AURORAMAP
http://www.auroramap.co.uk
To see the Northern Lights, you
need perfect conditions: clear
skies and plenty of solar activity
to trigger the collision of energetic
particles with atoms high up
in the atmosphere. AuroraMap
tracks the K-index – a measure of
disturbances in Earth’s magnetic
field – and can tell you what the
likelihood of aurora is at a particular
time and place.PIXEL SPACE
http://www.joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/
pixelspace_solarsystem.html
We know the Solar System is huge.
But it can be hard to grasp just how
huge it is from our vantage point
on Earth. This ‘tediously accurate’
scale model of the Solar System
solves that problem by requiring
you to scroll (and scroll and scroll)
your way through the planets.
Spoiler: it’s mostly black and empty.WEATHER SPARK
http://weatherspark.com
Weather nerds, this site is for you.
The amount of detail might seem
overwhelming at first, but dig in
and there’s a wealth of data to be
had. Not only can you get an hour
by hour account of conditions at
any of 4,000 weather stations, but
you can search through the whole
history of each one – showing
average temperatures and more
right back to 1973.SUNSPOTTER
http://www.sunspotter.org
The latest project from citizen
science specialists behind the
Zooniverse project, Sunspotter
needs your help in classifying
sunspot images according to how
complex they are. Eruptions from
sunspots are what can eventually
cause aurorae here on Earth, so if
you fancy yourself as a Northern
Lights hunter, this is a great way
to get to grips with the underlying
science.For a tiny fraction of a second
after the Big Bang, the Universe
expanded at an exponential
rate – a period cosmologists call
‘inflation’. That was the theory,
anyway. Now, confirmation
has been made by
scientists operating
an instrument
called BICEP2 at
the South Pole.
The discovery
also provided
evidence for
gravitational
waves – ripples in
the fabric of space-
time predicted by
Albert Einstein but,
until now, never discovered.
Physicist and BBC presenter Jim
Al-Khalili said the discoveries
were significant enough to each
win a Nobel Prize.
Inflation explains why
the Universe is as big as it is
today. When the Universe came
into being at the Big Bang, it
measured just 10−35 metres
across. If it had expanded at the
rate it’s expanding today, it would
be no bigger than a full stop.
Evidence for the Big Bang
came from the Cosmic Micro-
wave Background radiation,
which pervades the Universe and
is often called the ‘afterglow’ of
those first moments. The new
study looked at a property of this
radiation called polarisation.
Polarisation is a property that’s
exploited to keep harmful rays
from your eyes when it’s
used in sunglasses.
Imprinted in the
polarisation
of the CMB
was a telltale
signature of
inflation: ripples
in the fabric of
the Universe called
‘gravitational waves’.
They produce
ripples by squeezing
space as they travel along.
The discovery was made by a
team led by John Kovac of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics.
The discovery gives hope
to larger experiments that
have been built to directly
detect gravitational waves,
but have so far failed to do so.
Ultimately, astronomers want
to do far more than just find
them. They will effectively be a
new kind of telescope, joining
visible light, infrared, X-ray and
gamma-ray instruments in an
astronomers’ armoury.Cosmic inflation confirmed by
ripples in the Universe
cosmology
The BICEP^2 telescope
seen at twilight in the
South PoleThe telltale signature of
gravitational wavesNew websites, blogs and podcasts
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