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POPS"The World Will Not End on Dec. 21, 2012" Morrison said he tries to reassure people that their fears are groundless, but has received so many inquiries that he has posted a list of 10 questions and answers on the website of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (www.astrosociety.org). Titled "Doomsday 2012, the Planet Nibiru and Cosmophobia," the article breaks down the sources of the hysteria and assures people that the ancients didn't actually know more about the cosmos than we do. "The world will not come to an end on Dec. 21, 2012," E.C. Krupp, director of Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory, declared in a statement released Thursday by the observatory and Sky & Telescope magazine. Krupp debunks the 2012 doomsday idea in the cover story of the magazine's November issue. Morrison said he attributes the excitement to the conflation of several items into one mega-myth. One is the persistent Internet rumor that a planet called Nibiru or Planet X is going to crash into the Earth. . .
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POPSOopsy! A Prime Example! Hopefully, I'll remember this next time I'm tempted to send something out without double checking it. Look BEFORE you leap, Look before you leap, look before you......
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POPSColdest, Driest, Calmest Place on Earth Found All these elements combine to make the perfect recipe for an astronomical observation post: "The astronomical images taken at Ridge A should be at least three times sharper than at the best sites currently used by astronomers," Saunders said. "Because the sky there is so much darker and drier, it means that a modestly-sized telescope there would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on earth."
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POPSNaked eye astronomy Wherever you are in the world, there will always be stars in the night sky above. And spotting these heavenly bodies - be it a solitary star amid the light pollution or great drifts dotted across the inky darkness - can give a certain thrill. It is one of the few things where we can go out into our own gardens and do it ourselves Marek Kukula, Royal Observatory And stars are not the only attraction - there are planets, comets and galaxies too. Most have been in the skies above for millions and millions of years, which is part of the draw for stargazers, amateur and aficionado alike.
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POPSScientists track down source of Earth's hum more: Previous studies suggested that waves from both shallow continental shelves and the deep ocean contribute to the Earth’s hum, but new data indicates otherwise. Based on measurements from a seismic observatory called the USArray EarthScope, most of the hum appears to originate from the Pacific coast of North America, with a smaller contribution from the west coast of Europe. Waves from the deep ocean don’t seem to make much hum at all. The data for this study, published Thursday in Geophysical Research Letters, was gathered from November 2006 to June 2007, so humming patterns might be different during the summer months.
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POPSJupiter Impact Photo Spectra collected by various observatories may help identify what the impactor was, since a large amount of water at the impact location would hint at a comet as the source. “We will also compare the observations with those collected during 15 years ago,” since that was a known comet, Marchis says. Without having seen it, scientists can’t tell how large the object was. “But the impact scar we’re seeing is about the same size as one of Jupiter’s big storms, Oval BA, Fletcher told New Scientist. “That, I believe, is about the size of the Earth.” Marchis says Jupiter may be protecting Earth from getting hit by such objects. “The solar system would have been a very dangerous place if we did not have Jupiter,” he told New Scientist. “We should thank our Giant Planet for suffering for us. Its strong gravitational field is acting like a shield protecting us from comets coming from the outer part of the solar system.” newscientist.com
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POPSVolcano Could Create Dramatic Sunsets On June 22nd, photographer Brian Whittaker was flying 35,000 feet above Nunavut, Canada, when he witnessed "the most spectacular sunset that I have ever seen," he says. "The giant volcanic cloud from Russia's Sarychev Peak was illuminated by the arctic sun--and this completely transformed the landscape. For a moment, I thought I was on Mars." "All the curtains were drawn so that people could sleep which is very normal," notes Whittaker. "It is possible that very few people have seen this despite all the potential observers!" Whittaker's airplane traveled all the way from British Columbia to Europe, so he got a good long look at the cloud. "It stretched for more than 4000 kilometers.
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