Category: Science

We have had cloudy skies for most of the evenings here in the Pacific Northwest, so it’s been a challenge to see that wily comet called C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS).

C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is a comet from the Oort cloud* discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory in China on 9 January 2023 and independently found by ATLAS South Africa on 22 February 2023. The comet passed perihelion at a distance of 0.39 AU on 27 September 2024, when it became visible to the naked eye. [Source: Wikipedia]

*The Oort Cloud lies far beyond Pluto and the most distant edges of the Kuiper Belt. While the planets of our solar system orbit in a flat plane, the Oort Cloud is believed to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the Sun, planets and Kuiper Belt Objects. It’s like a big, thick bubble around our solar system, made of icy, comet-like objects. The Oort Cloud’s icy bodies can be as large as mountains – and sometimes larger. [Source: science.nasa.gov]

Yikes.
From cbsnews.com:
After weeks of debate, NASA has ruled out bringing two astronauts back to Earth aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule because of lingering concerns about multiple helium leaks and degraded thrusters, both critical to a successful re-entry, officials said Saturday.
Launched June 5, Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams originally expected to spend a little more than a week in space in the Starliner’s first piloted test flight. They’ll now spend at least 262 days in orbit — nearly nine months — before returning to Earth around Feb. 22 with  two Crew 9 fliers after they wrap up a normal six-month tour of duty.

It’s time for another cool British stamp that had arrived on an envelope in my mailbox.

Happy solstice!
It’s the earliest summer solstice in 228 years, or— since George Washington’s presidency.

So astronomical summer starts today here in the Northern Hemisphere.
With the scorching weather in much of the USA, it has felt like summer for many weeks already, of course.

We are going to be at 81 °F (27 °C) or so, through Saturday, here in the Seattle metro area.

Today marks the 44th anniversary of the 1980 Mt St Helens eruption.

‘We know that Mount St. Helens is the volcano in the Cascades most likely to erupt again in our lifetimes. It is likely that the types, frequencies, and magnitudes of past activity will be repeated in the future. However, neither a large debris avalanche nor a major lateral blast like those of May 18, 1980 is likely now that a deep crater has formed’.
– Cascades Volcano Observatory, Mount St. Helens, Nov. 3, 2023 (from the usgs.gov website)

Here is a new image of the Martian surface, taken by the Perseverance rover.
The atmosphere of Mars is much thinner than Earth’s.
The Red Planet’s atmosphere contains more than 95% carbon dioxide and much less than 1% oxygen.
Gravity on Mars is about 38% of the gravity of Earth, due to its smaller mass.

We were treated to a rare display of the northern lights here from Seattle on Friday night.
I took the first two pictures from my back porch around midnight on Friday.
The third picture was taken by my friend Thomas from Kitsap Peninsula. Look for the grouping of stars called the Big Dipper (a big ladle, left-of-middle, top of picture).

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
The Associated Press
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in a quarter century rocked the island during the morning rush Wednesday, damaging buildings and creating a tsunami that washed ashore on southern Japanese islands. There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, and the tsunami threat largely passed about two hours later.

Despite the quake striking at the height of the morning rush hour just before 8 a.m., the initial panic faded quickly on the island that is regularly rocked by temblors and prepares for them with drills at schools and notices issued via public media and mobile phone.

Still, the earthquake was strong enough to scare people who are used to such shaking.

“Earthquakes are a common occurrence, and I’ve grown accustomed to them. But today was the first time I was scared to tears by an earthquake,” Taipei resident Hsien-hsuen Keng said. ”I was awakened by the earthquake. I had never felt such intense shaking before.”

 

 

 

 

Happy Pi Day.

The number 3.14, the two-decimal-place value of pi (π), also represents the date March 14, which is Albert Einstein’s birthday.

Just on the border of your waking mind
There lies another time
Where darkness and light are one
And as you tread the halls of sanity
You feel so glad to be
Unable to go beyond
I have a message from another time
– Lyrics from ‘Prologue’ on the album ‘Time’ by Electric Light Orchestra, 1981

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It’s time to fiddle with our clocks again here in the United States.
Daylight Saving Time starts Sunday morning at 2 am.

Yeah, an hour extra daylight at the end of the day— robbed from the daylight in the early morning.

So we’re not really saving any daylight now, are we?

Euclid is a wide-angle space telescope with a 600-megapixel camera to record visible light, a near-infrared spectrometer, and photometer, to determine the redshift of detected galaxies. It was developed by the European Space Agency and the Euclid Consortium, and was launched on 1 July 2023.
– Wikipedia

Today, the European Space Agency shared the first images obtained from the telescope.

The mushroom spores in the ground in my backyard have started to sprout— the way they usually do in October.
The right kind of soil, and changes in temperature, light and water, trigger them to start growing.

Mushrooms, as living organisms, belong to a kingdom separate from plants (see table below).

Kingdom	Organisms
Monera	Bacteria, blue-green algae (cyanobacteria), and spirochetes
Protista	Protozoans and algae of various types
Fungi	Funguses, molds, mushrooms, yeasts, mildews, and smuts
Plantae	Mosses, ferns, woody and non-woody flowering plants
Animalia	Sponges, worms, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals

Here in Seattle, the sun came out from behind the clouds just in time for this morning’s partial solar eclipse.
At about 9.20 am, 81% of the sun was obscured.