Solar Dynamic Observatory

[billygomberg]

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

THE SUN, DUDES, THE FUCKING SUN

[Antoine]

Yeah!


(and also: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/the_sun.html )

[bryan]

Sick images, I must say. Billy, where are you getting your science news updates from? I stay away from news usually, but I'll take some ill scientifical RSS news feeds or blogs...

[billygomberg]

Sick images, I must say. Billy, where are you getting your science news updates from? I stay away from news usually, but I'll take some ill scientifical RSS news feeds or blogs...

honestly CNN's science section is pretty good. APOD is great for space imgs.

[Antoine]

+ this one with rss feed: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/

[billygomberg]

+ this one with rss feed: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/

yeah a lot of observatory/laboratory sites have a feed you can latch on to..

[Vincent Kargatis]

I'll take some ill scientifical RSS news feeds or blogs...

Hard to go wrong here: http://scienceblogs.com/

Lots of cumulative posts, you might want to stick with the 'selected' feed: http://scienceblogs.com/sample/editors-feed.xml

[billygomberg]

ah that is a hot tip right there.

SCIENCE

[bryan]

I added some new bookmarks.. thanks folks.

[surfer]

If any of you are interested in more than just looking at pics of the sun (I dont mean that as a dismissal, the pics are stunning), I cant recommend Martin Rees' book Before The Beginning highly enough. and I have read more than a few "beginner" cosmology and astrophysics books. Clear conise and non-technical descriptions, with very few (practically no) formulae or equations.

You can sneak peak his short chapter on suns here: http://tinyurl.com/2ajf3uh

starts on page 8 (Sun and its Metabolism)

Interesting sun fact: all of the elements on the periodic table, with the exception of hydrogen and helium (which were created in the big bang), are actually synthesized inside of very large super massive stars with temps around 1 billion degrees. These stars fuse protons and neutrons onto hydrogen atoms, and basically create all of the building blocks of the universe, including oxygen and carbon.

An absolutely fabulous book, because it doesnt just explain current theories and phenomena, but speculates about what that might imply or suggest about our universe (and its future) and other universes.

[surfer]

btw, what provides the fuel for the sun (or any star)?

its not burning hydrogen. Its actually the fusing of 4 hydrogen atoms with a helium atom, which results in the controlled (by gravity, like keeping the lid on a boiling pot) release of .007mc2 of energy, which has kept the sun shining for 4.5 billion years, and will keep it going for 5 billion more.

[billygomberg]

awesome. thanks for the book rec.