Extreme Science: Launching Sounding Rockets From The Arctic

Saturn, Dione, Rhea, and Epimetheus & Saturn and Enceladus.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill

Neptune ♆

On this day in 1846 was discovered the planet Neptune.

The ice giant Neptune was the first planet located through mathematical predictions rather than through regular observations of the sky. (Galileo had recorded it as a fixed star during observations with his small telescope in 1612 and 1613.) When Uranus didn’t travel exactly as astronomers expected it to, a French mathematician, Urbain Joseph Le Verrier, proposed the position and mass of another as yet unknown planet that could cause the observed changes to Uranus’ orbit. After being ignored by French astronomers, Le Verrier sent his predictions to Johann Gottfried Galle at the Berlin Observatory, who found Neptune on his first night of searching in 1846. Seventeen days later, its largest moon, Triton, was also discovered.

Neptune is invisible to the naked eye because of its extreme distance from Earth. Interestingly, the highly eccentric orbit of the dwarf planet Pluto brings Pluto inside Neptune’s orbit for a 20-year period out of every 248 Earth years. Pluto can never crash into Neptune, though, because for every three laps Neptune takes around the Sun, Pluto makes two. This repeating pattern prevents close approaches of the two bodies.

Nearly 4.5 billion kilometers (2.8 billion miles) from the Sun, Neptune orbits the Sun once every 165 years. 

Uranus’ blue-green color is also the result of atmospheric methane, but Neptune is a more vivid, brighter blue, so there must be an unknown component that causes the more intense color. 

Despite its great distance and low energy input from the Sun, Neptune’s winds can be three times stronger than Jupiter’s and nine times stronger than Earth’s.

Winds on Neptune travel faster than the speed of sound.

In 1989, Voyager 2 tracked a large, oval-shaped, dark storm in Neptune’s southern hemisphere. This “Great Dark Spot” was large enough to contain the entire Earth.

Neptune has five known rings. Voyager 2’s observations confirmed that these unusual rings are not uniform but have four thick regions (clumps of dust) called arcs. The rings are thought to be relatively young and short-lived.

Neptune has 14 known moons, six of which were discovered by Voyager 2.

Triton, Neptune’s largest moon, orbits the planet in the opposite direction compared with the rest of the moons, suggesting that it may have been captured by Neptune in the distant past. 

To know more about the planet Neptune click here and here.

Images credit: NASA/JPL- Caltech (some images processed by Kevin M. Gill)

this cat is so cute

WHO IS HE?

In Genesis, He is the seed of the woman. In Exodus, He is the Passover Lamb. In Leviticus, He is our High Priest. In Numbers, He is pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. In Deuteronomy, He is the prophet like unto Moses. In Joshua, He is the captain of our salvation. In Judges, He is our judge and lawgiver. In Ruth, He is our kinsman redeemer. In I and II Samuel, He is our trusted prophet. In Kings and Chronicles, He is our reigning king. In Erza, He is our faithful scribe. In Nehemiah, He is the rebuilder of the broken down walls of human life. In Ester, He is our Mordecai. In Job, He is our ever-living redeemer: “For I know my redeemer lives.” In Psalms, He is our shepherd. In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, He is our wisdom. In Song of Solomon, He is the lover and the bridegroom. In Isaiah, He is the prince of peace. In Jeremiah, He is the righteous branch. In Lamentations, He is the weeping prophet. In Ezekiel, He is the wonderful four-faced man. In Daniel, He is the fourth man walking in the midst of the burning fiery furnaces of life. In Hosea, He is the husband forever married to the backslider. In Joel, He is the mighty baptizer in the Holy Ghost. In Amos, He is my burden bearer. In Obadiah, He is mighty to save. In Jonah, He is God’s great foreign missionary. In Micah, He is the messenger of beautiful feet. In Nahum, He is the avenger of God’s elect. In Habakkuk, He is God’s evangelist, crying, “Revive thy work in the midst of the years.” In Zephaniah, He is our Savior. In Haggai, He is the restorer of the lost heritage of Israel. In Zechariah, He is fountain opened up on the house of David for sin and uncleanness. In Malachi, He is the Son of Righteousness arisen with healing in His wings. In Matthew, He is the Messiah. In Mark, He is the wonder worker. In Luke, He is the Son of Man. In John, He is the Son of God. In Acts, He is the mighty baptizer in the Holy Ghost. In Romans, He is my justifier. In Corinthians, He is my sanctifier. In Galatians, He is the redeemer from the curse of the law. In Ephesians, He is the Christ of unsearchable riches. In Philippians, He is the God that supplies all my needs. In Colossians, He is the fullness of the godhead bodily. In I and II Thessalonians, He is my soon-coming King! In I and II Timothy, He is the mediator between God and man. In Tidus, He is my faithful pastor. In Philemon, He is the friend that sticketh closer than a brother. In Hebrews, He is the blood of the everlasting covenant. In James, He is our Great Physician, for “the prayer of faith shall save the sick.” In I and II Peter, He is my good shepherd. In I John, He is love. In II John, He is love.   In III John, He is love. In Jude, He is the Lord coming with 10,000 of His saints. In Revelation, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

HE IS THE WORD OF GOD.

How Quantum Physics Allows Us To See Back Through Space And Time

"If it weren’t for this rare transition, from higher energy spherical orbitals to lower energy spherical orbitals, our Universe would look incredibly different in detail. We would have different numbers and magnitudes of acoustic peaks in the cosmic microwave background, and hence a different set of seed fluctuations for our Universe to build its large-scale structure out of. The ionization history of our Universe would be different; it would take longer for the first stars to form; and the light from the leftover glow of the Big Bang would only take us back to 790,000 years after the Big Bang, rather than the 380,000 years we get today.

In a very real sense, there are a myriad of ways that our view into the distant Universe — to the farthest reaches of deep space where we detect the earliest signals arising after the Big Bang — that would be fundamentally less powerful if not for this one quantum mechanical transition. If we want to understand how the Universe came to be the way it is today, even on cosmic scales, it’s remarkable how subtly dependent the outcomes are on the subatomic rules of quantum physics. Without it, the sights we see looking back across space and time would be far less rich and spectacular."

What gives the Universe the properties we see today? Is it gravity, working on the largest of cosmic scales? It plays a role, but perhaps ironically, the subatomic physics that governs electron transitions within atoms is maybe even more important.

This is how quantum physics allows us to see as far out in space and as far back in time as we can. Without it, our Universe would be a very different place.

Read Full Article Here: 6 Tricks to Staying Positive - Psych2Go

Follow @psych2go for more

Gif by Satiricon

Earth as viewed from 10,000 miles. In 1969, the Apollo 4 unmanned test flight made a great ellipse around Earth as a test of the translunar motors and of the high speed entry required of a manned flight returning from the moon. A 70mm camera was programmed to look out a window toward Earth, and take a series of photographs from “high apogee”. Coastal Brazil, Atlantic Ocean, West Africa, Antarctica, looking west. This photograph was made when the Apollo 4 spacecraft, still attached to the S-IVB (third) stage, was orbiting Earth at an altitude of 9,544 miles. source

Why 2020 Might Be The Best Geminid Meteor Shower Of All-Time

“As the large parent body of the Geminids, asteroid 3200 Phaethon, continues on its tight orbit around the Sun, it will continue to expel matter and be torn apart, bit by tiny bit. The asteroid is about the size of the one that struck Earth 65 million years ago, causing our last great mass extinction. But instead of colliding with us all at once, this ~6 km wide asteroid is slowly dissipating in the presence of the Sun, creating tails of matter and ions but also an ever-thickening debris stream.

With each mid-December that rolls past, Earth slams through that debris stream, creating a show that gets progressively more spectacular with each set of orbits that regularly tick by. Over the past 15 years, the Geminids have regularly been one of the two best displays of meteor showers on Earth, and it’s eminently possible that 2020 will set a new record. The Moon, the Earth, and all of the other predictable conditions are just right for a spectacular show. If the clouds cooperate on December 13 and 14, treat yourself to the greatest natural show of the year. With all that 2020 has brought us, we can all use a cosmic treat like this one.”

Can everyone just have a good thing to enjoy? Can we all just have something nice that we don’t have to fight over? Well, nature might deliver what humanity has been unable to bring us for 2020: a natural show that can’t be stopped by anything, except for clouds. 

Get your Geminid fix today, and then look up on December 13/14 to fully enjoy the show!