Author: M. Özgür Nevres

I am a software developer and a science enthusiast. I was graduated from the Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Computer Engineering. In the past, I worked at the Istanbul Technical University Science Center as a science instructor. I write about the planet Earth and science on this website, ourplnt.com. I am also an animal lover! I take care of stray cats & dogs. This website's all income goes directly to our furry friends. Please consider supporting me on Patreon, so I can help more animals!

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Astronomy Evolution Life on Earth Planet Earth Solar System

Two neutron stars collided near the solar system 4.6 billion years ago

Two Neutron Stars Collide - explosion
The merger of two neutron stars is an extremely powerful event. Gravitational waves (pale arcs) bleed away orbital energy, causing the stars to move closer together and merge. As the stars collide, some of the debris blasts away in particle jets moving at nearly the speed of light, producing a brief burst of gamma rays (magenta). In addition to the ultra-fast jets powering the gamma-rays, the merger also generates slower moving debris. An outflow driven by accretion onto the merger remnant emits rapidly fading ultraviolet light (violet). A dense cloud of hot debris stripped from the neutron stars just before the collision produces visible and infrared light (blue-white through red). The UV, optical and near-infrared glow is collectively referred to as a kilonova. Later, once the remnants of the jet directed toward us had expanded into our line of sight, X-rays (blue) were detected.

According to a new study published in the May 2, 2019 issue of Nature, 4.6 billion years ago, two neutron stars collided near the early Solar System (actually about 1000 light-years from the gas cloud that eventually formed the Solar System). This violent collision has created heavy elements like silver, gold, platinum, cesium, and uranium. The study says 0.3% of the Earth’s heaviest elements have been created by this event.

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Mars Space Exploration

InSight captures a sunrise, sunset, and clouds on Mars

Sunset on Mars (InSight image)
Sunset on Mars (InSight image) NASA's InSight lander used its Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) on the spacecraft's robotic arm to image this sunrise on Mars on April 24, 2019, the 145th Martian day (or sol) of the mission. This was taken around 5:30 a.m. Mars local time. Image source: NASA

NASA’s Mars InSight lander captured a series of sunrise, sunset, and cloud images. On April 24 and 25, 2019 (the 145th Martian day, or sol, of the mission), Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) on the spacecraft’s robotic arm captured sunrise and sunsets.

Another camera, called Instrument Context Camera (ICC) beneath the lander’s deck captured drifting clouds across the Martian sky at sunset.

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Earth from Space Climate Environment Global Warming Life on Earth Plants Space Exploration

GEDI: NASA’s Laser Mission to Measure Trees

GEDI is NASA's Laser Mission to Measure Trees
GEDI is NASA's Laser Mission to Measure Trees. It is attached to the International Space Station (ISS) and weighs about a thousand pounds (454 kg) and looks like a refrigerator. It has a telescope of about 80 cm (31 in) in diameter. It has three laser ports and shoots out four laser beams that are then dithered, really quickly, in between shots. It makes one laser look like two. So GEDI is a laser altimeter. We have lasers that emit pulses of light, they travel down to the Earth, they get reflected from the Earth, and then we receive the reflection. We time how long it gets there, which allows us to measure the range to the surface. When the pulse of light hits the surface, it gets distorted and stretched out by any structure that is there.

NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) on the International Space Station (ISS) beams laser light down to Earth to reveal the height and density of trees and vegetation.

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Environment

Brazilian Couple Plants 2 Million Trees [and Creates a New Forest!]

Instituto Terra Forest
Salgados created the Instituto Terra. The institute is dedicated to a mission of reforestation, conservation, and environmental education. Since 2001, more than 17,000 people have studied there. Today, the area now holds official status as a Private Natural Heritage Reserve. It is home to an estimated 293 species of trees, 172 species of birds, 33 types of mammals, and 15 species of amphibians and reptiles, many of which are endangered.

In the early 2000s, famed Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado and his wife Lélia Wanick decided to rebuild their deserted piece of land of 600 hectares in Aimorés, Brazil. They planted more than 2 million tree saplings in 18 years.

And the result is amazing! They created a new forest, and now, the site has 293 plant species, 172 bird species, and 33 animal species, some of which were on the verge of extinction.

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Astronomy Moon Landing Physics Planet Earth Solar System Space Exploration

Timelapse of the future [an amazing video!]

A star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud
A star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. A star is type of astronomical object consisting of a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its own gravity. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At a distance of about 50 kiloparsecs (~163,000 light-years), the LMC is the second or third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way, after the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal (~16 kpc) and the possible dwarf irregular galaxy known as the Canis Major Overdensity. Image: Wikipedia. The image is from the European Space Agency. It is listed as the LH 95 star forming region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The image was taken using the Hubble Space Telescope (ESA/Hubble).

Melodysheep published an amazing video titled “Timelapse of the future: a journey to the end of time”. This experience takes us on a journey to the end of time, trillions of trillions of years into the future, to discover what the fate of our planet, our sun, and our universe may ultimately be.

If this video won’t give you goosebumps, I don’t know what will.

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Places Earth from Space Space Exploration

On Earth Day, NASA wants to see the Earth around you

A misty lake in the Belgrade Forest, İstanbul, Turkey
A misty lake in the Belgrade Forest, İstanbul, Turkey. But why there is a forest in İstanbul named "Belgrade Forest"? According to common belief, Belgrade Forest was named after a Serbian village that was forcibly relocated to the forest to manage the city's water supply system during Ottoman times. The people of the village were captives from Suleiman's (the Magnificent) Serbia campaign. Apparently they were known for being good at that sort of thing, and the sultan decided he'd prefer to have no one but the best looking after his aqueducts and dams. The water from the Belgrade Forest dams ended up along the European Bosporus shore all the way down (you can still see the remnants of the aqueducts in Bahcekoy) before getting terminated in the famous Taksim Square, where it was then distributed further. This is actually how Taksim got its name - "taksim" is Turkish for "distribution".

NASA tweeted this morning and said that “Good morning Europe and Africa! Celebrate Earth Day today by sharing with NASA a photo of the gorgeous planet we call home. Show us how you #PictureEarth around you.”

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Earth from Space

Amazing weather balloon flight to the Stratosphere

Earth from a weather balloon
Weßel wrote on Reddit that: "I was a member of a team that sent 4 balloons to 20-30 km. (they sent more since then, but I left them). What we did (in Poland) is coordinate with the "FAA" that coordinated with ATC. We had a launch window, and had to call them after launching. You retrieve it by simply following the balloon and picking it up. We had 2 different trackers in the balloon, but there was a flight or two where they both failed (I don't know why we had such problems with the trackers). You find out wherever it landed, and go pick it up. One time we had to go to another country, that was fun."

An amazing video showing a weather Balloon flight to the Stratosphere. Cameras were installed in a box attached to a weather balloon to get high-altitude images of the Earth. Published by the J. W. Astronomy channel.

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Environment Animals Evolution Life on Earth

It would take at least 3 million years for Earth to recover from the 6th mass extinction

Elephants in Okavango Delta, Botswana
Elephants in the Okavango Delta. The area is one of the best places to see animals and birds in Africa. The area supports large concentrations of animals on both a permanent and seasonal basis. A myriad of species are found within the delta including African Bush Elephant, African Buffalo, Hippopotamus, Lechwe, Topi, Blue Wildebeest, Giraffe, Nile crocodile, Lion, Cheetah, Leopard, Brown Hyena, Spotted Hyena, Greater Kudu, Sable Antelope, Black Rhinoceros, White Rhinoceros, Plains Zebra, Warthog and Chacma Baboon. Notably the endangered African Wild Dog still survives within the Okavango Delta and exhibits one of the richest pack densities in Africa. In addition to these large animals the Okavango Delta also supports over 400 species of birds and 71 recorded species of fish including Tigerfish, Tilapia and Catfish. Thanks to this wide variety of wildlife, the delta is now a popular tourist attraction.

Even if we stop destroying Earth’s wilderness today, it would take 3 to 5 million years for Earth to recover from the 6th mass extinction, scientists warn.

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Earth from Space Space Exploration

Salar de Uyuni salt flat from space

Salar de Uyuni from the ISS
While orbiting over South America, an astronaut on the International Space Station shot this photograph of the Atacama Desert and the numerous salt flats in the Andes Mountains along the border of Chile and Bolivia. The centerpiece is the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat on Earth. It regularly captures the attention of astronauts due to its high contrast against the brown landscape. Salar de Uyuni and its smaller neighbor, Salar de Coipasa, have darker tones along their edges in this image. These dried lake beds are typically bright white in color, but rainfall can bring an influx of dark volcanic sediments. The region experienced rainfall in early February 2019, which caused temporary discoloration of the salars. By the time this image was taken in March 2019, the flats had started to shift back to their lighter colors. Nearby, the much smaller Laguna Colorada displays bright hues thanks to algae that thrive in the salty water. To the west and northwest of the lake, some of the white dots are snow-capped volcanoes and mountains. The salars receive less than 200 millimeters of rainfall per year. In contrast, the cloud-covered parts of Bolivia (north of the salars) see more than 1,750 mm of rain annually. The Andes Mountains create a rain shadow effect along the coast of northern Chile and western Bolivia, as air masses carrying moisture from the east drop most of their water before cooling and moving up over the mountains. Along the coast, the Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on Earth, sometimes going years without rainfall. NASA uses the Atacama Desert to test rovers and other instruments because the area is a good analogue for future astrobiological exploration of Mars. Image source: NASA Earth Observatory webpage

While orbiting over South America” on March 17, 2019, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) shot this photograph of the Atacama Desert, the driest non-polar desert in the world, and the numerous salt flats in the Andes Mountains along the border of Chile and Bolivia. The centerpiece is the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat on Earth.

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Space Exploration

SpaceX launches the second Falcon Heavy

Falcon Heavy Launch on April 11, 2019
On April 11, 2019, SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon Heavy rocket, the partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle's second flight, and its first commercial launch. The mission deployed Arabsat-6A, a Saudi Arabian communications satellite into orbit.

On April 11, 2019, the American space company SpaceX launched its second Falcon Heavy rocket, and this time, landed all three boosters successfully.

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