Yow:
Just saw in this GCN Circular: https://t.co/qWZD6hLQ7w that the huuuuuge Gamma Ray Burst GRB221009A which is the brightest ever detected, has triggered detectable ionospheric disturbances in our own atmosphere. pic.twitter.com/DbGd0eEXDM
— Dominique Boutigny (@AlvindeDiaspar) October 14, 2022
Photos of a physical copy, fresh from the printer, somewhere in the wilds of Britain. UK/EU buyers should start receiving them shortly, I’d imagine.
The ordering link straight from the publisher:
And the updated Amazon link:
As previously mentioned, if you are interested in a signed, dated and bonus-print copy, let me know so I know how many to order.
Answered. I *defy* you to watch this and feel nothing.
Better quality version of the video is in here:
It seems that a black hole tore a star apart, trapped the tattered gaseous remains in an accretion disk, held onto it for three years, then blatted it back out into space at half the speed of light. The mechanism for this seems a little unclear.
I’m at work on a new series of CAD diagrams (see HERE for the first run) to be released as PDFs formatted for printing at 18X24. For example, here are first drafts of a few:
All of these require a bit more dressing-up, as well as explanatory text. But I think they’re starting to look pretty good.
I’ve selected a fair number more to work on. If any of these are of particular interest, or if any of the many, many diagrams I’ve made over the years would be of interest, let me know.
One might argue that an ESA astronaut doing cosplay while on the Space Station is a waste of time. I would counter with: “you’re an idiot. Watch this awesomeness.”
2022 A Space Odyssey. Turns out, yes, you can walk with Velcro shoes. Slowly, very very slowly 😉#ASpaceOdyssey #MissionMinerva @esa @esaspaceflight @Space_Station pic.twitter.com/WI69RXmObE
— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) October 8, 2022
To compare with:
Assuming the video is accurate (these days, who knows), it appears that a Ukrainian soldier swatted a Russian cruise missile on its way to a war crime using a standard shoulder-launched short range missile.
It’s unclear to me what system was used, as the video is pretty potato in quality. Doesn’t look to me like a Stinger; not enough stuff on the front of the launcher. Maybe a Grail, Gremlin or Piorun.
A MANPAD vs a cruise missile makes sense: cruise missiles fly low, generally subsonic, have no countermeasures such as flares and do not try to maneuver to avoid getting hit. On the other hand their engines are small and do not put out nearly as much thermal energy as the turbojets of a fighter; but on the gripping hand, they are also not as IR shielded as the exhausts of a stealthy airplane or a battlefield helicopter. So the trick with using a MANPAD to take out a cruise missile is to be in the right place at the right time, and to be on the ball. It’s impossible to know what apartment building or orphanarium or kitten hospital the Russian cruise missile was targeted to obliterate, but it’s safe to say that the missileer here just saved a fair number of civilians a lot of grief.
Prior to impact, it took Dimorphos 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit its larger parent asteroid Didymos. Astronomers used ground-based telescopes to measure how Dimorphos’ orbit changed after impact.Now, it takes Dimorphos 11 hours and 23 minutes to circle Didymos. The DART spacecraft changed its orbit by 32 minutes.
Initially, astronomers expected DART to be a success if it shortened the trajectory by 10 minutes.
Neato. A pity we didn’t have more spacecraft on-scene to get better bomb damage assessment images in the minutes, hours and days that followed. It kinda seems like the impact really trashed the rubble pile.
Finally, definitive proof of who was responsible:
Музична павза маркетингова pic.twitter.com/rQRWJfHClD
— уху ївший кіт з яйцями (@Yevgen57868855) October 8, 2022
General Dynamics is showing off their next-generation main battle tank. And, shockingly, it’s an actual piece of hardware rather than a computer generated bit of flim-flam. If this gets put into production, it will differ from the current Abrams by:
I’m a bit stumped about the saw-tooth skirts on the side. Other than that, it looks sufficiently sci-fi. Note that the turret, which is now to be unmanned, is of somewhat lower profile, making the tank a slightly smaller target from the sides. However, as we’ve seen recently a whole lot of tanks get taken out from above. The “AbramsX” won’t be any smaller in that regard. Whether it’ll be any safer from a top attack remains to be seen, though Trophy has a good reputation.