Today NASA announced that they’ve discovered a recent supernova - recent in geological terms (140 years ago). I do know that a “Supernova” is the term when a star explodes, but apart from that I’m not even going to pretend I know anything about interstellar physics. So let’s let the professionals discuss this one, shall we?

From Nasa:

The supernova explosion occurred about 140 years ago, making it the most recent in the Milky Way. Previously, the last known supernova in our galaxy occurred around 1680, an estimate based on the expansion of its remnant, Cassiopeia A.

Finding such a recent, obscured supernova is a first step in making a better estimate of how often the stellar explosions occur. This is important because supernovae heat and redistribute large amounts of gas, and pump heavy elements out into their surroundings. They can trigger the formation of new stars as part of a cycle of stellar death and rebirth. The explosion also can leave behind, in addition to the expanding remnant, a central neutron star or black hole.

Sweet! You see, they did a much better job of explaining that than I. I could discuss how badass John Squire’s guest lead guitar playing was in Oasis’ “Champagne Supernova,” but that’s as close as I would get. I say let the techies and Trekkies handle this one:

From Wired News:

Scientists using a combination of radio and X-rays have found the most recent supernova remnant observed in our galaxy, located about 26,000 light-years from here. It’s the youngest, most energetic supernova we know and could shed light on just exactly how the stardust we’re made of — heavier elements and all — gets created. The finding also lends some support to astronomers’ calculations that there should be about three supernovae in our galaxy per century, although they still need to find dozens more similar supernova remnants to confirm their suspicions.

Here’s a video of a famous supernova.

A new NASA study, using advances in satellite technology, has finally been able to measure the long-rumored drift of pollution from China and other East Asian countries, into North America:

“We used the latest satellite capabilities to distinguish industrial pollution and smoke from dust transported to the western regions of North America from East Asia. Looking at four years of data from 2002 to 2005 we estimated the amount of pollution arriving in North America to be equivalent to about 15 percent of local emissions of the U.S. and Canada,” said Hongbin Yu, an associate research scientist of the University of Maryland Baltimore County working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “This is a significant percentage at a time when the U.S. is trying to decrease pollution emissions to boost overall air quality. This means that any reduction in our emissions may be offset by the pollution aerosols coming from East Asia and other regions.”

So basically, we could all live clean as Oregon hippies and we’d still breathing in the toxic exhaust of Chinese factories. But hey, at least we can buy CHEAP ELECTRONICS AT WAL-MART!!!!!111 We can enjoy our last days dying of cancer, watching Planet Earth on FUCKING BLU-RAY! OMG HIGH RESOLUTION!!1:

With so many of Earth’s natural wonders on display, it’s only fitting that the final DVD in this five-disc set is devoted to Planet Earth: The Future, a separate three-part series in which a global array of experts is assembled to discuss issues of conservation, protection of delicate ecosystems, and the socio-economic benefits of understanding nature as a commodity that returns trillions of dollars in value at no cost to Earth’s human population. At a time when the multiple threats of global warming should be obvious to all, let’s give Sir David the last word, from the closing of Planet Earth’s final episode: “We can now destroy or we can cherish–the choice is ours.”

One wonders, if fucking Sir David took the time to figure out that by the time you’ve got your Blu-Ray player hooked up to your Wal-Mart television and you’re playing your FIVE-disc Planet Earth set, you’ve already made the choice? After all, there’s an even higher resolution available when you’re trying to check out nature: its called OUTSIDE. Maybe if we tried marketing that shit on TV it’d become a little more popular.

Are there really large, nearly-invisible glass objects hiding in the background of some classic NASA shots from the Apollo missions? According to infamous scrutinizer of the cosmically inscrutable Richard C. Hoagland, why yes, yes there are.

Physicists watching footage of a sunspot moving across the surface of the sun were stunned when the sunspot took the shape of trilobite and proceeded to crawl across the surface of the sun

“We’ve never seen anything quite like it,” says solar physicist Lika Guhathakurta from NASA headquarters.

Watch the footage for yourself here.