NASA APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) published an amazing video showing a rotating Moon. In fact, no one sees the Moon rotate like this. We see only one side of the Moon because the Moon is tidally locked to Earth. But, thanks to modern digital technology combined with many detailed images returned by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a high-resolution virtual Moon rotation movie has been composed.
Continue reading “Rotating Moon from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter”Here’s why saving more lives does not lead to overpopulation
The Earth is getting more crowded every single day. As of December 2017, the world population was estimated at 7.6 billion. It took 200,000 years for our human population to reach 1 billion, and only 200 years to reach 7+ billion. The United Nations estimates it will further increase to 11.2 billion in the year 2100. Another fact is, that now people live longer and healthier lives, and the infant mortality rate (IMR) is declining rapidly.
In the early 1800s, newborns were expected to live only a dismal 30 years. But, thanks to advances in farming, medicine,
Stephen Hawking dies at 76
Very sad news for the science and the humanity: Professor Stephen Hawking (born 8 January 1942) died in his home in Cambridge, England, early in the morning of 14 March 2018. From astronauts to world leaders, tributes have poured in for the modern British physicist and author.
Continue reading “Stephen Hawking dies at 76”People today are living longer, healthier, and happier lives than ever before
In a video published by Bill Gates on his Youtube channel, originally titled “Humanity is fighting back against the Grim Reaper”, Steven Pinker, the Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, linguist, popular science author, and Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University explains why people today are living longer, healthier, and happier lives than ever before. Pinker is one of Gates’ favorite authors.
Continue reading “People today are living longer, healthier, and happier lives than ever before”Others Will Follow [Short Sci-Fi Film]
A great short science fiction film, “Others Will Follow”, created and directed by Andrew Finch and published on Vimeo, tells the story of a crewed Mars mission. An accident occurs and the spacecraft breaks apart, the last survivor (we don’t see what happens to the rest of the crew, but presumably they have died) manages to send an inspirational message back to Earth. A must-watch.
Continue reading “Others Will Follow [Short Sci-Fi Film]”The “Synestia Theory” says the Moon was formed 1,000 years earlier than Earth
According to a new study, the Moon might have been formed a thousand years earlier than Earth. The new “synestia theory” suggests a Mars-sized object smashed into the proto-Earth. The “giant impact” vaporized about 10 percent of the rock and liquefied the rest, and created a rapidly spinning donut-shaped mass of vaporized rock called “synestia”. The synestia eventually shrunk and cooled. Computer models demonstrated that the Earth subsequently emerged about 1,000 years after the moon.
Continue reading “The “Synestia Theory” says the Moon was formed 1,000 years earlier than Earth”We May Have Already Detected Signs of Alien Microbes on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus
According to a new study, microbes like those found in Earth’s deep ocean could potentially thrive in the underground ocean of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus. Both molecular hydrogen (H2) and methane (CH4) already have been detected in the plume. Researchers have shown that Methanothermococcus
Amateur Astronomer Recorded a Newborn Supernova Accidentally
On September 20, 2016, Argentinian amateur astronomer Victor Buso was testing his camera-telescope setup. He pointed his Newtonian telescope at NGC613, a barred spiral galaxy located some 67 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Sculptor. Then he started taking a series of short-exposure photographs. To ensure his new camera was functioning properly, he examined the images right away. While doing that, he noticed something very interesting: a previously invisible point of light near the end of a spiral arm of the galaxy: a newborn supernova – an elusive event that nobody had ever captured before.
Continue reading “Amateur Astronomer Recorded a Newborn Supernova Accidentally”Asteroid Mining: We Need Powerful Rockets like Falcon Heavy
On February 6, 2018, SpaceX successfully tested Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket that the American company ever built. When lifted off, it became also the most powerful operational rocket in the world. Powerful rockets like Falcon Heavy may one day carry humans to the Moon or Mars. But there might be an even more important use of powerful rockets like SpaceX’ Falcon Heavy and BFR, Blue Origin’s New Glenn or NASA’s SLS: asteroid mining.
Continue reading “Asteroid Mining: We Need Powerful Rockets like Falcon Heavy”OSIRIS-REx Captures New Earth-Moon Image from 39.5 Million Miles
NASA’s asteroid-sampling OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured a new Earth-Moon image on Jan. 17, 2018, from a distance of 39.5 million miles (63.6 million kilometers). Spacecraft used its NavCam1 imager to take this photo, as part of an engineering test. In the image, The Earth and the moon are just two bright dots against the vastness of black space – which reminds us of Carl Sagan’s famous speech: “That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.”
Continue reading “OSIRIS-REx Captures New Earth-Moon Image from 39.5 Million Miles”
