Tag Archives: Solar System

This Space Cake Makes You a Devourer of Worlds

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Ground control to Betty Crocker, this space cake looks delicious. My God, it’s full of stars! Well, planets anyway. This colorful cake was made by Pedagiggle for four-year-old Ilyas, and it’s a masterpiece of nerd baking.


She wanted to convey the idea of outer space inside the cake as well as the decorated outside. Obviously she did an amazing job. She created a solar system for the interior. A solar system! In a cake! Apparently, she made the planets by baking cake pop orbs first, then she embedded them in a marble cake with food coloring. She posted additional photos and some instructions if you want to try to bake a planetary cake yourself.

There were also rocketship and Star Wars cookies at the party. Why do I never get invited to these things?

[via reddit via Neatorama]

LEGO Earth, Sun and Moon Orrery : LEGOrrery

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An orrery is one of those mechanical representations of the Solar System that rotates scale objects so you can see how they orbit each other. This LEGO orrery has none of that scale BS to deal with, and skips all planets but Earth, the flat center of the galaxy.

Still, this orrery was built entirely out of LEGO bricks, which makes it impressive. It’s quite satisfying to see mostly spherical objects made with flat, square bricks.

legorrey

The movement uses a handful of LEGO gears and has a hand crank to make it spin, though it can also use a motor. Its builder, Jason of JKBrickWorks says that each rotation of the crank represents the passage of a day.

It’s close to accurate, but not quite. The Moon orbits the Earth every 28 days, the Sun makes a full rotation every 25 days, and the Earth orbits the sun every 375. The video explains how the mechanism works, and you can grab the full build instructions here.

Astronomers find pure oxygen leaking from Rosetta’s comet

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European Space Agency astronomers, with the help of the Rosetta spacecraft, have made a remarkable discovery that could fundamentally alter our understanding of how the solar system formed. They have detected large amounts of pure oxygen (O2) leaki...

First True-Scale Solar System Model Shows How Tiny We Are

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A pair of space geeks recently set about creating what they claim is the first true-to-scale physical model of our solar system. The duo of Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh headed out to a dry lake bed in Nevada to create their project with the goal of showing us just how vast our own solar system is.

solar_scalezoom in

The guys started by placing an inflatable ball at the center point to represent the Sun, then placed a marble-sized Earth one scale astronomical unit from the it – in this case, about 577 feet. They then placed scale spheres of the other planets in the Solar System, based on the same unit of measurement.

Once the solar system was mapped out, they set up a time-lapse camera and then drove in concentric circles with a light marker at the planets’ locations to show the orbits visually. The result is a 7-minute video that is guaranteed to impress and make you feel miniscule at the same time.

[via Wired]

The Everything Machine Graphical Programming App for Kids: Visual Basic
The Everything Machine Graphical Programming App for Kids: Visual Basic
Experience Curiosity Gives You Control over a Virtual Rover
Experience Curiosity Gives You Control over a Virtual Rover
Grand Theft Auto 5 Interactive Map for Real iFruits and Fruit PCs
Grand Theft Auto 5 Interactive Map for Real iFruits and Fruit PCs
zSpace Educational Virtual Reality Systems: Oculus Teach
zSpace Educational Virtual Reality Systems: Oculus Teach
CogniToys Children’s Toy Uses IBM Watson to Talk to Kids: Baby Deep Blue
CogniToys Children’s Toy Uses IBM Watson to Talk to Kids: Baby Deep Blue

Aurora Spotted on Brown Dwarf Outside Solar System

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Astronomers discovered the first aurora ever seen outside our Solar System. The aurora is like the famous "Northern Lights" on Earth.It is 10,000 times more powerful than any before seen. The...

Jupiter Twin Discovered Orbiting Sun Like Star in Solar Twin

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A bunch of astronomers have employed a special telescope to take images of a planet that resembles our own Jupiter. And the odd thing is that the star it is revolving around in an elliptical fashion...

Pluto Photos of New Horizons Flyby Released

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The first images of the New Horizons Pluto Flyby have been released by NASA. The new close-up images of a region near Pluto's equator reveal a giant surprise: a range of youthful mountains rising as...

Giveaway: Win This Awesome Solar System Bracelet or Planetary Cufflinks

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We recently featured some awesome solar system jewelry by Lost in Space Jewelry. Now, we’ve teamed up with Melissa Adams, the artist behind the collection to give away a couple of her very special pieces.

Two lucky readers will end up winning a prize from her collection. The first prize winner will receive this beautiful, double-sided solar system necklace, valued at $108(USD):

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While the second place winner will get a pair of these nifty sterling silver cufflinks (in Sun, Planet or Moon designs), worth $59:

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To enter, all you need to do is fill out the form below. You’ll earn one entry for providing your email address, then additional entries for things like visiting the Lost in Space shop, sharing the contest, or following us on social media. Be sure to perform as many of the entry tasks as possible for the greatest chance to win.

The contest ends at 11:59pm Central Time on 7/22/15. Enter now!