Ink Lake

The Ice Age

Think Marco Rubio can’t explain the ice found at Mercury’s poles?

Wrong!

Via Conservapedia.

First Tracks

(NASA)

Today, Curiosity took its first ‘steps’ on Mars. Coincidentally, it’s the 92nd anniversary of Ray Bradbury’s birth.

In 2009, in what turned out to be his final visit to JPL, the author of The Martian Chronicles met some of the personnel who drove the rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

The site of Curiosity’s landing has been named Bradbury Landing.

 

Safe On Mars

I just have one question..did Curiosity play that music the whole way down?

“Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would give all my fame for a pot of ale, and safety.” — Henry V

This Is Why You’re Not A Rocket Scientist

Go, Curiosity!

Honestly, I wouldn’t trust me to put the flag decal on the packing box. I’ll be up tonight watching the NASA live stream.

So many things, everything, has to go right.  I remember being on tenterhooks when Cassini got to Saturn – and this makes that look easy.

This Is What A Lesbian Looks Like

 

Sally Ride

Physicist; first American woman in space; author of seven science books for children; member of the space shuttle Challenger crew; member of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology; director of the California Science Institute; inductee into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the California Hall of Fame, the Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Astronaut Hall of Fame; recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service, the von Braun Award, the Lindbergh Eagle, the NCAA’s Theodore Roosevelt Award, and the NASA Space Flight Medal (twice).

You hear me talking, hillbilly-girl Florida Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll? 

H/T: Michael Signorile

To The Moon

On this date in 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins blasted-off aboard Apollo 11 to the Moon.

 

Here is some amazing high-speed film of the launch. Each of the five F-1 engines of the first stage, generated 1.5 million pounds-of-force; more thrust than the 3 Space Shuttle Main Engines combined. It is still, the most powerful liquid-fueled rocket engine ever used.

Kiddie Brooklyn Versus The Higgs Boson

AKA, what a liberal-arts education buys you these days.

Note the girl at 1:27 who sounds exactly like Shoshanna.

One girl does nail it, and knows about the Large Hadron Collider, too. Cheers. And the source of her erudition?

“I read the news.”

Oh my effing G.

And here’s a video that works at explaining what the Higgs boson is all about.

Blow Your Own Way

Took this while flying yesterday, to SLC.

The plane didn’t have the seatback console with which you can track your flight (or listen to  Rumours over and over again; damn you, Delta – it’s not sufficient you transport me through the air across the continent in safety, I demand you entertain me while you do so!)

But using Flightaware, I believe this is the Wyoming Wind Energy Center, in Uinta. As of 2008, it was the largest wind-farm in the state. There are 80, 220-foot tall turbines, and the complex generates enough power for 43,000 homes.

Wyoming is an ideal place for serious wind-power generation - big spaces, not a lot of people.

F*cking Amazing!

Atlantis, on its final trip home, as taken from aboard the ISS.

Out Of My Way

Yesterday, my favorite planet, Neptune, completed it’s first complete orbit of the Sun, since its discovery in 1846. Its existence had actually been mathematically predicted, and in fact the planet had been observed many times before, including by Galileo, but it wasn’t receognized as a planet.

Netpune takes nearly 165 years to orbit the Sun. Although the fartherst planet from the Sun, it has the fastest winds in the solar system — over 1,300 mph. The planet radiates from internal sources, more than 2.6x the amount of heat it receives from the Sun

When the “ice giant” world was asked for comment about this auspicious event, it was heard to say,

“Huh? Who are you?”