New header “Look Up” in honor of the space spies who made an awesome, new discovery last week.

Remember when like, waaaay back in the beginning of Novemember 2011, when we all were pretty sure the Milky Way looked like this?

Surprise!

It really looks like this:

“What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic centre,” said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who first recognised the feature. “We don’t fully understand their nature or origin…”

When the leader of the Harvard team responsible for the discovery is reduced to an elementary summary like this:

“They’re big,” said Doug Finkbeiner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, leader of the team that discovered them; the New York Times draws an analogy to Jabba the Hut, and “Wow,” is what David Spergel, an astrophysicist at Princeton who was not involved in the work had to say…You know something jaw dropping has happened.

50,000 LIGHT YEARS OF HOT PINK. Almost as big as the entire galaxy, but completely unsuspected until now. If this doesn’t make us regret the decision to cancel our radical shuttle program, nothing will.

All images and videos from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

In particular, a watch worth going back in time for. A watch worth risking the indignities of disco and the threat of tearing a hole in the fabric of space.

Two watches, actually, as long as we’re going through all the trouble.

Tiny hairs on this child’s hands and feet allow it to climb the door jamb in its native yuppie apartment.

…am fascinated by the idea that the earth is a minor planet in our galaxy “floating” in a universe full of galaxies.

The coup of science, engineering, technology and imagination that made the below photo of the galaxy possible = pretty good work.

Still smiling, one month later.

The children of DC are safer without Cheney’s dark shadow circling the sky. Although, baby calves thoughout rural Montana should be nervous come January, cause Cheney’s supply of fresh baby hearts is going bankrupt …this is the only recession that will effect him.

Anyway, I don’t care how broke we are as long as those “conspirators, card sharks, double-crossers, and secret betrayers of their own people” leave Washington.

Amen.

PS. I don’t remember how I found this painting from Africa, but it is super bad.

The silver tongue of Sir David Attenborogh, naturalist and broadcaster, has laid narration over many a cool project. But, I will never forget seeing the PBS Nova special on bowerbirds, “Flying Cassanovas” because the plain, brown males of Papua New Guinea and Austraila engage in a seriously compelling mating ritual.

First, they build their nests or “bowers” elaborate twig huts on the ground, supported by a center beam. Next, they fly around and search for brightly colored or unusual objects and lay elaborate carpets in their bower doorway to attract mates.

Mushrooms, orange peels, blossoms, decorative glass from cemeteries and little girls’ hair ties were just some of the objects the males chose to adorn their bowers. Objects moved by researchers are quickly replaced by the male birds who refine the composition over and over in hopes of attracting a mate.

I didn’t realize how exceptional the footage in the documentary was until I started searching the internet for photo examples. These photos here do not compare to the bower arrangements filmed for the PBS piece, so I really recommend finding it.

At the time, the idea of birds who create aesthetic arrangements really blew my mind. I thought that the “arts” were human talents that separated us from other species?!

First Mr. Ed, now this.

Allegedly, this is the Earth from 4 billion miles away photographed by Voyager 1 on June 6, 1990.

The folks here at A.O. have never been 4 billion miles away from Earth which puts us in the uneasy position of trusting the government on this one.

We like to think of it as trusting Carl Sagan.

What were you doing in 1990? We happen to know a sordid number of our compatriots were watching “Driving Ms. Daisy” and singing along to Bette Midler’s “The Wind Beneath my Wings.”

via

These Racetrack Playa rocks weigh several hundred pounds, but still manage to inch their way across Death Valley National Park leaving long trails behind them. No one knows for sure how they move.

I can guarantee I will be at the bar later tonight trying desperately to convey to some poor, trapped soul how interesting/terrifying I find this phenomenon. “See, theese rocks…no boulders really….they’re huge….in the middle of nowhere…moving veeery slowly… (AO makes sinister creeping motion with hands)…”

This will fail completely. But we will know the real score, AO readers, won’t we?

Read more about these rocks coming to get you, slow but steady.

via today and tomorrow.

1. Stephan Zick, 1639-1715
Wood and ivory

2. “Medical Venus”
Clemente Susini, late 18th century, wax
La Specola, University of Florence

via bioepherma. She has a really fascinating article on the art of the anatomical modeling of pregnant women. We had not considered that.