Cliffs discovered on the lunar crust indicate the distance between the moon’s center and surface shrank about 300 feet ......!

New images of the moon indicate it may be decreasing in size, NASA said this week.

Images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) show there are relatively recently formed cliffs in the lunar crust indicating the moon shrank in the recent past and may still be doing so. The space agency introduced the images and discussed the discovery publicly on Thursday. It's shrinking because it's cooling down.


The scarps themselves are relatively small, with the largest being only about 300 feet high and extending for about several miles across small craters, according to NASA.


It’s the craters that have clued the agency in to their young age. Small craters on the moon’s surface don’t last long because it is constantly being hit with meteors that would destroy them on impact, the agency said.


Further, the scarps look relatively undegraded, also pointing to their young age, NASA said. The age of the scarps means that the moon could have been cooling and shrinking very recently.

So, NASA aims to use the LRO’s Narrow Angle Cameras to build a global map of the moon to identify additional scarps. Further research on them will try to determine if the Earth’s gravitational pull and tides are having any effect on them.



The Moon was hot at the beginning of its life. The most accepted theory—proved by simulations and analysis of its surface materials—is that it formed after a massive collision of a Mars-sized object with Earth, around 4.5 billion years ago. The material ejected in the impact accreted to form the Moon. After that, the lunar surface suffered a period of massive bombardment of asteroids and meteors, which combined with the decay of radioactive elements, kept it hot for a long while.


So long, in fact, that it's still probably cooling down today. Before, scientists believed the cooling and shrinking period ended early in its story. Now, new images by NASA's LRO show lobate scarps that are only one billion to one hundred million years old.


One of the remarkable aspects of the lunar scarps is their apparent young age. Relatively young, globally distributed thrust faults show recent contraction of the whole Moon, likely due to cooling of the lunar interior. [...] We can estimate these cliffs formed less than a billion years ago, and they could be as young as a hundred million years.


Lobate scarps—called that way because many of them appear to be lobe-shaped—form as inner parts of the moon collapse, forcing a section of the crust to crack and bulge out over another.


But how much has it shrunk? According to the data taken by the LRO, they believe the distance between the moon's center and its surface shrank about 300 feet in the last one billion years.

Hi, all astronomy fans, today we will be talking about a rather amazing question. I know that most of you probably have this question in mind which you have not solved the mystery until now. So do you know how do astronauts exactly go to the bathroom in space? You may ask yourself whether even the potty chair is in place? So today, I am here to clarify all your doubts.


SO, HOW DO ASTRONAUTS GO TO THE BATHROOM AND TAKE CARE OF OTHER PERSONAL HYGIENE?


Do you know that each Space Shuttle actually has a toilet that can be used by both men and women. It is also designed to be as much as possible like those on Earth, however, the big difference is that the units use flowing air (co..coo...cooling!) instead of water to move waste through the system.


So, solid wastes are actually being compressed and stored on-board, and then removed after the space shuttle has landed. Waste water is vented to space, although future systems may recycle it. The air is filtered to remove odor and bacteria and then returned to the cabin.


As for their hygience, astronauts can actually brush their teeth just like how they do on Earth. However, they will be stinky as there is no shower on the Shuttle, so astronauts must make do with sponge baths until they return home.


So here is some answers by the Offical NASA website on this question.
I. The Official NASA pages:
A. There is a nice space shuttle web page at: http://shuttle.nasa.gov/ Digging in there I found a Q&A Web page. Here's what it says: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/faq/living.html


6. How do you take a bath, brush your teeth, and go to the bathroom in space?


We do not have a bath or shower on the Shuttle, so we just wash off with wet washcloths, using soaps that you don't have to rinse off. When we brush our teeth, we can either swallow the toothpaste or spit it into a washcloth. Designing a toilet for zero-gravity is tougher. We use air flow to make the urine or feces go where we want, since gravity will not do it for us. You have to be more careful and think about what you are doing with the toilet in the Shuttle.




Resources:

• http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970411a.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1wwzwvfsC0&feature=player_embedded#!

Once again, it's great to see all of you back here for more Astronomy news, interesting facts and more games!

So, in order to you to have a better understanding of the Mayans Astronomy, I had created an online crossword puzzle using EclipseCrossword software (it is a really good one!). This crossword puzzle is for you to learn the Mayans astronomy in a more interactive and interesting way. So please go to the following link for the crossword puzzle:

http://www2.hci.edu.sg/y09HCI0452/crosswordpuzzle(3).html

Mayans’ Universe


Mayans believed that the world was multi-layered consisting of thirteen levels of the heavens and nine layers of the underworld. The Earth is in the middle and belongs to both the heavens and underworlds.

Layer of heavens:
Description

Layer 1 (Earth)
A large wheel surrounded by the divine water, which is an ocean that extends to the horizon.


Layer 2 (Ilhuicatl metzli)
Moon and clouds reside here


Layer 3 (Citlalco)
Where the fixed stars lie. Also where Citlallicue ("She of the Starry Skirts") lives


Layer 4
Occupied by the Sun (Ilhuicatl Tonatiuh)


Layer 5
Occupied by Venus


Layer 6 (Ilhuicatl Mamalhuazocan)
Occupied by unidentified constellations. This layer is also where comets come from, and where the fire serpents attend to their duty of bringing the sun from the east to the zenith.


Layer 7
The black or green heaven, fierce with winds or storms


Layer 8
The blue heaven, where dust lies


Layer 9 (Itztapal Nanatzcayan)
Where Stone Slabs Crash Together


Layer 10
Represents White


Layer 11
Represents Yellow


Layer 12
Represents Red


Layer 13 (Omeyocan)
Where the dual male-female god, who created space and time, lives.

The nine-layered underworld was where the Milky Way was believed to be. Some Mayans believed that the Milky Way was a road of souls travelling to the underworld (scaring!?), while some, thought that it was the umbilical cord connecting heaven and the underworld to the Earth.

What the Mayans Were interested in?


The Mayans more interested in the:

The sun was associated with Tonatiuh , a red eagle with a large and all-seeing eye. The Mayans managed to calculate the times when the Sun would rise and set. They even determined the length of the solar year to be 365 days. A tropical year is actually 365.2422 days long! How close!


2. The Moon

However, do you know that actually small errors like 0.00059 days off in calculations can cause a calendar to be completely not accurate. A possible effect is that the calendar can be a month off every hundred years. But the Mayans continually update their records and predictions so that their calendar remains accurate throughout the generations.

Hi, all astronomy fans, good to see all of you back, now let us start on the Mayan culture Astronomy......!

Introduction:
Do you know that in the Mayans culture, astronomy was actually done by priests or "ilhuica tlamatilizmatini" ("the wise man who studies heaven"). All the observations were done, only using special buildings as reference points. The Mayans paired certain celestial bodies with a god and thus regard celestial events as an indication of their communication with these gods. Mayans also use to constellations or planets in the sky to indicate the planting season. This ensures that the Mayans will not starve. SMART!

So how did the Mayans exactly make observations in the sky? A common method called the Zenith passage of the Sun is used. Twice a year at noon the sun stands directly overhead in the tropics. The path in which the Sun takes then is called the Zenith passage. Mayans would place a column with exact vertical alignment to the Sun onto the ground or on the roof. When the Sun passes through the Zenith passage above this column, no shadows would be formed. Some Mayans also stay in Vertical Sighting, which are holes in the ground to observe the sky.



After observing, one definitely needs to calculate some figures. On the whole, these calculations were simply done by counting, for instance, the number of lunar revolutions in a certain time period. For more complex calculations, however, mathematics was used.

Hi, all astronomers! To start on the interesting Mayans astronomy, I had created a short introductory video for you to have at least a idea of what the Mayans Astronomy was like. This video was made with iMovie and this was aimed to give a short preview of the Astronomy in the Mayans times and how it worked. We wanted to make the video as informal as possible, giving it a more "movie-trailer" like effect to further enhance the attractiveness of our project. We got all of the pictures from the internet and added many special effects and even some music! Hope you enjoy our video!

Product outcome
Project website ( product outcome)

What a relief! Our project website is finally done! What has seemed like an impossible feat has now become possible. The website now consist of a main page, with our introductory video right in the middle of screen, followed by 4 links at the bottom. Namely :Quiz, Info, Blog, and credits.



So, all astronomy fans, now let us embark on a new journey to the...... Mayans Astronomy! Ya!!!

According to scientific research, Mars may have had a thicker atmosphere and liquid water on its surface between 3.5 and 4 billion years ago. Satellites orbiting Mars have also taken images of ancient ocean shorelines, river beds and canyons - which are evidences of the presence of flowing water. In addition, the chemistry of the martian soil also suggests that liquid water may have been present once on the surface. Then if this is true, then perhaps life could have emerged on Mars during this time in its history.



An atmosphere can also help keep conditions toasty. Okay, just look at Venus, thick greenhouse atmosphere has actually raised its average surface temperature to a searing 464 degrees Celsius (867 F)! So can you see the effects of greenhouse atmosphere on the warming of planet?

Think again, could Mars also once have had a greenhouse atmosphere that warmed the planet enough so it is able to keep water flowing across its surface in the past?

However, some scientists do not think this way. Professor Brian Toon of the University of Colorado had discussed the possibility of a warm and wet Mars at the recent NASA Astrobiology Science Conference in League City, Texas.

"We've spent 30 years on the greenhouse effect and no one has solved the problem in a credible way so far,” noted Professor Toon. “On the greenhouse problem, we're just drifting into deeper and deeper complexity."

Why does the greenhouse climate work so well to heat up Venus but not Mars? The thick clouds of Venus also bounce a lot of sunlight off into space, and that reflection is why we’re not able to see the surface of Venus in the visible light spectrum. One answer is that Venus is much closer to the Sun, so it receives substantially more sunlight than Mars does. According to Toon, another reason is that Mars is little. The lower gravity of a less massive world reduces the rate that air cools with altitude. On Earth this rate is about 10 degrees Kelvin per kilometer, but on Mars the rate is about half that.


“This makes it harder to get a greenhouse effect, giving you less ‘bang for the buck’ for your greenhouse gases,” Professor Toon said. “Mars is hard to warm up because it’s so small.”


“We know the impacts occurred - we can see the craters there,” said Professor Toon. “It's pretty much impossible to avoid there being large amounts of water coming from them.”
 
 

•  http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/marswaswetbu.jpg
• http://www.spacetoday.org/images/Mars/MarsExpress/HecatesTholus464x635.jpg
• http://www.trustedlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/water-on-mars.jpg

Task 2


Complete the template provided in Annex A, focusing on (1) Point of View; (2) Situation and Setting; (3) Language/Diction; and (4) Personal Response, and post your response to Task 2 on your blog. This template is based on John Lye’s ‘Critical Analysis of Poetry’, and you can make reference to this in Annex B when in doubt.

1. Point of View

In this poem, the speaker is an American soldier during the Vietnam War who wanted the war to stop and strongly against modern warfare. This can be seen in first stanza line 1 where the poet wrote “America did not foresee”. This shows that the speaker had felt angry and mad by the great impacts of ‘Agent Orange’ used by the Americans during the ever-lasting Vietnam War, resulting many generations to be affected. Perhaps, the speaker was an American soldier who had experienced the war before, hence, he was able to see the dire consequences of modern warfare on the innocent people.

In addition, in second stanza line 8, the poet wrote “Nefariously America led astray” which tells us that the speaker felt that all these consequences were caused by the Americans. The speaker felt that the actions of the Americans were brutal and inhumane as they had caused many deaths and harmed the younger generations. Also, the Americans wanted to win the Vietnam War badly and thus used the highly dangerous ‘Agent Orange’ on the Vietnamese, however, unfortunately, they were unable to foresee the consequences caused by the use of ‘Agent Orange’ themselves. This can be seen in first stanza line 3 where “expecting others (The Vietnamese) to pay a high price” but the price was just too high for Vietnam to pay. “All the deceit continues to spread”. The hatred and sadness of the Vietnamese would continue to spread to younger generations. Also, in first stanza line 4,"tolling on the innocent and unborn", this shows that innocent people were killed and harmed by the use of ‘Agent Orange’. Therefore, the Americans had to "think twice" as the ‘Agent Orange’ would not only affected the Vietnamese, but also would affect themselves, thus saying that this war would never end.


2. Situation and Setting
- Emotional: "Toll on the innocent and unborn."

As the poet talks about the negative impacts of war, he relates to the depression of the innocent people who were killed in the midst of war. In this sentence, emotional conflicts are conveyed through harsh words used such "toll".

“All the deceit continues to spread”

In addition, in this line, the poet felt that the Americans were too cruel and brutal to have used the ‘Agent Orange’ in the war and felt unfair for Vietnam to suffer this horrendous treatment. Also, strong emotional conflict is conveyed through diction with the use of harsh words such as ‘deceit’ which means hatred.


- Saddening: “Generations untold WILL pay”

This shows that the situation was very saddening and helplessness as the poet felt that the modern warfare used in the war would do no good but only cause more harm on the younger generations who would suffer a lot. Thus, this shows the sadness and cruelty of war on the innocent ones.

3. Language/Diction

- “Potpourri”

In first stanza line 2, the poet used “Potpourri” which means a mixture of materials or substances. Therefore, in this poem, ‘potpourri’ is used to refer to the large-scaled mixture of deaths caused as a result of war, thus showing the great impacts of warfare on the people.
- “Toll”

In first stanza line 5, the poet used “toll” which means a payment or price that people have to pay. However, in this poem, “toll on the innocent and unborn” is used to the sacrificial of innocent lives in the war. Also, this depicts the pessimistic view of war where people were all killed and hurt in the war. Thus, “toll” is used to refer to the sufferings and sacrificial of lives which the innocent people have to pay.


4. Personal Response

From this poem, ‘Rainbow Death’, I quite agree to the poet’s opinions that war is brutal, unjustified, harsh, and will only bring unhappiness, sufferings and cause deaths. In a war, as both sides all battled with each other to win, they will resort to anything that is able to defeat their enemy. However, this will only cause more harm to the innocent ones. In this poem, the Americans resorted to use the ‘Agent Orange’ which were gas attacks to defeat Vietnam in the war. As a result, Vietnam had to pay a huge price and even affected the younger generations. In addition, I agree with the poet that there are many sacrificial of lives in a war, hence, I believe that we have to think twice before starting a war and should not make the innocent younger generations from suffering as ‘war are not over when war are over’, meaning that war will cause dire consequences even if it have ended.

- War Poetry


Rainbow Death

America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.


Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay –
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!


Hubert Wilson

Task 1
Based on your understanding of the selected poem, perform extensive web research and write a report detailing the conflict represented in the poem(s) of your choice. Bear in mind that this piece of background information will allow your blog audience to further understand the poem as well as your analysis of the poem in Task 2.

Hubert Wilson
Ssgt USAF, 1968-1972

In this poem, 'Rainbow Death', the poet is Hubert Wilson who was a Vietnam War veteran served in the USAF security service during the Vietnam War (American against Vietnam).When he was a young man, together with a dozen or so intelligence school graduates, they prepped for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas. They were then sent to Vietnam or other places in Southeast Asia in 1970 to fight for USA in the Vietnam War and eventually stayed there for about 18 years. During his times in the war, his heath had started to deteriorate greatly and suffered from Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches, progressive limb pains, however, the doctors were unable to diagnose his disease. Also, having limb pains, Hubert Wilson’s mobility had deteriorated and thus later caused him to retire as a soldier. Like his father, Hubert Wilson then began writing poems as his pastime and wrote many poems, mostly about war which he had experienced as a retired soldier, thus wrote one of his best and famous poems, ‘Rainbow Death’.

This poem, ‘Rainbow Death’, speaks of a modern day ingredient of warfare during the Vietnam War that has caused appalling death and suffering, not only to its intended victims - the Vietnamese people, but also the service personnel that used or even just came into contact with “Agent Orange”. Thus, this shows that in a war, both sides, no matter what, will get hurt and affect in one way or another, hence, there is no such thing as ‘Win-Win’ situation in a war.


As trench warfare was still not common during that time, both sides, especially the USA, had used ‘Agent Orange’ which is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant, highly contaminated with TCDD. It is used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. During the war, about 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in a total number of 400,000 deaths and disabilities, with 500,000 children born with birth defects.

Thus, this poem shows the impacts of modern warfare (in this case, gas attack) are great and had killed many innocent lives and affected the younger generations. In the poem, stanza 2 line 10, “Generations untold WILL pay”, this shows that the use of modern warfare would cause innocent unborn babies suffer from birth defects and in this line, the word ‘WILL’ emphasises on the great impact that ‘Agent Orange’ would bring to mankind during the war.


This poem, ‘Rainbow Death’ by Hubert Wilson, is written to remind everyone in the world that "wars aren't over when the wars are over". Although this sentence may seem contradictory, it generally means that even though wars have seemed to have ended, the effects of the wars still remains and would cause further problems to mankind, thus showing the danger of modern warfare. The modern warfare will not only cause harm and killed the soldiers on the battlefield fighting bravely for their countries, but also affect the younger generations. Hence, Hubert Wilson’ s intention of writing this poem is to emphasize the impacts and danger caused by war and modern warfare, and also tell people to think clearly before starting a war.



Resources:

- http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow

Can you believe it?! Astronauts to Aquanauts! AMAZING! According to a news article which I had read a few days ago, it is written that astronauts now have to work and live under water! Obviously, it is easy to conjure up images of astronauts working in deep black space, however, nowadays there are also astronauts living and working on the sea floor, where they conduct experiments to prepare for future space missions.




Chris Hadfield's team includes a NASA astronaut, an undersea engineer and a scientist. They live inside Aquarius and carry out experiments in the lab; at the same time, exploring the blue depths outside the porthole windows.

You may not believe what I am writing in this post, but I assure you will not regret reading this. Can you believe it? According to a new study, a monster black hole has been flung from its home galaxy and is now careening through space! Argh......!


Based on the news article on Yahoo news, astronomers had spotted a supermassive black hole, which is usually found lurking in the center of galaxies, hightailing it out of a distant galaxy at a considerable speed! The cosmic ejection is taking place more than half a billion light-years from Earth. This shocking discovery was made with archived observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Although you might think that black holes themselves do not shine, but the material they gobble up actually heats as it falls in and releases radiation in the form of X-ray light! Normally, these bright X-ray spots are seen in the centers of galaxies, but in this case, researchers had found one offset to the side.



So what do you think we have to do now? Of course, RUN......! (Just kidding!) Although these astronomy theories seem to be quite simple and solid, yet mysteries still remain unsolved......

References:

• http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100517/sc_space/monsterblackholeflungoutofgalaxy;_ylt=AuX417AwwmRbvMS6pFR6P5eHgsgF;_ylu=X3oDMTM5dTM0bDllBGFzc2V0A3NwYWNlLzIwMTAwNTE3L21vbnN0ZXJibGFja2hvbGVmbHVuZ291dG9mZ2FsYXh5BHBvcwM0BHNlYwN5bl9wYWdpbmF0ZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3

Image resources:

• http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/153309main_hidden_blackhole_lg.jpg
• http://www.gwu.edu/~sps/Society%20of%20Physics%20Students%20(SPS)/Events/A136FC42-F9B5-46A5-A0CB-F0007B262E14_files/Black-hole.jpg
• http://blog.sciseek.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/binary-system-GX-339-4.jpg

Last Sunday evening, 16 May 2010, lucky people, probably you, might have recieved a "front-row seat" with a common and yet always awesome sight – the “evening star” visibly sitting on top of a crescent moon.



At that amazing moment, people were all abuzz by this breathtaking sight as people took photos of this astrological occurrence and posted it on social media sites such as yahoo.

These stresses that go with weightlessness actually confined the crew quarters from being away from family and friends and also have a busy work schedule which eventually cause most of them not having sufficient amount of rest, thus resulting in health problems on the immune system.

"It seems almost as if someone had reprogrammed or hijacked the probe, thus perhaps we do not yet know the whole truth," the author of UFOs - They Are Still Flying told Bild.


NASA said engineers were working to solve a data transmission fault. The space agency has not commented specifically on Mr Hausdorf's comments, although it says the fault is likely to be a glitch in the probe's computer memory.





So, for some contextual knowledge, both Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, were offically launched in 1977 to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Three decades on, they are the most distant human-made objects in outer space! Now, Voyager 1 is currently more than 8.5 billion miles from Earth! It will soon travel beyond the heliosphere - a bubble the sun creates around the solar system - into interstellar space, scientists say.

• http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2010/05/13/1225866/153358-voyager-2.jpg
• http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2007/12/voyager2.jpg
• http://www.shatters.net/celestia/images/gallery/voyager2-neptune.jpg

• http://iramis.cea.fr/Images/newsImg/_2228_0_.jpg
• http://www.computerfreewallpapers.com/images/wallpapers/Earth-From-Space-840007.jpeg
• http://images.clipartof.com/small/15416-Businessman-Doing-Research-In-A-Library-Full-Of-An-Unorganized-Mess-Of-Colorful-Stacked-Books-Clipart-Illustration-Image.jpg 

So what exactly is a black hole?

If a small star is very dense, it may begin to shrink under the pull of its own gravity. As it shrinks, it becomes denser and denser and its gravity becomes more and more powerful - until it shrinks to a single tiny point of infinite density called singularity. The gravitational pull of a singularity is so immense that it pulls space into a "hole" like a funnel. This is the black hole, which sucks in everything that comes near it with its huge gravitational force - including light which is why it is a "black" hole.
A giant black hole may exists at the centre of our galaxy.

Here is anther interesting documentary on the star explosion. Enjoy!
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTRUDeJIZ0w&feature=fvw

Stars are gigantic glowing balls of gas, scattered throughout the space. However, why do they give off light?



- Do you know where are stars born?


- Do you know what are constellation?

- Do you know what is the biggest star?





- DISCUSSION TIME!
Here, you can voice out your thoughts or comments on the topic and we will discuss in this blog post.

Today's discussion:

Do you think stars are important and essential to our life? Why?


Should you have any comments to voice out, please type in the comment box.
Thanks.