How to Never Miss an Aurora

I'm often asked when is the best time to see the northern lights. I usually point out that they're connected to solar flares and vast eruptions of solar plasma called coronal mass ejections or CMEs. While these violent events and the auroras they spawn are more common during the peak of the sunspot cycle, they're liable to happen anytime and can be as unpredictable as earthly weather.

Not a very satisfying answer, I'll admit. But before you throw up your arms and seek another seer, allow me to arm you with several essential tools. If consulted regularly, I guarantee your chances of seeing an aurora will be maximized. Read more.

I'm often asked when is the best time to see the northern lights. I usually point out that they're connected to solar flares and vast eruptions of solar plasma called coronal mass ejections or CMEs. While these violent events and the auroras they spawn are more common during the peak of the sunspot cycle, they're liable to happen anytime and can be as unpredictable as earthly weather.
Not a very satisfying answer, I'll admit. But before you throw up your arms and seek another seer, allow me to arm you with several essential tools. If consulted regularly, I guarantee your chances of seeing an aurora will be maximized. Don't flog me if clouds show up. They're not part of the deal.
- See more at: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/sleuth-aurora-09252014/#sthash.Y1RpAeJ9.dpuf

I'm often asked when is the best time to see the northern lights. I usually point out that they're connected to solar flares and vast eruptions of solar plasma called coronal mass ejections or CMEs. While these violent events and the auroras they spawn are more common during the peak of the sunspot cycle, they're liable to happen anytime and can be as unpredictable as earthly weather.
Not a very satisfying answer, I'll admit. But before you throw up your arms and seek another seer, allow me to arm you with several essential tools. If consulted regularly, I guarantee your chances of seeing an aurora will be maximized. Don't flog me if clouds show up. They're not part of the deal.
- See more at: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/sleuth-aurora-09252014/#sthash.Y1RpAeJ9.dpuf

O ALMA observa origem violenta de galáxias de disco

Durante décadas os cientistas acreditaram que da fusão de galáxias resultavam geralmente galáxias elípticas. Agora, e pela primeira vez, os investigadores, com o auxílio do ALMA e um conjunto de outros rádio telescópios, descobriram evidências diretas de que as galáxias em fusão podem também dar origem a galáxias de disco e que este fenómeno é até bastante comum. Este resultado surpreendente pode explicar porque é que existem tantas galáxias em espiral como a Via Láctea no Universo. 

Uma equipa de investigação internacional liderada por Junko Ueda, pós-doutorando da Sociedade Japonesa  para a Divulgação da Ciência,  fez observações surpreendentes que mostram que a maioria das colisões galácticas no Universo próximo - entre 40 e 600 milhões de anos-luz de distância da Terra - dão origem às chamadas galáxias de disco. As galáxias de disco - que incluem as galáxias em espiral como a Via Láctea e as galáxias lenticulares - definem-se como possuindo regiões de gás e poeira em forma de panqueca e são bastante diferentes da categoria das galáxias elípticas. Ler mais.

Magnetism and quantum mechanics

Think you understand magnets? Scientists have realised over the past century that, despite what we thought we knew, magnetism is nothing but quantum mechanics.  Read more.

Through the wormhole with Morgan Freeman: Are we alone?

More videos.

Where Art and Science collide

In his TEDGlobal 2013 talk, Fabian Oefner shares breathtaking images at the nexus of art and science, which beautifully capture unique moments of physical and chemical drama. Read more.

Nebula No. 10 (2011)

Fire rainbows

The rainbow effect is created when tiny ice crystals in the water vapour of clouds reflect the sunlight at the exact right angle. The sight is rare and has only ever been photographed a couple of times.
   
Images: (L) Ken Rotberg (R) UC Santa Barbara Geography.

Pyro Board: 2D Rubens' Tube!

There’s a storm coming

This awesome video shows the constant stream of material that the Sun throws out into the solar system. It was produced using the classifications from citizen scientists on the Solar Stormwatch project. The video covers three years of observations from STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory). 

Read more about the video and data analysis on the Solar Stormwatch blog here, and have a go at looking for solar storms yourself here.

Birth of Super-massive Black Holes

Astronomers believe they have discovered the origin of our universe’s first super-massive black holes, which formed some 13 billion years ago. Read more.

Most “super” supermoon of 2013 on June 22-23

Full moon falls on June 23, 2013 at 11:32 UTC (6:32 a.m. CDT in the U.S.). Thus, for many, the moon appears about equally full in the June 22 sky as it does on June 23. This full moon is not only the closest and largest full moon of the year. It also presents the moon’s closest encounter with Earth for all of 2013. The moon will not be so close again until August, 2014. Read more.

How to Turn Sound Into Light: Sonoluminescence

Doing The Impossible - PHD Animation

Physicists Amir Safavi-Naeini and Oskar Painter describe how they were able to measure quantum motions of 1 femtometer (0.000000000000001 meters).

Robotic Insects Make First Controlled Flight

In the very early hours of the morning, in a Harvard robotics laboratory last summer, an insect took flight. Half the size of a paperclip, weighing less than a tenth of a gram, it leapt a few inches, hovered for a moment on fragile, flapping wings, and then sped along a preset route through the air. Read more.

A Boy And His Atom: The World's Smallest Movie

Humanity Explores the Solar System

Astrónomos descobrem planetas com órbitas muito excêntricas

Chamam-se KOI-200 b e KOI-889 b, foram detectados pelo telescópio espacial Kepler, da NASA, e são dois planetas extrassolares de órbitas muito excêntricas descobertos por investigadores do Instituto de Astrofísica de Paris, do Centro Nacional de Pesquisas Científicas de França e do Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto (CAUP). Ler mais.

Einstein's Gravity Theory Passes Toughest Test Yet

A strange stellar pair nearly 7,000 light-years from Earth has provided physicists with a unique cosmic laboratory for studying the nature of gravity. The extremely strong gravity of a massive neutron star in orbit with a companion white dwarf star puts competing theories of gravity to a test more stringent than any available before. Read more.

Kandidat für Dunkle Materie in US-Bergwerk entdeckt

Detektor in Bergwerk registriert Hinweis auf Dunkle Materie

Nach aktuellen Berechnungen müsste Dunkle Materie rund 80 Prozent aller Materie im Universum ausmachen. Beobachtet hat sie trotzdem bisher niemand. Dafür macht sie sich indirekt umso mehr bemerkbar: Dunkle Materie soll für die ungewöhnlich hohen Umlaufgeschwindigkeiten von Sternen im äußeren Bereich von Galaxien verantwortlich sein. Außerdem zeigt sie sich durch die gravitative Lichtbeugung, dem Gravitationslinsen-Effekt. Mehr.

LHCb experiment observes new matter-antimatter difference

The LHCb collaboration at CERN today submitted a paper to Physical Review Letters on the first observation of matter-antimatter asymmetry in the decays of the particle known as the B⁰_s. It is only the fourth subatomic particle known to exhibit such behaviour. Read more.

Descobertos primeiros indícios da 'matéria escura'

Um detetor de partículas a bordo da Estação Espacial Internacional (ISS) encontrou aquilo que muitos cientistas pensam ser o primeiro indício 'visível' da 'matéria escura', a misteriosa substância que, segundo os modelos mais comummente aceites, compõe grande parte do Universo.

O Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (Espectrómetro Magnético Alfa) foi levado para a ISS há dois anos e tem como missão estudar os raios cósmicos - partículas de alta energia que permeiam todo o cosmos, provavelmente originárias do Big Bang, o momento de criação do espaço, do tempo e de toda a matéria no Universo. Ler mais.