A rare snapshot of a planetary construction site (MPIA press release)

"Planets are formed in disks of gas and dust around nascent stars. Now, combined observations with the compound telescope ALMA and the Herschel Space Observatory have produced a rare view of a planetary construction site in an intermediate state of evolution: Contrary to expectations, the disk around the star HD 21997 appears to contain both primordial gas left over from the formation of the star itself and dust that appears to have been produced in collisions between planetesimals – small rocks that are the building blocks for the much larger planets. This is the first direct observation of such a "hybrid disk", and likely to require a revision of current models of planet formation."

Read about the new discovery here.

Tereshkova's flight logbook

For the first time the flight logbook of Valentina Tereshkova is now uploaded to the Web. You can find it here and read it if you know Russian. If you don't, I will be able to translate the most interesting parts a bit later.

I found very interesting web page - the project "ChronoZoom" - an open-source project which allows you to create, explore and learn different "timelines". Here is an example.

So, basically you can create whatever timeline you want and share it with your friends, colleges, dogs,.. and explain everything that happened in your life or Universe in a very simple way.

It is still beta version, but even now it looks cool.
http://join.chronozoom.com/

This is a very nice picture.

Even from astronomical point of view. Let's assume that we meet aliens. Who will greet them? Americans, russians, germans? The only answer that can exist is HUMAN. Countries are just the territories allied by the same history and slightly different cultural traditions than neighbouring once. Built to defend their own interests from invaders.
But we all have something common. DNA and one tiny planet. We have to change.

And we all still can not grow up from our childish perspective of other people.  
That's not the way you can go to outer space and explore the galaxy.

Think about it. Because in most of situations 'many' overweights the 'one'.

I think every human on this small planet should spend 15 minutes per day to watch and what is more important to listen to Carl Sagan. And not because it is about astronomy, but because it is about us no matter who we are and what we do.

Just follow the link bellow.

The Sagan Series

It is my personal belief that science is the only possible solution to all of our problems. Maybe I am wrong, but this is ultimate source of critical thinking that we all lack so much nowadays. Society can only benefit by implementing scientific standards into its life. Economy, ecology, transport, even army - all these things would be better.

Religion, wild capitalism, militarism, radicalism are one way tickets for humankind.  

Midnight is very soon and astronomers (observers) all around the globe are preparing to look at the sky and find something magnificent, something fascinating (Hello, Mr. Spock!).

Even from the point of view of a theorist, night is still perfect time for astronomers to work. At least, I think so. Maybe somehow it is hidden somewhere in our scientific genes. Who knows..


I have no idea why I have decided to start this blog (which I think will not be even popular) and why today, but Universe is sometimes unpredictable and you need to listen to what it tells you.

Anyway, I am Ilya. I am Russian, I am a grad student in Germany and I will talk about the astronomy from my perspective, my thoughts and feelings about it and science. So, whoever you are, stranger, feel free to ask all frightening questions you have about astronomy.