Cosmic Eye Photographed

Today a spectacular “cosmic eye” was photographed in space by a telescope in Chile showing a far away nebula where sun like stars are burning themselves out. The image of the Helix nebula which is 700 light years away in the constellation Aquarius, was photographed by the Wide Field Imager at La Silla in the atacama desert.

The Helix is planetary nebula that is the closest planetary nebulae to the Earth but it is hard to see visually because light is spread thinly over a large area of sky. The main ring of the Nebula is about 2 light years across or half the distance between the Sun and the nearest star. Around the run you can see small blobs that resemble droplets of water which are know are cometary knows which have tails that extend away from the central star.

Comet Lulin appears

Ahmed Ebrahim 2/25/08

Comet Lulin in the night sky
The article that I chose is about the comet Lulin that is currently in Earth’s sky. This article explains the location of Comet Lulin throughout January, February, and March. One way to find Comet Lulin is to look for the planet Saturn. Its path is very close to Saturn so if you know where to look you will be able to find it. Comet Lulin was found in July 2007 by Lulin Observatory. It is officially known as C/2007 (Lulin). The article says that the antitail of the comet has grown bigger than the gas tail, and it is not sure why. In February the comet will be the brightest. The article includes reports from other people who tell where they found it. This is good because then you can find the comet easier.

The information in this article will help people see Comet Lulin better. This does not really affect people but for those that have never seen a comet before will be very impress by the comet, So I think the article is going to help some people, but it will not help everyone since some have seen the comet already, also scientists have pointed out that the comet is going in a circular motion (elliptical) which is quite unusual for a comet. Also the gas tail is at a right angle to the comet which is strange

The one thing that I disliked about this article was that it did not go into much depth about what a comet is. It assumed that the reader already has an understanding of them. I think this would be bad if a young person read this article because they would be confused.

A look at the Moon's Farside

Febuary 13, 2008

For the first time, scientist and researches are able to see the second hemisphere of the moon which is not visible from earth. A Japanese space program called SELENE (“KAGUYA) launched a satellite that orbits the moon and slows down while passing over lower density regions and speeds up while passing over higher density regions, all the while broadcasting radio waves. The radio waves are then sent to the scientist on earth and are converted into a gravity map. These maps reveal striking differences between the lit side of the moon and the hidden side. While the lit side is covered with smooth, dark volcanic material, the dark side is covered with craters and highland rocks.

These discoveries could potentially give vital information to scientist concerning the creation of not only the moon, but planet earth. NASA is also excited about the findings and hope to converse with the Japanese concerning the maps. If NASA were to retrieve the maps, Scientist could potentially unlock vital clues to sending a man to mars as the moon serves as a substitute until the technology is developed to reach mars. These findings could potentially speed up the process of sending the man to mars and hopefully within our lifetime.

While I did enjoy this article a lot, I believe they could have explained what these findings really meant. While they did say finally, the language was unclear and someone without much knowledge of earth science would have trouble following what the author meant. I would have also liked if the author had given some background of the moon and how scientist have previously thought the earth and moon were created. Overall though, I thought it was an interesting and informing article.

Satellite Crash

This article is about two satellites, one American and one Russian, that collided while in orbit 500 miles over Siberia, Russia. This has been the first crash between man-made satellites ever, and poses new problems for scientists worldwide. The crash has created a large cloud of speeding debris that is a threat to other unmanned satellites in close orbits. The Russian satellite was an old military communications device that was unoperational. The American satellite was owned by a company called Iridium based in Bethesda, Maryland. It was also used for commercial reasons and by the US Department of Defense. Both parties deny responsibility for the crash. The Russians said they could not be responsible because they were not in control of their derelict satellite, and said that NASA and Iridium could have easily altered the course of their satellite in order to avoid the collision. Both the US and the Russians are monitoring the progress of the debris closely, to see if their will be any other collisions with other satellites. Their is concern from both governments that the debris will start a chain reaction of collisions and threaten manned craft such as the international spacestation Roscosomos, which has a crew of three. There is little chance of this, but the situation will require close observation.

This information affects anyone country that has satellites or spacecraft in orbit. The ever-growing wall of man-made debris and unoperational satellites is beginning to make a sort of second atmosphere of earth, which could make it difficult to launch more spacecraft in the future. Perhaps this is a message that science is progressing at a faster rate than man can handle.

yellow stone super volcano

Kevin Bisconti                                                                                                      2-11-09

Earth science                                                                                               current events     

 

                      

The article that I chose is about the super volcano that is in Yellowstone national park and how some believe that it is ready to blow within the next few years. This article goes into depth explaining what supper volcanoes are, they tell us that there is no exact definition for a super volcano but is used to describe volcanoes that have had rather large eruptions in the past. One way how to tell the difference between volcanoes and super volcanoes is that super volcanoes leave behind huge craters that are called caldera’s that can span to be 40 -50 miles wide. Also in a super volcano there is no mountain peak like in a normal volcano, normal volcanoes get their cone shape from magma flowing out and cooling eventually making a cone shaped peak. But with a super volcano magma is blocked from reaching the surface and eventually causes a massive explosion within the entire surface above the magma chamber. Also this article talks about Yellowstone in the past, and how 650,000 years ago it left a caldera 53 miles long and 28 miles wide and how the ash from the blast blanketed most of North America. And in 2003 a high-resolution sonar map found that at the bottom of lake yellow stone there was a bulge there that was 2000 feet long and 100 feet high and was being pushed up by volcanic forces, this caused great fear and many thought that by drilling holes to release pressure in the magma chamber they could prevent a huge explosion, but nothing was done. 

 

The information in this article affects humanity in many ways especially our country. If the yellow stone volcano was to blow up with a force10,000 times greater than that of the explosion at Mt. saint Helens than it would not only affect the immediate area but the entire country may be the world. Huge clouds of volcanic ash would cover our country and cause huge problems; planes would be stopped due to fear of having the engines clog up with ash as well as the air being unsafe to breath. These are just some of the problems that would occur.

 

The one thing that I disliked about this article was that it did not go into much depth about signs that the volcano would blow up. Also one thing that the writer could have done would have been to discus what would happen to the environment if it were to blow up.

Ice Melt Could Increase Sea Level Risks

Recently studies show that the melting of ice in Antarctica could cause sea level to rise drastically and devastate coastal areas such as New York, Florida, and California.

Over a long period of time, the sea level could rise up to 16 to 17 feet. The most recent climate change report stated that by the end of the century, sea level could rise up to 3 feet.

When an ice sheet melts, its gravitational pull on the ocean is reduced and water moves away from it. That means sea levels could fall near Antarctica and rise more than expected in the northern hemisphere. Antarctic bedrock that currently sits under the weight of the ice sheet will rebound from the weight, pushing some water out into the ocean. The melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet will cause the Earth's rotation axis to shift, potentially moving water northward. The net effect of all of these processes is that if the West Antarctic ice sheet collapses, the rise in sea levels around many coastal regions will be as much as 25% more than expected.

Also, A rise in methane has scientists worried that melting Arctic ice could be releasing ancient stores of the gas.