Slashdot Mirror
Largest Lens Ever Discovered
K Tanmay writes "A team of Astronomers have found a natural lens capable of resolving details as fine as 10 microarcseconds across - equivalent to seeing a sugar cube on the Moon, from Earth. The lens comprises of a cloud of interstellar gas, and works on the principle of scintillation; where the clumpiness inside a cloud of gas creates a density change thus bending and focusing the light. This technique, dubbed 'Earth-Orbit Synthesis', will be first used to study black holes in distant quasars, so don't expect spectacular wallpaper replacing images. There's also an interview with Dr. Hayley Bignall, an astronomer from the Joint Institute for Very Long Baseline Interferometry in Europe (JIVE), where she discusses the concept of using interstellar scintillation to get observations that we could never measure from here on earth." Update: 02/22 18:23 GMT by T : That wikipedia link had led to the wrong place; here's the definition for arcsecond if you still want to read it.
They've found sugar on the MOON!!!
Does this mean we can finally see the so called "landing site" on the moon? :)
Jeez... everyone knows that cheese and sugar have no business going together. Put a piece of sausage up there and you might have something worth looking at.
"I have a porkchop, you have a porkchop. I have a veal, you have a veal".
Jive? Who's running the place? The gang from What's Happening? Is Sherly still fighting with Rerun?
Names mean something. If you look at legislation in the USA, they often try and make laws look like the opposite of what they are, like the patriot act, which takes away civil liberties. So if they want to have the name Jive, they will probably not get the same respect as if they were called Astronomy Scholarly Studies.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
The astronomer is from a group called JIVE? That's whack, yo.
Fantastic! Now the alien people and the tin foil hat wearers can join forces- because not only is their life elsewhere in the universe, by golly, they're SPYING on us! Quick, someone phone Barbara Streisand so she can sue them for photographing her back yard.
There's something in this for everyone, really- even the people who think the rovers are getting sabotaged. After all, when you're a futuristic-technology-wielding, hip happenin' intergalactic alien...hmm, what's the saying? Oh yeah. When you've got a gas-giant lens, the whole universe looks like an ant in need of frying.
Please help metamoderate.
In other news, the lens was found approximately three miles away from a giant on all fours combing the ground with his hands.
You'd have to be some kind of supreme nerd to require a lens of THAT prescription.
- A
Definition of an Arcsecond: "Quit portscanning me."
I guess they don't slike being slashdotted?
Uh, isn't Wikipedia suffering enough from overuse and underfunding of it's bandwidth/serverload...I mean seriously, can't you editors find another site to use as a dictionary?
> alright, who's the joker wo updated wiki?!
The page history shows it to be some loser by the name of 12.216.3.69.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I remember seeing a photo of this array as a child. Back then it only had five dishes. I had no idea that it had been filled out.
You'll find this happens as telescope arrays approach puberty. The once flat areas become curvy and full. Sweat glands start up production in earnest requiring a discussion about the importance of deodorant. Pretty soon your array will want a training bra requiring a trip to the mall.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
...a globular cluster of these!
--- Hot Shot City is particularly good.
It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the liberals have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans (as if any further evidence was needed! Daddy's Roommate? God Almighty!)
Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the liberals have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors .. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the liberals will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt .45 and a .38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at Berkeley is updated with information about you.
Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the liberals can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the liberal community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!
Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down.
We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
Hey you, second from the far right, Get with the programme!