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Friday
Sunday
The Giant Jellies are Coming!
(CNN) -- Giant jellyfish descend on the Sea of Japan, causing untold devastation to coastal villages and leaving a trail of destruction and human misery behind
A diver attaches a sensor to a Nomura's jellyfish off the coast of northern Japan in October 2005.
.
Sounds like a great sci-fi flick. But it's not.
It's real and a nightmare for Japanese fishermen.
The massive sea creatures, called Nomura's jellyfish, can grow 6 feet (1.83 meters) in diameter and weigh more than 450 pounds (204 kilos). Scientists think they originate in the Yellow Sea and in Chinese waters. For the third year since 2005, ocean currents are transporting them into the Sea of Japan.
Monty Graham, a marine biologist at Alabama's Dauphin Island Sea Lab, said the jellyfish grow to an enormous size as they are transported by ocean currents. He said they stay together in packs and as they drift northward, they get caught in fishermen's nets.
The giant jellyfish are one of about 200 species of coastal jellyfish or large jellyfish that exist around the world. But Nomura's stands out because of its enormous size.
"The sheer size of them, individually, makes them fairly spectacular," Graham said. Spectacular, perhaps, to scientists, but perilous to villagers along the Japanese coast who have seen the destructive habits of these colossal creatures in the past. They had giant-jellyfish invasions in 2005 and 2007, and because they've recently been spotted in the Sea of Japan, they're bracing for another, potentially harmful wave this summer.
The jellyfish destroy fishermen's nets, getting trapped in them, tearing holes and ruining catches.
Fishermen often use expensive mazelike nets that stretch for hundreds of kilometers. When swarms of giant jellyfish tear them, the result is devastating.
"Communities of fishermen and these fishing villages own these nets," Graham said. "When these nets get wiped out, it actually has this economic devastation for an entire community."
The good news is that previous attacks have prompted Japan to put in place a warning system for fishermen. While they still risk losing a big catch, they can, at least, save their pricey nets from the invasion of the giant jellyfish.
It's not clear why waves of Nomura's jellyfish have made it to the Sea of Japan in recent years. Some have speculated that overfishing, pollution or rising ocean temperatures may have depleted the kinds of fish that prey on Nomura's jellyfish in the polyp stage. However, no one is certain, Graham said.
A diver attaches a sensor to a Nomura's jellyfish off the coast of northern Japan in October 2005..
It's real and a nightmare for Japanese fishermen.
The massive sea creatures, called Nomura's jellyfish, can grow 6 feet (1.83 meters) in diameter and weigh more than 450 pounds (204 kilos). Scientists think they originate in the Yellow Sea and in Chinese waters. For the third year since 2005, ocean currents are transporting them into the Sea of Japan.
Monty Graham, a marine biologist at Alabama's Dauphin Island Sea Lab, said the jellyfish grow to an enormous size as they are transported by ocean currents. He said they stay together in packs and as they drift northward, they get caught in fishermen's nets.
The giant jellyfish are one of about 200 species of coastal jellyfish or large jellyfish that exist around the world. But Nomura's stands out because of its enormous size.
"The sheer size of them, individually, makes them fairly spectacular," Graham said. Spectacular, perhaps, to scientists, but perilous to villagers along the Japanese coast who have seen the destructive habits of these colossal creatures in the past. They had giant-jellyfish invasions in 2005 and 2007, and because they've recently been spotted in the Sea of Japan, they're bracing for another, potentially harmful wave this summer.
The jellyfish destroy fishermen's nets, getting trapped in them, tearing holes and ruining catches.
Fishermen often use expensive mazelike nets that stretch for hundreds of kilometers. When swarms of giant jellyfish tear them, the result is devastating.
"Communities of fishermen and these fishing villages own these nets," Graham said. "When these nets get wiped out, it actually has this economic devastation for an entire community."
The good news is that previous attacks have prompted Japan to put in place a warning system for fishermen. While they still risk losing a big catch, they can, at least, save their pricey nets from the invasion of the giant jellyfish.
It's not clear why waves of Nomura's jellyfish have made it to the Sea of Japan in recent years. Some have speculated that overfishing, pollution or rising ocean temperatures may have depleted the kinds of fish that prey on Nomura's jellyfish in the polyp stage. However, no one is certain, Graham said.
Monday
Breaking the Sound Barrier
What is the Speed of Sound?
Because of the variables in measuring the speed of sound, we measure it at Mach 1. Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound, etc. The fastest any airplane has ever flown is Mach 6.7 -- a record set by the X-15, flown by Air Force Capt. Peter Knight on Oct. 3, 1967. The X-15 was built by North American.
Why "Sound Barrier"?
Before 1947, it was believed that the speed of sound created a physical barrier for aircraft and pilots. As airplanes approach the speed of sound, a shock wave forms and the aircraft encounters sharply increased drag, violent shaking, loss of lift, and loss of control. In attempting to break the barrier, several planes went out of control and crashed, injuring many pilots and killing some.
Eventually, the barrier proved to be mythical. Capt. Chuck Yeager, who punched through the barrier in the X-1, later wrote in his autobiography: "I thought I was seeing things! We were flying supersonic! And it was as smooth as a baby's bottom. Grandma could be up there sipping lemonade."
What is a "Sonic Boom"?
Sonic booms are created by air pressure. Much like a boat pushes up a wave as it travels through water, a vehicle pushes air molecules aside in such a way they are compressed to the point where shock waves are formed. The shock waves move outward and rearward in all directions and usually extend to the ground. As the shock cones spread across the landscape along the flightpath, they create a continuous sonic boom along the full width of the cone's base. The sharp release of pressure, after the buildup by the shock wave, is heard on the ground as the sonic boom.
Fifty years ago, aircraft encountered serious turbulence from the accumulating shock wave. As the first to successfully ?punch through? the sound barrier, Col. Yeager was the first to report that smooth flight resumed ?on the other side.? Trying to break the sound barrier had already killed several pilots who lost control when they hit the shock wave. The 24-year-old Yeager encountered the same turbulence as other pilots, but tried something new -- he slammed the throttle forward and literally punched his way through the previously impenetrable barrier. On the other side, the flight returned to its routine smoothness.
This article may be found here at its original location.
Tuesday
Monday
Awesome Tides Video Clip
This video really shows the fluctuation of the highs & lows between spring & neap tides. Thanks, C!
Friday
The Voyager Spacecraft
The twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft continue exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before. In the 30th year after their 1977 launches, they each are much farther away from Earth and the Sun than Pluto is and approaching the boundary region -- the heliopause -- where the Sun's dominance of the environment ends and interstellar space begins. Voyager 1, more than three times as distant as Pluto, is farther from Earth than any other human-made object and speeding outward at more than 17 kilometers per second (38,000 miles per hour). Both spacecraft are still sending scientific information about their surroundings through the Deep Space Network (DSN).
The primary mission was the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn. After making a string of discoveries there -- such as active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io and intricacies of Saturn's rings -- the mission was extended. Voyager 2 went on to explore Uranus and Neptune, and is still the only spacecraft to have visited those outer planets. The adventurers' current mission, the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM), will explore the outermost edge of the Sun's domain. And beyond.
Sounds of EarthNASA placed a … message aboard Voyager 1 and 2: a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record-a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.
The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University, et. al. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim. Each record is encased in a protective aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and a needle. Instructions, in symbolic language, explain the origin of the spacecraft and indicate how the record is to be played.
It contains the spoken greetings, beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer about six thousand years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect. Following the section on the sounds of Earth, there is an eclectic 90-minute selection of music, including both Eastern and Western classics and a variety of ethnic music.
Once the Voyager spacecraft leave the solar system (by 1990, both will be beyond the orbit of Pluto), they will find themselves in empty space. It will be forty thousand years before they make a close approach to any other planetary system. As Carl Sagan has noted, “The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet.”
Thursday
Wednesday
Friday
Do you like the new fish tank backgrounds?
So far I have had a coral reef, a Great White shark, a piranha, and now a bowl of Alphabet Soup. Leave your suggestions for fish tank backgrounds here.
New comment format: INITIALS and CLASS PERIOD ONLY!!!!
New comment format: INITIALS and CLASS PERIOD ONLY!!!!
Wednesday
Some pretty great experiments in Zero G!
The narration is a bit dry (& big words) but the video is a.w.e.s.o.m.e! Espcially the Alka-Seltzer experiment!
Tuesday
Wednesday
More WFOD Coverage
Sep. 29, 2009 (GlobeNewswire) --
NORWALK, Conn., Sept. 29, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) Foundation sent 30 educators representing various school districts throughout Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island into weightlessness today as part of the Northrop Grumman Foundation Weightless Flights of Discovery Program, which aims to inspire and prepare the next generation of scientists, mathematicians and engineers -- critical areas where the U.S. has fallen behind globally.
The United States is experiencing a shortage of college graduates in the STEM disciplines, a negative trend that bodes ill for the nation's industries that depend on talented scientists and mathematicians. Because studies have indicated most children make the decision to pursue math and science education and careers during middle-school, Northrop Grumman developed the Weightless Flights of Discovery to engage teachers, and key influencers in the lives of students during these crucial years.
NORWALK, Conn., Sept. 29, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) Foundation sent 30 educators representing various school districts throughout Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island into weightlessness today as part of the Northrop Grumman Foundation Weightless Flights of Discovery Program, which aims to inspire and prepare the next generation of scientists, mathematicians and engineers -- critical areas where the U.S. has fallen behind globally.
The program, in its fourth year, provides educators with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to prepare for and participate in micro- and zero-gravity flights during which they test Newton's Laws of Motion with a variety of planned experiments. The experience and experiment results are captured through photos and videos that the teachers will then take into their classrooms to share with their students in order to demonstrate how exciting and cool careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) can be.
As the plane flew over the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, teachers conducted a range of experiments, including soaring like Superman, as they experienced lunar, Martian and zero gravity. Pictured: James Janski, Wells Road Intermediate School, Granby, CT (top row, left); Geoffrey Bergen, Whisconier Middle School, Brookfield, CT (top row, right); Michael Gary, J. A. DePaolo Middle School, Southington, CT (second row, right); Nina Rooks Cast, Cooley Health, Science, Technology High School, Providence, RI (second row, left), and Brian Katz, Keansburg High School, Keansburg, NJ (bottom row, left).
The Northrop Grumman Foundation supports diverse and sustainable programs for students and teachers. These programs create innovative education experiences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Friday
Zero G or Bust!
Bye everyone, we are off to fly the Weightless Flight of Discovery on Tuesday! Here’s a website that tells a little more about it, if you are interested … our exact flight begins at 11 AM. Think of us!!!
Wednesday
Tuesday
Friday
The Nose Knows [more about Tycho Brahe ... a very odd man ...]
This story is directly from Curious Expeditions.
It was a precious metal occasion, Tycho thought to himself, looking down at his metallic options. Though heavier and more uncomfortable then the copper design, the gold and silver model looked more realistic and carried a certain gravitas and nobility. Today was a worthy event.
With that Tycho Brahe spread a layer of adhesive putty on the hole in his face where his nose used to be and smushed on the shiny metal nose, holding it in place to let it bond. The gold and silver had been mixed together to provide a somewhat flesh-like appearance, though Tycho knew it must have been distracting when it caught the light glinting off of it at odd angles. Tycho, however, was not one to let public opinion get to him. In fact, the metal nose on his face was one of the more normal things about Tycho Brahe.
Born in 1546 into Danish nobility, Tycho was a precocious child. Raised by an aunt and uncle, Tycho became fascinated with astronomy at the young age of 14 after he witnessed a solar eclipse. Amazed by both the event and the magical ability of the local astronomers to predict such an astonishing thing, Tycho took to astronomy like a fish to the sea. At the age of 17 he was already aware of the need for much more accurate astronomy practices, saying
“What’s needed is a long term project with the aim of mapping the heavens conducted from a single location over a period of several years.”
He did just that. Without the aid of the yet to be invented (or at least used for astronomy) telescope, Tycho worked night after night with only his eyesight and the best measuring instruments he could invent or acquire. Slowly he began the arduous process of making some of the very first accurate astronomical measurements.
Despite being obsessively accurate in his astronomical work, Tycho also knew how to let his mustache down. At the age of 20, Tycho was at a party when he got into a argument over mathematics and engaged in the very unwise idea of a duel in the dark. He escaped with his life but without his nose. Out of necessity he developed an immediate interest in metallurgy and crafted himself a metal replacement.
A wildly rich man (said to have owned as much as one percent of Denmark’s entire wealth at one point) Tycho also drank like a champ. He kept a future telling dwarf named Jepp around, often stashing him under the table during dinner. He also had a tame moose that he brought to friends houses for parties. Unfortunately at one such party, the moose was allowed to drink a large amount of beer and become highly intoxicated. It drunkenly fell down the stairs, and died shortly thereafter. If that’s not a wild party, I don’t know what is.
tychotomb.jpg Like a 16th century Animal House, this raucous behavior and Tycho’s general attitude towards the Danish peasantry was to eventually get him kicked out of Denmark. He settled himself in Prague where he got along with Emperor Rudolf II famously. Rudolf himself had a number of odd interests, and kept a beloved pet tiger. It’s not hard to see why they hit it off. Tycho was to be assisted in Prague by a young astronomer named Johannes Kepler. This, according to some, may have proved fatal.
Tycho sat down at the banquet that day, his precious metal nose weighing heavily on his face, unaware that this would be the last meal he ever ate. He felt ill throughout the banquet, but refused to leave the table, as it would have been poor manners. Tycho lapsed into a fever after the banquet and died 11 days later saying he words “Ne frustra vixisse videar” or “May I not seemed to have lived in vain” over and over.
The official story of his death, one corroborated by his assistant Kepler, was that he had strained his bladder by not using the bathroom during the banquet, and that did him in. But according to “Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History’s Greatest Scientific Discoveries” Kepler would have had every reason to espouse this theory. After performing tests on Tycho’s hair, Joshua and Anne-Lee Gilder found that Tycho had very high mercury levels in his body. They claim in their book that Kepler, who went on to use Tycho’s research to write his own astronomy hit, “Laws of Planetary Motion”, had every reason to off Tycho and did so with a heavy dose of Mercury poisoning.
While it may be true that Kepler had a motive, the mercury levels in Tycho’s body are hardly solid evidence of murder. A serious practicer of alchemy, mercury exposure was a part of the job. Robert Hooke and Sir Issac Newton would both likely test well above Tycho for mercury levels. While Kepler may or may not have been a murderer, he certainly benefitted from his relationship with Tycho and Tycho’s untimely death. Two days after Tycho died, Kepler was appointed his successor as imperial mathematician.
All of which leaves me with one burning question. What’s the point of having a future telling dwarf named Jepp you keep under the dinner table, if he’s not around when you really need him?
Today one can see Tycho’s grave in the “Church of Our Lady in front of Týn” in the Old Town Square in Prague. Above his grave stands an relief of Tycho where one can just make out a line where the sculptor subtly indicated his metal nose.
It was a precious metal occasion, Tycho thought to himself, looking down at his metallic options. Though heavier and more uncomfortable then the copper design, the gold and silver model looked more realistic and carried a certain gravitas and nobility. Today was a worthy event.
With that Tycho Brahe spread a layer of adhesive putty on the hole in his face where his nose used to be and smushed on the shiny metal nose, holding it in place to let it bond. The gold and silver had been mixed together to provide a somewhat flesh-like appearance, though Tycho knew it must have been distracting when it caught the light glinting off of it at odd angles. Tycho, however, was not one to let public opinion get to him. In fact, the metal nose on his face was one of the more normal things about Tycho Brahe.
Born in 1546 into Danish nobility, Tycho was a precocious child. Raised by an aunt and uncle, Tycho became fascinated with astronomy at the young age of 14 after he witnessed a solar eclipse. Amazed by both the event and the magical ability of the local astronomers to predict such an astonishing thing, Tycho took to astronomy like a fish to the sea. At the age of 17 he was already aware of the need for much more accurate astronomy practices, saying
“What’s needed is a long term project with the aim of mapping the heavens conducted from a single location over a period of several years.”
He did just that. Without the aid of the yet to be invented (or at least used for astronomy) telescope, Tycho worked night after night with only his eyesight and the best measuring instruments he could invent or acquire. Slowly he began the arduous process of making some of the very first accurate astronomical measurements.
Despite being obsessively accurate in his astronomical work, Tycho also knew how to let his mustache down. At the age of 20, Tycho was at a party when he got into a argument over mathematics and engaged in the very unwise idea of a duel in the dark. He escaped with his life but without his nose. Out of necessity he developed an immediate interest in metallurgy and crafted himself a metal replacement.
A wildly rich man (said to have owned as much as one percent of Denmark’s entire wealth at one point) Tycho also drank like a champ. He kept a future telling dwarf named Jepp around, often stashing him under the table during dinner. He also had a tame moose that he brought to friends houses for parties. Unfortunately at one such party, the moose was allowed to drink a large amount of beer and become highly intoxicated. It drunkenly fell down the stairs, and died shortly thereafter. If that’s not a wild party, I don’t know what is.
tychotomb.jpg Like a 16th century Animal House, this raucous behavior and Tycho’s general attitude towards the Danish peasantry was to eventually get him kicked out of Denmark. He settled himself in Prague where he got along with Emperor Rudolf II famously. Rudolf himself had a number of odd interests, and kept a beloved pet tiger. It’s not hard to see why they hit it off. Tycho was to be assisted in Prague by a young astronomer named Johannes Kepler. This, according to some, may have proved fatal.
Tycho sat down at the banquet that day, his precious metal nose weighing heavily on his face, unaware that this would be the last meal he ever ate. He felt ill throughout the banquet, but refused to leave the table, as it would have been poor manners. Tycho lapsed into a fever after the banquet and died 11 days later saying he words “Ne frustra vixisse videar” or “May I not seemed to have lived in vain” over and over.
The official story of his death, one corroborated by his assistant Kepler, was that he had strained his bladder by not using the bathroom during the banquet, and that did him in. But according to “Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History’s Greatest Scientific Discoveries” Kepler would have had every reason to espouse this theory. After performing tests on Tycho’s hair, Joshua and Anne-Lee Gilder found that Tycho had very high mercury levels in his body. They claim in their book that Kepler, who went on to use Tycho’s research to write his own astronomy hit, “Laws of Planetary Motion”, had every reason to off Tycho and did so with a heavy dose of Mercury poisoning.
While it may be true that Kepler had a motive, the mercury levels in Tycho’s body are hardly solid evidence of murder. A serious practicer of alchemy, mercury exposure was a part of the job. Robert Hooke and Sir Issac Newton would both likely test well above Tycho for mercury levels. While Kepler may or may not have been a murderer, he certainly benefitted from his relationship with Tycho and Tycho’s untimely death. Two days after Tycho died, Kepler was appointed his successor as imperial mathematician.
All of which leaves me with one burning question. What’s the point of having a future telling dwarf named Jepp you keep under the dinner table, if he’s not around when you really need him?
Today one can see Tycho’s grave in the “Church of Our Lady in front of Týn” in the Old Town Square in Prague. Above his grave stands an relief of Tycho where one can just make out a line where the sculptor subtly indicated his metal nose.Polish tests 'confirm Copernicus'
Researchers in Poland say they have solved a centuries-old mystery and identified the remains of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.(click on image to see it enlarged)
A comparison of DNA from a skeleton in Poland and strands of the astronomer's hair found in a book in Sweden almost certainly confirm it is his skeleton.
Archaeologists found the skeleton in north-eastern Poland three years ago in a cathedral where Copernicus lived.
He worked in Frombork Cathedral on the Baltic Sea coast in the 16th Century.
Copernicus made the key scientific discovery that the Earth orbits the Sun.
For many years he was a canon and only carried out his astronomical studies in his spare time. People had speculated about his final resting place for centuries.
Teeth DNA
Three years ago, archaeologists dug up a skull and partial remains of a man aged about 70, Copernicus' age when he died, near an altar at the cathedral.
Jerzy Gassowski, the leader of the archaeologists' team, said forensic facial reconstruction of the skull found that it bore a striking resemblance to existing portraits of the father of modern astronomy.
Scientists then matched the DNA from one of the skull's teeth and a femur bone with two strands of Copernicus' hair.
The hair was found in a book once owned by the astronomer now kept in Sweden's Uppsala University.
By Adam Easton
BBC News, Warsaw
Sea Potatoes -- a vacation find!
When I was in Cape Cod last week, I kept seeing these little Styrofoam-like "eggs" on the beach. They are about 4 inches long and fairly hard. I have been going to the Cape since I was a child, and I have never seen/noticed these things before. I asked the ranger at the Visitor Center, and she said they are brown algae; I broke one apart to see the insides and to take a whiff. They are definitely plant-like, that is true. They are like hardened foam on the outside, spongy green on the inside. The smell is a bit like low tide; not horribly unpleasant, but very biological.
I did a hurried web search to read up on them; I discovered their Latin name (Leathesia difformis) and also that there is a second "sea potato" that is actually a species of urchin. So much for common names (thanks again for the binomial nomenclature, Linnaeus!).
But I am left deeply unsatisfied with the information out there on the web about these objects. I want to know why the brown alga creates this structure and why there suddenly seem to be so many more of them. Do they bunch together like this in response to some sort of environmental stresses, or do they naturally grow like this? I must research further.
Thursday
Rotation Around Polaris
This time-lapse image shows how the night
sky appears to revolve around Polaris as the
Earth spins on its axis. Polaris (aka the North Star)
is positioned directly abopve the Earth's geographic north
pole, so is centedered on Earth's axis. It appears
as a stationary dot in the center of the rotating star field.
Eclipse Amazingness
This is the "pinhole effect" that happens under a tree
during a solar eclipse.
See all of the little crescent suns?
1908: The Tunguska Event
Above: Trees knocked down by the Tunguska explosion.Credit: the Leonid Kulik Expedition.
June 30, 2008: The year is 1908, and it's just after seven in the morning. A man is sitting on the front porch of a trading post at Vanavara in Siberia. Little does he know, in a few moments, he will be hurled from his chair and the heat will be so intense he will feel as though his shirt is on fire.
That's how the Tunguska event felt 40 miles from ground zero.
Today, June 30, 2008, is the 100th anniversary of that ferocious impact near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in remote Siberia--and after 100 years, scientists are still talking about it.
"If you want to start a conversation with anyone in the asteroid business all you have to say is Tunguska," says Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "It is the only entry of a large meteoroid we have in the modern era with first-hand accounts."
That's how the Tunguska event felt 40 miles from ground zero.
Today, June 30, 2008, is the 100th anniversary of that ferocious impact near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in remote Siberia--and after 100 years, scientists are still talking about it.
"If you want to start a conversation with anyone in the asteroid business all you have to say is Tunguska," says Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "It is the only entry of a large meteoroid we have in the modern era with first-hand accounts."
While the impact occurred in '08, the first scientific expedition to the area would have to wait for 19 years. In 1921, Leonid Kulik, the chief curator for the meteorite collection of the St. Petersburg museum led an expedition to Tunguska. But the harsh conditions of the Siberian outback thwarted his team's attempt to reach the area of the blast. In 1927, a new expedition, again lead by Kulik, reached its goal.
"At first, the locals were reluctant to tell Kulik about the event," said Yeomans. "They believed the blast was a visitation by the god Ogdy, who had cursed the area by smashing trees and killing animals."
"At first, the locals were reluctant to tell Kulik about the event," said Yeomans. "They believed the blast was a visitation by the god Ogdy, who had cursed the area by smashing trees and killing animals."
While testimonials may have at first been difficult to obtain, there was plenty of evidence lying around. Eight hundred square miles of remote forest had been ripped asunder. Eighty million trees were on their sides, lying in a radial pattern.
"Those trees acted as markers, pointing directly away from the blast's epicenter," said Yeomans. "Later, when the team arrived at ground zero, they found the trees there standing upright – but their limbs and bark had been stripped away. They looked like a forest of telephone poles."
Such debranching requires fast moving shock waves that break off a tree's branches before the branches can transfer the impact momentum to the tree's stem. Thirty seven years after the Tunguska blast, branchless trees would be found at the site of another massive explosion – Hiroshima, Japan.
Kulik's expeditions (he traveled to Tunguska on three separate occasions) did finally get some of the locals to talk. One was the man based at the Vanara trading post who witnessed the heat blast as he was launched from his chair. His account:
Suddenly in the north sky… the sky was split in two, and high above the forest the whole northern part of the sky appeared covered with fire… At that moment there was a bang in the sky and a mighty crash… The crash was followed by a noise like stones falling from the sky, or of guns firing. The earth trembled.
The massive explosion packed a wallop. The resulting seismic shockwave registered with sensitive barometers as far away as England. Dense clouds formed over the region at high altitudes which reflected sunlight from beyond the horizon. Night skies glowed, and reports came in that people who lived as far away as Asia could read newspapers outdoors as late as midnight. Locally, hundreds of reindeer, the livelihood of local herders, were killed, but there was no direct evidence that any person perished in the blast.
Wow, look at these.
The moon's shadow darkens part of Earth during a solar eclipse. Only people underneath the center of that dark spot will see the total eclipse; others will see a partial eclipse. This shot was taken from the Mir space station in August 1999.
Photograph courtesy Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales
The moon's lunar highlands (light areas) and maria, or volcanic plains, (dark areas) are clearly visible in this photograph taken by the Expedition 10 crew onboard the International Space Station. Photograph courtesy NASA
These pictures are from National Geographic Photography.
Wednesday
This Week's Sky at a Glance
From Sky & Telescope:
Some daily events in the changing sky for October 3 – 11.
Watch the Moon wax in the west from night to night, passing Venus and fainter Antares. (These scenes are drawn for the middle of North America. European observers: move each Moon symbol a quarter of the way toward the one for the previous date. For clarity, the Moon is shown three times actual size.)
Monday, October 6
Get a low-power scope onto Venus low in the west-southwest as twilight fades, and look for the wide double star Alpha Librae less than 1° to its north (upper right). This direction is correct at the time of twilight in North America. Venus itself is tiny (13″ wide) and gibbous.
Jupiter is the thing shining above the Moon this evening. Jupiter is now at eastern quadrature, 90° east of the Sun.
Tuesday, October 7
First-quarter Moon (exact at 5:04 a.m. EDT). This evening, Jupiter shines to the Moon's right.
Wednesday, October 8
Jupiter's moon Io emerges out of eclipse by Jupiter's shadow around 9:47 p.m. EDT, just east of the planet. A small telescope will show it gradually swelling into view.
Thursday, October 9
Early Friday morning, telescope users along the East Coast from Labrador to Florida can watch for whether the faint asteroid 225 Henrietta will occult (cover) a 10.4-magnitude star near the head of Cetus (not in Monoceros; that was an error).
Friday, October 10
The red long-period variable star W Lyrae should be about at its peak brightness (8th magnitude) this week.
Saturday, October 11
Jupiter's moon Ganymede disappears into eclipse by Jupiter's shadow around 9:39 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, a little east of the planet. A small telescope will show it gradually fading away.
Some daily events in the changing sky for October 3 – 11.
Watch the Moon wax in the west from night to night, passing Venus and fainter Antares. (These scenes are drawn for the middle of North America. European observers: move each Moon symbol a quarter of the way toward the one for the previous date. For clarity, the Moon is shown three times actual size.)
Monday, October 6
Get a low-power scope onto Venus low in the west-southwest as twilight fades, and look for the wide double star Alpha Librae less than 1° to its north (upper right). This direction is correct at the time of twilight in North America. Venus itself is tiny (13″ wide) and gibbous.
Jupiter is the thing shining above the Moon this evening. Jupiter is now at eastern quadrature, 90° east of the Sun.
Tuesday, October 7
First-quarter Moon (exact at 5:04 a.m. EDT). This evening, Jupiter shines to the Moon's right.
Wednesday, October 8
Jupiter's moon Io emerges out of eclipse by Jupiter's shadow around 9:47 p.m. EDT, just east of the planet. A small telescope will show it gradually swelling into view.
Thursday, October 9
Early Friday morning, telescope users along the East Coast from Labrador to Florida can watch for whether the faint asteroid 225 Henrietta will occult (cover) a 10.4-magnitude star near the head of Cetus (not in Monoceros; that was an error).
Friday, October 10
The red long-period variable star W Lyrae should be about at its peak brightness (8th magnitude) this week.
Saturday, October 11
Jupiter's moon Ganymede disappears into eclipse by Jupiter's shadow around 9:39 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, a little east of the planet. A small telescope will show it gradually fading away.
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