Science Lesson 101

Okay, this absolutely astounded me. After watching this video I no longer have any faith in the human race. In fact, it's been a few good hours since I first watched it and I am STILL flabbergasted.... and I don't get flabbergasted often. So we are going to have a little education about rainbows. Contrary to unpopular belief, rainbows are actually caused by the Sun's light refracting off the surface of a raindrop, reflected off the back of it, and then finally refracted again as it leaves the raindrop. All raindrops reflect light in this way, but we only see a rainbow when the Sun appears to be behind the rainbow. Chemically induced rainbows.............. I don't even have anything to say about that O.O

Solar Eclipse!!

Listen up peeps! There is going to be a solar eclipse on August 1st! This is the first one we've had in two years, so it's a big deal!! However, there is one teeny tiny flaw to the whole thing..... you won't be able to see it in Florida. At all. But at least none of the other states will get to see it either, so HA! But if you happen to live WAAAAY up north then you are now the object of my envy. I'm turning green..... sooooo green.
And here's a video of a solar eclipse seen from NASA's STEREO spacecraft, which is a pretty nifty view, not going to lie.
Full link to article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20080725/sc_space/viewersguideaug1solareclipse

Jupiter Had a Baby!

Okay, not literally, but it's close enough. It's actually a baby red spot!! It's adorable and I've named him Jr. So that's it in the picture and it is soooooo cute!!! Unfortunately it didn't quite make it all the way around the giant red spot, but it still gets an E for Effort.

Earth Songs!

This is the sound that Earth makes and that aliens and whatnot could hear if they really wanted to. This lovely sound is created when charged solar particles slam into our magnetic field. Luckily for us, our ionsphere blocks this from actually reaching us. And this is amazingly good because this sound is a radio wave that oh so happens to be 10,000 times stronger than anything that we've got and that would totally explode our radio stations.... which might be fun to watch but what are you supposed to listen to when you are driving?

Scientists have known about the radiation since the 1970s. It is created high above the planet, where charged particles from the solar wind collide with Earth's magnetic field. It is related to the phenomenon that generates the colorful aurora, or Northern Lights.

And here's the full article, which will not link once again. We are seriously getting very friendly with mister cut and paste. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080701-st-earth-sounds.html

Doomsday is Nigh!

Just kidding! :P But according to some people, it really is and via CERN's Large Hadron Collider, wich smashes protons and whatnot together. So these naysayers have tried to bring a lawsuit against CERN for possible world destruction. They seem to think that micro black holes will form instantly and destroy the Earth or that hypothetical particles that haven't actually been found to exist yet will pop out and say, "HEY GUYS IMMA GONNA KEEL YOU!" But whatev, cause my hero Stephen Hawking says that everything is all okay and since he is super crazy smart I am going to believe him on this.

Ellis said doomsayers assume that the collider will create micro black holes in the first place, which he called unlikely. And even if they appeared, he said, they would instantly evaporate, as predicted by the British physicist Stephen Hawking.

So read the whole article for deliciousness: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080628/ap_on_re_eu/doomsday_collider

Mars had a Little Accident

Since the 1970's Viking missions to Mars, scientists have been wondering why the northern and southern hemispheres are so drastically different. Now studies find that an asteroid could have struck the poor hapless planet and literally blown the crust off of half the planet..... which is pretty damn cool. What makes it cooler is the fact that it hit Mars and not us. I don't think we would be in the position to appreciate such niftyness on the account that we would be dead. And by dead I mean really dead. Unless you're a mutant of some kind. And if that's the case then I am severely jealous.

According to Nimmo's analysis, shock waves from the impact would travel through the planet and disrupt the crust on the other side, causing changes in the magnetic field recorded there. The predicted changes are consistent with observations of magnetic anomalies in the southern hemisphere, he said.

And here's the full article, which I know all of you will read with delight: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080625140659.htm
And for some reason it won't link properly. Probably because I'm extremely computer illiterate. But I'm sure that you can copy and paste it and everything will be alright and the sky won't come crashing down and the world will stay intact due to its non-exploding.

Best Song Ever!

I love this song! This guy made a whole song completely composed of the sounds from Windows 98 and XP and he did a wonderful job! I couldn't help listening to it over and over again!