Stannous Flouride's Book of Truthiness

… to the place in Moscow so I think it should be called the Square Red Nebula. It is officially classified a Symmetric Bipolar Nebula which I am pretty sure has nothing to do with its emotional state.

It should not be confused with the Red Rectangle Nebula.

And no, it isn’t taken with a star filter. It’s a coincidence of its stage of development and relative position to the earth.

MWC 922: The Red Square Nebula 
Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Tuthill (Sydney U.) & James Lloyd (Cornell)Explanation: What could cause a nebula to appear square? No one is quite sure. The hot star system known as MWC 922, however, appears to be embedded in a nebula with just such a shape. The featured image combines infrared exposures from the Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar in California, and the Keck-2 Telescope onMauna Kea in Hawaii. A leading progenitor hypothesis for the square nebula is that the central star or stars somehow expelled cones of gas during a late developmental stage. For MWC 922, these cones happen to incorporate nearly right angles and be visible from the sides. Supporting evidence for the cone hypothesis includes radial spokes in the image that might run along the cone walls. Researchers speculate that the cones viewed from another angle would appear similar to the gigantic rings ofsupernova 1987A, possibly indicating that a star in MWC 922 might one day itself explode in a similar supernova.

In a bizarre world where mad scientists insert genes into rodents to make them glow it is unfortunately necessary to add that parenthetical aside in the title. But just a few meters below the waves, marine biologist and explorer-photographer David Gruber discovered something amazing — a surprising new range of sea creatures that glow in many colors in the ocean’s dim blue light.

Join his journey in search of biofluorescent sharks, seahorses, sea turtles and more, and learn how these light-up creatures could illuminate a new understanding of our own brains.

The movie shows Ceres in enhanced color, which helps to highlight subtle differences in the appearance of surface materials. Scientists believe areas with shades of blue contain younger, fresher material, including flows, pits and cracks.

The animated flight over Ceres emphasizes the most prominent craters, such as Occator, and the tall, conical mountain Ahuna Mons. Features on Ceres are named for earthly agricultural spirits, deities and festivals.

The movie was produced by members of Dawn’s framing camera team at the German Aerospace Center, DLR, using images from Dawn’s high-altitude mapping orbit. During that phase of the mission, which lasted from August to October 2015, the spacecraft circled Ceres at an altitude of about 900 miles (1,450 kilometers).

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-01-animation-flight-ceres.html#jCp

Hideous that Denmark, the country in Europe that resisted the Nazis by having the entire population, including the royal family, wear yellow Stars of David during the occupation has now legalized the theft of refugees’ possessions as a way to dissuade their seeking asylum there.

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei on Wednesday closed down his exhibition in the Danish capital after lawmakers passed a controversial bill allowing

Source: China’s Ai Weiwei shuts show at the Faurschou Foundation to protest Danish migrant law

Watch as Syrian refugee children in Ontario are taken sledding for the first time.

In the dead of winter, this video is sure to melt your heart.

Footage of a Syrian family trying tobogganing for the first time after moving to Canada shows the children laughing and smiling as they fly down Armour Hill in Peterborough, Ont.

The video, made by OPP constable David McNab and his wife Kristy Hiltz, has already gotten more than 5,000 views since being uploaded on January 19.

“Snow is a new experience but fun in any language looks the same,” McNab said on his Youtube account.

McNab told the Post that this is one of many firsts, like their first trip to Tim Horton’s.

“The kids are amazingly grateful and excited about everything,” he said.

“Every experience is just laughter, smiles and giggles.”

Hiltz and her husband are co-sponsors of the family. Like many Canadians, they were horrified to see the photo of the young Syrian boy, Alan Kurdi, washed up on a beach in Greece and decided to become sponsors.

They sponsored a family of four — a mother and her three children, Ansam,13, Ibrahim,10 and Dalya, who is 9.

The children have neither been to school, nor seen a doctor or dentist in almost two years. These are all firsts that the children have experienced since arriving on Dec. 30.

Now, they are beginning to dream. Ansam wants to be a dentist. Dalya says she wants to be a police officer when she grows up.

“We can’t wait to see them take part in all the things that Canadian kids do,” said McNab.

Why?