The SOAO Weekly Roundup January 18 – 24, 2015

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If you had a busy week, don’t fret, we’ve got you covered. Every Sunday we go through all the content from the previous seven days and pick out the ten most popular posts, as well as a few others you might have missed. So sit back, relax, and catch up on this past week in Socks.

 

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National Geographic’s Photo Of The Day: Annakut In Kolkata

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From Nat Geo:

Photograph by Sudipta Maulik, National Geographic Your Shot

Devotees catch rice during Annakut (“heap of grain”) celebrations at a temple in Kolkata, India. “I was keen to capture the expressions on the faces along with the showering food,” writes Your Shot member Sudipta Maulik. “I planned to take the photograph at the moment the food was thrown from just [behind] me on the first-floor veranda of the temple building. I had to wait for a few hours to take it, as there was no way to enter or exit the temple until the end.”

NASA’s Astronomy Picture Of The Day: A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence

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From NASA:

Explanation: Ten Earths could easily fit in the “claw” of this seemingly solar monster. The monster, actually a huge eruptive prominence, is seen moving out from our Sun in this condensed half-hour time-lapse sequence. This large prominence, though, is significant not only for its size, but its shape. The twisted figure eight shape indicates that a complex magnetic field threads through the emerging solar particles. Differential rotation of gas just inside the surface of the Sun might help account for the surface explosion. The five frame sequence was taken in early 2000 by the Sun-orbiting SOHO satellite. Although large prominences and energetic Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are relatively rare, they are again occurring more frequently now that we are near the Solar Maximum, a time of peak sunspot and solar activity in the eleven-year solar cycle.

Video Credit: SOHO Consortium, EIT, ESA, NASA

The SOAO Daily Ditty: The Veils – ‘Lavinia’

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From AllMusic:

As the son of keyboardist Barry Andrews (XTC, Shriekback), the Veils’ Finn Andrews knew nothing else except a world full of music and art. He had plans to become a painter as a young lad; however, a move to his grandmother’s abode in Devonport, New Zealand (near Auckland) with his mother pointed Andrews in a different direction during his teenage years. He frequented the local folk scene to escape the ho-hum of country living. Once consumed with his father’s electronic work from the 1980s, Andrews was now interested in Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, and Tom Waits…[read more]

Source: RoughTradeRecords

TED Talks With Christina Kleinberg: How Polarity Makes Water Behave Strangely

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From TED-Ed:

Water is both essential and unique. Many of its particular qualities stem from the fact that it consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen, therefore creating an unequal sharing of electrons. From fish in frozen lakes to ice floating on water, Christina Kleinberg describes the effects of polarity.

Lesson by Christina Kleinberg, animation by Alan Foreman.

National Geographic’s Photo Of The Day: Bird Of Paradiso

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From Nat Geo:

Photograph by Stefano Unterthiner, National Geographic

Gran Paradiso National Park is the oldest in Italy. Its namesake, the Gran Paradiso massif, rises 13,324 feet. Here, with the massif looming beyond a cloud bank, a yellow-billed Alpine chough swoops and soars on thermals and updrafts. The park is home to some hundred species of birds.

NASA’s Astronomy Picture Of The Day: Light From Cygnus A

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Five objects at various distances that have been observed by Chandra

From NASA:

Explanation: Celebrating astronomy in this International Year of Light, the detailed image reveals spectacular active galaxy Cygnus A in light across the electromagnetic spectrum. Incorporating X-ray data ( blue) from the orbiting Chandra Observatory, Cygnus A is seen to be a prodigious source of high energy x-rays. But it is actually more famous at the low energy end of the electromagnetic spectrum. One of the brightest celestial sources visible to radio telescopes, at 600 million light-years distant Cygnus A is the closest powerful radio galaxy. Radio emission ( red) extends to either side along the same axis for nearly 300,000 light-years powered by jets of relativistic particles emanating from the galaxy’s central supermassive black hole. Hot spots likely mark the ends of the jets impacting surrounding cool, dense material. Confined to yellow hues, optical wavelength data of the galaxy from Hubble and the surrounding field in the Digital Sky Survey complete a remarkable multiwavelength view.

Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/NRAO/AUI/VLA

The SOAO Daily Ditty: Laura Marling – ‘Devil’s Resting Place’

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From AllMusic:

Singer/songwriter Laura Marling was only 16 years old when she emerged on the British indie scene in 2007 thanks to a handful of infectious singles made available on her MySpace profile. Endowed with a husky voice, an acoustic guitar, and a gift for building quirky, hooky folk songs (characteristics that find her compared favorably to artists like Lily Allen, Regina Spektor, and Martha Wainwright), Marling quickly made a name for herself throughout England thanks to a heavy touring schedule and a few high-profile gigs, not the least of which included an appearance at the 2006 City Showcase: Spotlight London and as the opening act for Jamie T…[read more]

Source: LauraMarlingVEVO