Today Marks The 40th Anniversary For The Launch Of The Viking 1 Lander/orbiter To Mars In 1975, Which

One of the characteristics of successful scientists is having courage. Once you get your courage up and believe that you can do important problems, then you can. If you think you can’t, almost surely you are not going to. Courage is one of the things that Shannon had supremely. You have only to think of his major theorem. He wants to create a method of coding, but he doesn’t know what to do so he makes a random code. Then he is stuck. And then he asks the impossible question, “What would the average random code do?” He then proves that the average code is arbitrarily good, and that therefore there must be at least one good code. Who but a man of infinite courage could have dared to think those thoughts? That is the characteristic of great scientists; they have courage. They will go forward under incredible circumstances; they think and continue to think.

“You and Your Research,” Dr. Richard W. Hamming of Bell Labs (via ryanandmath)

The beautiful surface of Europa

20 Awesome Things for Your Home if You Love Space

Add a bit of space in everyday life by using the interior, which will carry you into the space of distant planets, galaxies, asteroids and constellations. Read also: 22 Simple Ideas to Make Your Home Cozier and 12 Simple Ideas How to Make Your Home Cozier Artnaz.com gathered for you in this post… — http://artnaz.com/space-things/

By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor

Interstellar was right. Falling into a black hole is not the end, professor Stephen Hawking has claimed.

Although physicists had assumed that all matter must be destroyed by the huge gravitational forces of a black hole, Hawking told delegates in Sweden that it could escape and even pop into another dimension. The theory solves the ‘information paradox’ which has puzzled scientists for decades. While quantum mechanics says that nothing can ever be destroyed, general relativity says it must be.

However under Hawking’s new theory, anything that is sucked into a black hole is effectively trapped at the event horizon - the sphere surrounding the hole from which it was thought that nothing can escape. And he claims that anything which fell in could re-emerge back into our universe, or a parallel one, through Hawking radiation - protons which manage to escape from the black hole because of quantum fluctuations.

“If you feel you are in a black hole, don’t give up, there’s a way out,” Hawking told an audience held at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm In the film Interstellar, Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey, plunges into the black hole Gargantura. As Cooper’s ship breaks apart in the force, he evacuates and ends up in a Tesseract – a four dimensional cube. He eventually makes it out of the black hole.

(excerpt - click the link for the complete article)

Introducing Ethiopia’s just born Space research programme

High above the crowded streets of Addis Ababa, among fields where farmers lead oxen dragging wooden ploughs, sits Ethiopia’s space programme.              

Perched at the top of the 3200m-high Mount Entoto, two metal domes house telescopes, each a metre in diameter. In operation for only a few months, they have propelled Ethiopia into an elite club of African countries to have embarked on a space programme.

Its programme is aimed at giving the country a technological boost that will aid its already rapid development.

“Science is part of any development cycle,” says Abinet Ezra, spokesman for the Ethiopian Space Science Society. “Without science and technology nothing can be achieved.

“Our main priority is to inspire the young generation to be involved in science and technology.”

The society, funded by Ethiopian-Saudi business tycoon Mohammed Alamoudi, was set up in 2004 to promote astronomy. But its supporters have had a tough ride setting up the space programme.

For the past decade, a handful of enthusiasts - including Solomon Belay, director of the observatory and a professor of astrophysics - battled with the authorities to convince them that, in a country that is still one of the poorest in the world, where malnutrition is still a threat, the exploration of space is not a luxury. Ethiopian strongman Meles Zenawi, who died in 2012, considered them dreamers.

“People said we were crazy,” says Belay.

The R39-million space observatory is, above all, a symbol. The site at Entoto, often hidden by clouds during the rainy season and close to the lights of Addis Ababa, struggles to compete with the world’s major observatories, including the far larger Southern African Large Telescope in South Africa.

But Ethiopia has plans, including to build a far more powerful observatory in the northern mountains around Lalibela, far from city lights.

The government hopes to launch a national space agency - and to put an Ethiopian satellite in orbit within five years, for the monitoring of farmland and to boost communications.

“We are using space applications in everyday activities, for mobile phones, weather - space applications are fundamental,” says Kelali Adhana, the International Astronomical Union chief for East Africa, based in Ethiopia. “We cannot postpone it, otherwise we allow ourselves to live in poverty.”

At Ethiopia’s Institute of Technology, in the northern town of Mekelle, scientists plan to test the first Ethiopian rocket to go more than 30km, although that is still far from the 100km frontier beyond which the Earth’s atmosphere gives way to space proper.

Hello! I'm a person, and I find physics (specifically astrophysics) to be incredibly interesting, and I'd like to know more about it. Have any idea on what I should read/watch to get more educated on the subject? I don't know where to start ^^".

Well I get a lot of my updates in the science world from here, http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/space_time/astrophysics/ just look under the astrophysics section then when you get to understand some of the key concepts the look up papers on science direct and google scholar for the best free papers :)

A photo of Saturn. Took by Cassini with COISS on January 07, 2012 at 23:20:38. Detail page on OPUS database.

Ten Years After Katrina

As we remember the devastation that Hurricane Katrina caused ten years ago, we also look to the improvements made in the past decade in storm prediction and forecasting.

Hurricane Katrina impacted many people, businesses and communities; and even two NASA facilities were hit by the storm. Marshall Space Flight Center and Michoud Assembly Facility were both hit by the harsh storm (seen below).

During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, our satellites were hard at work monitoring and watching the storm from above. Thanks to the higher resolution models we have today, simulations can recreate historical storms, like the below of Hurricane Katrina. Scientists can then study these and learn about past events.

Surprisingly, the United States hasn’t experienced the landfall of a Category 3 hurricane or lager since 2005. This is the longest period of time that has passed without a major hurricane making landfall in the U.S. since reliable records began in 1850.

Although we don’t know when a severe storm will form, we do know that advancements in technology can help us better prepare and predict its path. So, on this ten year mark of this devastating storm, we look back to remember what we saw: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/sets/72157656646633089