Alligators can often reach at least 14 or 15 feet (4.25-4.57 meters) in length, which is even larger than some crocodile species, but not all of them, especially not the Saltwater Crocodile (I am talking about the American alligator – A. mississippiensis here, the Chinese alligator – A. sinensis is much smaller). But what is the largest alligator ever measured?
Continue reading “The Largest Alligator Ever Measured”Earth 2.0: Kepler-452b
NASA’s space observatory Kepler may have discovered a possibly Earth-like planet, a rocky world orbiting a Sun-like star at almost the exact same distance Earth orbits our own Sun: Kepler-452b!
“The new Earth” is located 1,400 light-years from us. It orbits a Sun-like star that is 4% more massive and 10% brighter than our Sun. Kepler-452b is 1.6 times the size of Earth and the scientists are fairly sure that it is a rocky world.
Continue reading “Earth 2.0: Kepler-452b”New Horizons’ amazing Pluto flyover animated video
Last week, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft began sending stunning shots of Pluto on its flyover back to the Earth. Here is a beautiful Pluto flyover video created from the images from New Horizons’ closest approach to the dwarf planet on July 14, 2015.
Continue reading “New Horizons’ amazing Pluto flyover animated video”“EPIC” Earth Image by NASA
At the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point, 1,500,000 km (930,000 mi) from Earth; NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory took an amazing photo of the entire sunlit side of Earth on July 06, 20145. The photo was taken by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four megapixel CCD camera and telescope.
The final image showing the North and Central America was generated by combining three separate images to create a photographic-quality image. The camera takes a series of 10 images using different narrowband filters — from ultraviolet to near-infrared — to produce a variety of science products. The red, green and blue channel images are used in these color images.
Continue reading ““EPIC” Earth Image by NASA”Are we alone in the Universe? Now is the time to find out (open letter)
Are we alone in the Universe? Some of the greatest thinkers in the world are about to try to answer this, which is one of the biggest questions ever asked. A group of scientists, astronauts, cosmonauts, scholars, Nobel Prize laureates, and chess world champions is creating a $100 million project called Breakthrough Life in the Universe Initiative. The huge project aims to find intelligent life in the Universe.
Continue reading “Are we alone in the Universe? Now is the time to find out (open letter)”A bowling ball and feather falling in a vacuum – do they fall at the exact same speed?
A beautiful video published by BBC: the English physicist Brian Cox tests how a heavy object (a bowling ball) and a lightweight object (feather) falling in a vacuum – if they fall at the exact same speed or not.
Continue reading “A bowling ball and feather falling in a vacuum – do they fall at the exact same speed?”Amazing Ultra HD Video from the International Space Station
An amazing ultra high definition video from the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS has introduced a new 4K Ultra High-Definition (UHD) video, providing an unprecedented look at what it’s like to live and work aboard the International Space Station.
Continue reading “Amazing Ultra HD Video from the International Space Station”Philae (Rosetta’s Lander) Wakes Up From Hibernation
Good news! ESA’s (European Space Agency) robotic lander Philae finally received enough solar radiation and now is out of hibernation. On the Rosetta blog, the ESA announced that “The signals were received at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt at 22:28 CEST on 13 June. More than 300 data packets have been analyzed by the teams at the Lander Control Center at the German Aerospace Center (DLR).” It is the first contact with the spacecraft since going into hibernation in November.
According to the agency, “Philae ‘spoke’ with its team on
The World Is Going To End, Again, In September 2015? Of Course Not
The world is going to end, again, In September 2015?
There’s a super crappy 1982 science-fiction movie named “The man who saves the world”. The story is absurd – in the opening, a narrator speaks a lot. He tells about some extraterrestrials attacking Earth, but a layer made by human brains (?) is protecting our planet. Then the battle begins: two space cadets of the world get shot in the space, crash-land on a desert planet, where an evil wizard seeks the ultimate power to take over the world.
Although the movie borrows some background footage from Star Wars, the plot is mostly unrelated.
If a movie is bad then you should not watch it at all. But if a movie is really, really bad then it makes more fun than a good movie. This is one of those movies, called B-movies. Perhaps this is a C-movie.
Continue reading “The World Is Going To End, Again, In September 2015? Of Course Not”7+ meters crocodile? (23+ feet) Sorry but no…
A widely circulated photo over the internet which shows a giant crocodile with a bunch of villagers sitting behind. A story next to the photo saying “the people in a village on the Niger River in Africa were losing fellow villagers at a rapid rate, and called in the army, which shot
Crocodiles often suffer from a prevalence of “big fish” stories and over-exaggeration. The photo below was first got shared on Reddit, and it started circulating rapidly since then. When I first saw the photo, I tried to guess the length of the crocodile, because it didn’t seem to me 7+ meters. I thought it was not more than 5 meters.
Continue reading “7+ meters crocodile? (23+ feet) Sorry but no…”