Moon Over Belmont
Who said you can't see the night sky in the city ...
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One night only: Leonid meteor shower
John Johnson, Jr. of the LA Times reports that the annual Leonid meteor shower will make its one-night appearance over North America tonight. Viewing conditions should be excellent because the peak will occur after midnight, when the lights of metropolitan areas will be at their dimmest.
Further, the presence of a new moon will make it much easier to see the white streaks across the sky. The meteor shower is called the Leonids because the meteors appear to originate in the constellation Leo. In reality, they appear only in the last few seconds of their existence when they enter the upper atmosphere of the Earth. Most of the meteors are small bits of sand and fluff shed by the 55P/Tempel-Tuttle comet, which makes a close pass of the sun every 33 years before returning to the outer solar system. The last close pass of the comet, which is about 2 miles in diameter, was in 1998. Each time it traverses the inner solar system, the heat of the sun causes the comet to lay down a trail of debris. When the Earth's orbit carries it through this trail, that becomes the Leonid shower.
NASA - Noctis Labyrinthus
via nasa.gov
Noctis Labyrinthus
Layers in the lower portion of two neighboring buttes within the Noctis Labyrinthus formation on Mars are visible in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
US High School Goes Green
The first Louisiana high school has taken steps to build green. Warren Easton Charter High School added a hurricane-proof photovoltaic solar system. This is also the largest solar installation in New Orleans. This installation represents the cities commitment to sustainability.
The photovoltaic solar system is 28 kW and will produce 37 kWh of electricity every year. It is projected to save Warren Easton Charter High School $4,000. Through the installation, the city hopes to inspire students to aspire to careers in math and science. The system will serve the students as a representation of sustainability and teach them at a young age the importance of clean energy. It gives teachers a physical representation as they teach about environmental sustainability.
US High School Goes Green
Rich Hessler
Learn how to sell solar panels.
(949) 208-0221
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Scientists discover massive ring around Saturn
via cnn.com
* Newly discovered ring is so large it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it
* Ring is made up of ice and dust particles that are so far apart it's hard to see
* Ring material may come from comet, meteor collisions with moon Phoebe
(CNN) -- Scientists at NASA have discovered a nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- one so large that it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it.
The ring's orbit is tilted 27 degrees from the planet's main ring plane. The bulk of it starts about 3.7 million miles (6 million km) away from the planet and extends outward another 7.4 million miles (12 million km).
Its diameter is equivalent to 300 Saturns lined up side to side. And its entire volume can hold one billion Earths, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said late Tuesday.
(I'm starting to think NASA has used it's funding to hire a computer geek that is good at Photoshop.)
