing you have to quit;
The thing you cannot do… is sit.

So… get pissed off! Or get angry! Frown!
But do not take this sitting down.

[Read more…]