Green Light Festival
All about Earth's Atmosphere | Astronotes
Where does space begin? Let’s look up into our planet’s atmosphere, that shell of nitrogen (about 78%), oxygen (about 20%), various other gases (2%) that makes life on Earth possible, to find out. The atmosphere gets thinner as you go further up, in fact 90% of the Earth’s atmosphere by weight is in the bottom 10 miles (16 km). A view of the crescent moon through the top of the Earth's atmosphere. The atmosphere is stratified, that is divided into layers based the bulk properties and behaviours of the air at that altitude. Just to put things into perspective, Mt. A diagram showing the layers of the Earth's atmosphere (Image credit: NASA) Rising through the tropopause we come to the second best –known layer of the atmosphere, the stratosphere. Ozone is a molecule made of three oxygen atoms (the oxygen molecules in stuff we breathe is made of two oxygen atoms; an extra atom makes a huge difference as ozone is horrendously toxic).
Stargazers Lounge
Leicestershire (including City of Leicester and Rutland)
The landscape character of Leicestershire and Rutland is strongly influenced by landform, which in turn directly reflects the geology of the area. Leicestershire and Rutland is generally of moderate elevation, lying mainly between 60m and 180m above sea level, with the broad floodplain of the River Soar roughly dividing area east-west. The rocks of Leicestershire and Rutland are gently tilted to the east with the consequence that the oldest rocks occur in the west and the youngest in the east. Immediately to the north-west of Leicester, the oldest rocks found in the area, the Precambrian rocks of Charnwood Forest, form an isolated and distinctive area of high relief to the west of the River Soar. Tilting, folding and erosion of these ancient volcanic sediments have created distinctive outcrops that contribute much to the area’s characteristic landscape. In the far north-west of Leicestershire, Carboniferous rocks outcrop, including the Upper Carboniferous Coal Measures. Precambrian
Earth has more than one moon, astronomers confirm | The Sideshow
There are at least two moons orbiting Earth at any given time Researchers at Cornell University say that what we know as the Moon is in fact not the only one orbiting our planet at any given time. Smaller objects regularly inhabit the Earth's orbit, usually leaving after a few months to continue on their celestial journeys. The discovery is considered a major breakthrough for space research because scientists had been working toward visiting asteroids outside of Earth's orbit for research. While these temporary moons are too small for a shuttle landing, they are prime for research from a relatively close distance. However, it's still to be determined whether the announcement will capture the public's attention like previously revealed New Moons. The new paper titled "The population of natural Earth satellites," from Cornell University's Mikael Granvik, Jeremie Vaubaillon and Robert Jedicke states that these "secret moons" enter and exit the Earth's orbit without notice.
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Sacred Places: Trees and the Sacred
An exploration of how and why places become invested with SACREDNESS and how the SACRED is embodied or made manifest through ART and ARCHITECTURE From the earliest times, trees have been the focus of religious life for many peoples around the world. As the largest plant on earth, the tree has been a major source of stimulation to the mythic imagination. Trees have been invested in all cultures with a dignity unique to their own nature, and tree cults, in which a single tree or a grove of trees is worshipped, have flourished at different times almost everywhere. Even today there are sacred woods in India and Japan, just as there were in pre-Christian Europe. An elaborate mythology of trees exists across a broad range of ancient cultures. In the early historical period, however, there is considerable evidence that trees held a special significance in the cultures of the ancient world. In perhaps a similar fashion, it is believed the ramped terraces of the Mesopotamian ziggurats [cf.
NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in Habitable Zone
This story was updated at 12:15 p.m. ET. MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has confirmed the discovery of its first alien world in its host star's habitable zone — that just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water to exist — and found more than 1,000 new explanet candidates, researchers announced today (Dec. 5). The new finds bring the Kepler space telescope's total haul to 2,326 potential planets in its first 16 months of operation.These discoveries, if confirmed, would quadruple the current tally of worlds known to exist beyond our solar system, which recently topped 700. The potentially habitable alien world, a first for Kepler, orbits a star very much like our own sun. "We're getting closer and closer to discovering the so-called 'Goldilocks planet,'" Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., said during a press conference today. The newfound planet in the habitable zone is called Kepler-22b.
The Night Sky August 2012 | Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
Highlights of the Month April - Mars at Opposition. Image NASA. Mars, lying above Spica in Virgo, reaches opposition on April 8th when its magnitude will be -1.5 and its angular diameter 15.1 arc seconds. Due to the fact that Mars, and to a lesser extend, the Earth have elliptical orbits, its distance from us at opposition can vary from ~54 to 102 million km. April - it is still worthwhile to view Jupiter. Jupiter imaged by Damian Peach Jupiter is now well past opposition but this is a still a good month to observe this giant of planets. The features seen in the Jovian atmosphere have been changing quite significantly over the last few years - for a while the South Equatorial Belt vanished completely (as seen in Damian's image) but has now returned to its normal wide state. See more of Damian Peach's images: Damian Peaches Website" Features in Jupiter's atmosphere - December 2013. April: Look for the Great Red Spot on Jupiter Observe the Great Red Spot Image: NASA 1st 22:44 23rd 21:01 11th 21:03
