Aarvark- About Galaxies

Aardvark is a social search service that connects users live with people who are able to answer their questions. Users submit questions via the Aardvark website, email or instant messenger, and it identifies and facilitates a live chat or email conversation experts in the particular fields. Users can also review question and answer history and other settings on the Aardvark website. On February  2010 Aardvark was acquired by Google.
I have been using this wonderful Social network, and I could find answers to some ‘ungooglable’ questions which I have been bearing in my mind for years.
I am posting  some of those questions and answers here as a sample.

Q. how is it possible to move galaxies faster than light?

A.  http://www.universetoday.com/2008/04/22/how-can-galaxies-recede-faster-than-the-speed-of-light/

Q. Due to the expansion of the universe, galaxies far away from us are receding at a speed faster than light. So every photon coming from such galaxies fail to reach our telescopes. Even gravitational effect also travels at the speed of light. Then how do we say such galaxies exist? Or how do we detect such galaxies?

A. As you look at galaxies further and further away, they appear to be moving faster and faster away from us. And it is possible that they could eventually appear to be moving away from us faster than the speed of light. At that point, light leaving the distant galaxy would never reach us.

When that happens, the distant galaxy would just fade away as the last of the photons reached Earth, and then we would never know it was ever there.

Calcium Nebula?

No; it’s not Cat’s eye nebula. Not a Gas storm in Jupiter too. This is what you get when you leave a steel vessel full of water set to boil on an oven and come back after few hours! Try zooming full size image. The details are amazing.

Post your comments, If you have any idea how this beautiful patterns are formed.

mosambi juice.. mosambi juice..

During my not so frequent Hyderabad to Bangalore night bus trips, the bus used to take a second halt at midnight without any apparent reason. During this time, a peasant, looking more like a beggar, aged more than 60 used to appear shouting “mosambi juice… mosambi juice” holding 2 glasses of the same, bothering everyone’s sleep. No one used to buy it for obvious reasons.

This time he disturbed not only my sleep but also, made me sad while thinking what this old man has to do at third quarter of creepy night for a living. Anyway, I decided to give it a try risking my good health and tried the drink for Rs.10 with bonus horrible looks from my co-passengers.

I assure you, the juice is just fine. My stomach is also fine till the day. If you happen to see the same guy in a similar trip when you are thirsty enough, a second thought is not letting you to grab it, and a third thought made you a little sad, I suggest you to help the poor guy.

Science

Michael Faraday, was once asked by the then prime minister, Sir Robert Peel, “what was the use of science?”. “Sir”, Faraday replied, “what is the use of a baby?”

what he meant by that, must be that a baby has such potential. It may not be able to do very much now, but it will be able to do a lot.

But it’s also possible that what Faraday meant was that there’s no point in bringing a baby into the world, if all it’s going to do was work to go on living, to go on living, and work to go on living, again. If that’s all point of life, then what are we here for?

-from the Lecture ‘Growing Up in the Universe’ by Oxford professor Richard Dawkins.

What it reminds me is about, how we Indians treat science. Even the most celebrated research organization in India is directed to ensure the use of best technology for the benefit of common man. And we  do very little to let the baby grow and do wonders.

It is true that for a developing country, this rationale is very practical. But in the process of doing that, we are almost forgetting the whole pointlessness in bringing the ‘baby’ into the world to do only the work to go on living .

Are We Insane?

As a species, we are fundamentally insane. Put few of us in a room and give them enough time to dream, they will come up with reasons to kill each other. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?
- The Mist (film)

Well, that is not completely true.

Dino Eggs Found in Tamilnadu

I used to wonder why i never heard of any fossil excavation in India (May be because I am such a lazy newspaper reader ).  Shivalik Hills in the Markanda valley, Himachal Pradesh, is the only fossil park in Asia which houses preserved remains of prehistoric animals. A rediff report says, Tribals in parts of India are selling dinosaur fossils to foreigners at a fraction of its value in the international market [^], Are we that ignorant to such valuable treasures?
But wait, The latest discovery by the scientists in south india is ground breaking. They found a treasure of hundreds of fossilized dinosaur egg clusters from a site in Tamilnadu. It is believed that these eggs belongs to one of the largest species of dinos.  [Read the BBC Article about this to know more..]

Success Doesn’t Come Within a Day

A mail forward about India’s humble space program.
Pics: that say…we may not be as successful as the US or Russia…but we are there nevertheless…so watch out for us…

This was how the Rocket Cone was transported to the Launch Pad at Thumba !!

What Will You do With Your Personal Satellite?

Now you can launch your own satellite to orbit! Interorbital Systems is now selling TubeSat personal satellite kits for $8000 (including the price of  launch).

The Kit Includes batteries, solar panels, transmitters, antennasand few  other tools, to help you run experiments in space on your own. You can also order TubeSats in bigger sizes.

The Neptune-30 rocket will put your TubeSat into a low earth orbit of 320Km. After one month, the orbit will decay and the small satellite will burn up on reentry. The company plans to launch 32 TubeSats per month.

Want to give it a try? Here is the link to Tubesat Brochure

For more details visit: http://interorbital.com/TubeSat_1.htm

4 Perfeclty Round Circles

Another mind boggling optical illusion. It reminds of, how easily our brain can be fooled. Try scrolling the page while watching this; thats even funnier.

Moon in Gigapan

Take a look at this  Gigapan. Open the Gigapan page and scroll through the amazing panorama of lunar environment. The panorama is made from the images of Apollo 17 landing site!

Apollo 17  remains both the most recent manned moon landing and manned flight beyond low earth orbit.