Gamma Ray Satellite may have found dark matter

Here's another great post that describes a recent discovery of what may be dark matter, which makes up 20% of our universe (regular matter is only 4%).

The excess gamma rays could possibly be coming from a hypothesized dark matter called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), colliding with one another and annihilating themselves into pure energy.

Fermi may have spotted dark matter.

Want to know more about dark energy and dark matter? Check out this video.

Patricia Burchart, a particle physicist and professor at Stanford explains all we know about Dark Matter and Dark Energy. This is a great talk, in 16 minutes, it will explain our latest understandings about what our universe is made of.

A great bio in the NYT, and some AWESOME pics

The NYT has a wonderful feature on Carolyn Porco, head of camera team of
the Cassini space probe which was launched to study Saturn.



You've got to see some of the images (click on the image to see at full resolution):

The Big Bang Explained

Ever wonder what the big bang is all about? What a multiverse is? This 2 minute video gives a great explanation by physicist Janna Levin, who is also a fantastic author. She wrote How the Universe got is Spots, and the award wining fiction book, A Madman dreams of Turing Machines. Both are great, quirky reads.

Beautiful time lapse of Persied Meteor shower

Sometimes, physics begins with just admiring the beauty of the world around us. Check out what you see if you spend a night taking photos of the sky during the Perseid meteor shower. To get a explanation of what you're looking at, check out the always great, Bad Astronomy. Be sure to click on the HD link to see this movie in all its glory.

Space Probes and Messages to Other Civilizations

In class yesterday, we talked about Pioneer 10, a space probe launched in 1977 to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and that has now left our solar system. We also discussed that Pioneer 10 contained a plaque featuring a series of pictures designed to communicate a message from humankind in case the probe should be encountered by extraterrestrial civilizations. You can click on the image below to get a larger image.

In class, I said that Pioneer 10 was the furthest man-made object from the earth. This is untrue. That record is now head by the Voyager 1, a space probe launched a few years later. Voyager was able to pass Pioneer 10 thanks to a number of gravity assisted speed boost from passing close to the outer planets.

In addition, Voyager contained the golden record I mentioned in class that contains a message for any extraterrestrial civilization it might encounter.

You can listen to a wonderful story about the creation of this record told by Ann Druyen, widow of the great scientist Carl Sagan, whose idea it was to make the record in the first place. This story is part of the incredible Raidolab podcast, simply one of the very best shows you can listen to on your ipod.



Voyager 1 also plays a central role in the original Star Trek movie, which is a pretty funny look back to a young William Shatner 1970s imagining of the future.

So what would YOU put on a record to extraterresterials? Here's a podcast with answers from comedian Margaret Cho, composer Phillip Glass, Chef Alice Waters, and authors Michael Cunningham and Neil Gaiman.