Tales from the ArXiv: "The Random Walk of Cars and Their Collision Probabilities with Planets"

Well, the title of this paper pretty much says it all.

However, there are also some choice quotes in the paper. For example, I really like this deadpan sentence: We now turn to the long-term dynamical evolution for which we integrate 240 realizations of the Tesla for 3.5 Myr into the future.

The final part of the abstract is also nice: By running a large ensemble of simulations with slightly perturbed initial conditions, we estimate the probability of a collision with Earth and Venus over the next one million years to be 6% and 2.5%, respectively. We estimate the dynamical lifetime of the Tesla to be a few tens of millions of years. (I guess the simulation of 3.5 million years wasn't long enough.)

(Tip of the cap to Predrag Cvitanovic.)

Eclipses Go Meta

Good. Something is right in the world. (Also, I strongly approve of this!)

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" during the total solar eclipse? Bonnie Tyler will perform her hit during the eclipse. https://t.co/G8ouPpTmeM pic.twitter.com/cOYJ20ryrx

— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) August 16, 2017

(Tip of the cap to several people for this news. I got the tweet from Cathy O'Neil.)

Hidden Figures: A Movie to Look Forward To!

Hidden Figures is coming out in January 2017. I am looking forward to watching it!

Cool Exoplanet Poster

I really like the exoplanet poster in this IFLS article.

Extraterrestrial Signal or Microwave Oven?

As described today in an article in The Telegraph, an odd "extraterrestrial" signal---which was "detected only during business hours"---that baffled astrophysicists for 17 years has turned out to be due to the facility's microwave oven being opened while it was in use.

Perhaps the astrophysicists' recent paper on the arXiv preprint server said it best: "Subsequent tests revealed that a peryton can be generated at 1.4 GHz when a microwave oven door is opened prematurely and the telescope is at an appropriate relative angle."

Thankfully, there is also good news: now that this mystery has been solved, it turns out that the facility may well also be detecting some genuinely extraterrestrial signals.

Last month, this story was covered in the Improbable Research blog.

(Tip of the cap to Physics Today.)

The Science of Joy Division

Well here's something really cool: the cover of Joy Division's album Unknown Pleasures has visualization of astronomical data has its inspiration. That is just way cool!

(Tip of the cap to Mariano Beguerisse Díaz.)

Mamma Mia!

Georgia Tech astronomers have found a new planet that seems to be made of diamond.

One has to go to the original paper to find this, but the same scientists also report what appear to be red plumber outfits on that planet. One of the scientists also claims to have heard muted words that sounded something like "Mamma mia!"

(Tip of the cap to the Georgia Tech Department of Physics.)

RIP Andrew Lange (?-2010)

Apparently, Caltech astronomy professor Andrew Lange committed suicide on Thursday. You can read about some of his research here.

Maybe it's small sample size, but the suicide frequency at Caltech seems to have increased nontrivially during the last couple of years.

Pretty Pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope

CNN.com has an article showing some really pretty pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope of the Butterfly Nebula.

For some more pretty pictures, here are the results of a Google images search. (Justin: Maybe you have some recommendations on this one for the recent pictures?)

Some perspective on our place in the universe...

...is contained in this picture. (Click on it to make it bigger.)

(Tip of the hat to Rob Neyer. Also, I don't vouch for any accuracy or inaccuracy in the picture on the other side of the link.)