Monthly Archives: July 2011

Effects of Ceres & Vesta on Earth

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When Minor Planets Ceres and Vesta Rock Earth Into Chaos

ScienceDaily (July 15, 2011) — Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing numerical simulations of the long-term evolution of the orbits of minor planets Ceres and Vesta, which are the largest bodies in the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres is 6000 times less massive than Earth and almost 80 times less massive than our Moon. Vesta is almost four times less massive than Ceres. These two minor bodies, long thought to peacefully orbit in the asteroid belt, are found to affect their large neighbors and, in particular, Earth in a way that had not been anticipated.

to read more, go to:   http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110715135156.htm

Coronal Hole

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CORONAL HOLE: A dark gap in the sun’s atmosphere–a “coronal hole”–is spewing solar wind toward Earth. Estimated time of arrival: July 19th. This morning, UV-filtered telescopes onboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Obervatory photographed the opening:


Above: A composite of EUV images at three wavelengths: 211 Å, 193 Å, and 171 Å. Credit: SDO/AIA

Coronal holes are places where the sun’s magnetic field opens up and allows hot gas to escape. A million mile-per-hour stream of solar wind flowing from this hole could spark polar geomagnetic storms when it arrives early next week. High-latitude sky watchers should be prepared for auroras.

fr/spaceweather.com

El Nino Poses Possible Threat to East Coast

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Strong El Niño could bring increased sea levels, storm surges to U.S. East Coast

New study examines how El Niño in cold months affected water levels over past 50 years

July 15, 2011

Coastal areas along the East Coast

A new NOAA study found coastal areas along the East Coast could be more vulnerable to storm surges and sea level rise in future El Nino years.

Coastal communities along the U.S. East Coast may be at risk to higher sea levels accompanied by more destructive storm surges in future El Niño years, according to a new study by NOAA. The study was prompted by an unusual number of destructive storm surges along the East Coast during the 2009-2010 El Niño winter.

The study, led by Bill Sweet, Ph.D. from NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, examined water levels and storm surge events during the ’cool season’ of October to April for the past five decades at four sites representative of much of the East Coast: Boston, Atlantic City, N.J., Norfolk, Va., and Charleston, S.C.

to read more, go to:   http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2011/20110715_elnino.html

Photos for Mt. Lokon Volcano Eruption

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Mount Lokon volcano (Sulawesi, Indonesia) erupts again : impressive eruption pictures

Last update: July 15, 2011 at 11:00 pm by By Armand Vervaeck

Fireworks at Mount Lokon. The night was lighting up near Manado, Sulawesi as Mount Lokon spewed fire and ash into the air. Once more we ask our readers to click on the links below drom the Manado Trubun, the local newspaper.  Image page 1 – Image page 2 – Image page 3 – Image page 4 – Image page 5 (Pictures from Jacky Chen and Rizky Adriansyah)

UPDATE 15/07 – 19:44 UTC : A 2:47 AM local time, Lokon volcano did send an ash column 800 meters in the sky. The renewed action comes after 14 hours of limited local ash bursts. The new eruption was preceded by a volcanic earthquake. The new ash clouds are carried to the north-west side of the island, the Tateli area.

for more, go to:   http://earthquake-report.com/2011/07/14/mount-lokon-volcano-eruption-sulawesi-indonesia-alert-raised-to-highest-level/

Earthquake in The English Channel

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Earthquake hits English Channel

Aerial photo of southern EnglandThe earthquake was the biggest in the area for nearly 300 years

An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.9 has struck in the English Channel, the British Geological Survey (BGS) said.

The quake had a depth of 10km and its epicentre was south of Portsmouth, according to the BGS.

Residents in parts of West Sussex reported buildings shaking for a few seconds at about 0800 BST.

Sussex Police, Solent Coastguard and West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said they had not been called out to any incidents related to it.

‘Largest since 1734’

David Kerridge, from the BGS, said it was the biggest incident of its kind in the area for nearly 300 years.

to read more, go to:    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14153116

Origins of “X”

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Why Is ‘X’ Used to Represent the Unknown?

By Life’s Little Mysteries Staff
08 July 2011 1:36 PM ET

In algebra, the letter ‘x’ is often used to represent an unknown quantity or variable. Similarly, in English, x represents the unknown, as in X-rays, which baffled their discoverer, and Malcolm X, who chose the symbol to represent the forgotten name of his African ancestors.

This meaning of the letter x traces back to the Arabic word for “thing,” or šay’. In ancient texts, such as Al-Jabr, a manuscript written in Baghdad in 820 A.D. that established the rules of algebra, mathematical variables were called things. (An equation might read “three things equal 15,” for example — the thing being five.)

When Al-Jabr was later translated into Old Spanish, the word šay’ was written as “xei.” This soon came to be abbreviated as x.

to read more, go to:     http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/x-represents-unknown-quantity-variable-1840/

When I get Rich, I Shall Wear Purple

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Why Is the Color Purple Associated With Royalty?

By Remy Melina, Life’s Little Mysteries Staff Writer
03 June 2011 4:06 PM ET
   
Credit: Ayla87 | sxc.huCredit: Ayla87

The color purple has been associated with royalty, power and wealth for centuries. In fact, Queen Elizabeth I forbad anyone except close members of the royal family to wear it. Purple’s elite status stems from the rarity and cost of the dye originally used to produce it.

Purple fabric used to be so outrageously expensive that only rulers could afford it. The dye initially used to make purple came from the Phoenician trading city of Tyre, which is now in modern-day Lebanon. Fabric traders obtained the dye from a small mollusk that was only found in the Tyre region of the Mediterranean Sea.

to read more, got to:    http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/purple-royal-color-1750/

 

 

 

 

 

History’s Mysteries

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History’s Most Overlooked Mysteries

Tuan C. Nguyen
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Disappearance of the Indus Valley Civilization
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Credit: harappa.com

With a culture that stretched from western India to Afghanistan and a population numbering over five million, the ancient Indus Valley people—India’s oldest known civilization—were an impressive and apparently sanitary bronze-age bunch. The scale of their baffling and abrupt collapse rivals that of the great Mayan decline. But it wasn’t until 1922 that excavations revealed a hygienically-advanced culture which maintained a sophisticated sewage drainage system and immaculate bathrooms. Strangely, there is no archaeological evidence of armies, slaves, social conflicts or other vices prevalent in ancient societies. Even to the very end, it seems, they kept it clean.

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Atlantis – Off the Orkney Islands?

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A Lost World? Atlantis-Like Landscape Discovered

By Wynne Parry
updated 7/10/2011 1:18:35 PM ET   

Buried deep beneath the sediment of the North Atlantic Ocean lies an ancient, lost landscape with furrows cut by rivers and peaks that once belonged to mountains. Geologists recently discovered this roughly 56-million-year-old landscape using data gathered for oil companies.

“It looks for all the world like a map of a bit of a country onshore,” said Nicky White, the senior researcher. “It is like an ancient fossil landscape preserved 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) beneath the seabed.”

So far, the data have revealed a landscape about 3,861 square miles (10,000 square km) west of the Orkney-Shetland Islands that stretched above sea level by almost as much as 0.6 miles (1 km).  White and colleagues suspect it is part of a larger region that merged with what is now Scotland and may have extended toward Norway in a hot, prehuman world.

History beneath the seafloor

to read more, go to:    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43703459/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/lost-world-atlantis-like-landscape-discovered/