Galileo's Pendulum

Sunspot Group AR 1302

(Well, it’s not 3 AM in my time zone. And I didn’t rob a liquor store.)

• How do bicycles moving fast enough stay upright, even if nobody is riding them?
• Pluto, Eris, Makemake, and their companions are part of the Kuiper Belt. Here’s a map of the Kuiper Belt based on the data astronomers have gleaned thus far.
• How about a beautifully-illustrated children’s book about an ankylosaurus by Daniel Loxton? How about a chance to win a free copy of said book?
• From Brian Romans (of the excellent Clastic Detritus blog), an epic scientific abstract. (Science instructors, I think we need to institute “frog-log plots” in our courses.)

Picture(s) of the day: the huge sunspot group AR 1302, which caused giant auroral activities the other night. (More pictures can be found in this APOD gallery.) It’s hard to get a sense of scale, but remember: the Sun is huge. These sunspots are larger than Earth; the flares produced dwarf our planet.