Category Archives: Astronomy

Solar flare induced insanity
May 20 2013

News Mash: A strong solar flares day, means…A Bad day for psychiatric hospital in Kenya?

Science…

For the most part?

Still blind as to the extent of how solar flares affect us.

[via MyFoxyNY]Sun unleashes strong solar flares ~By MYFOX NEW YORK STAFF

The sun has unleashed four potent solar flares over the past few days, according to NASA.

One of the flares on Sunday was the strongest solar eruption this year and created a solar radiation storm on Wednesday.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of the X1.2 class solar flare on May 14, 2013.(NASA/SDO)

The flare erupted on the side of the sun that was not facing earth but it did cause a strong radio blackout.  The flare was categorized as an R3 on the NOAA’s space weather scales from R1 to R5.

Experimental NASA research models show that the latest flare left the sun at around 745 miles per second.

NASA says radiation from the latest flare may stream toward two of its spacecraft, including the Spitzer Space Telescope. Engineers have the option to switch them in safe mode to protect instruments.

The side of the sun where Sunday’s eruption occurred will rotate into Earth’s view soon, allowing scientists to study the active region.

Experts say that a rise in solar activity is common right now because of the phase it is in currently in its 11-year activity cycle.  More strong solar flares could be coming in the days ahead.

The flares can temporarily disrupt GPS signals and communications satellites, but most people will not notice any impacts from the flares.

…[Read More]

And, yes…

Believe it or not, Science?

They freaking affect us!

I quote:

“…but most people will not notice any impacts from the flares.”

Seriously, you big goobers?

Jeez, make out a post-it note…

Please:

[via Carlini Institute]How Recent Solar Flares Are Affecting Humans ~by Heather Carlini

A solar flare is a magnetic storm on the Sun which appears to be a very bright spot and a gaseous surface eruption such as in the above photograph.  Solar flares release huge amounts of high-energy particles and gases that are tremendously hot.  They are ejected thousands of miles from the surface of the Sun.

There appears to be a direct connection between the Sun’s solar storms and human biological effect especially after an “M” class solar flare.  The conduit which facilitates the charged particles from the Sun to human disturbance is the very same conduit which steers Earth’s weather through the Magnetic Field on Earth, and also through the magnetic fields around humans.

  Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wind storms appear to happen after strong solar activity on the sun.

Geomagnetic Activity on the Sun Influences our Thoughts

Solar flare induced insanity [Source]

I have noticed in my own research that solar activity is known to influence human consciousness.  Solar flares affect the Central Nervous System (stomach lining), all brain activity (including equilibrium), along with human behaviour and all psycho-physiological (mental-emotional-physical) response.  Solar flares can cause us to be nervous, anxiousness, worrisome, jittery, dizzy, shaky, irritable, lethargic, exhausted, have short term memory problems and heart palpitations, feel nauseous, queasy, and to have prolonged head pressure and headaches.

…[Read More - The Whole Article Is Definitely Worth checking Out, Please Do So HERE!]

As someone who actually works in law enforcement…

And actually SEES firsthand the effects of solar flares via the antics of the general populous?

Let me reassure you?

People going nuts on high solar flare activity days?

Real. Thing.

[via Iquisitr]40 Patients Escape Psychiatric Hospital, 30 Still On The Run ~By Todd Rigney

Of the 40 patients who escaped from a psychiatric hospital in Kenya, only 10 have returned to the facility.

Dozens of people reportedly fled the Mathari Mental Hospital in Nairobi on Sunday morning. Security officers prevented an additional 35 from escaping. It’s believed the patients overpowered the guards before managing to force open the door to their ward.

“Many scaled over the wall and went through Mathare area and a few confident ones used the main gate. When they are traced they should be brought back for their medication,” Police Chief Samuel Anampiu explained.

He added, “They must have strategized. It is not possible that, without proper planning, 75 people can break two doors and more than half of them run away.”

It’s currently believed that 30 patients are still unaccounted for at the psychiatric hospital in Kenya. Anampiu is concerned about these individuals getting the medication they need in order to treat their illnesses.

“We are now talking of 30 mental patients who are not back. Some have come back on their own volition while some were captured and brought back by their relatives,” the police chief said.

Two of the patients who escaped from the hospital later returned on their own free will. Eight of the escapees were brought back to the facility by their families. This mean that 30 of the 40 patients who escaped the psychiatric hospital are still on the loose.

…[Read More]

What am I saying?

Simply this…

When it comes to solar flares?

People go nuts!

Especially, um, let me just call them HIGHLY SENSITIVE people, who seem to be more susceptible than others.

Science…

You should really watch such stupid quotes as “…but most people will not notice any impacts from the flares” because, oh?

You could really not be MORE wrong.

Watch yourself.

Witness the hand of humaity
Apr 28 2013

News Mash: The fate of humanity, in the hands of humanity? Well, this won’t end well!

This actually exists…

The Future of Humanity Institute.

And yes, they are just the barrel of laughs you would think they would be from their catchy, cheery name.

*shakes head sadly*

Guess what they recently figured out?

[Hint: Not good news]

Yeah…

We’re all DOOMED!!!!!!

And by our own hand:

[via PopSci]Oxford Institute Forecasts The Possible Doom Of Humanity

Most of us are content to just worry about the future of humanity in our spare time, but there’s an entire group of academics at Oxford University in England who make that their professional mission.

Each member of the Future of Humanity Institute has his own focus. Some are concerned with climate change and its impact on humanity; others with the future of human cognition. Department head Nick Bostrom, whose paper Existential Risk Prevention As Global Priority has just been published, has a long history of being worried about our future as a species. Bostrom posits that humanity is the greatest threat to humanity’s survival.

Bostrom’s paper is concerned with a particular time-scale: Can humanity survive the next century? This rules out some of the more unlikely natural scenarios that could snuff out humans in the more distant future: supervolcanoes, asteroid impacts, gamma-ray bursts and the like. The chances of one of those happening within the very narrow timeframe involved is, according to the paper, extremely small. Further, most other natural disasters, such as a pandemic, are unlikely to kill all humans; we as a species have survived many pandemics and will likely do so in the future.

The Personal

The Personal: The first row of a full scale of misery, on a scale of “hellish.” In the full version, the Y axis is on a scale of “cosmic-ness” Together, the extremes of these two scales form the conditions in which risk to the existence of the human race resides.  Nick Bostrom, http://www.existential-risk.org/concept.html

According to Bostrom, the types of civilization-ending disasters we may unleash upon ourselves include nuclear holocausts, badly programmed superintelligent entities and, my personal favorite, “we are living in a simulation and it gets shut down.” (As an aside, how the hell do you prepare for that eventuality?) Additionally, humans face four different categories of existential risk:

Extinction: we off ourselves before we reach technological maturity
Stagnation: we stay mired in our current technological and intellectual backwater
Flawed realization: we advance technologically…in a way that isn’t sustainable
Subsequent ruination: we reach sustainable technological maturity and then eff it all up anyway

More pointedly, Bostrom’s paper is a renewal of a call-to-arms he issued a decade ago imploring people to wake up to the possibility that we will kill ourselves with technology. These days, he’s not so much concerned with the how — existential death by grey goo vs existential death by sentient robots is still existential death. He’s most concerned that there’s nobody out there really doing anything about this problem. That’s understandable, of course. Existential threats are nebulous concepts, and even the threat of nuclear winter was not enough to terrify certain governments into, you know, not building thermonuclear weapons.

…[Read More]

Not really the thing I want to hear, coming up on my long work week.

But bright side?

At least our immanent will cut short my work week.

Which?

Entirely possibly considering  the growing number of possible, man-killing projectiles we keep surrounding  with, and are in fact just NOW figuring out, “Hey, we maybe, probably, oh I don’t know, should do something about that before it starts killing many people?’ situation we have going in outer space around us.

[via France24]Space debris problem now urgent – scientists

AFP – Governments must start working urgently to remove orbital debris, which could become a catastrophic problem for satellites a few decades from now, a space science conference heard on Thursday.

Since 1978, the total of junk items whizzing around the planet has tripled, said Heiner Klinkrad, head of the European Space Agency’s Space Debris Office.

“There is a wide and strong expert consensus on the pressing need to act now to begin debris removal activities,” he said in an ESA press release at the end of a four-day conference in Darmstadt, Germany.

“Our understanding of the growing space debris problem can be compared with our understanding of the need to address Earth’s changing climate some 20 years ago,” he said.

According to a count by ESA and NASA, there are more than 23,000 items in orbit that are bigger than 10 centimetres (four inches) across, and hundreds of thousands of items between one and 10 cms (0.4 to four inches) across.

Even though these items are relatively small and there is a lot of room in orbit, any collision could be calamitous because of the high level of kinetic energy.

Debris travels on average at 25,000 kilometres (15,600 miles) per hour, so even an object of small mass has the potential to cripple a satellite or punch a hole in the International Space Station (ISS).

The junk results mainly from disused rocket stages, failed launches and abandoned or broken-down satellites, the result of 55 years of space exploration.

These large objects eventually collide, creating more debris which in turn smashes together — a dangerous cascade cycle known as the Kessler Syndrome.

…[Read More]

A problem?

Yes…

Seems like we just keep “adding-to” on a daily basis, with no freakin’ end in sight:

[via Space]Private Asteroid-Mining Project Launching Tiny Satellites in 2014 ~by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer

A billionaire-backed asteroid-mining company aims to start putting its big plans into action soon, launching its first hardware into space by this time next year.

Planetary Resources, which counts Google execs Larry Page and Eric Schmidt among its investors, plans to loft a set of tiny “cubesats” to Earth orbit in early 2014, to test out gear for its first line of asteroid-prospecting spacecraft.

“Our belief and our philosophy is that the best testbed is space itself,” Chris Voorhees, Planetary Resources’ vice president of spacecraft development, said Wednesday (April 24) during a Google+ Hangout event. [Planetary Resources' Asteroid-Mining Plans (Images)]

…[Read More]

So…

Is the fact that the FHI (The Future of Humanity Institute) is predicting humanities doom at our OWN hand…

Really much of a ridiculous stretch?

Pffft…

What do you think?

Witness the hand of humaity

As crzay as they sound from the outset?

*scratches chin*

Gotta wonder…

Do YOU think the FHI could have a point?

It does make one nervously wonder.

Pink Um no
Apr 25 2013

News Mash: Make Sure To Check Out Today’s PINK Lunar Eclipse!

Not normally a posting day for me…

Just thought THIS (below) amazing bit of astronomy news demanded it.

Cause tonight (depending on where you are)?

The night’s sky will showcase the moon doing her eclipse thing.

Always a treat!

[via Space]‘Pink’ Full Moon Brings Lunar Eclipse ThursdayPink Um no

This month’s full moon, which falls on Thursday (April 25), always reminds me of one of the first times I viewed the April full moon

When I was very young boy living in New York, there was a popular television weathercaster by the name of Carol Reed. While not a meteorologist, she had an upbeat personality and always finished her reports with what became her personal catch phrase: “And have a happy!”

One evening, Carol commented that it would be clear for everyone to get a good view of that night’s “pink” full moon. When it got dark, my mother accompanied me outside expecting to see a salmon-colored moon, but all we saw was a full moon that looked the way it always did: yellowish-white with not a hint of pink.

While I don’t recall the year of this episode, I can state most definitely that it took place in the month of April, since many years later I learned that traditionally the full moon of April is called the “pink moon,” a reference made to the grass pink or wild ground phlox which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring season.

…

Beginning at 2:04 p.m. EDT (1804 GMT), the moon begins to meet the Earth’s shadow; a little over two hours later it arrives under the middle of that shadow. By then the moon will have just risen and will be visible low to the east-southeast horizon as seen from Ireland, and will be setting over south-central Japan in the morning hours of Friday, April 26.

…[Read More]

And because it is?

Just thought the ol’ girl needed a bit of my attention.

So?

Just know I adore you, Mother Nature…

You, with all of your fascinating wonders you see fit to behoove me.

sheer terror
Apr 8 2013

News Mash: North Korea? Scary. NASA lasso’ing an asteroid? Scarier. A newly discover giant spider? Holy $#*%!!!

When it comes to fear…

It’s all about personal perspective, isn’t it?

And how it relates to the individual.

Take North Korea.

Scary bunch of freaky, bat-crap crazy dudes, for sure.

And their possible threat to nuke us all come April 10th?

Worrisome.

But lets face it…

Those psychos have always been whack-jobs.

So, on a personal level?

The chances of these coo-coo birds effecting any of us?

Pretty slim:

[via The Sun]North Korea tells Brit diplomats to get out — then sets chilling April 10 deadline ~By JACK LOSH

ROGUE state North Korea today sparked fears that it could trigger a nuclear strike as early as next WEDNESDAY.

Crackpot Kim Jong-un’s regime today issued a chilling threat to British diplomats warning them to get out of Pyongyang.

Alarmingly the North Korean government said it would not be able to guarantee the safety of embassies from April 10.

Russian diplomats have also been advised to evacuate.

Today the Foreign Office added that it is “considering next steps” after the threat.

It is still unclear why next Wednesday has been set as a deadline – but it is sure to spark fears despot Kim Jong-un will launch an attack after that date.

This week South Korean workers employed in factories in the North were also told to leave by April 10.

The dramatic development came as North Korea moved a second missile to its east coast in a further threat to Japan, South Korea and US Pacific bases.

The rogue state has already transported a Musudan missile with a range of 1,800 miles (3,000km) to the same area.

…[Read More]

So this new: ‘We are going to destroy the tyranny of the West!” hokum, is just that…

A load of bull.

Nothing to be REALLY concerned with.

However NASA scientists new “fantastic” idea to lasso an asteroid, in order to bring it CLOSER to us?

A tad more worrisome, and it should be for all of us.

And only because?

Even as much as I dearly love & adore scientists, they always only consider IF they could do something…

Not necessarily if they SHOULD.

Especially if one considers the dangerous ramifications should the asteroid (not much smaller than the rock that hit Russia with the force of an atomic bomb, cause it only takes a rock about 10 meters to do that) get out of their control and barrel towards Earth, impacting somewhere NOT just water.

So, yeah…

A tad more worrisome, and it should be:

[via YahooNews] Senator: NASA to lasso asteroid, bring it closer ~By SETH BORENSTEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA is planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore, a top senator said Friday.

The ship would capture the 500-ton, 25-foot asteroid in 2019. Then using an Orion space capsule, a crew of about four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock in 2021 for spacewalking exploration, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the plan would speed up by four years the existing mission to land astronauts on an asteroid by bringing the space rock closer to Earth.

Nelson, who is chairman of the Senate science and space subcommittee, said Friday that President Barack Obama is putting $100 million in planning money for the accelerated asteroid mission in the 2014 budget that comes out next week. The money would be used to find the right small asteroid.

“It really is a clever concept,” Nelson said in a press conference in Orlando. “Go find your ideal candidate for an asteroid. Go get it robotically and bring it back.”

This would be the first time ever humanity has manipulated a space object in such a grand scale, like what it does on Earth, said Robert Braun, a Georgia Institute of Technology aerospace engineering professor who used to be NASA’s chief technology officer.

“It’s a great combination of our robotic and human capabilities to do the kind of thing that NASA should be doing in this century,” Braun said.

Last year, the Keck Institute for Space Studies proposed a similar mission for NASA with a price tag of $2.6 billion. There is no cost estimate for the space agency’s version. NASA’s plans were first reported by Aviation Week.

While there are thousands of asteroids around 25-feet, finding the right one that comes by Earth at just the right time to be captured will not be easy, said Donald Yeomans, who heads NASA’s Near Earth Object program that monitors close-by asteroids. He said once a suitable rock is found it would be captured with the space equivalent of “a baggie with a drawstring. You bag it. You attach the solar propulsion module to de-spin it and bring it back to where you want it.”

…[Read More]

There are fearsome things and events that exist in our world today, but from an individual, personal perspective the chances of them affecting us DIRECTLY?

Not likely.

However, with that said…

One thing, one oh-my-gawd-Mother-Nature-what-have-you-done thing, on a personal level we should ALL fear, and quite honestly have every right to, because darn-tootin’ it WILL affect us all?

And by saying ‘it will affect us all’, I mean it will eat your freakin’ FACE OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brace yourself…

A new venomous, giant spider has been discovered:

ARRGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

[via YahooNews] Newly Discovered Giant Spider is of the Nightmare-Inducing Variety ~By

Of all of the creepy and crawly things that you can think of, tarantulas probably are near the top of the list when it comes sheer terrorto scariness. Well, get ready to add another terrifying arachnid to your list, because a new type of tarantula has been discovered in northern Sri Lanka.

Ranil Nanayakkara, a local researcher, and his team found the tiger spider and named it Poecilotheria rajaei, after a local police investigator, Michael Rajakumar Purajah. Purajah helped the team of scientists navigate the remote area where the spider was found.

The genus Poecilotheria is known for being fast, colorful, and venomous. But why does this newly discovered species stand out from all the rest in its genus? It’s huge, for one thing. Its leg span is up to 8 inches across, about the length of your face. It also has distinctive markings on its underside and legs that are geometrically patterned and described as daffodil-yellow and gray.

So what do these spiders eat? They have a taste for small snakes, birds, and mice. Nanayakkara explained why they were able to find P. rajaei in an unusual place — an old doctor’s office. “They prefer well-established old trees, but due to deforestation, the number have dwindled and due to lack of suitable habitat, they enter old buildings.”

…[Read More]

And so, although the news of North Korea threatening to nuke us, barely made me blink?
The off-putting NASA plans caused me to look up at the stars in the sky and, regarding scientists, re-think?
Oh, but it was the newest spider discovery, which very well had for me a heart attack…On the brink!

Fears.

We all have them.

Some of them, however…

Far more personal than others.

Eek.

The universe just found justin bieber
Mar 30 2013

News Mash: A new mini-supernova, star explosion & a wee celebrity star implosion!

Oh, glorious day!

Astronomers have discovered a new type…

Of wee star explosion!

[via Space] Whoa! Mini-Supernovas Discovered ~by Charles Q. Choi, SPACE.com Contributor

Astronomers have discovered a new kind of supernova, a star explosion so weak that scientists dubbed it a miniature stellar blast.

Supernovas represent the deaths of stars, which collapse in powerful explosions. They generally are classified into two main types; the new class, called Type Iax, “is essentially a mini-supernova,” said lead researcher Ryan Foley, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “It’s the runt of the supernova litter.”

…[Read More]

And not to be ‘one-upped’?

Anguished Reposes has recently pinpointed a wee, incoming star…

IMPLOSION:

[via Jezebel]Justin Bieber Terrorizes Gated Community With Fast Cars and Dionysian Rituals ~by Anna Breslawhttp://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18iry17h7gcrqjpg/original.jpg

Justin Bieber and the stache he is (jokingly?) attempting to “grow out” has been accused of battery after a confrontation with one of his Calabasas neighbors (let’s just call him Mr. Wilson) yesterday. Early Tuesday morning, Bieber had a new Ferrari delivered and spent the wee hours tooling (loudly) around his hood in it. This happens regularly.

Justin Bieber is a menace on wheels, driving at speeds approaching 100 mph in his quiet neighborhood and endangering children and dogs … this according to multiple residents.

Mr. Wilson, already steamed up by the raucous parties thrown in Casa del Beebs while Justin was in Europe, marched over there and they screamed at each other. He’s now alleging that Bieber made physical contact with him — maybe charged and head-butted him with that spiky-ass hat? — and threatened him. However, Bieber’s team is saying that he only told Mr. Wilson to get off his property. [TMZ, TMZ]

Also, on his way home, El Beebo took his shirt off in a Polish airport, like humans do. I ALWAYS show one of my tits to the Auntie Anne’s pretzel lady at JFK as like a pre-flying “good luck” thing. [NYDN]

…[Read More]

Beginning in…

3….

2……..

1……….

The universe just found justin bieber [Source]

a solar storm a brewin
Mar 12 2013

News Mash: NASA warns ‘something unexpected is happening to the Sun’, maybe ALMA needs to check it out!

When it comes to space exploration?

Having a careful “eye on the sky”…

And all that is going on around us, in that all encompassing region which surrounds us, known as space?

THIS (below) can definitely be see as fortuitous…

[via io9] The Earth’s most powerful telescope goes online next week ~by Annalee Newitz

We are about to see what happens when stars come to life. On March 13, the Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub Millimeter Array (ALMA) goes online. It’s the most powerful such telescope ever built, and is part of a class of “very large telescopes” that combine the power of several massive antennae to gather information about distant regions in the universe. ALMA is in northern Chile’s high desert, 16,500 feet above sea level. And it will show us things about the universe we’ve never seen before.

EarthSky’s Emily Howard has the story:

According to the scientists, one nation alone couldn’t build ALMA. Working with the host country Chile, some of the largest observatories in the world joined together for ALMA. These include the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in North America, the European Southern Observatory, and observatories in Japan, Brazil and throughout Latin America.

Sixty-six large radio dishes connect together to form ALMA. These dishes are located 30 minutes by car from the town of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile – at the top of the world – at an altitude of 16,500 feet, or 5,000 meters.

At that height and in the desert, there is little water vapor in the air. Those conditions are perfect for ALMA because water in the air blocks starlight in the portion of the “electromagnetic spectrum” that scientists want to study.

ALMA will observe starlight at wavelengths invisible to your eye – the long infrared wavelengths of starlight. Space observatories, like the Hubble Space Telescope, orbit high above the blanket of Earth’s atmosphere to see the universe at these wavelengths. Astronomers hope that ALMA will be even better than space telescopes at exploring the infrared universe – because they can build it much larger on land than they can in space today.

…[Read More]

Especially considering?

Our “big heater in the sky”…

Looks to be acting all hinkey:

[via Dailymail] The calm before the solar storm? NASA warns ‘something unexpected is happening to the Sun’ ~ By Mark a solar storm a brewinPrig

‘Something unexpected’ is happening on the Sun, Nasa has warned.

This year was supposed to be the year of ‘solar maximum,’ the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle.

But as this image reveals, solar activity is relatively low.

‘Sunspot numbers are well below their values from 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent,’ the space agency says.

The image above shows the Earth-facing surface of the Sun on February 28, 2013, as observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

It observed just a few small sunspots on an otherwise clean face, which is usually riddled with many spots during peak solar activity.

Experts have been baffled by the apparent lack of activity – with many wondering if NASA simply got it wrong.

However, Solar physicist Dean Pesnell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center believes he has a different explanation.

‘This is solar maximum,’ he says.

‘But it looks different from what we expected because it is double-peaked.’

‘The last two solar maxima, around 1989 and 2001, had not one but two peaks.’

Solar activity went up, dipped, then rose again, performing a mini-cycle that lasted about two years, he said.

The same thing could be happening now, as sunspot counts jumped in 2011 and dipped in 2012, he believes.

Pesnell expects them to rebound in 2013: ‘I am comfortable in saying that another peak will happen in 2013 and possibly last into 2014.’

…[Read More]

And I don’t know about you?

But when things start acting as they are NOT suppose to…

I begin to get a bit nervous, thinking what “surprises” may or may not befall me.

Cause, um…

Yeah.

I tend to not handle surprises very well at all.

Ugh.

So ALMA?

Might definitely be fortuitous to keep a close eye on our sun.

You know…

Just in case:

just enjoy the view
Mar 8 2013

News Mash: The Moon… Here are some amazing facts, so look up & enjoy the view!

The moon is far more, than that big glowing rock in the sky….

Which?

Provides a pretty night-light, when the sky is clear.

Check out these amazingly cool facts about the moon:

[via Space] 10 Cool Facts About the Moon ~ by SPACE.com Staff

10 Making of the Moon

The moon was created when a rock the size of Mars slammed into Earth, shortly after the solar system began forming about 4.5 billion years ago, according to the leading theory.

9  Locked in Orbit

Perhaps the coolest thing about the moon is that it always shows us the same face. Since both the Earth and moon are rotating and orbiting, how can this be?

Long ago, the Earth’s gravitational effects slowed the moon’s rotation about its axis. Once the moon’s rotation slowed enough to match its orbital period (the time it takes the moon to go around Earth) the effect stabilized. Many of the moons around other planets behave similarly.

What about phases? Here’s how they work: As the moon orbits Earth, it spends part of its time between us and the Sun, and the lighted half faces away from us. This is called a new moon. (So there’s no such thing as a “dark side of the moon,” just a side that we never see.)

As the moon swings around on its orbit, a thin sliver of reflected sunlight is seen on Earth as a crescent moon. Once the Moon is opposite the Sun, it becomes fully lit from our view — a full moon.

8 Apollo Moon Trees

More than 400 trees on Earth came from the moon. Well, okay: They came from lunar orbit. Okay, the truth: In 1971, Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa took a bunch of seeds with him and, while Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell were busy sauntering around on the surface, Roosa guarded his seeds.

Later, the seeds were germinated on Earth, planted at various sites around the country, and came to be called the moon trees. Most of them are doing just fine.

7 Earth’s Sister Moons

The moon is Earth’s only natural satellite. Right? Maybe not. In 1999, scientists found that a 3-mile- (5-kilometer-) wide asteroid may be caught in Earth’s gravitational grip, thereby becoming a satellite of our planet.

Cruithne, as it is called, takes 770 years to complete a horseshoe-shaped orbit around Earth, the scientists say, and it will remain in a suspended state around Earth for at least 5,000 years.NEXT: A Cosmic Punching Bag…

[Read More - See ALL of the 'Top 10 Facts About The Moon' HERE!]

But honestly…

Why just read about it?

When you can enjoy, and see it in all its glory in this amazing video:

Not that I am sure you will be satisfied with just the video…

Get outside.

Look up, once in a while and?

just enjoy the view

“The moon is a loyal companion.
It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human.
Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

Knowledge is power
Mar 2 2013

News Mash: When it comes to identifying various space rocks? I am a knowledge junkie!

Why is it…

While reading the Space.come article, about the Comet ISON showing up in 2013, that all I could think about?

Was just what was the difference between a comet, an asteroid, a meteoroid, a meteor and a meteorite.

Weird, I know, but there it is:

[via Space] Comet ISON will make an appearance in Earth’s sky in 2013. While it’s hard to predict just how bright the comet will be when it arrives, some astronomers are saying that it could be as bright as the full moon or perhaps, even visible in daylight.

The comet is named after a telescope for the International Scientific Optical Network. Two Russians spotted ISON through a 15.7-inch (0.4-meter) reflecting telescope from that organization.

ISON is considered a “sungrazer,” meaning that it will pass very close to the sun when it gets into the inner solar system in November 2013.

…[Read More]

And lucky for me…

AND you?

That is if you are just as interested?

The fabulous site io9.com, has come up with an infographic, which explains why one space rock differs from another.

Oh, come on…

You know you are DYING to know:

[via io9]What’s the difference between a comet, asteroid, meteor, meteoroid and meteorite? ~by Robert T. Gonzalez

With all the recent buzz over asteroid AD14, the meteor over Chelyabinsk, the fragments of meteorite recovered in Russia’s Ural mountains, and yesterday’s news that the fireball originated from our solar system’s asteroid belt, one can’t help but wonder: what’s the difference between all these -oids, -ors and -ites? Are they all just different words for the same space rock, or do they actually mean something?

For a detailed explanation, see here, but this great little infographic by Tim Lillis of Narwhal Creative tells you most of what you need to know when it comes to the official nomenclature for near-Earth objects (or, in the case of meteorites, on-Earth objects):

What's the difference between a comet, asteroid, meteor, meteoroid and meteorite?

…[Read More]

If for no other reason?

Than the next time you read an article at Space.com, or someone casually questions the differences in space rocks?

Oh…

YOU, and you alone, will know the answer.

And if you love knowing answers just as much as I do?

Heck…

What’s not to love about that?

Knowledge is power

I'm not crazy
Feb 24 2013

News Mash: Skynet is supported by Obama, and Mother Nature isn’t happy about it?

The world is filled with mind-blowing coincidences…

Heck, 29 amazing ones can be seen right HERE!

Must admit though, this most recent coincidence?

More than a little scary.

After all how else do you explain Mother Nature, loading her blazing, prized pistol in the sky…

About to possibly unload on us, with a bullet six times the diameter of Earth:

[via Weather] A giant sunspot that’s at least six times the diameter of Earth has formed on the sun in less than 48 hours, according to NASA.

(MORE: New Doomsday Predictions)

Sunspots form when the sun’s magnetic fields rearrange and realign. They tend to be unstable and can lead to solar flares.

Massive Solar Eruption Captured by NASA

According to a news release, scientists from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory watched the sunspot rapidly grow on February 19 and 20. The agency says it could even be larger than six times the diameter of Earth “since the spot lies on a sphere not a flat disk.”

…[Read More]

Combined with?

The freaking “Oh-My-Gawd-What-Are-You-Doing-Man?!” creepiness…

That. Is. THIS! (below)

*covers eyes*

[via io9] Obama to take first step toward building Skynet ~by Robert T. Gonzalezskynet supported by obama

The Obama administration wants to jumpstart brain research in an ambitious collaborative enterprise that’s already being called the Human Genome Project of Neuroscience. The decade-long endeavor will explore the inner workings of the human mind and work toward charting a map of its activity. According to the NYT, the announcement could come as early as March:

The project… will include federal agencies, private foundations and teams of neuroscientists and nanoscientists in a concerted effort to advance the knowledge of the brain’s billions of neurons and gain greater insights into perception, actions and, ultimately, consciousness.

Scientists with the highest hopes for the project also see it as a way to develop the technology essential to understanding diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as to find new therapies for a variety of mental illnesses.

Moreover, the project holds the potential of paving the way for advances in artificial intelligence. [Ed.: Skynet, y'all]

…[Read More]

Yeah…

So it could just be me, seeing the terror in an imagined coincidence, which only my twisted brain can assimilate?

But, honestly…

No, I really don’t think it is.

I'm not crazy

No Universe
Feb 22 2013

News Mash: Everything exists in the Universe, though in this case (below) I am pretty sure it shouldn’t!

What is the “Universe” (with a capital ‘U’)…

And what does it consist of?

THIS (below) video explains it all.

However what the video does NOT explain?

Why THIS (below) exists in the Universe.

HOLY CRAP!!!!

[via The Blaze] This photo of a creepy-looking “alien-like” creature found in New Jersey has gone viral on Reddit, registering more than 400,000 views in just six hours after being posted Friday. And before you write the photo off as a fake, keep reading to hear the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) confirm the creature in the photo appears to be real.

No Universe

According to the New York DEC, the creature, which unfortunately met its end after a sharp spear pierced its body, appears to be a very large sea lamprey.

“The photo doesn’t allow counting of gill openings (seven per side for sea lamprey), but based on size alone, this does appear to be a sea lamprey,” a spokeswoman for the agency told GrindTV.com.

…[Read More]

Seriously, Universe…

Why?

Why is that even necessary, cause NO…

I don’t think it is.

Eek!

facts aren't on your side
Feb 16 2013

News Mash: Either there was a Russian meteorite…Or there wasn’t? Huh.

It’s scary to think…

People, at one time, actually looked up to this guy as a hero.

Wow.

It’s almost painful to see the stupid just drip off of him, isn’t it?

[via Mediaite]Hundreds of videos, one thousand injured and the devastation evident for miles: a meteor blew up over Russia on Thursday as it careened through the atmosphere. That is, if you believe the government and the media, man! No one is fooling former Major League Baseball player Jose Canseco, who tweeted that there is absolutely “no way” a meteorite was “in” Russia today.

Capture

…[Read More]

But, yeah, sure…

*shakes head sadly*

I see what’s he’s saying.

THIS (below) looks NOTHING like a meteor falling from the sky.

Nope….

Not at all.

*facepalm*

As far as conspiracy theories go…

This is a pretty crazy one.

And because it is, it does leave me to ponder?

Why does one believe in crazy conspiracies anyway?

People believe in conspiracies, when they can’t or won’t face the reality of tragedy as part of life.  If tragedy is caused by conspiracy, then it can be fixed. If it’s an inherent part of reality, it must simply be accepted.  Those unwilling to accept loss, pain and suffering, as the price of being alive, turn to alternatives.  This is an inevitable consequence of two things; self-consciousness and the knowledge of mortality.  The author of Genesis said it better than I – if you read the story of the tree of life creatively.

Huh.

Ah, yes…

That makes sense!

Don’t you think?

facts aren't on your side

beware
Feb 8 2013

News Mash: Let us look at the sky…and hopefully not see a Carrington super flare!

The sky
So high
Is a beautiful thing

Let us look up
And ask only what
The stars might bring

[via Boston]In “Love and a Question” by Robert Frost, the poet writes “Let us look at the sky, And question what of the night to be, Stranger, you and I.”

The sunset animates the sky on February 1, 2013 in Rustenburg, South Africa. (Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images)

There may or may not be answers there for us or for Frost’s bridegroom, but the simple pleasure of gazing skyward is a profitable pursuit. Photographers have chosen the sky as a subject for as long as the camera has existed. Atmospheric and celestial phenomenon create an endless canvas for hungry eyes. — Lane Turner (23 photos total) [Read More - See ALL 23 Photos HERE!]

But beware so high
In that sky
A danger lurks

A star which might explode
With a payload
Of dangerous x-ray works

[via Discover Magazine] Beware The Superflarebeware

September 2, 1859, was a terrible day to be working in the information industry. Telegraph machines around the world behaved as if possessed. They spat out electric shocks and set telegraph paper on fire. Some of the machines continued to send and receive messages even after they were disconnected from the batteries that powered them.

One man saw how it all began. The day before, Richard Carrington, a British brewer’s son who rose to be the foremost solar astronomer of the time, had observed an extraordinary event. He was examining an 11-inch-wide projected image of the sun, part of his routine monitoring of the solar surface, when he noted the eruption of “two patches of intensely bright and white light … the brilliancy … fully equal to that of direct sun-light.” Carrington knew he was witnessing an enormous explosion, nearly as bright as all the rest of the sun put together. It was the first time anyone had observed a solar flare, and the first time anyone had seen a solar event produce such tangible consequences on Earth.

Fortunately, those consequences were modest, since the telegraph pretty much defined the beginning and the end of high tech in the middle of the 19th century. If the same event happened today, the story would be drastically different. Flares and the broader solar eruptions associated with them unleash storms of charged particles, emit flashes of energetic X-rays, and temporarily mangle our planet’s magnetic field. Even for regular-strength flares, those effects can fry electronics in space and overload power transformers on the ground.

But the eruption that Carrington witnessed—now known as the Carrington Event—was hardly ordinary. It is now recognized as the most powerful solar storm ever documented. Such superflares seem to occur once every few centuries. Half-Carringtons (which are still terrifyingly potent) strike every half century or so. The most recent one happened in 1960.

A National Research Council panel recently examined the likely impact of a present-day solar superstorm. GPS signals and radio transmissions would be disrupted by the radiation blasting Earth’s upper atmosphere. Communications satellites would malfunction. Most unnerving, the electrical grid in the U.S. (and potentially much of the world) could collapse as transformers overload, leading to a wide-scale blackout that could take 10 years to repair in full. Health care, sanitation, and transportation would be crippled. The Council’s estimated price tag: up to $2 trillion during the first year alone. Or in the words of Ephraim Fischbach, a physicist at Purdue University, “The damage from a solar storm would vastly overwhelm the damage from Hurricane Sandy. Literally millions of people could die.”

The best scientists can do right now is watch the sun for signs of trouble and monitor space weather—the flow of particles and fields—between the sun and Earth.

…[Read More]

So please beware
The super flare
Our sun is pointing at us

And one day it will be set free
Upon thee…

Turing our technology to dust!

giant gaseous cloud
Feb 6 2013

News Mash: Alcohol in space and a giant gas cloud on a collision course with a black hole!

The vastness and mysteries of space…

They make you wonder.

And if they don’t?

Either you are definitely not looking up enough…

[via Cracked] The 6 Most Bizarre Things Ever Discovered in Space

Humanity has been looking out into space for thousands of years, and the most important thing we’ve discovered over that time is that everything is crazy weird out there, and it just keeps getting weirder. Here are some of the more baffling and often terrifying things that astronomers have found in recent years.

#6. God’s Liquor Cabinet

If anything is going to replenish the public’s waning interest in space exploration, it’s probably this: Below is a photo of Sagittarius B2, a huge cloud a few million times the mass of our sun, floating around near the center of our galaxy. Scientists have discovered that it’s basically a giant river of raspberry-flavored rum.

No, really. Sagittarius B2 contains about 10 billion billion billion liters of alcohol. That’s enough booze to get Galactus to make a pass at Ursa Major, but the cloud is also packed full of molecules called ethyl formate. This chemical, said to smell of rum, is the same chemical that gives raspberries their flavor.

Not only did God apparently decide to “Irish up” the Milky Way, but this also represents the next best thing to finding life outside our world. Alcohol is an organic compound, so if scientists could learn more about how it manages to form in space, they might be able to figure out how life formed. And they can get blitzed doing it.

…[Read More - See ALL of 'The 6 Most Bizarre Things Ever Discovered In Space' HERE!]

Or you just suffer from having a terrible imagination.

Cause believe it, the space is insanely…

C R A Z Y !!!!!

And?

Getting crazier by the minute:

[via The Extinction Protocol]February 3, 2013 – SPACE - A giant gas cloud is on collision course with the black hole in giant gaseous cloudthe center of our galaxy in 2013. This is a unique opportunity to observe how a super massive black hole sucks in material, in real time. The black hole at the centre of the galaxy, formally known as Sagittarius A*, fascinates scientists. By mid-2013 a gas cloud is expected to pass in its vicinity at a distance of only 36 light-hours (equivalent to 40.000.000.000 km), which is extremely close in astronomical terms. So-called super massive black holes are the largest type of black holes. Their mass equals hundreds of thousands to a billion times the mass of our sun. The centre of all galaxies is thought to contain super massive black holes. But their origin is not fully understood and astrophysicists can only speculate as to what happens inside them. Hence the imminent collision is of great interest to scientists as it should provide some new insights. Reinhard Genzel leads the team of astronomers from the European Southern Observatory which has discovered the gas cloud about to collide with the black hole at the heart of our galaxy and studied its trajectory. According to their observations, its speed has nearly doubled in the last seven years, reaching more than 8 million km/h. The cloud’s edges have already started to shred and it is expected to break up completely over the coming months. As we near the collision, the cloud is expected to get much hotter. It will also probably start to emit X-rays as a result of the interaction with the black hole. This event will provide astronomers and astrophysicists a unique opportunity to observe how a gas cloud behaves so close to one of the most mysterious objects in our universe. Black k holes are invisible because their extreme gravity even light swallowed. However, if a black hole accretes matter from its surroundings, this material is heated and glows brightly in X-rays. In addition to the accretion disk around the black hole often form-energy particle beams, called jets, in which high-energy plasma leaves the system. These jets are also driven by the gravity of the black hole and emit a strong radio signal. Accretion disks and jets are thus two aspects of the same phenomenon, and by astronomers examine both simultaneously, they can take a close look at the physical processes that occur in the vicinity of a black hole. MPI, BIN courtesy Youris.com[Read More]

So?

Look up…

Every once in a while.

And let you imagination wonder.

You could only be better for it.

CBT
Feb 4 2013

News Mash: Need A Little CBT? Try This Incredible Moonrise!

We all need it…

Though you might not KNOW it.

But Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is So very important…

To keep you BEING you.

Or…

Maybe I should say?

CBT is important to keeping you, being a SANE you:

[via LifeHacker] Try These Cognitive Restructuring Exercises to Improve Your Mood and Reduce Stress ~by Alice Boyes

Cognitive restructuring is a core part of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT is one of the most effective psychological treatments for common problems like depression, anxiety disorders, and binge eating. Here, clinical and social psychologist Alice Boyes shares some CBT techniques you can try at home to reduce problems with mood, anxiety, and stress.

Practice Noticing When You’re Having a Cognitive DistortionCBT

Choose one type of cognitive distortion to focus on at a time. Example: you recognize that you’re prone to “negative predictions.” For a week, just notice any times you find yourself making a negative prediction—for example, you might notice yourself expecting not to enjoy a party, expecting to feel too tired to exercise, expecting that your boss won’t like an idea, etc.

When you find yourself having the cognitive distortion, ask yourself: what other ways you could think? For the negative predictions example, you might ask yourself what other outcomes are possible. Try these three questions: What’s the worst possible thing that could happen? The best possible thing that could happen? The most realistic?

…

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation involves picking a focus of attention, such as your breathing. For a set number of minutes, you focus on experiencing the sensations of your breathing, as opposed to thinking “about” your breathing.

Whenever any thoughts come into your mind, gently (and without self-criticism) bring your attention back to experiencing the sensations of your breathing. Mindfulness meditation isn’t specifically a tool for cognitive restructuring but it’s a great way to train yourself to be mindful (aware) of when you’ve become lost in thought. Mindful awareness of what thoughts you’re having is an essential first step in cognitive restructuring.

…[Read More - See ALL Cognitive Restructuring Exercises HERE!]

And because it is…

How about a little CBT therapy for ya, inn this video which will help with a bit of “mindful meditation”?

No, no need to thank me:

[via PopSci]his is an edited, single-shot (not time-lapse) video of the moon rising over Mount Victoria Lookout in Wellington, New Zealand two days ago. It was filmed by Australian Astrophotographer Mark Gee, who was sweet enough to share it with NASA, who was awesome enough to post it as their Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).

Moonrises happen about every 25 hours–the moon’s orbit around the Earth delays its rise by about 50 minutes each day–which means that it comes up after sunset about half the time. All you need is a horizon to watch it on.

…[Read More]

To be quite honest…

Lately?

I have been needing a little Cognitive Behavioral Therapy myself.

So bringing it here?

Just means we ALL benefit.

Enjoy!

Extraterrestrial Microbes
Feb 2 2013

News Mash: Life, the truth is out there, or I should say “up here” and you should find it!

Life.

It surrounds us.

Utterly.

And to such a degree we are seldom aware of it…

Especially in regards to our place IN it:

There are now more than 7 billion human beings on Earth, and that got me wondering: How successful are we compared to other species? I take a look at out how our numbers stack up to some other domains of life. It turns out that biomass, or what things weigh, can be more important than how many of something there are. Find out how our numbers stack up against everything from bugs to bacteria, and get ready for some mind-blowing numbers!

Though we should be.

We should ALWAYS remember that the chasm that we believe that separates US…

From everything living species of life which surrounds us?

[via ScienceDaily]Mar. 18, 2009 — Three new species of bacteria, which are not found on Earth and which are highly resistant to ultra-violet radiation, have been discovered in the upper stratosphere by Indian scientists.Extraterrestrial Microbes

One of the new species has been named as Janibacter hoylei, after the distinguished astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, the second as Bacillus isronensis recognising the contribution of ISRO in the balloon experiments which led to its discovery and the third as Bacillus aryabhata after India’s celebrated ancient astronomer Aryabhata and also the first satellite of ISRO.

The experiment was conducted using a 26.7 million cubic feet balloon carrying a 459 kg scientific payload soaked in 38 kg of liquid neon, which was flown from the National Balloon Facility in Hyderabad, operated by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). The payload consisted of a cryosampler containing sixteen evacuated and sterilised stainless steel probes.

Throughout the flight, the probes remained immersed in liquid Neon to create a cryopump effect. These cylinders, after collecting air samples from different heights ranging from 20 km to 41 km, were parachuted down and safely retrieved. These samples were analysed by scientists at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad as well as the National Center for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune for independent examination, ensuring that both laboratories followed similar protocols to achieve homogeneity of procedure and interpretation.

The Findings

In all, 12 bacterial and six fungal colonies were detected, nine of which, based on 16S RNA gene sequence, showed greater than 98% similarity with reported known species on Earth. Three bacterial colonies, namely, PVAS-1, B3 W22 and B8 W22 were, however, totally new species. All the three newly identified species had significantly higher UV resistance compared to their nearest phylogenetic neighbours.

…[Read More]

Well…

It is never quite as large?

As we deem it should be

And because it is not?

Maybe we should all take a moment to appreciate, and try to give the proper respect…

To ALL life?

Very much aside from our own.