Could you believe It’s raining diamond? Yes, the imagination comes true. Scientists say not on planet Earth but icy giant planets like Uranus and Neptune. Although the concept of diamond rain is an old concept, this is the first time it has been observed in a laboratory to happen. Recently, the concept is published in Nature.
So, what are you thinking? One day if it is possible to travel to Neptune, you will go, fill up your bag with diamonds, comes back to earth, and becomes the next billionaire. Well, I would recommend you to read our this article on diamond rain on Neptune before start dreaming.
How does the structure of Neptune form diamond rain?
Neptune is the 8th planet in our solar system. Being so far away heat and light of the sun, Neptune is cold, dark, and icy. At its heart, the solid core is about one and a half times the size of earth, making up about 45% of the planet’s mass.
The core is made up of water, ice, and silicate rock. The rest of the planet is believed to be the complex pressurized ocean of water, methane, and ammonia ices surrounded by a layer of clouds. This cloud is made up of hydrogen and helium and includes traces of methane which gives the ocean world its rich and blue color.
In a recent experiment scientists duplicate the conditions similar to icy giant planets like Uranus and Neptune and they observed the diamond rain for the first time to be formed. earlier they tried the same thing in the lab but as the diamonds were very unstable it was not observed in real-time. But, this time with the help of some advanced machinery scientists was able to observe the diamond rain.
“The earlier paper was the first time that we directly saw diamond formation from any mixtures,”Siegfried Glenzer, director of the High Energy Density Division at SLAC
The credit for this new discovery goes to the scientists of the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. They also found that diamonds are more likely to be formed on many other planets in the presence of oxygen with carbon and hydrogen.
Neptune and Pluto have similarities with the planet out of our solar system. So, it could be hypothesized that this diamond rain will be in the other parts of the universe.
Unbelievable! Plastic creates diamond
It was already hypothesized that the methane present in the intermediate layer of Neptune (or other cold giant planets) forms hydrocarbon chains. Those hydrocarbon chains at a particular pressure and temperature form the glittering precipitation.
Now, the team of scientists observed that the plastic of common water bottles called PET has a similar structure that could be used to form the environment of Neptune or Uranus.
So the scientists used the high-power optical laser to generate two shock waves with a combination of temperature and pressure.
The presence of oxygen helps the formation of Nanodiamonds more easily. Today’s researchers believe that most of the planets in the universe are in an ice giant state and so there could be a good probability to observe the diamond rain everywhere.
Importance of Diamond Rain:
It sounds great when we talk about the discovery of something new in space. But, how does this discovery impact our planet’s life?
Yes, diamond rain discovery can impact our life.
There is a new trend in science called the concept of nanoparticles. As the diamond nanoparticles are created from a very easy-to-have material, PET. These nanoparticles could be used for drug delivery in medical research.
Not only that, there is much more utilization of nanodiamonds in the research of medical censors, non-invasive surgery, and quantum electronics.
Using laser rays for the formation of nanodiamonds is another new concept of physical science.
Which planet has diamond rain?
Uranus and Neptune in our solar system have diamond rain. But, a recent study proves that diamond rain is present all over the universe. It is common on planets out of our solar system.
The planet that rains jewelry- which planet it is?
The planet that rains jewelry means the planet with diamond or gold rain. Recently scientists found that the planets Uranus and Neptune have diamond rain or you can say the jewelry rain in simple language.
The utilization of PET plastic for the formation of diamonds is the game-changing concept scientists found during this diamond rain experiment. A new method of diamond nanoparticle formation is developed. Although we don’t know whether we will be able to bring some diamonds from Neptune to earth, we know that this concept would help us to invent many other things.


Scales of the Universe in Powers of Ten – Full HD 1080p
Cosmic Voyage is a 1996 short documentary film produced in the IMAX format, directed by Bayley Silleck, produced by Jeffrey Marvin, and narrated by Morgan Freeman.
Cosmic Voyage has a format similar to Eva Szasz’s Cosmic Zoom, and Charles and Ray Eames’s classic Powers of Ten educational video. All were based on the 1957 book Cosmic View by Dutch educator Kees Boeke. Cosmic Voyage takes viewers on a journey through forty-two orders of magnitude, beginning at a celebration in Venice, Italy slowly zooming out into the edge of the observable universe. Then the view descends back to earth, and later zooms in upon a raindrop on a leaf on a hoop used in the celebration mentioned earlier, down to the level of subatomic particles (quarks).


A comfortable viewing area for starry nights
In the centre of La Gomera, on the edge of the Garajonay National Park perimeter, is the Las Nieves recreation area. This is a terrific spot for viewing the Canarian skies at 1,250 metres above sea level. Easy to get to by car, just twenty kilometres from the island’s capital San Sebastián, it is a vantage point to view a clear sky and allows hours of super viewing all year round. Excellent parking facilities.
A natural observatory under the stars of the northern hemisphere
Las Nieves is the ideal spot for observing the two typical winter constellations in the northern hemisphere visible during the first hours of nightfall in February and March. Looking north where the North Star watches over the horizon, you will see Gemini and Auriga make an appearance. The first is easy to recognise thanks to its stars; the dazzling Castor and Pollux with its orange hue. Auriga is recognisable by its pentagonal shape and its brightest star is Capella, with similar characteristics to our Sun.
Site with high degree of clarity


October is Dark Sky month in Jasper!
Home to the world’s largest accessible Dark Sky preserve, Jasper by day offers a universe of outdoor fun in a wilderness playground.
When you visit Jasper and you want to see something amazing... just look up. At night, Jasper is a stunning wilderness of stars, and by day it’s a universe of mountain fun and adventure. Jasper is home to the world’s largest Dark Sky Preserve and right now is the perfect time to enjoy it. Take it all in during the Jasper Dark Sky Festival. Don't miss the wonder... revealed.
Click here to learn more about the Dark Sky Preserve and the designation.
They're not just looking at stars in Jasper this weekend, but teaching the science of astronomy, and having fun with daytime activities like the bottle rocket launch. There will also be night-sky photography sessions with Yuichi Takasaka. Read his photography tips and tricks here.
Check out our articles page to read how last year's Star Party was for the kids and more.
Check out this slideshow below for a peek at last year's festival in the daytime! Daytime events this year include Just for Kids: Space Cadet Fair and Astronomy Talks.
Click here for all the feature events this year
Unless otherwise stated, all content regarding the Jasper Dark Sky Festival has been provided by festival organizers.


What time is the solar eclipse on June 21st 2020?
|The first place to see the partial eclipse begins||June 21 at 3:45:58 p.m.|
|First place to see the full eclipse begin||June 21 at 4:47:45 p.m.|
|Maximum Eclipse||June 21 at 6:40:04 p.m.|
|The last place to see the whole eclipse ends||June 21 at 8:32:17|
Is there an eclipse in June 2020?
Because lunar eclipses occur so early and so late in the June / July 2020 eclipse season, lunar eclipses on June 5, 2020 and July 5, 2020 will be extremely penumbral lunar eclipses. light and hard to see. See the illustration of these eclipses below.
Is today solar eclipse?
Solar eclipse 2021: An annular solar eclipse will occur today. This will be the first Solar Eclipse of the year 2021. A solar eclipse is a phenomenon, which occurs when the Moon comes between the earth and the sun. The moon casts its shadow on the Earth, and we will witness a circle form around it.
Is there a solar eclipse on 21st June 2020 in UK?
An annular solar eclipse is expected to occur on June 21, 2020. … If you are wondering about the time of the solar eclipse in the UK, then you must know that there will be no solar eclipse in the UK this year. The annual eclipse passes through Central Africa, the Middle East, and ends in Southeast Asia.
Is there any solar eclipse in 2021?
The first solar eclipse of the year occurred on June 10 (yesterday). However, the second and final solar eclipse of 2021 will occur on December 4, 2021. This will be a Total Solar Eclipse.
Where can I see the solar eclipse in June 2021?
On June 10, 2021, an annular solar eclipse begins when the sun rises in southern Ontario, Canada. The antumbral shadow of the Moon touches the northern section of Lake Superior and divides three countries; Canada, Greenland, and Russia.
Which countries can see the solar eclipse?
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), people in parts of Canada, Greenland, and northern Russia will experience the annular eclipse. Most of Canada and parts of the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and northern Africa will experience a partial solar eclipse.


The Ritland Project
The recently discovered Ritland Crater of western Norway is mapped in detail through a 3 year programme financed by the Norwegian Research Council. In addition the mechanisms of Ritland crater formation, syn- and post impact sedimentation and ejecta distribution are being analysed based on detailed field samples, laboratory analysis and numerical modelling.
Melt alteration and mineral formation
In this programme we are experimentally analysing and geochemically modelling the alteration of impact glass. This study is focusing on the mechanisms of dissolution and formation of alteration products, in particular clay minerals. The similarities between these newly formed minerals and the ones described from planetary surfaces are striking.


"In 2018—just two years from now—SpaceX plans to land the heaviest spacecraft ever sent to Mars on the planet’s surface, and to repeat these (uncrewed) landings at every available launch opportunity, or every 26 months. Meanwhile, the company will be developing the largest rocket ever built (Musk doesn’t have a generic name yet, but wants to call the first one “Heart of Gold,” from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), which will be ready for booster tests by 2019 and Earth-orbit trials a year later. Once that’s done, SpaceX’s interplanetary ship—capable of carrying at least 100 people or 450 tons of cargo—could be ready to start taking the first settlers to Mars by 2024, although Musk calls that optimistic. Tickets for the journey will cost an estimated $200,000. Over time he sees a million people living on Mars, with fleets of 1,000 ships making the trip in as little as three months, or even, eventually, 30 days." Air and Space
We have some very technologically adept people on SST. Let's discuss the plausibility of this. pl
In a dramatic feat of engineering prowess, the private spaceflight company SpaceX successfully landed a reusable Falcon 9 rocket booster today — the second such landing for the company, and the first successful touchdown on a ship.
The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket blasted off at 4:43 p.m. EDT (2043 GMT) today (April 8) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It carried SpaceX's robotic Dragon cargo spacecraft, which is now on its way to the International Space Station, carrying crew supplies, station hardware and science experiments. SpaceX streamed live video of the historic rocket landing during the launch, a feat that capped a smooth cargo launch for NASA
After separating from Dragon a few minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9's first stage performed several flyback engine burns, then eventually lowered itself vertically onto a SpaceX drone ship that was stationed off the Florida coast. (Space.com)
On its fifth attempt, a Falcon 9 rocket finally makes a successful sea landing. This stuff excites me, even though this isn't the first booster landing. It’s how the rockets in the sci-fi movies always landed. It’s how I always landed my model rockets when I played with then as a child and dreamed of going into space. I have to smile at the name of the landing barge - “Of Course I Still Love You.” It says something about the crew that put this together. I like that attitude. It reminds me of the NASA Pirate Code written by John Muratore, a NASA engineer back in the day. I put it on the wall in the commercially covered office of my last detachment. Words to live by.
The Pirate Code
Pirates have to know what they’re doing.
If we fail, there is no mercy.
You’re operating outside the normal support structure of society. It’s all about knowing all the details.
You hit hard and fast. Pirates don’t spend months wandering around.
Pirates live on the edge or just in front of the wave that is about to catch them.
Piracy is about taking risks. Occasionally we’re going to fail and you’ll get some holes blown in you.
Pirates don’t have resources to waste. You’re always operating on a thin margin, not in fat city.
"So what would happen if we learned that there is microbial life on Mars, or that it has existed there in the past? Well it would only challenge everything we know. We would have to come to grips with not having a unique status in the universe and will have to work out how to include extraterrestrial "life" in our existential or religious beliefs – to name a few.
On a scientific level, there's a lot at stake. Of course, it would also lead to major new efforts to find life on planets beyond Mars and even beyond our own solar system.
The first challenge if life is ever detected will be to prove that we didn't bring it there from Earth – a difficult task to achieve. Careful cataloguing of the "bioburden" load on the spacecraft and from the cleanrooms it was assembled in can provide a check on what organisms might have been present on the spacecraft when it left the Earth. Fundamentally though, life that arose beyond the Earth would likely result from subtly different chemical processes, so to find out for sure, a detailed in situ biochemical analysis would be required." phys.org
The political farce in the US and the never ending spectacle of the Borg's failures in the ME are boring. Now, here is something interesting. pl
"The journey has taken more than nine years. New Horizons launched from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas V rocket in 2006, after a speedy four-year construction. Prior to that, the so-called Pluto Underground spent more than 15 years trying to get NASA to greenlight the project. Since launch, the small probe has traveled for 3,463 days and 2.97 billion miles—about 32 times the distance between the Earth and the sun. When New Horizons left, a Super Nintendo game offered better resolution than our best images of Pluto. Though the best are still to come, the probe already has sent back color pictures measured in megapixels."
"But this is mere icing. The rest of the cake won’t come out of the oven for another 18 months. Downlink speed is slow—about two kilobytes per second—and it takes four hours for a signal to reach Earth. So far, New Horizons has only sent back the tiniest fraction of the data it will collect. But let’s take a moment to revel in all we’ve learned so far. During the last few days, New Horizons has treated us to increasingly detailed images of the geography on Pluto’s surface. Astronomers didn’t even know Pluto's true size until yesterday. “We are already seeing complex and nuanced surfaces that tell us of history of these two bodies that is beyond our wildest dreams on the science team,” says Alan Stern, the mission’s principal investigator." (Wired)
As a child in the 1960s, I was enthralled with space travel and the race to the moon. I and my young friends drew detailed plans for spaceships, built models of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft and imagined being on spaceflights to other planets. Every time there is a major spaceflight event like the flyby of Pluto, the embers of hope and excitement of my youthful obsession with space are rekindled.
As far as major spaceflight events go, this is a doozy. We haven’t explored a planet (or dwarf planet… thanks, Neil DeGrasse Tyson) since Voyager 2 buzzed Neptune in 1989. New Horizons gave everybody a scare on the 4th of July when the Johns Hopkins APL lost telemetry with the craft. It was an Apollo 13 moment. This is exciting stuff.
I think Neil DeGrasse Tyson said it well when he tweeted, ”Were it not for NASA & kindred programs of discovery, I wonder what hope would remain for our species to rise above itself.” I also got a chuckle when he admitted, “I wrote “The Pluto Files” book in recovery after years of hate-mail from school children.”
"One of the factors that make space travel so expensive is the fact that most of the equipment used to put cargo or people in orbit is destroyed after each use. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has famously likened this to throwing away a brand new 747 after a single flight to London.
From the beginning, his company has sought to make spaceflight possible with reusable components. Initially, SpaceX tried to use parachutes to slow down rocket stages as they descended, but they broke apart due to stress and heat, so the company switched to the current powered landing approach in 2011." Vox
As you know, I am someone who favors colonial expansion in the System of Sol, our sun. To achieve that, space must be made profitable in a commercial sense. If that does not happen the money will eventually dry up and we will never find the moon maidens.
BTW. I finished my federal and state income tax work yestiddy and am feeling liberated. pl
This article completely grabbed my attention. I am an amatuer futurist, a long time reader of science fiction and managed to earn a minor in ecological science (emphasis on bio-systems).
Scientist Sees Possible Signs Of Ancient Life On Mars In Rover Photos
What struck me is the creeping nature of discovering (the possibility turning into fact) that we have evidence of microbial life on Mars in the past eons. There was a famous ‘false positive’ during the Viking Lander era, the continuous discovery of spikes of methane (often related to microbial action on Earth) and various formations of mineral formation and deposit that, on Earth, occur in the presence of warm water. Yet rigorous science always demands that an observation is repeatable and other reasonable explanations have been ruled out.
That is obviously harder to do in the setting of studying these things on Mars. The rate of failure of probes to the Red Planet is high. The current advanced rover, Opportunity, took a impressive feat of engineering and program management to land a golf cart sized machine on the surface.
So, when a scientist says that a rock formation on Mars resembles the same pattern of fossils back on Earth, what references can we go to to understand how this more than likely billion year old formation near Opportunity is, in fact, an artifact produced by ancient life, the first to be discovered off our own planet?
We can go to Wiki to get a reference to a remarkable process that is probably 3.9 billion years old and can still be seen working today. It’s called stromatolite formation. The pictures in Wiki show both ancient fossilized stroma and current ones forming in Australia.
The microbial mats mentioned are the same mechanism that Nora Noffke is proposing as the agent in creating the fossil presentation she detects in the Opportunity pictures.
If we can verify this as highly probable, we will have crossed the ‘life can only form on Earth’ threshold. As our science is busy looking for exoplanets in the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ (most favorable orbits for the formation of earth like life in other solar systems), we get to confront the questions to our view of our place in the universe. What will the anti-Darwinists say, other than denial, in the face of reason, when some future astronaut/scientist looks into an electron microscope and declares that a formation on Mars was in fact created by microbes, perhaps a billion years ago?
For myself, if I am alive to hear and see that, it will be perhaps the most profound moment of my life.
"On Tuesday, December 16, 2014, NASA scientists attending the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco announced the detection of organic compounds on Mars. The announcement represents the discovery of the missing “ingredient” that is necessary for the existence – past or present – of life on Mars.
Indeed, the extraordinary claim required extraordinary evidence – the famous assertion of Dr. Carl Sagan. The scientists, members of the Mars Science Lab – Curiosity Rover – mission, worked over a period of 20 months to sample and analyze Martian atmospheric and surface samples to arrive at their conclusions. The announcement stems from two separate detections of organics: 1) ten-fold spikes in atmospheric Methane levels, and 2) drill samples from a rock called Cumberland which included complex organic compounds." Universe Today
I would bet my own money that there is a lot of water on Mars. Terraforming is probably a real possibility. pl
"Billions of years ago, a lake once filled the 96-mile (154-km) wide crater being explored by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, bolstering evidence that the planet most like Earth in the solar system was suitable for microbial life, scientists said on Monday.
The new findings combine more than two years of data collected by the rover since its sky-crane landing inside Gale Crater in August 2012.
Scientists discovered stacks of rocks containing water-deposited sediments inclined toward the crater’s center, which now sports a three-mile (5 km) mound called Mount Sharp. That would mean that Mount Sharp didn’t exist during a period of time roughly 3.5 billion years ago when the crater was filled with water, Curiosity researchers told reporters during a conference call.
"Finding the inclined strata was ... a complete surprise,” said lead scientist John Grotzinger, with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena." Reuters
What's the chance of finding water in some form beneath the surface of Mars? pl
"The presence of ice or water on these bodies is one of the most significant potential resources. This is so as solar panels on spacecraft can provide the power to simply convert water to hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. This idea of harvesting resources needed in space doesn't sound like such a bad idea considering the fact that it costs from $5,000-25,000+ per kg to ferry items into space.
Currently, there are two private companies pursuing asteroid mining, these are Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries. NASA too is involved on several levels as it has awarded contracts to several companies including both Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries for studies relating to relating to asteroid redirection." Uncover Michigan
The Heinlein novel linked to below is centered on Luna, not an asteroid but you get the idea. In Heinlein's book the Loonies used mass drivers to throw their ore production at Terra aiming for splash down areas at sea where the rocks could be harvested.
Space colonization must come to be commercially viable or it will just end in a whimper of some sort. pl
[Note: I asked Pat for permission to do a post about this announcement this afternoon, I figured it was good to have an occasional reminder that we are actually in the 21st century, and not all news is depressing news. -- Jon Goff]
Today NASA announced that it would be awarding contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to complete development of vehicles for carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. These contracts (up to $4.2B in the case of Boeing, and up to $2.6B in the case of SpaceX) cover not only the remainder of development and certification tasks needed by both providers to enable the first manned demo flights of their respective to ISS in late 2017, but also covers up to 6 crew transfer flights to ISS after that. These awards were "firm fixed-price" FAR contracts, which means that the companies get paid the fixed amount they bid, broken up over a series of technical milestones--if they don't complete a given milestone, they don't get paid, and if things cost more than expected, the companies themselves eat the difference.
For those wondering why Boeing got more than SpaceX, it is simply that they proposed a higher price for completing the same milestones. NASA wanted to have two providers, to make sure that they don't get stuck in a situation where they cannot access their $100B space station in case one vendor has issues with their vehicle or the launcher that boosts it to orbit. There was a third developer, Sierra Nevada Corporation, who was not selected for contract award, presumably because NASA felt that their vehicle was either more risky, or more expensive than those proposed by SpaceX or Boeing.
Forty-five years ago this night, Neil Armstrong became the first man to step onto the moon. It was an exhilarating event in the U.S. and in much of the world. I did not see it on TV. Instead, I was camping with two of my friends. On this night, forty-five years ago, we were lying in our sleeping bags on a thick bed of pine needles on the crest of a pine covered hill overlooking a local reservoir. The land was posted, but we were adept at stealth camping. We had a perfect view of the full moon on that clear, warm night. Normally, we never had a radio or even a watch when we camped. But this time we made an exception. I carried a small transistor radio to listen to Walter Cronkite narrate the landing. Looking back on it, we made the right decision. It was glorious to be surrounded by nature looking at the moon with our own eyes while listening to history being made.
Given the state of the world today and the craven cowardice of so many of our politicians and pundits, I find solace in what we once were. It's either that or rum.
"American Orbital Sciences Corporation's (OSC) Cygnus freighter docked three days after blasting off from Virginia. It brought just over 1.2 tonnes of supplies to the ISS's six astronauts, including food, clothing, spare parts, scientific experiments, and long-awaited gifts from their families. It is the second OSC freighter trip. Last September's visit was a demonstration flight. This mission, on the other hand, constitutes the first cargo delivery under a $1.9bn, eight-flight commercial resupply contract that Orbital has with the US space agency (Nasa)." BBC
Good news. One can only hope that commercial opportunities independent of government subsidies will soon begin to appear. pl
""I really see the International Space Station as the first step in exploration," said David Weaver, NASA's associate administrator for the Office of Communications, during a teleconference. "We're getting a significant amount of research on the space station. It lets us look back at the Big Bang. It gives us clues on dark matter. The space station is really hitting its stride. We're doing a lot of science there. It's a pretty productive time." Extending the life of the space station, which took 13 years to construct and recently marked 15 years in orbit, is a much better scenario for scientists around the world than abandoning the orbiting lab and letting it fall out of orbit and crash into the ocean. The space station, which is about the length of a football field and carries several robotic arms, has a talking robot and a humanoid robot. It also has been the site of about 1,500 scientific experiments and is expected to receive dozens more when the next commercial cargo mission launches." Gaudin
Well, thank God! I can't imagine who thought it was a good idea to let this magnificant accomplishment just fall into the sea. pl
"Moon Express recently unveiled the MX-1 spacecraft design at the Autodesk University in Las Vegas. The Mountain View, California-based company is in the commercial space race, competing for the $40-million-Google Lunar X prize. The coffee-table sized spacecraft will be powered by solar panels and hydrogen peroxide and can move about the lunar surface. Water on the lunar surface could be a "potential source of rocket fuel on the lunar surface," the company said." Nature World
I would think that it is clear that without commercial profits or at least a "break even" point with big salaries and bonuses the long term prospects for the whole space thing are dim.
I say that with great sorrow because "space" like Bigfoot is high on my personal agenda. There are lots of ore laden rocks out there and Heinlein long ago and he devised a great way to transport ;the loot" back to earth. His sociological musing about things like "line" marriages were also entertaining. pl
"Energy resources that can be harvested in space for the benefit of Earth include helium-3 that occurs in abundance on both the Moon and asteroids and is ideal for new small fusion plants, as well as solar energy that can be collected and transmitted in concentrated form to Earth.
Hydrocarbons, helium, hydrogen, and volatiles in the solar system are important for human exploration and habitation because they will provide essential high-energy, high-density fuels and feedstock for off-world manufactured goods and materials for construction.
Metals, platinum-group elements, rare earth elements, and other volatiles, like H, H2O, and carbon compounds, are abundant on asteroids, many of which are relatively accessible from Earth. We could even use the asteroids that come too close as a way to remove them as dangers since we’re going to have to deal with them anyway." Forbes
"The newly released study has found that water was most likely formed on the surface of the Moon by the constant stream of charged particles ejected from the Sun. The finding “represents an unanticipated, abundant reservoir” of water on the moon, according to researchers from three U.S. universities, who formally reported their results Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience." Bell Jar
I remember this. Robert Heinlein wrote about this 60 or 70 years ago in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." In his novel, Luna has been colonised and Terra is the colonial overlord exploiting the mining products of the Loonies. The big rocks mined are filled with lithium and other rare earths. They are shot back to planet earth with a mass driver (someone will explain). The rocks land in the Pacific Ocean somewhere where they are retrieved, for...?
The inevitable revolt takes place on the moon and freedom rings forth through the maze of tunnels that these people live in. The best part of the book was the obsessive, inevitable meditation by Heinlein on the various forms of marriage among the Loonies. As a teenager this certainly seemed the most interesting part to me. The most exotic of these forms was the "line marriage." Look it up.
So now it is known that there is a lot of water of the moon. The sky is the limit. pl
"-- NASA physicist Harold White says that by tweaking the drive used, the amount of energy may be able to be compressed from something the size of 300 Earths into something that weighs only 1,600 pounds.
How soon could NASA come up with a feasible drive like this? Let's put it this way -- White shared his findings at NASA's 100 Year Starship Symposium last week in Houston, which has a stated goal of building a faster than light spacecraft within the next 100 years.
" 11 alive
If anyone doubts the need for continued human space flight, this incident should be a good example of why humans are essential. Without these people, the space station would have been limited in capacity. pl
"Rockets are dangerous, complicated and relatively unreliable. No-one has yet built a launcher that is guaranteed to work every time. A misaligned switch, loose bolt or programming error can lead to disaster or, with a human crew, a potential tragedy. Rockets are also incredibly expensive - even the cheapest launch will set you back some $12 million, meaning the cost of any cargo costs a staggering $16,700 per kilogram. Although the funky new space planes being developed, such as Britain’s Skylon or Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo, will slash the costs of getting into space, they are still based on rocket technology – using sheer brute force to escape the clutches of gravity. But there is a radical alternative. Science fiction fans have long been familiar with space elevators. Popularised by Arthur C Clarke, the concept of an elevator from the Earth to orbit has been around for more than a century. In the space operas of Iain M Banks or Alastair Reynolds, space elevators are pretty much taken for granted – they’re what advanced civilisations use to leave their planets. " BBC
I have written on this before but it is "back" in the news. I hope this happens. pl
The landing will place the Mars rover closer to its final destination for science operations, but it will also place it precariously close to the foot of a mountain slope, which raises the possibility of a mission failure. A successful landing depends on a newly designed rocket-powered sky crane, which is expected to gently lower the car-sized rover onto the surface of Mars.
“We’ve done everything we can to ensure the greatest probability of success,” NASA manager Dave Lavery told reporters during a conference call. “The reality is, this is a very risky business. Historically, only about 40 percent of the missions to Mars have been successful,” he said." capitolcolumn
Is this really a good idea? Budgets for planetary exploration are severely constrained. Why take additional risks on the landing in order to avoid driving longer to the objective? pl
"The first mission under this LSA will be a commercial Falcon 9 mission in early 2013. For this mission Spaceflight will use its Spaceflight Secondary Payload System (SSPS) to support a multitude of small payloads including CubeSats, NanoSats and MicroSats.
The SSPS uses a custom ring, manufactured by Moog CSA Engineering, and a series of shelves and adapters to accommodate secondary payloads on their ride to space. The ring is similar to the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) ring. The SSPS also features a standalone avionics and power system dedicated to monitoring the secondary payloads, initiating their deployment and relaying video and telemetry of their separation to a ground station." Spaceref.com
This a fascinating new development in the process of developing the infrastructure needed for a permanent place in space for mankind. pl
Over the days that followed, the station's crew unloaded a half-ton of food, equipment, experiments and other supplies — then loaded it back up with about 1,600 pounds (660 kilograms) of non-essential Earth-bound shipments. Today, astronauts reversed the process they went through last week. The robotic arm pulled the Dragon out from its port and positioned it for release at 5:49 a.m. ET. SpaceX's craft then executed a series of engine burns to take itself out of the station's neighborhood and descend from orbit.
The final engine burn slowed the Dragon's orbital velocity by 100 meters per second (224 mph) — enough to drop it into a fiery descent through the atmosphere. The craft's bottom is coated with a layer of protective material called PICA-X, which SpaceX's engineers say is resilient enough to weather a return to Earth from Mars. At its peak, the heat shield had to endure temperatures in excess of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius)." MSNBC
Given his previous remark about firing people who want to do things on the moon, I presume that President Romney would kill this. Yes or no? pl
At 3:44am this past Tuesday, a rocket blasted off from Cape Caneveral, Florida on a historic mission to demonstrate the ability of a commercially developed and operated transportation system to safely deliver cargo to the International Space Station. This flight is only the third flight of the Falcon 9 rocket, developed by Elon Musk’s startup Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), and the second flight of their Dragon capsule, so the tension in the atmosphere at SpaceX was understandable. The first launch attempt, last Saturday morning, was scrubbed due to a leaky check valve in the central engine’s turbopump, which was fortunately caught by the Falcon 9’s flight computer, enabling a safe abort of the engines with only half a second to spare before the planned liftoff. SpaceX was able to diagnose and repair the problem over the weekend, and was ready to go again at the next launch window, on Tuesday morning. Fortunately, the Falcon 9 delivered a flawless performance, lifting the Dragon capsule safely to orbit a little over nine minutes after liftoff. I had literally been keeping my fingers and toes crossed for the whole flight while watching things from home (my past experience in rocket testing has made me somewhat superstitious). I choked up at the reaction of the SpaceX team when the Dragon’s solar panels finally deployed. If you need some inspiration, and haven’t seen the flight footage, I’d strongly suggest watching the unedited SpaceX broadcast (launch starts at ~44:40 mark).
While those initial thrilling moments were an excellent start to a historic mission which is the culmination of nearly six years of hard work at SpaceX and NASA, the most historic portion of this mission is about to begin tomorrow morning. Over the past two days since the launch, the Dragon capsule has been slowly catching up with the space station, while performing several tests to demonstrate to NASA the capsule’s ability to safely operate near the station. Earlier this morning, the Dragon performed a maneuver that allowed it to pass only 2.5km below the station, where the picture at the beginning of this post was taken by an astronaut on board the ISS (Don Pettit, the one who will be operating the robot arm for tomorrow’s “berthing” operation). This final test verified the ability of ISS crewmembers to send commands to the Dragon, and to test the inter-vehicle communication system. With the completion of today’s tests, SpaceX has actually fulfilled all the requirements they had originally planned for their second Dragon flight. However, over the past year, SpaceX has worked with NASA to gain permission to combine the second Dragon flight with the third and final Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration flight, where the Dragon capsule will ultimately berth with the station (using its robotic arm, controlled by astronauts on-board), cargo will be unloaded from inside the Dragon capsule, and a small amount of non-critical cargo will be loaded back into Dragon for the return flight. It is this final set of operations, which will start in the early morning hours tomorrow (around 7:30am on the east coast) and end with the hatch to the ISS being opened early Saturday morning, which will be the truly historic part of this mission—marking the beginning of service of the world’s first commercial space cargo delivery vehicle, completing SpaceX’s part in the COTS development program, and marking SpaceX’s transition into operational service as part of the Commercial Resupply Services program which it won flight contracts from at the end of 2008.
"An Obama administration plan to cut the cost of spaceflight services faces a key test on Saturday when a privately owned rocket lifts off for a practice run to the International Space Station." Reuters
Man's future in space ultimately depends on the commercialization of the costs and profits of flight. There are some things that government must lead in and the governments are doing that in deep space exploration development and continuing subsidization of attempts to make space, a business for those who have the vision to see the possibilities.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon equipment will be tested severely tomorrow. Much depends on the outcome. pl


Planning for Dark Skies
For many living in Michigan, Thursday, August 14, 2003 was the day we truly experienced the “inky blackness” of a night without artificial outdoor lighting – as the Great Northeast Power Blackout of 2003 left parts of the northeastern United States in the dark for a day or more.
The Zoning Guru was one of those people who learned that week how much we rely on artificial light at night. We also got a brief glimpse of many stars that we no longer see in the night sky due to light pollution from parking lot lighting and other exterior light sources.
Exterior lighting serves a wide variety of purposes, including:
- attracting attention (advertising),
- aesthetics (such as landscape or architectural lighting),
- safety and security,
- warnings of danger, and
- illuminating our paths.
When overused or poorly shielded, however, such lighting dominates the night sky, blotting out the starts and leaving the characteristically orange glow of light pollution over urban areas.
Can we do anything about light pollution? …absolutely. Do we need to cut the power again? No, but we do need to make smarter and more efficient decisions with regards to our exterior lighting choices if we want to restore the night sky in our urban and suburban neighborhoods.
The overall character and impacts of outdoor lighting in any community is the result of many individual decisions by government, businesses, electric utilities, advertisers and property owners. For these reasons, “dark sky” planning and development of an exterior lighting ordinance are essential steps if you wish to preserve stargazing opportunities or protect rural nighttime character.
Here are some of the questions that should be considered when making decisions regarding exterior lighting:
Where is light needed…and where is it not wanted?
Adequate light should be provided for high traffic areas, including sidewalks, parking lots and building entrances, but check plans carefully to insure that commercial and industrial sites do not cause light trespass problems for neighboring residents and natural areas. Architectural and sign lighting should be carefully aimed to minimize glare, and lamp wattages should be reduced to the minimum needed for visibility.
How much light is needed for a particular site or level of activity?
The human eye is the key factor in determining the proper light intensity for a particular activity. Temporary “night blindness” can be caused by glare from unshielded light sources and extreme contrasts between bright and dark areas of a site. Glare and extreme light/dark contrasts interfere with the eye’s ability to adjust to low light conditions, increasing the potential for accidents.
The design and layout of exterior light fixtures should take into account the need for moderation in light levels and more gradual transitions from bright to dark areas of a site.
Which type of light fixture would be best suited for the task?
Lighting decisions are often based on the lowest cost, rather than the best design. Unfortunately, the cheapest fixture often includes far less efficient optics or reflectors, resulting in the need for higher wattage lamps to provide adequate light. Upgrading to a fixture with higher quality optics can save money over its operational life while reducing energy costs and minimizing light pollution.
For example, a high quality, 250 watt HPS parking lot fixture will provide more illumination over the same area than a similar looking but poor quality 400 watt HPS fixture! Don’t assume that all light fixtures are the same – just as with automobiles there are Lamborghini-like fixtures and ones that are of Yugo-like quality as well!
Contact Building Place Notebook update, including more about ways to effectively regulate exterior lighting, and how to create an exterior lighting ordinance or add detailed lighting standards to your town’s zoning ordinance.
For more information on this topic, contact The Zoning Guru here, or click here to ask about how Building Place can help you effectively regulate exterior lighting, minimize light pollution, and preserve views of the night sky by adding detailed lighting standards to your town’s zoning ordinance.


Friday, December 31, 2010
The United Nations has designated 2011 the International Year of Forests and International Year of Chemistry.
Predicted and scheduled events
January 1 – The Y1C Problem will occur.
January 1 – Start of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union.
January 1 – Estonia is set to adopt the euro.
January 1 – Inauguration of Dilma Rousseff as President of Brazil, making her the first woman to hold that office.
January 1 – Civil partnerships will become legal in Ireland
January 1 – ASAIBO INDIA will begin helping out with open source projects India
January 2 – Conjunction between Jupiter and Uranus at 13:41 UTC, with Jupiter 34 minutes of arc to the south; the third conjunction of a triple conjunction.
January 4 – Partial solar eclipse visible over most of Europe, the Arabian peninsula, North Africa, and Western Asia.
January 9 – Southern Sudan will hold a referendum on independence.
19 February – 2 April – 2011 Cricket World Cup will be held in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
March 18 – NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is scheduled to arrive in orbit around Mercury.
March 18 – NASA's Pluto probe New Horizons will cross the orbit of Uranus, after a five-year journey. This will be faster than Voyager 2, which took eight years.
April 1 – The Space Shuttle will undertake its final mission before retirement.
April 29 – 2011 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships will start in Slovakia.
April 29 – Wedding of Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton will take place in Westminster Abbey on St. Catherine's Day.
Pakistan will launch its first space satellite.
The Universal House of Justice will announce the new Five Year Plan.
Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and Mars all visible within a roughly 6° area of sky.
June 1 – Partial solar eclipse in the Arctic.
June 15 – Total lunar eclipse, mainly visible in Africa, India, and the Middle East.
The Dawn spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the minor planet 4 Vesta during July. The exact date remains uncertain.
July 1 – Start of the Polish presidency of the European Union.
July 1 – Partial solar eclipse off the coast of Antarctica.
July 6 – The International Olympic Committee will decide the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympics.
July 10 – Neptune completes its first full orbit since its discovery in 1846.
August 15 – The comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková will pass within 0.0601 astronomical units (about 5,589,300 miles (8,995,100 km)) of Earth.
August 15–21 – XXVI World Youth Day will be held in Madrid, Spain.
September 9 – October 23 – New Zealand will host the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
November 25 – Partial solar eclipse in Antarctica.
December 10 – Total lunar eclipse, visible mainly in Asia, Australia and Alaska.
December 31 – All United States troops are scheduled to leave Iraq
Friday, December 17, 2010
(fish´ing) (n.) The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user??s information.
For example, 2003 saw the proliferation of a phishing scam in which users received e-mails supposedly from eBay claiming that the user??s account was about to be suspended unless he clicked on the provided link and updated the credit card information that the genuine eBay already had. Because it is relatively simple to make a Web site look like a legitimate organizations site by mimicking the HTML code, the scam counted on people being tricked into thinking they were actually being contacted by eBay and were subsequently going to eBay??s site to update their account information. By spamming large groups of people, the "phisher" counted on the e-mail being read by a percentage of people who actually had listed credit card numbers with eBay legitimately.
Phishing, also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, is a variation on "fishing," the idea being that bait is thrown out with the hopes that while most will ignore the bait, some will be tempted into biting.


K-Index/Solar Data AURORAL indicators
The Current Planetary K Index
The Planetary K Index is the global geomagnetic storm index and is based on 3 hour measurements of the K-indices, range of 0-9 meaning higher is a probability of AURORA activity may be visible at high to mid latitudes.
The Current 10cm Solar Flux Data
Radio emissions from the Sun measured and recorderd at a wavelength of 10.7cm , with a range of 0-325+ the greater the number the better the probability of of auroral activity.
The A-Index Indices Data
Data Provided by http://services.swpc.noaa.gov
0 - 7 = quiet, 8 - 15 = unsettled,
16 - 29 = active , 30 - 49 = minor storm,
50 - 99 = major storm , 100 - 400 = severe storm


Chinusa wristbandsa to launch Long March-5B rocket in 2019The Biggest Selling Birthday Party Styles For Children On April 7, 2007, Johnny Hart, creator of this popular caricature "B.C." and co-creator for the equally popular comic strip "The Wizard of Id", died during his Nineveh, Houston home --- at his drawing board at age 78, top rated program his wife of 55 years. He"d recently completed treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Office will be the translucent pink power show. Not only can it hold several papers together, but its magnetic backing allows that it is stuck to filing cabinets and magnetic boards. Another office friendly cancer wristbands item is cancer wristbands Post It piece of paper. The 4 x 6 pads, available with either 25 or 50 sheets, feature the pink ribbon. Because Post-It notes are usually thrown away after they"ve done their purpose, pair them along with a pink pen and acquired a great giveaway.
BEIJING — China will launch the Long March-5B carrier rocket into space in 2019, according to a spokesperson for the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO).
The rocket will help carry the core module and experiment modules to China"s space station.
The Long March-5B carrier rocket will undergo testing in March in preparation for the first launch mission.
China will select the third batch of astronauts in the first half of this year for its manned space exploration plan. The new astronauts will include not only pilots, but also maintenance engineers. More manned and cargo spacecrafts have been scheduled for development.
The spokesperson also said the CMSEO would cooperate with the United Nations for Outer Space Affairs to offer opportunities on the application of the Chinese space station, with the European Space Agency on module development and with other countries on the lunar probe.
China initiated the manned space program in 1992. Designed as the country"s strongest carrier rocket, the Long March-5 has a payload capacity of 25 tonnes to low Earth orbit, or 14 tonnes to geostationary transfer orbit.festival wristbands uk woven wristbands personalised silicone wristbands wellies and wristbands festival bracelets


July 8, 2011 marked the final space shuttle launch in NASA's history with the launch of Shuttle Atlantis (see below for a video of the launch). Today, Atlantis is being readied for its new mission at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Merritt Island, just west of Cape Canaveral. The new exhibit, called Space Shuttle Atlantis, will open June 29, 2013. It will offer those who visit the Space Coast the chance to get up close to a piece of American history.
Located in the Shuttle Plaza next to the existing Shuttle Launch Experience at the visitor center, the six-story facility will offer visitors a one-of-a-kind experience from the moment they step inside ... They will walk beneath a full-size replica space shuttle external tank flanked by two solid rocket boosters as they enter the facility.
Now raised 30 feet off the ground in the new 90,000-square-foot facility, Atlantis is angled as though it were still flying in space. The bay doors will be opened at the exhibit and its 50-foot robotic arm will be extended as well. From 1985 to 2011, Atlantis flew 33 missions and traveled almost 130 million miles. The enormous shuttle is 122 feet long, nearly 57 feet tall and has a 78-foot wingspan. (Source: Florida Today)
While waiting for its June opening, you can check out the progress of Space Shuttle Atlantis on Kennedy Space Center's website.
In addition to the Atlantis exhibit, there will be replicas of the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station, simulators, and hands-on exhibits which will chronicle NASA's 30-year history of shuttle operations. This will be yet another great experience for those who visit the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The Visitor Complex currently offers tours, IMAX films, Astronaut Encounters, the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, Children's Play Dome, the Astronaut Memorial and more. Check out their website for a complete list of attractions, and information on how you can even have lunch with an astronaut.
Contact us if you plan on visiting the Space Coast and would like more information on Brevard and all of its attractions.


The earth's magnetic pole is the focus of the planet's magnetic field and is the point that traditional magnetic compasses point toward. Compasses are also subject to magnetic declination which is a result of the earth's varied magnetic field. Each year, the magnetic North Pole and the magnetic field shift, requiring those using magnetic compasses for navigation to be keenly aware of the difference between magnetic north and true north. The magnetic pole was first determined in 1831, hundreds of miles from its present location.
The National Geomagnetic Program of Geological Survey of Canada monitors the movement of the north magnetic pole and most recently determined its precise location in a 2001 survey. They've determined that the pole is moving at approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) each year.
The north magnetic pole moves on a daily basis, too. Every day, there's an elliptical movement of the magnetic pole about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from its average center point.


Hubble's 20th anniversary image shows a mountain of dust and gas rising in the Carina Nebula. The top of a three-light-year tall pillar of cool hydrogen is being worn away by the radiation of nearby stars, while stars within the pillar unleash jets of gas that stream from the peaks.
One light-year is just under ten trillion kilometers, or to be exact 9,460,730,472,580.8 kilometers. The most distant space probe, Voyager 1 was about 16 light-hours away from earth this year. It will take about 17,500 years to reach one light-year at it's current speed. That gives you a bit of an idea on how big this is.
Makes you feel fabulously insignificant, doesn't it?


Our galaxy is going to crash into Andromeda. Now is the start of the best time of year to see it with your own eyes.
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is going to crash into Andromeda, which is twice as big as it is. Due to gravity, they are moving toward each other at a speed of 113 kilometers per second. They are expected to crash into each other in 4.5 billion years, but their outer layers have already started to merge.
At the same time, people on Earth can see Andromeda, which is also called Messier 31, with their own eyes.
The spiral galaxy can be seen in the night sky in both hemispheres of our planet from mid-August to November. Andromeda is 2.5 million light-years away, but it only takes up a quarter of a degree in the sky. NASA says that this is the same as half the width of a full moon.
Andromeda Galaxy in a clear sky with no light pollution. Photo: Earth Sky
When will we be able to see the Andromeda galaxy?
Because it is so far away, Andromeda has a soft glow. So, to see it with the naked eye, it’s not enough to have a clear sky. There also needs to be little light on the moon’s surface and no bright spots.
Because of this, you can already see the galaxy on these dates, but it’s best to look at it on nights close to the new moon. The last week of August is when this stage will happen ( from August 24 to 31 ). Also, look for a place with little light pollution, like outside of a city or in the country.
Location of Andromeda in the Peruvian sky at 3 am on August 24. Image: Stellarium / The Republic
Where in the sky is Andromeda?
Around midnight in Peru and other places in the southern hemisphere (Argentina, Chile, etc.), the galaxy rises above the horizon and moves northeast. In the northern hemisphere, it rises hours earlier (Mexico, Spain, etc.).
It is near the Andromeda constellation, which is how it got its name. It is right at the top of the character’s “belt.” The Pegasus constellation, whose stars form a square, can be used to find the galaxy.
The star Mirach can also help locate the Andromeda galaxy. Image: Stellarium / The Republic
Between 2:00 am and 3:00 am, when it is in the north and high in the sky, is the best time to see Andromeda.
With the naked eye, it looks like a small cloud with some details, but with binoculars, you can see the grandeur of this nearby galaxy.
Location of the Andromeda galaxy (no illustration of the constellations). Image: Stellarium / The Republic
Andromeda has an apparent magnitude of 3.5, which means it is brighter than most visible stars (magnitudes 4 to 6), but not as bright as planets that can be seen with the naked eye. (values between 1 and less than 0).
Because of this, experts in astronomical observation say that anyone who wants to look for Andromeda or anything else in deep space should first try to get used to the darkness of the sky.
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Offers a tribute to the late scientist, with technical papers and popular essays from prominent scientists on such issues as religion and science, science education, and space science
Sometimes intelligent life is right in front of your whiskers. Hsissh is a member of The One. There are some newcomers to The One's homeplanet. They call themselves "humans," and they are, frankly, mentally deficient--they can't warp the quantum world with their minds. However, Hsissh is becoming attached to one of them, a Miss Noa Sato. When The One decide they will wipe out the humans and Noa's life is on the line, Hsissh is forced to take sides ... he might find intelligent life where The One least expect it.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and astronomer Carl Sagan imagines the greatest adventure of all—the discovery of an advanced civilization in the depths of space. In December of 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who—or what—is out there? In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe. In Contact, he predicts its future—and our own.
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is a thirteen-part television series written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steven Soter, with Sagan as presenter. It was executive-produced by Adrian Malone, produced by David Kennard, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles, and Gregory Andorfer, and directed by the producers, David Oyster, Richard Wells, Tom Weidlinger, and others. It covers a wide range of scientific subjects, including the origin of life and a perspective of our place in the universe.The series was first broadcast by the Public Broadcasting Service in 1980, and was the most widely watched series in the history of American public television until The Civil War (1990). As of 2009, it was still the most widely watched PBS series in the world. It won two Emmys and a Peabody Award, and has since been broadcast in more than 60 countries and seen by over 500 million people. A book was also published to accompany the series.
A collection of interviews and profiles show how Sagan, a lifelong skeptic, refined his views and expressed amazement that Earth encompasses everything about which he cared.
“Fascinating . . . memorable . . . revealing . . . perhaps the best of Carl Sagan’s books.”—The Washington Post Book World (front page review) In Cosmos, the late astronomer Carl Sagan cast his gaze over the magnificent mystery of the Universe and made it accessible to millions of people around the world. Now in this stunning sequel, Carl Sagan completes his revolutionary journey through space and time. Future generations will look back on our epoch as the time when the human race finally broke into a radically new frontier—space. In Pale Blue Dot, Sagan traces the spellbinding history of our launch into the cosmos and assesses the future that looms before us as we move out into our own solar system and on to distant galaxies beyond. The exploration and eventual settlement of other worlds is neither a fantasy nor luxury, insists Sagan, but rather a necessary condition for the survival of the human race. “Takes readers far beyond Cosmos . . . Sagan sees humanity’s future in the stars.”—Chicago Tribune
For every child who has ever looked up at the stars and asked, "What are they?" comes the story of a curious boy who never stopped wondering: Carl Sagan. When Carl Sagan was a young boy he went to the 1939 World's Fair and his life was changed forever. From that day on he never stopped marveling at the universe and seeking to understand it better. Star Stuff follows Carl from his days star gazing from the bedroom window of his Brooklyn apartment, through his love of speculative science fiction novels, to his work as an internationally renowned scientist who worked on the Voyager missions exploring the farthest reaches of space. This book introduces the beloved man who brought the mystery of the cosmos into homes across America to a new generation of dreamers and star gazers.
A fascinating book on the joys of discovering how the world works, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Cosmos and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. “Magnificent . . . Delightful . . . A masterpiece. A message of tremendous hope for humanity . . . While ever conscious that human folly can terminate man’s march into the future, Sagan nonetheless paints for us a mind-boggling future: intelligent robots, the discovery of extraterrestrial life and its consequences, and above all the challenge and pursuit of the mystery of the universe.”—Chicago Tribune “Go out and buy this book, because Carl Sagan is not only one of the world’s most respected scientists, he’s a great writer. . . . I can give a book no greater accolade than to say I’m planning on reading it again. And again. And again.”—The Miami Herald “The brilliant astronomer . . . is persuasive, provocative and readable.”—United Press International “Closely reasoned, impeccably researched, gently humorous, utterly devastating.”—The Washington Post
In the final book of his astonishing career, Carl Sagan brilliantly examines the burning questions of our lives, our world, and the universe around us. These luminous, entertaining essays travel both the vastness of the cosmos and the intimacy of the human mind, posing such fascinating questions as how did the universe originate and how will it end, and how can we meld science and compassion to meet the challenges of the coming century? Here, too, is a rare, private glimpse of Sagan's thoughts about love, death, and God as he struggled with fatal disease. Ever forward-looking and vibrant with the sparkle of his unquenchable curiosity, Billions & Billions is a testament to one of the great scientific minds of our day. From the Trade Paperback edition.
In this compelling life of Carl Sagan, award-winning science writer William Poundstone details the transformation of a bookish young astronomer obsessed with life on other worlds into science's first authentic media superstar. The instantly recognizable Sagan, a fixture on television and a bestselling author, offered the layperson entry into the mysteries of the cosmos and of science in general. To much of the scientific community, however, he was a pariah, a brazen publicity seeker who cared more about his image and his fortune than the advancement of science. Poundstone reveals the seldom-discussed aspects of Sagan's life, the legitimate and important work of his early scientific career, the almost obsessive capacity to take on endless projects, and the multiple marriages and fractured personal life, in what The New Yorker called an "evenhanded guide" to a great man's career.
Do you want more free book summaries like this? Download our app for free at https://www.QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries. Unlock the mysteries of the universe. Have you ever paused for a moment to ponder the complexities of the universe? Or wondered what it would be like to understand what’s really going on up there? Carl Sagan’s revolutionary expose of the cosmos seeks to answer those questions and more. By unpacking the concepts which characterize our understanding of the universe and our place in it, Sagan takes you on an unparalleled intergalactic journey.
Meet Carl Sagan, known for his research on extraterrestrial life! Follow Sagan's story as he theorizes on the temperature of Venus's surface, works with NASA to build the Mariner 2, Viking I, and Viking II probes, and creates the popular PBS program Cosmos. Infographics, historic photos, and a glossary enhance readers' understanding of this topic. Additional features include a table of contents, an index, a timeline and fun facts. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Checkerboard Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
UNIVERSE: SELECTED QUOTES AND WORDS OF WISDOMINCLUDING: Albert Einstein, John Lennon, Carl Sagan, Alan W. Watts, Stephen Hawking, Deepak Chopra, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Isaac Asimov And Many More!-GOLDEN QUOTES is a collective of passionate individuals that love to appreciate timeless wisdom compiled and compressed into insightful quotes. Our main goal is to infect you with motivation and inspiration to live life and engage with it at its fullest.-BOOK EXTRACTS:Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. Arthur C. Clarke-A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe. Madeleine L'Engle- The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction. Rachel Carson- Believe something and the Universe is on its way to being changed. Because you've changed, by believing. Once you've changed, other things start to follow. Isn't that the way it works? Diane Duane- We are an impossibility in an impossible universe. Ray Bradbury


Jupiter transit otherwise called as Guru Peyarchi. Guru in Indian astrological terms is regarded as the most auspicious planet among all the 9 planets, because of its abilities to bestow goodness for all life forms. It is a planet or graha that protects us from the evil cosmic forces and the bad karmic energies that are generated due to our series of birth here on this earth.
The download of the app is 100% secure. FindYourFate.com is the developer of Guru Peyarchi that is included in the Entertainment category. The average rating for this application is 3.9 on Google Play.


Does Home Insurance Cover Meteor Damage?
On Friday, February 15th, a meteor entered the earth’s atmosphere at approximately 9:20 a.m. above Chelyabinsk, a town of about 1 million inhabitants in central Russia. The 50 foot wide, 7,700 ton meteor caused a blinding flash of light as it traveled at 40,000 miles per hour or over 52 times the speed of sound. Most of the meteor’s energy was consumed in the upper atmosphere about 9 miles above the earth’s surface. The energy released in the upper atmosphere was equivalent to at least 20 atomic bombs about the size of one exploded above Hiroshima.


Data Limite Segundo Chico Xavier [CM+P]
Ufology experts say that after the explosion of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, there was a considerable increase in the number of UFO sightings (Unidentified Flying Objects) around the world. A little more than two decades later, the Brazilian medium Chico Xavier confided to his closest companions that, on the occasion of the arrival of the man on the moon on July 20, 1969, a meeting with the celestial powers of our solar system had taken place to verify the progress of the earthly society. They therefore decided to grant humanity a period of 50 years to evolve morally and live in peace, without provoking a third world war. If they lived together until the Limit Date, humanity would, from then on, be ready to enter a new era of its existence, and magnificent deeds would be verified everywhere, even our brothers from other planets would be expressly authorized to present themselves. publicly and officially for the inhabitants of the land.
PURPOSE OF THE DOCUMENTARY
The objective of the Documentary Data Limite According to Chico Xavier is to present facts and historical connections that suggest the possibility of Chico Xavier's forecast materializing in the near future, proposing to the public a reflection on the greatness of the universe's context, on the fact that we are not alone and the possible developments that would occur from an eventual insertion of humanity in interplanetary society.
Among the interviewees of the project are the medium and spiritist speaker Divaldo Franco (considered one of the greatest today), the writer Geraldo Lemos Neto (to whom Chico confided the facts of the Data Limite), the journalist Saulo Gomes (who commanded the program Pinga- Fogo in the 60s), Brazilian ufologist Ademar Gevaerd (The best known in Brazil), generals Alberto Mendes Cardoso (Former Chief of Staff of the Brazilian Army and Former Minister of the Military House) and Paulo Roberto YM Uchoa (son of the Researcher and also General Moacyr Uchoa) in addition to former Canadian defense minister Paul Hellyer.


NASA's unmanned InSight mission will make this possible by landing geophysical instruments on the surface of the Red Planet, allowing us to explore its interior. The instruments on board will include a seismometer to record marsquakes and meteorite impacts. Several groups at ETH Zurich are responsible for the sensor's data acquisition and control electronics and will evaluate and interpret the acquired data.
A strong quake in the last year of the NASA Mars InSight mission, enabled researchers at ETH Zurich to determine the global thickness and density of the planet's crust. On average, the Martian crust much thicker than the Earth’s or the Moon’s crust and the planet’s main source of heat is radioactive.
Find the full article here.
The ETH Mars InSight team looks back on a challenging, successful, exciting, and fun scientific journey and invites you to a festive closing event on May 9, 2023 starting from 5.15 pm. We will have talks covering the mission history, achievements, operational and scientific highlights, student experience and public outreach efforts, followed by an apéro.
For over 1400 Martian sols, NASA's InSight mission delivered data that provided unprecedented insight into the planet's interior. The mission launched in May 2018. Almost exactly five years later, we invite you to celebrate its history and scientific achievements.
InSight landed on Mars in November 2018. By February 2019, the seismometer SEIS had been placed onto the martian surface and was transmitting data to earth. The Marsquake Service (MQS) at ETH Zurich, whose preparations had begun five years earlier, could start their daily processing activities. Over the lifespan of the mission, the MQS identified and characterized more than 1,300 marsquakes, multiple meteoroid impacts, and over 10,000 dust devils. The analysis and interpretation of the data revealed secrets about the planet’s internal structure from crust to core.
Over time, dust accumulation on the solar panels reduced the power available for scientific operations. NASA officially ended the InSight mission in December 2022.
The unprecedented data set collected on Mars has already revealed much about the red planet and will stimulate decades of further investigation.
Join us in celebrating the mission’s highlights and achievements on May 9, 2023
from 5.15 p.m. - 6.30 p.m. : Lectures at C 60, NO Building
starting from 6.30 p.m. : Apéro at the focusTerra hall (NO Building)
Please register for the apéro here.
ETH Zurich Earthquake scientist, Simon Stähler and colleagues were presented with the 2023 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Newcomb Cleveland Prize for their paper on "Seismic Detection of the Martian Core" published in the prestigious journal, Science.
Find the full article here.
The lander’s team has tried to contact the spacecraft twice without response, leading them to conclude it has run out of energy.
NASA’s InSight mission has ended after four years of collecting unique science on Mars. Mission controllers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California were unable to contact the lander after two consecutive attempts, leading them to conclude that the spacecraft’s solar-powered batteries have run out of energy – a state engineers refer to as “dead bus.”
NASA had previously decided to declare the mission over if the lander misses two communication attempts. The agency will continue to listen for a signal from the lander, just in case, but hearing from it at this point is considered unlikely. The last time InSight communicated with Earth was Dec. 15, 2022.
“I watched the launch and landing of this mission, and while saying goodbye to a spacecraft is always sad, the fascinating science InSight conducted is cause for celebration,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “The seismic data alone from this Discovery Program mission offers tremendous insights not just into Mars but other rocky bodies, including Earth.”
Short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, InSight set out to study the deep interior of Mars. The lander data has yielded details about Mars’ interior layers, the surprisingly variable remnants of its mostly extinct magnetic field beneath the surface, weather on this part of Mars, and lots of quake activity.
“It has been a lifetime adventure for our Swiss team, initiated already in 1997,” says Prof. Domenico Giardini, head of the Mars team at ETH Zurich. “We contributed to InSight the seismometer electronics, project management, the design and daily operation of the Marsquake Service and we finally had the chance for amazing research, we have been very lucky in our life as scientific researchers to be able to participate in a successful planetary exploration mission.”
The highly sensitive seismometer detected 1,318 marsquakes, including quakes caused by meteoroid impacts; the largest unearthed boulder-size chunks of ice late last year.
Such impacts help scientists determine the age of the planet’s surface, and data from the seismometer provides scientists a way to study the planet’s crust, mantle, and core.
“This was the first mission to explore the deep interior of another planet. We now know for example that the core is too big for our classical models, which changes the way we think about the terrestrial planets in our solar system and elsewhere in the universe”, says Simon Staehler, a Senior Scientist working in the Seismology and Geodynamics group led by Domenico Giardini at the Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich.
The seismometer was the last science instrument that remained on as dust accumulating on the lander’s solar panels gradually reduced its energy, a process that had begun before NASA extended the mission earlier this year.
“Insight has been such a huge part of our lives for the past four years” said John Clinton, Director of Seismic Networks at the Swiss Seismological Service, ETH Zurich, and head of Insight’s Marsquake Service. “Although the daily review of new data from Mars has now sadly come to an end, analysis of this amazing dataset will continue for years - we still have many outstanding puzzles to solve, and doubtless there are new discoveries to make.”
InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) is an unmanned external Nasa Mars mission. In November 2018, the stationary lander, which is equipped with a seismometer and a heat probe, safely landed on the Martian surface. The geophysical instruments on the red planet permit exploration of its interior. A number of European partners, including France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument to NASA, with the principal investigator at Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris IPGP). Significant contributions for SEIS came from IPGP; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany; Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (USA).
Author: From the editors / NASA


The clear blue sky streaked with jet contrails, lines of pale vapour creating interlocking patterns as passengers are conveyed across vast distances, their purposes unknowable to the observer on the ground, the only evidence of their existence the trails, fingers pointing to some far off destination, the arrowhead shape indicating the direction. Sun glinting on the metallic fuselage of the jet, the comet at the head of a spreading tail. The trails merge, filtering the rays of the sun, reducing its power, blocking the ultraviolet warmth, returning the cosmic rays to space.
I remember a time, not so long ago, when volcanic ash replaced the trails, when the planes lay idle on the runways, grounded by natures fury, the Icelandic fires, when the sky was clear, the air was pure. I remember seeing the blue vault of the heavens as if for the first time, unsullied, unchained from these gauzy remnants, the sky my ancestors saw before the coming of the modern age. A sky not seen at any other time in my life. Those few days stay with me, and as I watch the skies fill each morning, the trails spreading like a blanket I wonder, just for a moment
“What have we done?”


Astronomers have long debated the existence of life on other planets. That whether it exists at all. And even if it did exist, would we even realise it. Given that the sheer number of star systems out there, and the variety of environments in which life thrives on our own planet, the probability of other life in the universe is definitely non-zero.
In the beginning, we assumed that the distance of the planet from its star was the most important factor in determining the existence of life. After all, all life on the Earth's surface depends on the Sun and its energy. Too near to the Sun, and we would burn, and too far, we would freeze. But, now we know of life in the depths of the ocean. One could of course argue that the life in the depths depend on the fallout from the surface.
But what about life near the hydro-thermal vents. Life that depends on the Hydrogen-Sulphide released from the volcanic depths. They certainly don't depend on the Sun. And the bacteria discovered two kilometers deep in the Earth's crust, buried away from the energy from the Sun? Now, we no longer see the distance between the planet and its star as the deciding factor. But all these life-forms depend on the existence of liquid water.
As we were recently bound by the notion that the planet-star distance was paramount for life, we are now bound by the notion that presence of liquid water is paramount. But, as science proceeds, this notion may also be proved wrong. This may not be possible on Earth. But, very possible on other planets and their satellites. This presents us a problem. If we are strongly bound by our preconceived notions, would we recognise life if it were found in environments were these notions fail? Would we know it when we see it?
Some scientists have thought about this problem. Is the deciding characteristic movement? The trees certainly don't move. Could it be that they breathe Oxygen? Anaerobic bacteria certainly don't require it. Scientists have struck upon the idea that whatever may be the life of an organism, the most definitive factor that proves their life is that they reproduce. Being able to reproduce is what makes life Life.
René Descartes once said "Cogito, ergo sum". But this applies only to animals we know to think. This statement does not apply to all life. The universal truth should have been "Coito, ergo sum". This statement applies to all life, thus reducing Cogito, ergo sum to a mere corollary.
Footnote: There is a small programme that comes for Linux called fortune. This spits out funny one-liners on request. Excellent for procrastination. Anyway, the statement "Coito, ergo sum" was one of the one-liners. That got me thinking, etc... etc...


Abstract: Using the relativistic concept of time dilation we show that a superposition of gravitational potentials can lead to nonunitary time evolution. For sufficiently weak gravitational potentials one can still define, for all intents and purposes, a global coordinate system. A probe particle in a superposition of weak gravitational fields will, however, experience dephasing due to the different time dilations. The corresponding instability timescale is accessible to experiments, and can be used as a degree of macroscopicity. Finally, we suggest an experiment with smoothly tunable amplification in a microwave interferometer that allows a quantitative study of the quantum to classical boundary.


Mars. A source of fascination for thousands of years.
The ancient Romans thought of Mars as the God of War. (The Greeks did, too, but their god and planet was named Ares.) It became a place of mystery and wonder when Giovanni Schiaparelli first trained his telescope on it to reveal unusual shadings that changed with the seasons and were thought by him and others (most notably Percival Lowell) to be canals.
Today is the first (Earth) anniversary of the Curosity Rover’s landing on the Red Planet. (We still need to wait until June 23, 2014 before the one Mars year anniversary.) In celebration I’m issuing this writing challenge: Write a story about Mars.
Note: You can pick your Mars. Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ Mars of the John Carter series, or the one depicted in Ray Bradbury‘s Martian Chronicles, or the home planet of Robert Heinlein‘s Stranger in a Strange Land. Or perhaps you prefer the world depicted in the movie Total Recall (either version!) Take your pick, or make up your own version. Your choice.
Whatever Mars you choose, please write a story about it and link to it here, via the Comments or a Trackback.
I’m looking forward to another visit to the Red Planet. Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride!


Princeton University is a recipient of the Sun Grid Education Grant for 100,000 hours of central processing units (CPUs) on the Sun Grid Compute Utility. Sun Grid helps customers and partners derive immediate benefits from an open, Grid-based computing infrastructure on a utility basis by giving them more choice and control over how they purchase and leverage IT. To date, Princeton, a leading research institution and undergraduate college, has used nearly 11,000 CPU hours on the Sun Grid Compute Utility.
Sun awarded Princeton the Sun Grid Education Grant to further expand Princeton's cutting-edge research to verify new numerical algorithms for astrophysical gas dynamics running on Sun Grid. Powered by Sun Grid using the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS), Princeton conducted its tests at resolutions that previously were not possible, without the long-term lifecycle costs related to capital, management, depreciation and floor space. This 100,000 hour grant will be available for Princeton to use as they need, without reservation or intervention from Sun, accessible via the Sun Grid. The grant will take effect Jan. 1, 2006.
“I'm very impressed with Sun Grid's rapid turnaround time — there's no waiting in a queue for access to computing power,” said Thomas A. Gardiner, department of astrophysical sciences at Princeton. “Because we'll be able to access massive compute power whenever we need with Sun Grid, our astrophysics research is now less constrained by IT infrastructure issues. Sun's donation is a big boost in our efforts to unlock the mysteries of the universe.”
“Innovation is what fueled this major breakthrough that led to the introduction of Sun Grid, and it's this same spirit of fostering innovation in the scientific community that is behind our grant to Princeton,” said Stuart Wells, executive vice president, of utility computing at Sun Microsystems. “Princeton's Astrophysics Department is harnessing the compute power of Sun Grid to conduct its ground-breaking research at an unprecedented scale and pace. From education institutions to financial establishments to oil and gas companies, Sun Grid is drastically simplifying the way organizations select, acquire and use next generation IT infrastructure.”


Fall hasn’t been quick on astronomical occasions. On Halloween, the U.S. was handled to a uncommon blue moon. Now, in November, the Leonid Meteor Shower is coming!
The bathe is about to start Nov. 6, and can proceed by Nov. 20. Nevertheless, this yr’s occasion is predicted to have fewer meteors than the massive showers that happen, roughly, each 33 years. You’ll need to take a look at the bathe throughout its peak the evening of Nov. 16 by the early morning of Nov. 17.
The bathe is predicted to provide about 15 meteors per hour, so that you’ll have to preserve your eyes peeled! However sitting underneath the celebrities with your pals or household to see who can spot probably the most meteors seems like enjoyable.
To get the most effective view, head to an space with little or no gentle. When you stay within the metropolis, it’ll be greatest to drive to an outlying space to get a extra unobstructed view of the taking pictures stars.
And for those who miss this bathe, don’t fear. The Geminid meteor shower will likely be right here in December, providing you with one other probability to make a want on a taking pictures star.
[Via Travel and Leisure]


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Does the Universe Have a Purpose?
Perhaps you hoped for a stronger statement, one way or the other. But as a scientist I don't believe I can make one. While nothing in biology, chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, or cosmology has ever provided direct evidence of purpose in nature, science can never unambiguously prove that there is no such purpose. As Carl Sagan said, in another context: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Of course, nothing would stop science from uncovering positive evidence of divine guidance and purpose if it were attainable. For example, tomorrow night if we look up at the stars and they have been rearranged into a pattern that reads, "I am here," I think even the most hard-nosed scientific skeptic would suspect something was up.
But no such unambiguous signs have been uncovered among the millions and millions of pieces of data we have gleaned about the natural world over centuries of exploration. And this is precisely why a scientist can conclude that it is very unlikely that there is any divine purpose. If a creator had such a purpose, she could choose to demonstrate it a little more clearly to the inhabitants of her creation.
One is always free, as some people do, to interpret the laws of nature as signs of purpose, as for example Pope Pius did when Belgian physicist-priest George Lemaitre demonstrated that Einstein's general theory of relativity implied the universe had a beginning. The Pope interpreted this as scientific proof of Genesis, but Lemaitre asked him to stop saying this. The big bang, as it has become known, can be interpreted in terms of a divine beginning, but it can equally be interpreted as removing God from the equation entirely. The conclusion is in the mind of the beholder, and it is outside of the realm of scientific theory and prediction.
Finally, even if the universe has a hidden purpose, everything we know about the cosmos suggests that we do not play a central role in it. We are, as a planet, cosmically insignificant. Life on Earth will end, as it has probably done on countless planets in the past, and will do in the future. And all the stars and all the galaxies we see could disappear in an instant and the universe would go on behaving more or less as it is doing right now. Nature seems as uncaring as it is unyielding.
Thus, organized religions, which put humanity at the center of some divine plan, seem to assault our dignity and intelligence. A universe without purpose should neither depress us nor suggest that our lives are purposeless. Through an awe-inspiring cosmic history we find ourselves on this remote planet in a remote corner of the universe, endowed with intelligence and self-awareness. We should not despair, but should humbly rejoice in making the most of these gifts, and celebrate our brief moment in the sun.
by Lawrence M. Krauss, Professor of Physics and Astronomy (in conversations about the “Big Questions” the John Templeton Foundation is conducting among leading scientists and scholars)


The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth taken in 1990 by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, at a distance of 3.7 billion miles from the Sun. This course is all about the planet on which we live. It starts with Earth's rather insignificant place in the wider universe, going on to look at how (we think) it was formed, its physical makeup (and how we know what we know), and similarities and differences to other planets and moons. Then we'll look at geological history, and the current consequences of that such as earthquakes and volcanoes. Next we'll focus on the thin skin of the planet - the atmosphere, the oceans and the continents - and finally, the biosphere.