This video is pretty darn amazing. I love science, the planets, and Star Trek!!! LOL. Seriously though, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory put this together and it's absolutely stunning.
About the video - "
This extraordinary video looks back on the 3rd year of operation of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Since its launch in 2010, SDO's data and imagery have exceeded everyone's hopes and expectations, providing stunningly detailed views of the sun. The observatory has continued to return breathtaking pictures and movies of eruptive events on the sun. These images are more than just pretty. By highlighting different wavelengths of light, scientists can track how material on the sun moves. Such movement, in turn, holds clues as to what causes these giant explosions."
Giving credit to TIME, I'd like to thank them for showing us the many ways we can meet these goals of saving our environment. And yes, even one person can make a difference.
The Global Warming Survival Guide
1. Turn Food Into Fuel
Are corn husks better than corn for producing energy? Ethanol is the alternative fuel that could finally wean the U.S. from its expensive oil habit and in turn prevent the millions of tons of carbon emissions that go with it. The Department of Energy has doubled its 2005 commitment to funding research into biofuels—any non-petroleum fuel source, including corn, soybean, switchgrass, municipal waste and (ick) used cooking oil. Already, half of the nearly 11 billion bushels of corn produced each year is turned into ethanol, and most new cars are capable of running on E10 (10% ethanol and 90% gas).
Yet the eco-friendly fuel is beginning to look less chummy of late. Some of the 114 ethanol plants in the U.S. use natural gas and, yes, even coal to run the processors. And ethanol has to be trucked. Existing gas pipelines can't carry it because it corrodes iron. Then there are the economics. Producers depend on federal subsidies, and increasing demand for corn as fuel means the kernels keep getting pricier.
That's why researchers are prospecting for more alternatives, preferably ones that don't rely on food crops or a 51 cents-per-gallon tax break. Municipal waste, wood pulp and leftover grain and corn husks are all quite attractive; they can produce something called cellulosic ethanol, which contains more energy than corn. But they don't give up their bounty easily, so for now they're more expensive than corn-based ethanol to produce. Undeterred, researchers at several cellulosic-ethanol plants are developing innovative enzyme concoctions and heating methods to make the process more economic. Nothing like haste to make something out of waste.
Make sure to follow this blog every Tuesday for a new issue of Things We Can Do To Save The Environment. Each issue is thought-provoking, informative and may hold the key to saving your children and grandchildren's future
According to Space.com, astronomers have discovered more than 700 alien planets beyond the solar system, and the count is rising all the time. Some are large and hot, and others are smaller and cooler, but scientists are still on the lookout for an Earth twin.
They just got closer, with the announcement Dec. 5 of a planet found by NASA's Kepler space telescope to lie in the habitable zone around its star where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist.
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| click on picture to visit space.com |
This is a pretty amazing video. The International Space Station took these shots as it orbited our earth at night; going from North America to South America, and ending up over Antarctica.
The YouTube description reads:
A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, El Salvador, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Lake Titicaca, and the Amazon. Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line), a satellite (55sec) and the stars of our galaxy.
And this is how life on earth is possible, make sure to share this with all your friends, and yes, even the Christian ones.
I have organized my blogs with 3 days worth of postings, so if you wish to continue reading the days before that, and so forth and so forth, you can click the "Older Posts" button /\ /\ /\ right /\ up there.
There are 3 other ways you can find interesting topics to read as well.
*Clicking on any of the links under my "Favorite Categories" section on the left hand side of your screen
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Hope you enjoy my daily posts, and hope to hear from you soon.
- Blade 7184 aka Peter
