November 27, 2013

Comet ISON Rising

Will Comet ISON survive its close encounter with the Sun?

The drama has been building.

Will Comet ISON survive its close encounter with the Sun?

In the time-lapse video below, Comet ISON is seen rising over the Canary Islands just above the morning Sun several days ago. According to NASA, “if the comet’s nucleus survives, the coma and the tails it sheds might well be visible rising ahead of the Sun in the next few days or weeks. Alternatively, satellites watching the Sun might document one of the larger comet disintegrations yet recorded.”

Stay tuned!

Watch the time-lapse here:

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

You Had to Be There: How Good Science is Like Great Comedy

Bill Nye – who turns 58 today – says teaching science needs to be a hands-on experience in order for it to be really effective. Like the funniest moments in life, you might say, you had to be there.