Year: 2009

Historical Videos of Nuclear Tests

The national Nuclear Security Administration’s Nevad Site Office has made available a number of historically important videos for nuclear tests from the 1940s through the 1960s.  Apart from our common morbid fascination with things that go boom, you can always think of splicing these in as special effects for your next July 4th videos…. Videos …

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Oobleck – It’s not just for Dr. Seuss Anymore

Oobleck is actually more than just a made-up name for the stuff in the Dr. Seuss book, it’s the name now applied to a whole class of fluids which display what is called "shear thickening."  That just means that when they have a sudden force applied, include of splashing to the side, the perversely get …

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“Recent” Planetary Collision around nearby Star

Recent, is of course, relative to the timescale involved.  In the case of planetary collisions and their aftermath, that can be a very long time, like, tens of millions of years.  So while very interesting, this isn’t a train wreck (or planetary wreck) in progress, but the aftermath of one that is still settling. Physics …

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White House Star Party

Somehow this didn’t hit any of the news feeds I link to, but the International Dark Sky Association is hosting a star party/star gazing session for middle school students on October 7.  The press release can be found here: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/499/.  Time to update those feeds….

Saturn Week

Well, okay, I made that up.  But the first two weeks of October, say Oct 4-17 will be a great time to be up early to view Saturn, Mercury, and Venus as they dance around the early morning sky during the morning twilight.  Saturn will actually be the faintest of the bunch.  On Oct 16, …

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