-
aamukherjee Entropie -
alchymista Alchymista -
crownedrose Hymn To The Sea -
epistemophobiarunsdeep Falling Over Myself. -
expose-the-light Quarks to Quasars -
ikenbot cwl -
pieceinthepuzzlehumanity This Is The Right One -
project-argus Hello, Universe. -
torgothegreat God Delusion
Earth Experiences Back-to-Back Asteroid Close Encounters
Two small asteroids buzzed by Earth, zooming well within the moon’s orbit, over the last 48 hours. Neither posed any danger, but the events were eagerly captured by amateur astronomers, and the second encounter was a record-setter.
The first asteroid, designated 2012 KP24, was first detected last week and passed within 32,000 miles of Earth on May 28. It is less than 70 feet across, approximately the size of a blue whale.
The second asteroid, named 2012 KT42, zipped by at midnight PDT on May 29, coming within 8,950 miles of Earth. That’s closer than the orbit of geosynchronous satellites, making the KT42 encounter one of the top 20 closest approaches ever recorded. The asteroid was discovered only a day before its flyby, but is a puny 15 feet across, not much bigger than a minivan.
Continue Reading “Earth Experiences Back-to-Back Asteroid Close Encounters” »
ikenbot
expose-the-light
Eclipse from Orbit (MTSAT)
Credit: PHL @ UPR Arecibo, NASA, EUMETSAT, NERC Satellite Receiving Station, University of Dundee
Watch How Life Recovers from Devastation
If a portion of Earth underwent a major cataclysm, how long would it take for life to recover?
The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens is giving scientists an unprecedented opportunity to witness a recovery from devastation, as the eruption leveled the surrounding forest, blasted away hundreds of meters of the mountain’s summit, and claimed 57 human lives.
Landsat satellites have tracked what has happened on the mountain, and how the forest was reclaimed — all on its own.
(via wespeakfortheearth)
Has mankind outgrown Earth?
A new report from the World Wildlife Fund says we’re gobbling up the planet’s resources at such an alarming rate that by 2030, even a second Earth wouldn’t be enough to sustain us
Which resources are we depleting?
Renewables like fish, water, timber, and food are being used up much faster than previously thought. According to experts, mankind’s “ecological footprint” is now over 50 percent higher than it was in 2008, meaning it takes 1.5 years for Earth to regenerate the natural resources we use up annually.Why is our ecological footprint growing?
The world’s population, which according to the U.N. surpassed 7 billion last October, is getting too big, and the average individual is using more than he or she needs. “The excessive demands that we are putting on the planet will inevitably lead to acute water shortages, a chronic food crisis, and rising prices for energy, metals, and minerals,” says Robert Walker at the Huffington Post.
Breathtaking View of Earth Taken by Russian Satellite
Think of it as an amped up version of the iconic “Blue Marble” image. A new photo of Earth from space highlights the striking beauty and intensely rich colors of our home planet.
The photo was taken by a Russian weather satellite, called Elektro-L No.1, which flies in a geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (35,700 kilometers) above the Earth’s equator.
The image was posted by James Drake on the Planet Earth website. Drake obtained the photo from the Russian Federal Space Agency’s Research Center for Earth Operative Monitoring, which manages the Elektro-L No. 1 spacecraft, after he expressed interest in animating and publishing them.
I Love This New Stunning HD View of Earth So Much I Could Hug it
Before you go any further, make that video 1080 and go as big as your processor will let you.
Elektro-L is a Russian weather satellite currently sitting in geostationary orbit at 36,000 km above the Indian Ocean. This video represents almost one week of images as observed from that satellite, one shot every half hour.
How does this stunning view differ from other “blue disk” shots? For one thing, it’s incredibly high-definition (121 megapixels, with each pixel equating to about 1 km). It’s also the first such image composed from one single image. That’s right, NASA stitches theirs together from many images (not that they aren’t awesome). There’s four light channels combined in this image, the usual red, blue and green as well as infrared (which makes vegetation look orange).
I could watch it for hours. So peaceful.
crownedrose![matthen:
Visualising extinctions over the past million 531 years. The size of the circle shows how the biodiversity of the earth differs from the long-term trend. The resulting fluctuations seem to repeat every 62 million years or so, with 5 main extinction events in total. The most recent was of course the end of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. Does this mean the Earth is due another?! [This follows the analysis of an interesting nature article] [more] [code]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m42vf5KFA81qfg7o3o1_400.gif)
Visualising extinctions over the past million 531 years. The size of the circle shows how the biodiversity of the earth differs from the long-term trend. The resulting fluctuations seem to repeat every 62 million years or so, with 5 main extinction events in total. The most recent was of course the end of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. Does this mean the Earth is due another?! [This follows the analysis of an interesting nature article] [more] [code]
(via ikenbot)
Photographers always talk about perspective. It doesn’t get more perspective than this: first ever photo of the Earth and the Moon in the same frame, 1977. Taken by Voyager 1.
10 Years of Aqua Satellite’s Incredible Images of Earth From Space
The view of Earth from space has transformed our understanding of, as well as our admiration for, the planet. The data and images collected by Earth-observing satellites have been used in thousands of scientific papers, helped us better respond to natural disasters, improved weather and climate forecasts, enlightened us about our impact on Earth and captivated us with beauty.
One of the stars of NASA’s fleet of satellites is Aqua. The satellite is named for its ability to measure water vapor in the atmosphere, water in the oceans, as well as ice and snow. When it was launched on May 4, 2002, scientists expected it to work for three to five years. But its six instruments have been functioning perfectly for 10 years, gathering 29 million gigabytes of data in that time.
One of the most useful and impressive instruments aboard Aqua is the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, which measures visible and infrared radiation, and produces truly amazing, incredibly beautiful images of Earth. We’ve chosen some of our favorite MODIS images for this gallery in celebration of a decade of work. With funding for Earth-observing satellites on the decline, let’s hope Aqua keeps going for 10 more years.
A Volcanic Rainbow in the Hottest Place on Earth
Ready to Blow? Mexico Volcano Rumbles
Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano has rumbled continuously and spewed gases and glowing rocks to almost one mile
(one kilometer)beyond its crater, authorities said Friday.Popocatepetl is located about 34 miles (55 kilometers) east of the capital, Mexico City. More than 30 million people live within sight of the volcano.
In an increase of activity the volcano registered “62 expulsions of medium intensity, with the emission of water vapor, gas, ashes and glowing rocks,” between Thursday night and Friday, said a statement from the National Center of Disaster Prevention.
In this map, created using NASA satellite data, you can see in lurid detail where lightning struck Earth the most between 1995-2002. This historical information can give scientists clues about where it’s likely to strike again. And with tornado, monsoon, and hurricane seasons getting underway, you too might want to know where these ultra-hot bolts of electricity will slam out of the clouds. Here are some of the most up-to-date lightning maps.
NASA also has a map of lightning strikes that’s regularly updated, showing lightning strikes from 1998 to the present. The more up-to-date map is very similar to what you see above, except that it shows more intense activity in Argentina and South Africa.
Also, according to NASA, the greatest amount of lightning strikes are near the Catatumbo River in Venezuela (where there are 40,000 strikes every night, for most of the year), and a mountain town called Kifuka in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. You can see the dark regions signaling thousands of lightning strikes over these areas in the map above.
Over at the University of Washington in Seattle, Earth scientist Robert Holzworth is running an ongoing project to collect lighting strike data all over the globe. Using sensors all over the world, Holzworth and his colleagues analyze very low frequency (VLF) waves in the radio spectrum emitted by lightning. He creates maps and animated gifs showing the distribution of lightning in various areas, revealing where lightning is striking the most over time.
The upshot? Warmer areas over land tend to attract the most lightning. And the patterns seem to be quite predictable, so it’s fairly easy to plan trips to avoid areas where you might incur the wrath of Zeus. Of course, as the climate warms up over the next century, these maps may reveal a very different set of patterns.
Terrestrial Planets
Also known as rocky planets, these bodies are composed primarily of rock and metal and have very high densities. They also tend to be relatively small in size and have slow periods of rotation. The terrestrial planets in our solar system are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. They are the planets closest to the Sun. Terrestrial planets tend to have very few natural satellites, or moons. Of the four terrestrial planets in our solar system, only two have moons. Earth has one moon while Mars has two.
Images Credit: solarsystem.nasa.gov
