staceythinx: Illustrations by Moonrunner About Moonrunner: Moonrunner is primarily known for its science-based illustrations, especially in such fields as astro-physics, cosmology, dark energy, black holes, the solar system and such stellar phenomena as quasars, star nurseries and pulsars. We have worked with Stephen Hawking, as well as with the scientist/authors of the National Geographic and Scientific American magazines, and also those publishing with Dorling Kindersley, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Weldon Owen. Click on the images to see what they represent. That’s what I call some serious astro-illustration. Be sure to click on the photos above to check out the explanations in the slide show. 
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staceythinx: Illustrations by Moonrunner About Moonrunner: Moonrunner is primarily known for its science-based illustrations, especially in such fields as astro-physics, cosmology, dark energy, black holes, the solar system and such stellar phenomena as quasars, star nurseries and pulsars. We have worked with Stephen Hawking, as well as with the scientist/authors of the National Geographic and Scientific American magazines, and also those publishing with Dorling Kindersley, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Weldon Owen. Click on the images to see what they represent. That’s what I call some serious astro-illustration. Be sure to click on the photos above to check out the explanations in the slide show. 
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Illustrations by Moonrunner About Moonrunner: Moonrunner is primarily known for its science-based illustrations, especially in such fields as astro-physics, cosmology, dark energy, black holes, the solar system and such stellar phenomena as quasars, star nurseries and pulsars. We have worked with Stephen Hawking, as well as with the scientist/authors of the National Geographic and Scientific American magazines, and also those publishing with Dorling Kindersley, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Weldon Owen. Click on the images to see what they represent. That’s what I call some serious astro-illustration. Be sure to click on the photos above to check out the explanations in the slide show. 
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Illustrations by Moonrunner About Moonrunner: Moonrunner is primarily known for its science-based illustrations, especially in such fields as astro-physics, cosmology, dark energy, black holes, the solar system and such stellar phenomena as quasars, star nurseries and pulsars. We have worked with Stephen Hawking, as well as with the scientist/authors of the National Geographic and Scientific American magazines, and also those publishing with Dorling Kindersley, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Weldon Owen. Click on the images to see what they represent. That’s what I call some serious astro-illustration. Be sure to click on the photos above to check out the explanations in the slide show. 
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Illustrations by Moonrunner About Moonrunner: Moonrunner is primarily known for its science-based illustrations, especially in such fields as astro-physics, cosmology, dark energy, black holes, the solar system and such stellar phenomena as quasars, star nurseries and pulsars. We have worked with Stephen Hawking, as well as with the scientist/authors of the National Geographic and Scientific American magazines, and also those publishing with Dorling Kindersley, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Weldon Owen. Click on the images to see what they represent. That’s what I call some serious astro-illustration. Be sure to click on the photos above to check out the explanations in the slide show. 
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Illustrations by Moonrunner About Moonrunner: Moonrunner is primarily known for its science-based illustrations, especially in such fields as astro-physics, cosmology, dark energy, black holes, the solar system and such stellar phenomena as quasars, star nurseries and pulsars. We have worked with Stephen Hawking, as well as with the scientist/authors of the National Geographic and Scientific American magazines, and also those publishing with Dorling Kindersley, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Weldon Owen. Click on the images to see what they represent. That’s what I call some serious astro-illustration. Be sure to click on the photos above to check out the explanations in the slide show. 
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Illustrations by Moonrunner About Moonrunner: Moonrunner is primarily known for its science-based illustrations, especially in such fields as astro-physics, cosmology, dark energy, black holes, the solar system and such stellar phenomena as quasars, star nurseries and pulsars. We have worked with Stephen Hawking, as well as with the scientist/authors of the National Geographic and Scientific American magazines, and also those publishing with Dorling Kindersley, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Weldon Owen. Click on the images to see what they represent. That’s what I call some serious astro-illustration. Be sure to click on the photos above to check out the explanations in the slide show. 
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Illustrations by Moonrunner About Moonrunner: Moonrunner is primarily known for its science-based illustrations, especially in such fields as astro-physics, cosmology, dark energy, black holes, the solar system and such stellar phenomena as quasars, star nurseries and pulsars. We have worked with Stephen Hawking, as well as with the scientist/authors of the National Geographic and Scientific American magazines, and also those publishing with Dorling Kindersley, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Weldon Owen. Click on the images to see what they represent. That’s what I call some serious astro-illustration. Be sure to click on the photos above to check out the explanations in the slide show. 
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Illustrations by Moonrunner About Moonrunner: Moonrunner is primarily known for its science-based illustrations, especially in such fields as astro-physics, cosmology, dark energy, black holes, the solar system and such stellar phenomena as quasars, star nurseries and pulsars. We have worked with Stephen Hawking, as well as with the scientist/authors of the National Geographic and Scientific American magazines, and also those publishing with Dorling Kindersley, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Weldon Owen. Click on the images to see what they represent. That’s what I call some serious astro-illustration. Be sure to click on the photos above to check out the explanations in the slide show. 
Zoom Info
staceythinx: Illustrations by Moonrunner About Moonrunner: Moonrunner is primarily known for its science-based illustrations, especially in such fields as astro-physics, cosmology, dark energy, black holes, the solar system and such stellar phenomena as quasars, star nurseries and pulsars. We have worked with Stephen Hawking, as well as with the scientist/authors of the National Geographic and Scientific American magazines, and also those publishing with Dorling Kindersley, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Weldon Owen. Click on the images to see what they represent. That’s what I call some serious astro-illustration. Be sure to click on the photos above to check out the explanations in the slide show. 
Zoom Info

staceythinx:

Illustrations by Moonrunner

About Moonrunner:

Moonrunner is primarily known for its science-based illustrations, especially in such fields as astro-physics, cosmology, dark energy, black holes, the solar system and such stellar phenomena as quasars, star nurseries and pulsars. We have worked with Stephen Hawking, as well as with the scientist/authors of the National Geographic and Scientific American magazines, and also those publishing with Dorling Kindersley, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Weldon Owen.

Click on the images to see what they represent.

That’s what I call some serious astro-illustration. Be sure to click on the photos above to check out the explanations in the slide show. 

Dark Matter and the Phantom Filaments Sounds like a good band name, eh? Simulations of how we think the universe is organized, astrophysically speaking, show patterns resembling nodes of clustered galaxies connected by filaments of dense matter. We’ve found plenty of the galaxy clusters, but the filaments have been harder to actually observe. That’s because they are likely made of dark matter, which neither emits or absorbs light (and is therefore invisible to we mere humans). But scientists may have witnessed the effect of one of these filaments recently, marking the first time that dark matter has been observed connecting galaxy clusters. As Matthew Francis reports: The researchers used archival data from the 8.2 meter Subaru telescope in Hawaii, which includes visible and infrared observations of the supercluster. These were scanned to look for subtle changes in the light from objects behind the clusters. These can be signs of weak gravitational lensing, which would reveal the distribution of dark matter near the clusters. Gravitational lensing basically means that something invisible with mass, like dark matter, is bending the light from the cluster of galaxies. So although we can’t see the dark matter, we can see it affecting the light’s path and take a pretty good guess it is there. I bet these guys wish they hadn’t announced this in the same week as the Higgs boson, but hey … can’t win ‘em all. It gives support to the idea that our universe could be built on enormous webs of dark matter, and where these filaments and strands intersect, there is where gravity pulls galaxies together to form the clusters of stars and visible matter that we see every time we look up at night. (↬ Ars Technica)
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Dark Matter and the Phantom Filaments

Sounds like a good band name, eh?

Simulations of how we think the universe is organized, astrophysically speaking, show patterns resembling nodes of clustered galaxies connected by filaments of dense matter. We’ve found plenty of the galaxy clusters, but the filaments have been harder to actually observe. That’s because they are likely made of dark matter, which neither emits or absorbs light (and is therefore invisible to we mere humans).

But scientists may have witnessed the effect of one of these filaments recently, marking the first time that dark matter has been observed connecting galaxy clusters. As Matthew Francis reports:

The researchers used archival data from the 8.2 meter Subaru telescope in Hawaii, which includes visible and infrared observations of the supercluster. These were scanned to look for subtle changes in the light from objects behind the clusters. These can be signs of weak gravitational lensing, which would reveal the distribution of dark matter near the clusters.

Gravitational lensing basically means that something invisible with mass, like dark matter, is bending the light from the cluster of galaxies. So although we can’t see the dark matter, we can see it affecting the light’s path and take a pretty good guess it is there.

I bet these guys wish they hadn’t announced this in the same week as the Higgs boson, but hey … can’t win ‘em all. It gives support to the idea that our universe could be built on enormous webs of dark matter, and where these filaments and strands intersect, there is where gravity pulls galaxies together to form the clusters of stars and visible matter that we see every time we look up at night.

(↬ Ars Technica)

Source: Ars Technica

Dark Energy Discovery Wins Nobel Prize For Physics

The Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to a trio af American astrophysicists for their discovery a faster-than-expected expansion of the universe.

By tracking the movements of distant supernovas, Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam Reiss were surprised to see them rifting away faster than their models predicted. They realized there must be an unseen force accelerating them away after the Big Bang. This invisible energy is what we call dark energy, and it may make up as much as 3/4 of the mass-energy in the universe.