Smaller, paler Earth unveiled in new NASA photo

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2tb1CtuxsxdxeIJiXmEEyo0TYxoDcKDmWs0ZpJVttnuQxuocfPOGcsVMbr5d9His8BKdRV6BrnAJRjYZgPm16tDtinFpqBJitYvJzD6ckh4i2uUCUVvtoQeaPsULQETj921IYig7sTj4/s1600/Smaller,+paler+Earth+unveiled+in+new+NASA+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Smaller, paler Earth unveiled in new NASA photo" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2tb1CtuxsxdxeIJiXmEEyo0TYxoDcKDmWs0ZpJVttnuQxuocfPOGcsVMbr5d9His8BKdRV6BrnAJRjYZgPm16tDtinFpqBJitYvJzD6ckh4i2uUCUVvtoQeaPsULQETj921IYig7sTj4/s400/Smaller,+paler+Earth+unveiled+in+new+NASA+photo.jpg" title="Smaller, paler Earth unveiled in new NASA photo" width="400" /></a></div> <h2 style="text-align: left;"> <a href="http://worldofnews360.blogspot.com/2013/07/smaller-paler-earth-unveiled-in-new.html">Smaller, paler Earth unveiled in new NASA photo</a></h2> <div> <br /></div> <div> <div> A robotic space probe nearly 900 million miles from Earth turned its gaze away from Saturn and its entourage of moons to take a picture of its home planet, NASA said on Monday.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> The resulting image shows Earth as a very small, blue-tinged dot - paler and tinier than in other photos - overshadowed by the giant Saturn's rings in foreground.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> "We can't see individual continents or people in this portrait of Earth, but this pale blue dot is a succinct summary of who we were on July 19," Linda Spilker, Cassini spacecraft lead scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> Cassini snapped the picture on Friday, the same day NASA's Mercury-orbiting MESSENGER probe imaged Earth as well. In that picture, Earth and the moon take up less than a pixel, but appear large because they are overexposed.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> "That images of our planet have been acquired on a single day from two distant solar system outposts reminds us of this nation's stunning technical accomplishments in planetary exploration," MESSENGER lead scientist Sean Solomon, with Columbia University in New York, said in a statement.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> "The whole event underscores for me our 'coming of age' as planetary explorers," added astronomer Carolyn Porco, who oversees the Cassini imaging team at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> Usually, spacecraft in the far reaches of the solar system don't look back toward Earth to avoid damaging their instruments by direct sunlight. Last week, the sun was temporarily blocked relative to Cassini's line of sight, allowing the U.S. space agency to take the picture.</div> </div> <div> <br /></div> </div>

Smaller, paler Earth unveiled in new NASA photo A robotic space probe nearly 900 million miles from Earth turned its gaze away from...

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NASA Telescope Snaps 1st Photos of Mystery Region on the Sun

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAILvUPjUqjjW-1yOZvLFtOLca2cFnp4qNiReCoKoz2BH9RQ1LagyCe1Bhn1zL7f6mEwr2xM6gkgh1Q3an2ZGaZnTasulAO34MRESEVW0dZkQ_z96cEvSsAFHqtMdds5EYy-uLHeN06kg/s1600/NASA+Telescope+Snaps+1st+Photos+of+Mystery+Region+on+the+Sun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="NASA Telescope Snaps 1st Photos of Mystery Region on the Sun" border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAILvUPjUqjjW-1yOZvLFtOLca2cFnp4qNiReCoKoz2BH9RQ1LagyCe1Bhn1zL7f6mEwr2xM6gkgh1Q3an2ZGaZnTasulAO34MRESEVW0dZkQ_z96cEvSsAFHqtMdds5EYy-uLHeN06kg/s400/NASA+Telescope+Snaps+1st+Photos+of+Mystery+Region+on+the+Sun.jpg" title="NASA Telescope Snaps 1st Photos of Mystery Region on the Sun" width="400" /></a></div> <h2 style="text-align: left;"> <a href="http://worldofnews360.blogspot.com/2013/07/nasa-telescope-snaps-1st-photos-of.html">NASA Telescope Snaps 1st Photos of Mystery Region on the Sun</a></h2> <div> NASA's newest solar observatory has taken its first photos of the lowest layers of the solar atmosphere, a mysterious and little-understood region of the sun.</div> <div> <div> <br /></div> <div> The images, taken just 21 hours after mission controllers first opened the telescope’s door, reveal new details of the sun’s lower atmosphere — an area known as the "interface region." The IRIS spacecraft (short for Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) captured images of thin magnetic structures and streams of material in the solar atmosphere. These early observations suggest tremendous amounts of energy flow through the interface region, according to NASA officials.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> "With this grand opening of the telescope door and first observations from IRIS, we've opened a new window into the energetics of the sun's atmosphere," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. "We look forward to the new insights IRIS will provide." [NASA's IRIS Solar Observatory Mission in Pictures]</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> The door covering the IRIS telescope was first opened on July 17, allowing it to take its first photographs of the sun. These photos showed thin, fiberlike structures that have never been seen before in the solar atmosphere, NASA officials said.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> IRIS also observed vast differences in density and temperature throughout the sun's interface region, even between loops of solar material located only a few hundred miles apart from each other, the scientists said. The spacecraft also captured spots that appear to blink — rapidly brightening and then dimming — which could indicate how the energy is being transported and absorbed in this area of the sun's atmosphere.</div> <div> <h3 style="text-align: left;"> <a href="http://worldofnews360.blogspot.com/2013/07/nasa-telescope-snaps-1st-photos-of.html">NASA Telescope Snaps 1st Photos of Mystery Region on the Sun</a></h3> </div> <div> Energy that flows through the interface region may help power the sun's dynamic atmosphere, and heat the upper layers of the solar atmosphere to scorching temperatures of about 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit (1 million degrees Celsius), NASA officials explained.</div> </div> <div> <br /></div> <div> <div> During its two-year mission, IRIS will closely study the sun's interface region, where most of the star's ultraviolet emissions are generated. The spacecraft will examine how solar material moves, gathers energy and heats up as it travels through this part of the lower atmosphere.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> The spacecraft's telescope, which is a combination of an ultraviolet telescope and spectrograph, is designed to capture high-resolution images every few seconds, and can zero in on areas as small as 150 miles (241 km) on the sun, NASA officials said. The onboard spectrograph analyzes the sun's light, splitting it into various wavelengths and measuring how much of any given wavelength is present.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> Over the next few weeks, scientists will inspect the IRIS data to ensure that the spacecraft's instruments are performing well. So far, mission managers are impressed.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> "The quality of the images and spectra we are receiving from IRIS is amazing — this is just what we were hoping for," Alan Title, IRIS principal investigator at Lockheed Martin in Palo Alto, Calif., said in a statement. "There is much work ahead to understand what we're seeing, but the quality of the data will enable us to do that."</div> </div> </div>

NASA Telescope Snaps 1st Photos of Mystery Region on the Sun NASA's newest solar observatory has taken its first photos of the low...

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Could South Africa's horn sale end rhino slaughter?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0PSqckqVCTw6-no94liIa3bMAkXfj2pfuUK2YMaaug12VpqXPZRw2LLijQNIoAZZ9TC1huvbNJ8pTh5d1ETuZPE7Zc2-VfGxdP3ufjUER3r0y5u9Kc_UQMrfM9Uxx1nRGzdFqti1kQO8/s1600/Could+South+Africa's+horn+sale+end+rhino+slaughter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0PSqckqVCTw6-no94liIa3bMAkXfj2pfuUK2YMaaug12VpqXPZRw2LLijQNIoAZZ9TC1huvbNJ8pTh5d1ETuZPE7Zc2-VfGxdP3ufjUER3r0y5u9Kc_UQMrfM9Uxx1nRGzdFqti1kQO8/s400/Could+South+Africa's+horn+sale+end+rhino+slaughter.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <h2 style="text-align: left;"> <a href="http://worldofnews360.blogspot.com/2013/07/could-south-africas-horn-sale-end-rhino.html">Could South Africa's horn sale end rhino slaughter?</a></h2> <br /> Decimated by illegal poaching, the endangered rhino has increasingly come under attack in recent years. In South Africa alone, some 480 rhinos have been killed since January, while last year there were 668 slaughters, a nearly 50% jump compared to 2011.<br /> <br /> The alarming surge in rhino killings has been fueled by unsubstantiated beliefs in southeast Asia that their horns can treat all kinds of conditions, from hangovers to cancers. Buyers in countries such as Vietnam and China are willing to pay big sums for traditional cures and this has helped create a lucrative poaching market, which is often run by sophisticated criminal syndicates.<br /> <br /></div>

Could South Africa's horn sale end rhino slaughter? Decimated by illegal poaching, the endangered rhino has increasingly come und...

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