In the photo sequence above, a bubble is created at the interface between two immiscible liquids—water on top and denser hydrofluroether (HFE) below. Initially, the bubble expands explosively due to the vaporization of water generated by a short laser pulse. As the bubble collapses, a jet forms and accelerates into the HFE. After collapse, the bubble remnants injected in the HFE cause the formation of a jet that shoots back into the water above. Surface instabilities make the jet assume a mushroom or crown-like structure that detaches from the jet. Eventually gravity will return the system to its initial undisturbed fluid-fluid interface. (Photo credit: S. Avila et al. 1,2)
(via itscandidlycara)
This Is a Full Resolution Video of Curiosity Touching Down on Mars
One of the biggest bummers about Mars Rover Curiosity’s epic landing is that there was no news crew on the surface to catch footage of the descent. This full resolution video of Curiosity touching down from its own point of view is the next best thing.
This isn’t the first video of touchdown, but it’s the best. It’s the result of stringing together all the high resolution shots the rover took on its way to the surface, high resolution shots that took a lot longer to get back to Earth than the initial thumbnails. If it seems a bit choppy, that’s because Curiosity only took about four pictures per second. It might not be movie quality, but this is the best video out there of what it’s like to land on Mars. Incredible.
[via bookofjoe]
Mars Curiosity Brain Transplant Complete
The Mars Curiosity Rover has completed its brain transplant, upgrading its operating system and apps. Now it’s ready to start her exploration journey across the Gale Crater, en route to slice and dice Mount Sharp on a search to find life in the Red Planet.
This color-enhanced view shows the terrain around the rover’s landing site within Gale Crater on Mars. Colors were enhanced to bring out subtle differences, showing that the landing region is not as colorful as regions to the south, closer to Mount Sharp, where Curiosity will eventually explore. In reality, the blue colors are more gray.
As we mentioned in this post earlier, there will be a meteor shower visible in the night sky of North America over the next few days.
If any of you happen to get any nice shots of the Perseid Meteor Shower this weekend, feel free to send them our way through either http://physicsphysics.tumblr.com/submit or as a photo reply to this post. From there we will see to it that your picture gets posted on physicsphysics for all to see.
Enjoy the shower!
Embrace Your Ignorance: An Interview With Neil deGrasse Tyson
So many people only want answers. To be a scientist you have to learn to love the questions. You’ll learn that some of the greatest mysteries of the universe remain unanswered, and that’s the fun part. That’s the part that gets you awake in the morning and running to the office, because there’s a problem awaiting your attention that you might just solve that day. You have to embrace the unknown and embrace your own ignorance.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson
First Video of Curiosity Rover Shows Its Exciting Descent to Mars
This video covers the last two and a half minutes of Curiosity’s descent from her point of view. It’s made of 297 frames captured during the landing. You can see the thermal shield being jettisoned and the wheel of the rover as it’s being dropped by the skycrane.
There’s a lot of dust at the end, but you get the idea. Spectacular images and awesome success by NASA.
![physicsphysics:
First Color Landscape Image of Mars from Curiosity
This view of the landscape to the north of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the afternoon of the first day after landing. (The team calls this day Sol 1, which is the first Martian day of operations; Sol 1 began on Aug. 6, 2012.
In the distance, the image shows the north wall and rim of Gale Crater. The image is murky because the MAHLI’s removable dust cover is apparently coated with dust blown onto the camera during the rover’s terminal descent. Images taken without the dust cover in place are expected during checkout of the robotic arm in coming weeks.
The MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm. At the time the MAHLI Sol 1 image was acquired, the robotic arm was in its stowed position. It has been stowed since the rover was packaged for its Nov. 26, 2011, launch.
The MAHLI has a transparent dust cover. This image was acquired with the dust cover closed. The cover will not be opened until more than a week after the landing.
When the robotic arm, turret, and MAHLI are stowed, the MAHLI is in a position that is rotated 30 degrees relative to the rover deck. The MAHLI image shown here has been rotated to correct for that tilt, so that the sky is “up” and the ground is “down”.
When the robotic arm, turret, and MAHLI are stowed, the MAHLI is looking out from the front left side of the rover. This is much like the view from the driver’s side of cars sold in the USA.
The main purpose of Curiosity’s MAHLI camera is to acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil at the rover’s Gale Crater field site. The camera is capable of focusing on any target at distances of about 0.8 inch (2.1 centimeters) to infinity. This means it can, as shown here, also obtain pictures of the Martian landscape.
[via NASA JPL]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8ehlsO24j1qawlupo1_500.jpg)
First Color Landscape Image of Mars from Curiosity
This view of the landscape to the north of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the afternoon of the first day after landing. (The team calls this day Sol 1, which is the first Martian day of operations; Sol 1 began on Aug. 6, 2012.
In the distance, the image shows the north wall and rim of Gale Crater. The image is murky because the MAHLI’s removable dust cover is apparently coated with dust blown onto the camera during the rover’s terminal descent. Images taken without the dust cover in place are expected during checkout of the robotic arm in coming weeks.
The MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm. At the time the MAHLI Sol 1 image was acquired, the robotic arm was in its stowed position. It has been stowed since the rover was packaged for its Nov. 26, 2011, launch.
The MAHLI has a transparent dust cover. This image was acquired with the dust cover closed. The cover will not be opened until more than a week after the landing.
When the robotic arm, turret, and MAHLI are stowed, the MAHLI is in a position that is rotated 30 degrees relative to the rover deck. The MAHLI image shown here has been rotated to correct for that tilt, so that the sky is “up” and the ground is “down”.
When the robotic arm, turret, and MAHLI are stowed, the MAHLI is looking out from the front left side of the rover. This is much like the view from the driver’s side of cars sold in the USA.
The main purpose of Curiosity’s MAHLI camera is to acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil at the rover’s Gale Crater field site. The camera is capable of focusing on any target at distances of about 0.8 inch (2.1 centimeters) to infinity. This means it can, as shown here, also obtain pictures of the Martian landscape.
[via NASA JPL]
(via physicsphysics)
“The Theory of General Chillativity.”
Enjoy these pictures of Albert Einstein being totally chill.
(via physicsphysics)
(via physicsphysics)
![the-star-stuff:
This is Aerographite, the lightest material ever created
Now, researchers at the Hamburg University of Technology have created a material that beats out both of these ultralight substances handily. They call it Aerographite, and it has a density of less than 0.2 mg/cm3. The researchers grow the material through a novel twist on a synthesis technique known as chemical vapor deposition, a process which gives rise to a network of ethereal-looking, yet surprisingly resilient, hollow carbon microtubes.
[Advanced Materials via New Scientist]
Top image by Tuhh, Karl Schulte/DPA/Press Association Images](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m75ehjmt7S1qe649zo1_500.jpg)
This is Aerographite, the lightest material ever created
Now, researchers at the Hamburg University of Technology have created a material that beats out both of these ultralight substances handily. They call it Aerographite, and it has a density of less than 0.2 mg/cm3. The researchers grow the material through a novel twist on a synthesis technique known as chemical vapor deposition, a process which gives rise to a network of ethereal-looking, yet surprisingly resilient, hollow carbon microtubes.
[Advanced Materials via New Scientist]
Top image by Tuhh, Karl Schulte/DPA/Press Association Images
(via physicsphysics)
This $1.9 Billion Super Telescope Array Will Scan Space 10,000 Times Faster Than Ever Before
From the Byrd telescope in West Virginia, to the Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico, to the MeerKAT system in South Africa, the world is not hurting for gigantic radio telescopes. These large arrays are precise and powerful, but come 2024, they will all be eclipsed by the capability of the Square Kilometre Array—a telescope system big enough to answer science’s deepest questions about the nature of our universe.
When it comes to radio telescopy, systems come in two varieties—humongous single dishes like 305-meter-wide Aricebo or as a collective of smaller individual dishes coordinating, like theMEERKAT array. Arrays boast a distinctive advantage over the dishes—the smaller individual dishes can be spread over a vastly larger area than a single dish could ever cover, granting the array a much greater collection area. Bigger collection areas translate into a larger searchable field of view and more data to study. The MeerKAT, current record holder for largest and most precise array telescope, has a collection area of about 18,000 square meters. When the $1.9 billion SKA is completed, it will provide, as its name suggests, a million square meters of collection area. It will be fifty times more precise than any other radio system on the planet, and it will be able to survey the sky ten thousand times faster than current systems. Ten thousand.
Weird, Rare Clouds and the Physics Behind Them
Sometimes likened to UFOs, lenticular clouds are usually created by gravity waves. Chuang evokes loose shock absorbers to describe what gravity waves are.
“You take your grandma’s Cadillac and drive it over a speed bump, and after that it goes up and down for a while,” he said. “The reason you are going down is because of gravity, and then there are springs in the suspension that push you back up.”
In the case of lenticular clouds, the speed bump is usually some kind of topography, like a mountain, that gets in the way of air flow. As the air comes down the side of the mountain, it tends to overshoot and then springs back up. It oscillates like this for a while, and on the upward part of the waves, clouds form as rising air cools.
“Clouds mark the highest part of the oscillation,” Chuang said.
Lenticular clouds can also be caused by other speed bumps, such as tall thunderclouds, but because they often form on the downwind sides of mountains, they are also known as lee clouds, wave clouds or lee wave clouds.
A mountain range can form a series of long wave clouds, but if the speed bump is more isolated, like a single mountain, the result can be oval-shaped clouds that look like UFOs. Sometimes multiple ovals form that look like a stack of saucers.
Photo Credit: (1) cardiffjackie, (2) Daniel Breed. (3) Betsy Mason, Wired.com. (4)NCAR/UCAR.
(via itscandidlycara)