Many of the features seen on the Sun might look like tongues of flame or fiery eruptions, but there’s no fire or lava on the Sun – its energetic outbursts are driven by powerful magnetic fields that rise up from its internal regions and twist, loop, and coil far out into space. In addition to these…
Tag: physics
HAWKING: The Intimate Story of Stephen Hawking’s Life
“Come with me and I will tell you the story of how I became who I am.” With those words, spoken through a custom-built computer and software controlled by the faintest movements of his cheek and eye muscles, 72-year-old physicist Stephen Hawking takes us on a journey through his own life. In this, his first…
Book Review: The Universe in the Rearview Mirror
Physics is hard. I’m sorry, let me elaborate: physics is really hard. The sharpest minds of our entire species have been hammering away at the fundamental rules of our Universe for the past several hundred years, and while they’ve discovered an incredible lot about the tiniest bits of things that make up… well, everything… it’s…
What Happens Around a Hungry Black Hole?
While what exactly goes on within the event horizon of a black hole is still well within the realm of theoretical physics (and it’s said that at the very heart of a black hole physics as we know it gets a serious kick in the pants) researchers are learning more and more about what happens…
One Very Attractive Simulation
Here’s a fascinating physics model by computer artist Mark J. Stock, showing the 3-dimensional movements of 1 million bodies, each given their own gravity: One can easily imagine witnessing the birth of galaxies after the Big Bang, millions — even billions — of years passing before your eyes in seconds! It’s amazing how quickly a…
Lights in the Dark 