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"content": "\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/quest/2013/03/20130311science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re out there... Traveling at close to the speed of light high above the Earth and damaging any satellite in their path. They’re called “killer electrons” and this year, Bay Area researchers are working with a new NASA mission to unlock their mysterious behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Killer electrons aren’t a threat to life on the ground, but they are a concern for the more than 1,000 satellites orbiting the planet. Satellites we depend on for everything from storm warnings to GPS navigation to TV programming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50773\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/730025main_ScienceCover-orig_full.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50773\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/730025main_ScienceCover-orig_full.jpg\" alt=\"A diagram of the Earth's radiation belts, where killer electrons are found. (Image: NASA/Van Allen Probes/Goddard Space Flight Center)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/730025main_ScienceCover-orig_full.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/730025main_ScienceCover-orig_full-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A diagram of the Earth's radiation belts, where killer electrons are found. (Image: NASA/Van Allen Probes/Goddard Space Flight Center)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Every major sports event -- certainly every Olympic Games, the Super Bowl as well as the Academy Awards,” says Jean-Luc Froeliger, describing events carried by his company, Intelsat, a global satellite operator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scrambling Satellite Data\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing Froeliger knows: space is not a dull place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In April of 2010, we had an event on our Galaxy 15 satellite,” says Froeliger. “We were sending commands to the satellite but the satellite was not accepting any command.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Galaxy 15 had become a $100 million zombie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The satellite started to slowly drift,” says Froeliger, potentially interfering with satellites around it. Intelsat worked for months to reboot Galaxy 15, just about all that can be done with a satellite 22,000 miles away. Eventually, it came back online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Froeliger says it’s all part of operating in the harsh environment outside our planet. “Satellites are constantly bombarded by high energy particles that flow from the sun,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our sun sends out a stream of charged particles called the solar wind. This year marks a solar maximum, the peak of the sun’s activity, which can have big effects on our planet. “When those particles come close to the Earth, they get trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field,” Froeliger says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Picture the Earth as a donut hole, and the magnetic field as a giant, invisible donut around it. The charged particles trapped inside the field create radiation belts. Galaxy 15, like other geosynchronous satellites, flew right through the belt and was bombard with charged particles, which created a short circuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50774\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/723659main_IMG_5830_800-600.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50774\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/723659main_IMG_5830_800-600.jpg\" alt=\"The BARREL team launches one of 20 research balloons over Antarctica. (Photo: NASA/S. Spain)\" width=\"300\" height=\"436\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The BARREL team launches one of 20 research balloons over Antarctica. (Photo: NASA/S. Spain)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But even just one particle – a single electron – can cause problems. “Some of them can penetrate metal and they can damage the electronics inside the satellite,” Froeliger says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least once a month, a killer electron goes through a satellite’s exterior and hits a computer chip inside. “The data that is stored in the computer gets corrupted,” says Froeliger, causing temporary or permanent damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Studying Electrons in New Detail\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why they call them killer electrons is because they can penetrate several millimeters of aluminum or steel and get to you,” says David Smith, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith is standing on the roof of a four-story building on campus, where a small shed is used as their mission operations center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re studying is electrons that come slamming down onto the atmosphere from Earth’s radiation belts,” he says. The electrons are stopped there, but Smith says you can still see their fingerprints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith and his colleagues with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.dartmouth.edu/~barrel/\">BARREL project\u003c/a> have launched large research balloons to look for electrons falling out of the magnetic field. The balloons are released from Antarctica and travel 20 miles up, sending data back to UCSC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith says understanding the risk from killer electrons is tricky because their numbers are constantly in flux. “On a given day, you may have a thousand times more of these very high-energy electrons in the belt than you did a few days previously.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re also mysterious because killer electrons don’t start out as killers. Electrons arriving from the sun are low-energy for the most part. “It’s after the Earth captures them that something ramps them up to these really high energies,” Smith says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find out what that something is, Smith and his team are collaborating with a new NASA mission. In August, NASA launched the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/rbsp/main/index.html\">Van Allen Probes\u003c/a>, two satellites designed to take detailed measurements inside the radiation belts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the probes made \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/rbsp/news/emfisis-chorus.html\">a recording\u003c/a> of a mysterious phenomenon in the radiation belts: electromagnetic waves. “We’ve known about these waves for quite a long time but we’ve never had the kind of measurements that we needed to really understand them,” says Craig Kletzing of the Van Allen Probes mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists theorize that the waves could be responsible for accelerating killer electrons. “The waves give energy to particles much like a surfer,” Kletzing says. Think of the waves as the ocean and the electrons as little surfers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These results and others from the mission are expected to give scientists a better understanding of the Earth’s radiation belts. That could lead to better forecasts about when they’re particularly dangerous – something that’s key for NASA and for the satellites we depend on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp6Z-2Y-HGg]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>They’re out there... Traveling at close to the speed of light high above the Earth and damaging any satellite in their path. They’re called “killer electrons” and this year, Bay Area researchers are working with a new NASA mission to unlock their mysterious behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Killer electrons aren’t a threat to life on the ground, but they are a concern for the more than 1,000 satellites orbiting the planet. Satellites we depend on for everything from storm warnings to GPS navigation to TV programming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50773\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/730025main_ScienceCover-orig_full.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50773\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/730025main_ScienceCover-orig_full.jpg\" alt=\"A diagram of the Earth's radiation belts, where killer electrons are found. (Image: NASA/Van Allen Probes/Goddard Space Flight Center)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/730025main_ScienceCover-orig_full.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/730025main_ScienceCover-orig_full-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A diagram of the Earth's radiation belts, where killer electrons are found. (Image: NASA/Van Allen Probes/Goddard Space Flight Center)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Every major sports event -- certainly every Olympic Games, the Super Bowl as well as the Academy Awards,” says Jean-Luc Froeliger, describing events carried by his company, Intelsat, a global satellite operator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scrambling Satellite Data\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing Froeliger knows: space is not a dull place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In April of 2010, we had an event on our Galaxy 15 satellite,” says Froeliger. “We were sending commands to the satellite but the satellite was not accepting any command.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Galaxy 15 had become a $100 million zombie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The satellite started to slowly drift,” says Froeliger, potentially interfering with satellites around it. Intelsat worked for months to reboot Galaxy 15, just about all that can be done with a satellite 22,000 miles away. Eventually, it came back online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Froeliger says it’s all part of operating in the harsh environment outside our planet. “Satellites are constantly bombarded by high energy particles that flow from the sun,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our sun sends out a stream of charged particles called the solar wind. This year marks a solar maximum, the peak of the sun’s activity, which can have big effects on our planet. “When those particles come close to the Earth, they get trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field,” Froeliger says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Picture the Earth as a donut hole, and the magnetic field as a giant, invisible donut around it. The charged particles trapped inside the field create radiation belts. Galaxy 15, like other geosynchronous satellites, flew right through the belt and was bombard with charged particles, which created a short circuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50774\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/723659main_IMG_5830_800-600.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50774\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/723659main_IMG_5830_800-600.jpg\" alt=\"The BARREL team launches one of 20 research balloons over Antarctica. (Photo: NASA/S. Spain)\" width=\"300\" height=\"436\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The BARREL team launches one of 20 research balloons over Antarctica. (Photo: NASA/S. Spain)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But even just one particle – a single electron – can cause problems. “Some of them can penetrate metal and they can damage the electronics inside the satellite,” Froeliger says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least once a month, a killer electron goes through a satellite’s exterior and hits a computer chip inside. “The data that is stored in the computer gets corrupted,” says Froeliger, causing temporary or permanent damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Studying Electrons in New Detail\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why they call them killer electrons is because they can penetrate several millimeters of aluminum or steel and get to you,” says David Smith, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith is standing on the roof of a four-story building on campus, where a small shed is used as their mission operations center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re studying is electrons that come slamming down onto the atmosphere from Earth’s radiation belts,” he says. 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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50736\" class=\"wp-caption center\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50736\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse.jpg\" alt=\"NASA\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The building blocks of life on Earth may have originated in space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemists at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Hawaii, Manoa have found the complex compounds essential for life can be forged in the vacuum of space. The linked pairs of amino acids, called dipeptides, may have hitched a ride to Earth on comets and meteorites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first biological molecules had an extraterrestrial origin,” explains UC Berkeley chemistry Professor Richard Mathies, coauthor of the study. “That means life on Earth was inseminated by these depositions of comets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question has fascinated people on Earth for centuries, Mathies says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have long believed amino acids formed in the planet’s early oceans (think Primordial Soup). A 1952 experiment proved this. In what’s known as the Miller-Urey experiment, scientists put water, ammonia, methane and hydrogen in a series of glass tubes, electrocuted the mix (to simulate lightning) and watched it turn pink overnight as it all combined to form amino acids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have also found amino acids on meteorites that have collided with Earth, but not the more complex compounds required for this planet’s biology, so they have defaulted on the assumption that these biological precursors formed in the ocean. But Mathies’s study, scheduled for publication March 10 in \u003cem>The Astrophysical Journal\u003c/em>, turns this assumption on its head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While scientists know early Earth got its water and some hydrocarbons from comets, it hasn't been clear until now what catalyzed the creation of more complex compounds. Mathies's experiment suggests cosmic rays are the answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Hawaii, Seol Kim and Ralf Kaiser simulated a comet, an icy snowball in space, by chilling a small silver “puck” in an ultra-high vacuum chamber. These pucks, about 10 mm in diameter by a few millimeters thick, were covered with a molecule-thin layer of carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane, ethane and propane. Then the researchers nuked the mixture with simulated cosmic rays, in this case high-energy electrons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser FedExed the pucks back to Berkeley, where Mathies and Amanda Stockton analyzed them in a machine called the Mars Organic Analyzer which Mathies built to detect small organic molecules in our solar system. He found nine different amino acids and at least two dipeptides, the precursor compounds for proteins, enzymes and sugars, all of which make Earth biology possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results suggest that means cosmic rays were irradiating comets for much longer than the billion or so years life on Earth has existed, Mathies said. It’s possible, he said, that this happened on other planets, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next step is to actually find these dipeptides in space, since comets that have landed on Earth would be immediately contaminated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mathies said the suitcase-sized Mars Organic Analyzer can be launched into space on a rocket to pass through a comet tail and collect dust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That would be the ultimate proof,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50736\" class=\"wp-caption center\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-50736\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse.jpg\" alt=\"NASA\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/McNaught2-browse-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The building blocks of life on Earth may have originated in space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemists at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Hawaii, Manoa have found the complex compounds essential for life can be forged in the vacuum of space. The linked pairs of amino acids, called dipeptides, may have hitched a ride to Earth on comets and meteorites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first biological molecules had an extraterrestrial origin,” explains UC Berkeley chemistry Professor Richard Mathies, coauthor of the study. “That means life on Earth was inseminated by these depositions of comets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question has fascinated people on Earth for centuries, Mathies says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have long believed amino acids formed in the planet’s early oceans (think Primordial Soup). A 1952 experiment proved this. In what’s known as the Miller-Urey experiment, scientists put water, ammonia, methane and hydrogen in a series of glass tubes, electrocuted the mix (to simulate lightning) and watched it turn pink overnight as it all combined to form amino acids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50525\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/08/how-big-is-your-world/bigorsmall/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50525\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bigorsmall.jpg\" alt=\"Is your world big or small?\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50525\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bigorsmall.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bigorsmall-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Is your world big or small?\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Is the universe really so big, or are we just very, very small?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okay, I admit it, this is a question I've toyed with for a very long time—since sometime back in childhood. It all started around the time I had my first exposure to the idea of scale, and the vastly different scales between the cosmological and the subatomic, with us humans fitting in somewhere between. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since we're indigenous to the realm of scale we developed in, naturally things in our immediate experience are regarded as \"normal\" in size. But take a short journey into the realms of scale above and below our own, and things start to seem very, very—well, mind-bending. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the cosmic side we find galaxies: structures that contain hundreds of billions of stars and measure so far across that light traveling at its almost unimaginably zippy velocity of 300,000 kilometers per second take tens of thousands of years to span. Our own Milky Way galaxy is 100,000 light years across. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the subatomic side we have atomic nuclei, where most of an atom's mass is packed away. An atomic nucleus is so small that even if the entire atom (nucleus, orbiting electrons, and all the empty space between—about 1 ten-billionth of a meter) were upscaled to the size of a basketball, the nucleus would still be too small for the human eye to perceive. An atomic nucleus is roughly 1 million-billionth of a meter across. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Galaxy: 100,000 light years or almost a billion trillion meters. Atomic nucleus: one million-billionth of a meter. Human being: one or two meters. Here we exist in a vast universe that is much larger than us, and we—and the vast universe, for that matter—are composed of particles that much smaller. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dizzying. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But why are these numbers important to me? Apart from the revelation in these numbers that we humans, as objects that take up space, exist betwixt these realms of scale, the entire notion that something like a galaxy ultimately owes tribute for its physical and dynamic properties to such ultimately miniscule bits is…. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dazzling. Stupefying. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though in our everyday awareness we do not perceive atoms and galaxies, we do spend our lives dealing with things that are either much smaller or much larger than we are—the broken dishwasher or those few people who are truly our own size notwithstanding. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are sustained by a planet-sized life support system, on which we stand. We are aided, and afflicted, by microorganisms (some of which depend on us for life support). Some of us worry about asteroids crashing into the Earth (I don't personally), while others look to them as a possible source of needed natural resources. And did you know that statistically, you're never more than a few feet away from a spider?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even the planet we stand on or a microorganism we depend on still don't figure much into our immediate awareness, each being slightly beyond the thresholds of scale we most readily perceive. The day-to-day universe that we perceive—that we functionally live in—is a lot smaller than the big one…and a heck of a lot larger than what it is built on. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is the size of your universe?\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_50525\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/03/08/how-big-is-your-world/bigorsmall/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-50525\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bigorsmall.jpg\" alt=\"Is your world big or small?\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50525\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bigorsmall.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/03/bigorsmall-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Is your world big or small?\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Is the universe really so big, or are we just very, very small?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okay, I admit it, this is a question I've toyed with for a very long time—since sometime back in childhood. It all started around the time I had my first exposure to the idea of scale, and the vastly different scales between the cosmological and the subatomic, with us humans fitting in somewhere between. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since we're indigenous to the realm of scale we developed in, naturally things in our immediate experience are regarded as \"normal\" in size. But take a short journey into the realms of scale above and below our own, and things start to seem very, very—well, mind-bending. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the cosmic side we find galaxies: structures that contain hundreds of billions of stars and measure so far across that light traveling at its almost unimaginably zippy velocity of 300,000 kilometers per second take tens of thousands of years to span. Our own Milky Way galaxy is 100,000 light years across. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the subatomic side we have atomic nuclei, where most of an atom's mass is packed away. An atomic nucleus is so small that even if the entire atom (nucleus, orbiting electrons, and all the empty space between—about 1 ten-billionth of a meter) were upscaled to the size of a basketball, the nucleus would still be too small for the human eye to perceive. An atomic nucleus is roughly 1 million-billionth of a meter across. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Galaxy: 100,000 light years or almost a billion trillion meters. Atomic nucleus: one million-billionth of a meter. Human being: one or two meters. Here we exist in a vast universe that is much larger than us, and we—and the vast universe, for that matter—are composed of particles that much smaller. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dizzying. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But why are these numbers important to me? Apart from the revelation in these numbers that we humans, as objects that take up space, exist betwixt these realms of scale, the entire notion that something like a galaxy ultimately owes tribute for its physical and dynamic properties to such ultimately miniscule bits is…. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dazzling. Stupefying. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though in our everyday awareness we do not perceive atoms and galaxies, we do spend our lives dealing with things that are either much smaller or much larger than we are—the broken dishwasher or those few people who are truly our own size notwithstanding. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are sustained by a planet-sized life support system, on which we stand. We are aided, and afflicted, by microorganisms (some of which depend on us for life support). Some of us worry about asteroids crashing into the Earth (I don't personally), while others look to them as a possible source of needed natural resources. And did you know that statistically, you're never more than a few feet away from a spider?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even the planet we stand on or a microorganism we depend on still don't figure much into our immediate awareness, each being slightly beyond the thresholds of scale we most readily perceive. The day-to-day universe that we perceive—that we functionally live in—is a lot smaller than the big one…and a heck of a lot larger than what it is built on. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What is the size of your universe?\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_49841\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/02/22/mars-rovercuriosity-digs-a-little-deeper/msl-thwackmarks/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-49841\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/msl-thwackmarks.jpg\" alt=\"Before sending the Curiosity rover to Mars, its drilling technology was tested exhaustively by drilling many holes in samples of Earth rock.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-49841\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/msl-thwackmarks.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/msl-thwackmarks-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Before sending the Curiosity rover to Mars, its drilling technology was tested exhaustively by drilling many holes in samples of Earth rock.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Add another word to your vocabulary of Martian geological exploration: thwacking...repeat, not fracking, but thwacking!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thwack: to strike with or as if with something flat or heavy. (Merriam Webster's.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, NASA held a press conference to announce another first in our robotic exploration of Mars. On February 8th, the rover \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html\" title=\"NASA Mars Science Laboratory\" target=\"_blank\">Curiosity \u003c/a>(of the Mars Science Laboratory mission) used its drill to bore a hole (maybe more correctly, used its thwacker to thwack a hole) into a slab of flat bedrock. The boring tool uses vibrating impacts to speed up the rock penetration of the rotating drill bit, not unlike a handheld impact drill, or a tiny jackhammer with a spinning tip. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hole, 6.4 centimeters deep (about the length of my pinky finger), is aimed at delivering a sample of pulverized rock powder to Curiosity's onboard chemical analysis laboratories--more specifically, a sample from deeper into the rock than 5 centimeters, rock which has not been chemically altered by the weathering effects that the material at the outer surfaces endures. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The patch of bedrock chosen for this micro-excursion is thought to be ancient, making a probing of mere inches an excursion of perhaps millions of years into Mars' past--maybe far back enough to probe a time when liquid water existed on its surface. Regardless of whether it finds the watery signature of ancient surface liquid in this sample, exciting though that would be, the rover's mission is to probe Mars' geology to assess the past habitability of the planet--so we'll get what we get. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though a 6.4 centimeter hole in bedrock barely sounds like scratching the surface, this hole bears the distinction of being the deepest we've dug into solid rock on Mars. And it's really no small feat. Perhaps to get an idea of what it takes to do this sort of prospecting, try it yourself: get an impact drill (one of those hand drills that vibrates up and down as it bores) with a one-inch masonry bit and try drilling/thwacking a 2.5 inch hold into an old piece of concrete (disclaimer: make sure it's your own concrete, not someone else's paving stone or patio--and be sure you're wearing proper eye protection gear). Now, if you've managed to do this, think about the fact that NASA has done this by remote control on Mars. Curiosity is doing some amazingly challenging work out there!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this moment the pulverized tablespoonful of pristine bedrock awaits being delivered to the instruments on Curiosity that will unlock all of its tantalizing chemical secrets--but maybe that can be the subject of a press release event in the near future. \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "On February 8th, the rover Curiosity used its drill to bore a hole into a slab of flat bedrock, marking the first time we have probed deeply into the interior of a Martian rock in search of the secrets of Mars' past it may hold. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_49841\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/02/22/mars-rovercuriosity-digs-a-little-deeper/msl-thwackmarks/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-49841\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/msl-thwackmarks.jpg\" alt=\"Before sending the Curiosity rover to Mars, its drilling technology was tested exhaustively by drilling many holes in samples of Earth rock.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-49841\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/msl-thwackmarks.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/msl-thwackmarks-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Before sending the Curiosity rover to Mars, its drilling technology was tested exhaustively by drilling many holes in samples of Earth rock.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Add another word to your vocabulary of Martian geological exploration: thwacking...repeat, not fracking, but thwacking!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thwack: to strike with or as if with something flat or heavy. (Merriam Webster's.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, NASA held a press conference to announce another first in our robotic exploration of Mars. On February 8th, the rover \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html\" title=\"NASA Mars Science Laboratory\" target=\"_blank\">Curiosity \u003c/a>(of the Mars Science Laboratory mission) used its drill to bore a hole (maybe more correctly, used its thwacker to thwack a hole) into a slab of flat bedrock. The boring tool uses vibrating impacts to speed up the rock penetration of the rotating drill bit, not unlike a handheld impact drill, or a tiny jackhammer with a spinning tip. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hole, 6.4 centimeters deep (about the length of my pinky finger), is aimed at delivering a sample of pulverized rock powder to Curiosity's onboard chemical analysis laboratories--more specifically, a sample from deeper into the rock than 5 centimeters, rock which has not been chemically altered by the weathering effects that the material at the outer surfaces endures. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The patch of bedrock chosen for this micro-excursion is thought to be ancient, making a probing of mere inches an excursion of perhaps millions of years into Mars' past--maybe far back enough to probe a time when liquid water existed on its surface. Regardless of whether it finds the watery signature of ancient surface liquid in this sample, exciting though that would be, the rover's mission is to probe Mars' geology to assess the past habitability of the planet--so we'll get what we get. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though a 6.4 centimeter hole in bedrock barely sounds like scratching the surface, this hole bears the distinction of being the deepest we've dug into solid rock on Mars. And it's really no small feat. Perhaps to get an idea of what it takes to do this sort of prospecting, try it yourself: get an impact drill (one of those hand drills that vibrates up and down as it bores) with a one-inch masonry bit and try drilling/thwacking a 2.5 inch hold into an old piece of concrete (disclaimer: make sure it's your own concrete, not someone else's paving stone or patio--and be sure you're wearing proper eye protection gear). Now, if you've managed to do this, think about the fact that NASA has done this by remote control on Mars. Curiosity is doing some amazingly challenging work out there!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this moment the pulverized tablespoonful of pristine bedrock awaits being delivered to the instruments on Curiosity that will unlock all of its tantalizing chemical secrets--but maybe that can be the subject of a press release event in the near future. \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Asteroid 2012 DA14: In Line For a Rim Shot",
"title": "Asteroid 2012 DA14: In Line For a Rim Shot",
"headTitle": "QUEST | KQED Science",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_49430\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/02/08/asteroid-2012-da14-in-line-for-a-rim-shot/2012da14/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-49430\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/2012DA14.jpg\" alt=\"Asteroid 2012 DA14 Flyby February 15 2013\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-49430\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/2012DA14.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/2012DA14-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Asteroid 2012 DA14 Flyby February 15 2013\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Update: A 150-foot asteroid hurtled through Earth's backyard Friday, coming within an incredible 17,150 miles and making the closest known flyby for a rock of its size. Get more info at \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/02/15/watch-asteroid-flyby-live/\" target=\"_blank\">KQED News\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Duck! Here comes asteroid 2012 DA14, grazing close to where you live on February 15th! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No, this is not End of the World Part 2. No, it's not a delayed reaction to the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar. In fact this asteroid is guaranteed to NOT hit us right now. Guaranteed!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What this is, in fact, is a reasonably sizeable rock passing reasonably close to the Earth. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How big? Someone with a sense of proportions as well as a sense of humor has likened the asteroid's size to that of a Safeway (between 118 and 265 feet across) and about 130,000 metric tons (that's roughly the mass of about 60,000 SUVs—so if you imagine 60,000 SUVs in a parking lot next to a Safeway, you have an idea of the size and mass of this asteroid!). \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While this is a far cry from the larger asteroids we know of, mostly in the Main Asteroid Belt, that average a mile across and can be as big as a few hundred miles, it is significantly larger than some of the Earth-grazers we've seen whiz by in the last few years, which have typically been only a few meters wide. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asteroid 2012 DA14 is in the same size class as the rock responsible for blasting that mile-wide hole in the Arizona desert, known as \u003ca href=\"http://www.meteorcrater.com/\" title=\"Meteor Crater\" target=\"_blank\">Meteor Crater\u003c/a> (a misnomer, as anyone who knows the difference between a meteor and a meteorite knows that meteors are pebbles that burn up in the atmosphere). If 2012 DA14 were to hit Earth, it would deliver a respectable wallop and leave a big hole or splash, but would not kill us all…. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How close is it passing? That's the more interesting part of the story. With a closest approach to Earth's center of 21,200 miles (about 17,200 miles from Earth's surface), this is the closest approach by an asteroid of this size since we really started giving these objects much attention. This is slightly within the distance of geosynchronous satellites that circle the Earth—effectively making this passage a successful rim-shot (and thankfully not a slam-dunk). \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So 2012 DA14 won't hit Earth, but will it hit any of the \u003ca href=\"http://celestrak.com/columns/v04n07/\" title=\"Geostationary satellites\" target=\"_blank\">geostationary satellites\u003c/a> that transmit Dish and TV satellite programming? We place those satellites in a ring at the geosynchronous distance—about 22,236 miles—so that their period of revolution around the Earth matches the Earth's rotation and they always remain at the same point in our sky, enabling constant line-of-sight transmission. So, will the asteroid cause a signal blackout while you're watching a football game? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thankfully, physics to the rescue again. This will be a rim-shot where the ball comes close to hitting the rim, but will swish right through without contact. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, since this is the largest-closest rock to pass through these parts since we started looking for them, will we be able to see this asteroid? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/neo-grants/2012-da14-faq.html\" title=\"Asteroid 2012 DA14\" target=\"_blank\">2012 DA14\u003c/a> won't be visible to the unaided eye even at closest approach, but should be visible at least through a small telescope. Also, we are planning to offer the public a look through one or more of our telescopes at Chabot Space & Science Center that Friday evening (weather permitting). If conditions are right, we should be observing the passage from early evening (telescopes open at 7:30 PM) onward until closing at 10:30. So come on up for a Near-miss Celebration!\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_49430\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/02/08/asteroid-2012-da14-in-line-for-a-rim-shot/2012da14/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-49430\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/2012DA14.jpg\" alt=\"Asteroid 2012 DA14 Flyby February 15 2013\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-49430\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/2012DA14.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/02/2012DA14-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Asteroid 2012 DA14 Flyby February 15 2013\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Update: A 150-foot asteroid hurtled through Earth's backyard Friday, coming within an incredible 17,150 miles and making the closest known flyby for a rock of its size. Get more info at \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/02/15/watch-asteroid-flyby-live/\" target=\"_blank\">KQED News\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Duck! Here comes asteroid 2012 DA14, grazing close to where you live on February 15th! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No, this is not End of the World Part 2. No, it's not a delayed reaction to the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar. In fact this asteroid is guaranteed to NOT hit us right now. Guaranteed!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What this is, in fact, is a reasonably sizeable rock passing reasonably close to the Earth. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How big? Someone with a sense of proportions as well as a sense of humor has likened the asteroid's size to that of a Safeway (between 118 and 265 feet across) and about 130,000 metric tons (that's roughly the mass of about 60,000 SUVs—so if you imagine 60,000 SUVs in a parking lot next to a Safeway, you have an idea of the size and mass of this asteroid!). \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While this is a far cry from the larger asteroids we know of, mostly in the Main Asteroid Belt, that average a mile across and can be as big as a few hundred miles, it is significantly larger than some of the Earth-grazers we've seen whiz by in the last few years, which have typically been only a few meters wide. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asteroid 2012 DA14 is in the same size class as the rock responsible for blasting that mile-wide hole in the Arizona desert, known as \u003ca href=\"http://www.meteorcrater.com/\" title=\"Meteor Crater\" target=\"_blank\">Meteor Crater\u003c/a> (a misnomer, as anyone who knows the difference between a meteor and a meteorite knows that meteors are pebbles that burn up in the atmosphere). If 2012 DA14 were to hit Earth, it would deliver a respectable wallop and leave a big hole or splash, but would not kill us all…. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How close is it passing? That's the more interesting part of the story. With a closest approach to Earth's center of 21,200 miles (about 17,200 miles from Earth's surface), this is the closest approach by an asteroid of this size since we really started giving these objects much attention. This is slightly within the distance of geosynchronous satellites that circle the Earth—effectively making this passage a successful rim-shot (and thankfully not a slam-dunk). \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So 2012 DA14 won't hit Earth, but will it hit any of the \u003ca href=\"http://celestrak.com/columns/v04n07/\" title=\"Geostationary satellites\" target=\"_blank\">geostationary satellites\u003c/a> that transmit Dish and TV satellite programming? We place those satellites in a ring at the geosynchronous distance—about 22,236 miles—so that their period of revolution around the Earth matches the Earth's rotation and they always remain at the same point in our sky, enabling constant line-of-sight transmission. So, will the asteroid cause a signal blackout while you're watching a football game? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thankfully, physics to the rescue again. This will be a rim-shot where the ball comes close to hitting the rim, but will swish right through without contact. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, since this is the largest-closest rock to pass through these parts since we started looking for them, will we be able to see this asteroid? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/neo-grants/2012-da14-faq.html\" title=\"Asteroid 2012 DA14\" target=\"_blank\">2012 DA14\u003c/a> won't be visible to the unaided eye even at closest approach, but should be visible at least through a small telescope. Also, we are planning to offer the public a look through one or more of our telescopes at Chabot Space & Science Center that Friday evening (weather permitting). If conditions are right, we should be observing the passage from early evening (telescopes open at 7:30 PM) onward until closing at 10:30. So come on up for a Near-miss Celebration!\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Mars Mountain Climbing Mashup!",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_48939\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/25/mars-mountainclimbing-mashup/everest-sharp-comparison/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48939\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/everest-sharp-comparison.jpg\" alt=\"Comparison of heights of Mars' Mount Sharp and some of Earth's tallest mountains\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-48939\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/everest-sharp-comparison.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/everest-sharp-comparison-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Comparison of heights of Mars' Mount Sharp and some of Earth's tallest mountains\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ready for a real mash-up of explorer-history-science-mountaineering yack? A tale of two mountains on two planets? You have been forewarned...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The comparison between Earth-side mountain exploration and the planned expedition by the Mars rover Curiosity came to my mind as I read a book my family got me over the holidays: \u003cem>Last Climb\u003c/em>, the story of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/lost/mystery/index.html\" title=\"George Mallory and Andrew Irvine\" target=\"_blank\">legendary Mount Everest expeditions\u003c/a> of George Leigh Mallory. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I knew that it is quite a physical feat to summit that 29,029 foot terrestrial rooftop, but the detailed narrative of the arduous climb by the earliest Everest-peak-seekers, with their 1920's technology and the fact that they were treading where in all likelihood no one had tread before, really put 1924 Everest onto another planet, in my mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And now the \u003ca href=\"http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/explore/curiosity/#286\" title=\"Explore Mars\" target=\"_blank\">first ever robot mountaineer\u003c/a> is poised to begin its uphill climb—if not summit bid—on Mount Sharp in Martian territory. NASA's Curiosity is still at the bottom of the mound of sediment that it is planned to explore, 16,000 feet below the summit. Since landing on Mars in August 2012, it has only \u003ca href=\"http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/whereistherovernow/\" title=\"Curiosity's Trek\" target=\"_blank\">traveled about half a mile\u003c/a>, taking its time checking out its systems and instruments and exploring the geology at the foot of the mountain. It's already revealed some intriguing geological features, including a \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/10/05/news-from-mars-a-river-ran-through-it/\" title=\"A River Ran Through It\" target=\"_blank\">layer of gravely material\u003c/a> that shows all the hallmarks of having been laid down by running water in Mars' past. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back to Everest in the early 1920s. At that time the Himalayan mountains -- and particularly Mount Everest -- were not unlike places on another planet, largely unexplored (by western explorers at least) and unknown territory. Satellite surveillance wouldn't exist for many decades yet, and armchair exploration with Google Earth was the better part of a century away. And, frankly, the first successful ascent to the summit was still two decades away through the icy mists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Step by painstaking step the expedition team members moved their way toward Everest, and then up its slopes, establishing supply lines and a string of support camps along the way. Not only was Everest then about as remote as Mars is today, it was also like another planet in terms of the environment: at Everest's lofty summit atmospheric pressure is about a third of that at sea level, temperatures dip far below freezing, solar radiation is harsh, and wind can cut like an icy knife. Another planet indeed, in some ways not unlike Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If only those explorers had been as well equipped as Curiosity: nuclear-powered, designed to withstand far more harsh conditions than even Everest and gripping the ground stably on six giant metal-treaded wheels. Makes me wonder if NASA, or anyone else, has ever considered an extended expedition of Everest using a robot like Curiosity, which would have far greater staying power to dwell at those heights, conduct geological experiments and maybe search for the frozen remains of dozens of unfortunate climbers who make up Everest's all-time fatality statistic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apparently many of the bodies are still up there, it being too difficult a feat to bring them down, including George Mallory and his climbing partner Andrew Irvine. Mallory was found in 1999, and so far Irvine remains missing—along with the camera they took with them, which if ever found could shed some light onto these explorers' final hours on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you read all the way through this, thanks for indulging me. The other-worldness of that early Everest expedition just struck me as chilling and enthralling, just as the modern other-worldly investigation of distant Mount Sharp does, and the treasure trove of Martian geologic history that Curiosity will attempt to read as it climbs, wheel-turn by wheel-turn, up those mountain slopes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And to make one final chilling comparison, Curiosity's ultimate fate, even after a successful mission, is similar to Mallory and Irvine's in one way: when it stops moving and communicating with Base Camp Earth, it will remain on that cold mountain forever.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The comparison between Earth-side mountain exploration and the planned expedition by the Mars rover Curiosity came to my mind as I read a book my family got me over the holidays: Last Climb, the story of the legendary Mount Everest expeditions of George Leigh Mallory. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_48939\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/25/mars-mountainclimbing-mashup/everest-sharp-comparison/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48939\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/everest-sharp-comparison.jpg\" alt=\"Comparison of heights of Mars' Mount Sharp and some of Earth's tallest mountains\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-48939\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/everest-sharp-comparison.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/everest-sharp-comparison-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Comparison of heights of Mars' Mount Sharp and some of Earth's tallest mountains\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ready for a real mash-up of explorer-history-science-mountaineering yack? A tale of two mountains on two planets? You have been forewarned...\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The comparison between Earth-side mountain exploration and the planned expedition by the Mars rover Curiosity came to my mind as I read a book my family got me over the holidays: \u003cem>Last Climb\u003c/em>, the story of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/lost/mystery/index.html\" title=\"George Mallory and Andrew Irvine\" target=\"_blank\">legendary Mount Everest expeditions\u003c/a> of George Leigh Mallory. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I knew that it is quite a physical feat to summit that 29,029 foot terrestrial rooftop, but the detailed narrative of the arduous climb by the earliest Everest-peak-seekers, with their 1920's technology and the fact that they were treading where in all likelihood no one had tread before, really put 1924 Everest onto another planet, in my mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And now the \u003ca href=\"http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/explore/curiosity/#286\" title=\"Explore Mars\" target=\"_blank\">first ever robot mountaineer\u003c/a> is poised to begin its uphill climb—if not summit bid—on Mount Sharp in Martian territory. NASA's Curiosity is still at the bottom of the mound of sediment that it is planned to explore, 16,000 feet below the summit. Since landing on Mars in August 2012, it has only \u003ca href=\"http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/whereistherovernow/\" title=\"Curiosity's Trek\" target=\"_blank\">traveled about half a mile\u003c/a>, taking its time checking out its systems and instruments and exploring the geology at the foot of the mountain. It's already revealed some intriguing geological features, including a \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/10/05/news-from-mars-a-river-ran-through-it/\" title=\"A River Ran Through It\" target=\"_blank\">layer of gravely material\u003c/a> that shows all the hallmarks of having been laid down by running water in Mars' past. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back to Everest in the early 1920s. At that time the Himalayan mountains -- and particularly Mount Everest -- were not unlike places on another planet, largely unexplored (by western explorers at least) and unknown territory. Satellite surveillance wouldn't exist for many decades yet, and armchair exploration with Google Earth was the better part of a century away. And, frankly, the first successful ascent to the summit was still two decades away through the icy mists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Step by painstaking step the expedition team members moved their way toward Everest, and then up its slopes, establishing supply lines and a string of support camps along the way. Not only was Everest then about as remote as Mars is today, it was also like another planet in terms of the environment: at Everest's lofty summit atmospheric pressure is about a third of that at sea level, temperatures dip far below freezing, solar radiation is harsh, and wind can cut like an icy knife. Another planet indeed, in some ways not unlike Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If only those explorers had been as well equipped as Curiosity: nuclear-powered, designed to withstand far more harsh conditions than even Everest and gripping the ground stably on six giant metal-treaded wheels. Makes me wonder if NASA, or anyone else, has ever considered an extended expedition of Everest using a robot like Curiosity, which would have far greater staying power to dwell at those heights, conduct geological experiments and maybe search for the frozen remains of dozens of unfortunate climbers who make up Everest's all-time fatality statistic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apparently many of the bodies are still up there, it being too difficult a feat to bring them down, including George Mallory and his climbing partner Andrew Irvine. Mallory was found in 1999, and so far Irvine remains missing—along with the camera they took with them, which if ever found could shed some light onto these explorers' final hours on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you read all the way through this, thanks for indulging me. The other-worldness of that early Everest expedition just struck me as chilling and enthralling, just as the modern other-worldly investigation of distant Mount Sharp does, and the treasure trove of Martian geologic history that Curiosity will attempt to read as it climbs, wheel-turn by wheel-turn, up those mountain slopes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And to make one final chilling comparison, Curiosity's ultimate fate, even after a successful mission, is similar to Mallory and Irvine's in one way: when it stops moving and communicating with Base Camp Earth, it will remain on that cold mountain forever.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Mars has been on my radar for a very long time, since the astonishing day back in 1965 when Mariner 10 first sent back a picture of craters on its surface. So I'm not a Johnny-come-lately to the red planet. I've followed the news from every Mars mission, orbiters and landers alike. But Curiosity, the most recent robot rover, has especially piqued my curiosity as a geologist. I think there are two reasons: the darn thing has finally become a decent field assistant, and NASA is sending it to some of Mars' most Earthlike places. So let me channel the late Huell Howser here and share some of what makes me go, \"That's amazing!\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike most previous landers, Curiosity has decent vision, about as good as my pocket camera. Its pictures actually look good on my desktop display, no longer like a frame grab from an old videocassette. Curiosity is a lot sturdier too—big, quick on its feet—and smarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's got a nice hand lens, better than mine, that offers almost-microscopic closeups. It has a shovel, like lots of its predecessors did. One of my worst frustrations in watching Mars robots over the years was wishing I could lean in and just blow the dust off of things. Lo and behold, this rover packs a broom! \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_48765\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/17/placing-a-bet-on-the-surface-of-mars/mars-broom/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48765\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-broom.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"mars-broom\" width=\"600\" height=\"425\" class=\"size-full wp-image-48765\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-broom.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-broom-400x283.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mars images courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And while previous rovers had little grinding tools to function like the hammer and chisel in my field pack, Curiosity has a proper rock drill. They'll be testing it for the first time in coming weeks, somewhere in this car-sized piece of landscape named John Klein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/17/placing-a-bet-on-the-surface-of-mars/mars-drillsite/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48767\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-drillsite.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"mars-drillsite\" width=\"600\" height=\"456\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-48767\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-drillsite.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-drillsite-400x304.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until they can send a \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/02/23/gigapans-panoramas-that-bring-you-all-the-way-there/\">Gigapan\u003c/a> outfit to Mars for a really huge, zoomable picture, the \u003ca href=\"http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA16567.jpg\">full-size version of this image on the NASA website\u003c/a> at 3483 by 2651 pixels will be the state of the art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rocks in this part of Mars, on the floor of Gale crater, are full of minerals and features that testify to the chemical action of water. Here's a closeup from an outcrop called Sheepbed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/17/placing-a-bet-on-the-surface-of-mars/mars-sheepbed/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48763\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-sheepbed.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"mars-sheepbed\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-48763\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-sheepbed.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-sheepbed-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To all appearances it's a fine-grained sandstone, shot with veins of gypsum (\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/01/05/a-most-earthly-mineral-on-mars/\">like those I showed you last year\u003c/a>) and tiny \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/01/12/confounding-concretions/\">concretions\u003c/a> of hematite, a hydrated iron oxide. Larger concretions lie in the surrounding dirt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elsewhere, the rover has shown us clear examples of crossbedding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/17/placing-a-bet-on-the-surface-of-mars/mars-crossbeds/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48766\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-crossbeds.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"mars-crossbeds\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-48766\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-crossbeds.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-crossbeds-400x267.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crossbeds testify to not just the presence of water, but its physical action—rushing rivulets that sent large ripples of sand down their streambeds. Each crossbed represents the root of a ripple, spared from erosion in a setting where sediment was brought in faster than it was taken away. (Wind-blown sand dunes also make crossbeds, but the particles involved are much smaller.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, back to the drilling site at John Klein. I look at this detail and have several questions about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/17/placing-a-bet-on-the-surface-of-mars/mars-drillsite-veins/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48769\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-drillsite-veins.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"mars-drillsite-veins\" width=\"600\" height=\"427\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-48769\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-drillsite-veins.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-drillsite-veins-400x285.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I see curving veins cropping out of the surface. The Curiosity team claims that \"some of the veins have two walls and an eroded interior.\" I think they look more like double veins, but the rover will help us decide. Why are they protruding, and why is the surface around them so flat? The whole surface gives the impression of having been gently swept for a very long time—not strongly enough to streamline anything, but enough to winnow away the finest material as it works loose under Mars' 100°C daily temperature swings. What do the veins consist of, and why do they curve so tantalizingly?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curiosity's camera is too far away to confirm or deny that curvature, and its x-ray instrument cannot yet tell us whether the veins are gypsum. So for now I can indulge in the hypothesis that we may be seeing the curving forms of \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/fossilbasics/ss/Pseudofossils_5.htm\">liesegang structures\u003c/a>, which you've probably noticed many times without knowing their name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_48764\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/17/placing-a-bet-on-the-surface-of-mars/liesegangs/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48764\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/liesegangs.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"liesegangs\" width=\"600\" height=\"465\" class=\"size-full wp-image-48764\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/liesegangs.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/liesegangs-400x310.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liesegang bands in an Oakland street rock. Photo by Andrew Alden\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Liesegang (LEEZ-gahng) structures are thin waves of iron-oxide minerals found in porous rocks where chemically active groundwater has come and gone. In Earth rocks they may or may not affect a stone's strength, or the difference may not matter in the abrasive environment of a riverbed, like this example. But we already know that the right minerals exist on Mars, making up the concretions. Perhaps, under the utterly different conditions of Mars, these homely features can emerge to display their thin, curving, multiple form to Curiosity's eyes and toolkit.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Mars has been on my radar for a very long time, since the astonishing day back in 1965 when Mariner 10 first sent back a picture of craters on its surface. So I'm not a Johnny-come-lately to the red planet. I've followed the news from every Mars mission, orbiters and landers alike. But Curiosity, the most recent robot rover, has especially piqued my curiosity as a geologist. I think there are two reasons: the darn thing has finally become a decent field assistant, and NASA is sending it to some of Mars' most Earthlike places. So let me channel the late Huell Howser here and share some of what makes me go, \"That's amazing!\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike most previous landers, Curiosity has decent vision, about as good as my pocket camera. Its pictures actually look good on my desktop display, no longer like a frame grab from an old videocassette. Curiosity is a lot sturdier too—big, quick on its feet—and smarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's got a nice hand lens, better than mine, that offers almost-microscopic closeups. It has a shovel, like lots of its predecessors did. One of my worst frustrations in watching Mars robots over the years was wishing I could lean in and just blow the dust off of things. Lo and behold, this rover packs a broom! \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_48765\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/17/placing-a-bet-on-the-surface-of-mars/mars-broom/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48765\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-broom.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"mars-broom\" width=\"600\" height=\"425\" class=\"size-full wp-image-48765\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-broom.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-broom-400x283.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mars images courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And while previous rovers had little grinding tools to function like the hammer and chisel in my field pack, Curiosity has a proper rock drill. They'll be testing it for the first time in coming weeks, somewhere in this car-sized piece of landscape named John Klein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/17/placing-a-bet-on-the-surface-of-mars/mars-drillsite/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48767\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-drillsite.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"mars-drillsite\" width=\"600\" height=\"456\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-48767\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-drillsite.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-drillsite-400x304.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until they can send a \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/02/23/gigapans-panoramas-that-bring-you-all-the-way-there/\">Gigapan\u003c/a> outfit to Mars for a really huge, zoomable picture, the \u003ca href=\"http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA16567.jpg\">full-size version of this image on the NASA website\u003c/a> at 3483 by 2651 pixels will be the state of the art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rocks in this part of Mars, on the floor of Gale crater, are full of minerals and features that testify to the chemical action of water. Here's a closeup from an outcrop called Sheepbed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/17/placing-a-bet-on-the-surface-of-mars/mars-sheepbed/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48763\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-sheepbed.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"mars-sheepbed\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-48763\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-sheepbed.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-sheepbed-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To all appearances it's a fine-grained sandstone, shot with veins of gypsum (\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/01/05/a-most-earthly-mineral-on-mars/\">like those I showed you last year\u003c/a>) and tiny \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/01/12/confounding-concretions/\">concretions\u003c/a> of hematite, a hydrated iron oxide. Larger concretions lie in the surrounding dirt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elsewhere, the rover has shown us clear examples of crossbedding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/17/placing-a-bet-on-the-surface-of-mars/mars-crossbeds/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48766\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-crossbeds.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"mars-crossbeds\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-48766\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-crossbeds.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-crossbeds-400x267.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crossbeds testify to not just the presence of water, but its physical action—rushing rivulets that sent large ripples of sand down their streambeds. Each crossbed represents the root of a ripple, spared from erosion in a setting where sediment was brought in faster than it was taken away. (Wind-blown sand dunes also make crossbeds, but the particles involved are much smaller.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, back to the drilling site at John Klein. I look at this detail and have several questions about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/17/placing-a-bet-on-the-surface-of-mars/mars-drillsite-veins/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48769\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-drillsite-veins.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"mars-drillsite-veins\" width=\"600\" height=\"427\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-48769\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-drillsite-veins.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/mars-drillsite-veins-400x285.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I see curving veins cropping out of the surface. The Curiosity team claims that \"some of the veins have two walls and an eroded interior.\" I think they look more like double veins, but the rover will help us decide. Why are they protruding, and why is the surface around them so flat? The whole surface gives the impression of having been gently swept for a very long time—not strongly enough to streamline anything, but enough to winnow away the finest material as it works loose under Mars' 100°C daily temperature swings. What do the veins consist of, and why do they curve so tantalizingly?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curiosity's camera is too far away to confirm or deny that curvature, and its x-ray instrument cannot yet tell us whether the veins are gypsum. So for now I can indulge in the hypothesis that we may be seeing the curving forms of \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/fossilbasics/ss/Pseudofossils_5.htm\">liesegang structures\u003c/a>, which you've probably noticed many times without knowing their name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_48764\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2013/01/17/placing-a-bet-on-the-surface-of-mars/liesegangs/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48764\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/liesegangs.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"liesegangs\" width=\"600\" height=\"465\" class=\"size-full wp-image-48764\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/liesegangs.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2013/01/liesegangs-400x310.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liesegang bands in an Oakland street rock. Photo by Andrew Alden\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Liesegang (LEEZ-gahng) structures are thin waves of iron-oxide minerals found in porous rocks where chemically active groundwater has come and gone. In Earth rocks they may or may not affect a stone's strength, or the difference may not matter in the abrasive environment of a riverbed, like this example. But we already know that the right minerals exist on Mars, making up the concretions. Perhaps, under the utterly different conditions of Mars, these homely features can emerge to display their thin, curving, multiple form to Curiosity's eyes and toolkit.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Weighing in With Gravity ",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_48216\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/12/28/weighing-in-with-gravity/veitimilla-summit-chimborazo2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48216\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2012/12/veitimilla-summit-chimborazo2.jpg\" alt=\"Veitimilla Summit, Ecuador\" title=\"Veitimilla Summit, Ecuador\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-48216\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/12/veitimilla-summit-chimborazo2.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/12/veitimilla-summit-chimborazo2-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Veitimilla Summit, Ecuador\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>How do you feel today? Heavy as a ton of lead, or a ton of feathers? Light on your feet, or dragging on the ground? It probably depends on a lot of things, most particularly your present physical state, and possibly on a pound or two that you're up, or down, because of holiday eating, or fasting, or a long list of other factors. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Your weight, however, is not just dependent on your diet or your state of mind, but in some measure to physical factors beyond your control, like gravity itself. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://easycalculation.com/physics/classical-physics/newtons-law.php\" title=\"Gravitational force calculator\" target=\"_blank\">Your weight\u003c/a> is the product of your actual mass (how much matter is in your body) and the acceleration you experience mostly due to the force of gravity pulling you toward the Earth's center. At the Earth's surface the force of gravity is inversely proportional to the square of your distance to Earth's center of mass. So, if you were twice as far from the Earth's center as you are now, you'd weight one divided by two squared, or one quarter, as much. Of course that would put you almost 4000 miles into space! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only thing we ordinary (non-astronaut) humans can do to affect our weight in this way is to climb a mountain, or fly in an airplane, to get farther from the Earth's center. How much lighter would you be, say by climbing a three mile high mountain, compared to sea level? As it turns out, about 0.2%--so a 150 pound person would weigh about a third of a pound less at the top of Mount Shasta than on Ocean Beach. You'd lose much more weight from the exercise alone….\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Places to avoid if you want to lose weight under the gravitational plan would be Earth's poles, for a couple of reasons. One is that at the poles, even at sea level, you're about 13 miles closer to the Earth's center than you are at the Equator. The reason for this is that Earth isn't a perfect sphere, but an \"oblate sphereoid\"…in other words, a shape like a ball of playdough that you made into a nice sphere, but then squashed slightly between your palms. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, at Earth's poles you don't experience centripetal acceleration (the tendency to fly off of a spinning object, be it the rotating Earth or a whirling merry-go-round). \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What's the net weight gain by standing at a pole? About 0.5% heavier, or three quarters of a pound for that 150 pound person. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, there are local variations in the gravity at Earth's surface caused by differences in the density of the materials in Earth's crust that account for weight differences of about 0.01%. You probably sweat off more weight than that reading this blog….\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now if you really want to affect a change in weight, go to another planet. Due to differences in the size and mass of other worlds your weight can vary drastically depending on which celestial body you choose to plant your flag on. On Mars you'd weigh 38% of your Earth weight, and on the Moon only about 17%. If you could stand on the surface of a gas giant like Jupiter (say, on the deck of a floating gas mining rig), you'd weight over twice your Earth weight! And on Pluto, you'd weigh less than 7% what you're feeling right now—maybe as much as your cat. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But back on Earth, the sweet spot for weight loss would appear to be a high mountaintop near the Equator. That would be northern Ecuador; book your flight now! Oh, and if you plan your trip there when the Moon is passing directly overhead, pulling you upward with its own gravity, bonus! \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_48216\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/12/28/weighing-in-with-gravity/veitimilla-summit-chimborazo2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48216\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2012/12/veitimilla-summit-chimborazo2.jpg\" alt=\"Veitimilla Summit, Ecuador\" title=\"Veitimilla Summit, Ecuador\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-48216\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/12/veitimilla-summit-chimborazo2.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/12/veitimilla-summit-chimborazo2-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Veitimilla Summit, Ecuador\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>How do you feel today? Heavy as a ton of lead, or a ton of feathers? Light on your feet, or dragging on the ground? It probably depends on a lot of things, most particularly your present physical state, and possibly on a pound or two that you're up, or down, because of holiday eating, or fasting, or a long list of other factors. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Your weight, however, is not just dependent on your diet or your state of mind, but in some measure to physical factors beyond your control, like gravity itself. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://easycalculation.com/physics/classical-physics/newtons-law.php\" title=\"Gravitational force calculator\" target=\"_blank\">Your weight\u003c/a> is the product of your actual mass (how much matter is in your body) and the acceleration you experience mostly due to the force of gravity pulling you toward the Earth's center. At the Earth's surface the force of gravity is inversely proportional to the square of your distance to Earth's center of mass. So, if you were twice as far from the Earth's center as you are now, you'd weight one divided by two squared, or one quarter, as much. Of course that would put you almost 4000 miles into space! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only thing we ordinary (non-astronaut) humans can do to affect our weight in this way is to climb a mountain, or fly in an airplane, to get farther from the Earth's center. How much lighter would you be, say by climbing a three mile high mountain, compared to sea level? As it turns out, about 0.2%--so a 150 pound person would weigh about a third of a pound less at the top of Mount Shasta than on Ocean Beach. You'd lose much more weight from the exercise alone….\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Places to avoid if you want to lose weight under the gravitational plan would be Earth's poles, for a couple of reasons. One is that at the poles, even at sea level, you're about 13 miles closer to the Earth's center than you are at the Equator. The reason for this is that Earth isn't a perfect sphere, but an \"oblate sphereoid\"…in other words, a shape like a ball of playdough that you made into a nice sphere, but then squashed slightly between your palms. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, at Earth's poles you don't experience centripetal acceleration (the tendency to fly off of a spinning object, be it the rotating Earth or a whirling merry-go-round). \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What's the net weight gain by standing at a pole? About 0.5% heavier, or three quarters of a pound for that 150 pound person. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, there are local variations in the gravity at Earth's surface caused by differences in the density of the materials in Earth's crust that account for weight differences of about 0.01%. You probably sweat off more weight than that reading this blog….\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now if you really want to affect a change in weight, go to another planet. Due to differences in the size and mass of other worlds your weight can vary drastically depending on which celestial body you choose to plant your flag on. On Mars you'd weigh 38% of your Earth weight, and on the Moon only about 17%. If you could stand on the surface of a gas giant like Jupiter (say, on the deck of a floating gas mining rig), you'd weight over twice your Earth weight! And on Pluto, you'd weigh less than 7% what you're feeling right now—maybe as much as your cat. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But back on Earth, the sweet spot for weight loss would appear to be a high mountaintop near the Equator. That would be northern Ecuador; book your flight now! Oh, and if you plan your trip there when the Moon is passing directly overhead, pulling you upward with its own gravity, bonus! \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Touch the Sun at Chabot Space & Science Center ",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_47925\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/12/14/touch-the-sun-at-chabot-space-science-center/2012_07_28__23_30_00_channel_304_171_335_title/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-47925\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2012/12/2012_07_28__23_30_00_channel_304_171_335_title.jpg\" alt=\"Ultraviolet image of the SUn, NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory-July 28 2012\" title=\"Ultraviolet image of the SUn, NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory-July 28 2012\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-47925\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/12/2012_07_28__23_30_00_channel_304_171_335_title.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/12/2012_07_28__23_30_00_channel_304_171_335_title-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ultraviolet image of the Sun, NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory-July 28 2012\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Just in time for the imminent event of Solar Maximum, when the sun reaches a crescendo in its 11-year cycle of magnetic activity and all the sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other magnetic mayhem that comes with it, Chabot Space & Science Center is opening a new solar exhibition that features the latest in stunning ultraviolet satellite imagery from \u003ca href=\"http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/\" title=\"NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory\" target=\"_blank\">NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory!\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exhibition \"\u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org/touch-the-sun.htm\" title=\"Touch the Sun at Chabot\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>Touch the Sun\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\" will open on December 22nd—because we figure since the world is NOT ending on December 21st, might as well celebrate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which you will have heard me ramble on about if you're a regular reader of these blogs, is one of the latest and most advanced space-borne solar observatories and has been revealing the wonders of the sun since 2010 as we've never seen them before. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/solarmin-max.html\" title=\"Solar Maximum versus Solar Minimum\" target=\"_blank\">Solar Maximum\u003c/a> is in progress as I type and is expected to reach a peak sometime in early 2013. But, as with weather, we won't know exactly when the peak will occur until after it's passed and solar activity begins to relax again, sloping off toward Solar Minimum in the years to come. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml\" title=\"The Solar Cycle\" target=\"_blank\">11-year solar cycle\u003c/a> has been known of for a few hundred years now, practically since the time when observers first were able to make routine counts of sunspots using telescopes. Galileo is attributed with being one of the first to make regular observations of sunspots, recording their positions, sizes, shapes, and numbers regularly. After decades of observations by different astronomers a pattern in the rise and fall of sunspot numbers was detected: a fairly regular peak-and-trough pattern over time, with the peak sunspot numbers separated by about 11 years on average. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was not known at first what \u003ca href=\"http://www.windows2universe.org/sun/images/sunspots_earth_size_big_jpg_image.html\" title=\"Sunspot\" target=\"_blank\">sunspots\u003c/a> are, but they were eventually identified as effects caused by the presence of strong magnetic fields at the sun's visible surface. Once we began sending scientific instruments into space, outside of Earth's light-obscuring atmosphere, we learned that there is a lot more going on than merely dark spots making cyclical appearances. Observations of the sun's ultraviolet light, X-rays and gamma rays showed us the sun's intensely hot atmosphere and regions of magnetic activity surging up from within the sun -- marking its surface with sunspots on its way out and looping and arcing far outward into space. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sun is mostly a giant sphere of hydrogen and helium plasma (ionized gas) with an enormous thermonuclear reactor at its core, where pressure and temperature are great enough to cause nuclear fusion, hydrogen nuclei are fused together to form helium nuclei, then release energy in the process -- the same process that powers hydrogen bombs. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Energy liberated at the sun's core makes its way outward, eventually, through various layers of the sun's interior. (One of my opening questions that I put to kids visiting Chabot is, \"Why is the sun like an ogre?\" Answer: \"It has layers.\" Don't get it? The kids do -- at least, those who have seen the movie Shrek.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its final sprint upward to the sun's visible surface, solar plasma rises in enormous, high-speed updrafts called convection cells, with a typical cell being close to the size of a state like California. The motion of all that plasma -- which is essentially electrified gas -- generates magnetic fields, much as the circulating electric current in an electromagnet's coil does. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that's where sunspots, \u003ca href=\"http://planetsave.com/2012/12/01/super-solar-flares-20-times-more-powerful-than-any-known-in-modern-times-are-possible-on-the-sun-research-finds/\" title=\"Solar Flare\" target=\"_blank\">solar flares\u003c/a>, space weather storms and the solar cycle itself come in: they are all effects of the dynamic, ever-lively dance of magnetism generated by the swirling, twisting motions of solar plasma. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings me back to the soon-to-open \u003cem>Touch the Sun\u003c/em> exhibition at Chabot. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you've enjoyed your favorite movie or TV show or a Superbowl game on a nice big high-def plasma TV, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Come experience the biggest and most awesomely stunning plasma display around: the sun. You'll not only get to play with the sun's ogre-like layers, you'll get to play with the stuff of the sun itself: with a 20-inch plasma globe you can pull your own filaments of plasma like electric pizza dough and with a 3-foot \"Ferro-fluid\" dish you can sculpt your own sunspots with a magnet. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So (punchline alert), come to Chabot on (or after) December 22nd and touch the sun. \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_47925\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/12/14/touch-the-sun-at-chabot-space-science-center/2012_07_28__23_30_00_channel_304_171_335_title/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-47925\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2012/12/2012_07_28__23_30_00_channel_304_171_335_title.jpg\" alt=\"Ultraviolet image of the SUn, NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory-July 28 2012\" title=\"Ultraviolet image of the SUn, NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory-July 28 2012\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-47925\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/12/2012_07_28__23_30_00_channel_304_171_335_title.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/12/2012_07_28__23_30_00_channel_304_171_335_title-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ultraviolet image of the Sun, NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory-July 28 2012\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Just in time for the imminent event of Solar Maximum, when the sun reaches a crescendo in its 11-year cycle of magnetic activity and all the sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other magnetic mayhem that comes with it, Chabot Space & Science Center is opening a new solar exhibition that features the latest in stunning ultraviolet satellite imagery from \u003ca href=\"http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/\" title=\"NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory\" target=\"_blank\">NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory!\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exhibition \"\u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org/touch-the-sun.htm\" title=\"Touch the Sun at Chabot\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>Touch the Sun\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\" will open on December 22nd—because we figure since the world is NOT ending on December 21st, might as well celebrate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which you will have heard me ramble on about if you're a regular reader of these blogs, is one of the latest and most advanced space-borne solar observatories and has been revealing the wonders of the sun since 2010 as we've never seen them before. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/solarmin-max.html\" title=\"Solar Maximum versus Solar Minimum\" target=\"_blank\">Solar Maximum\u003c/a> is in progress as I type and is expected to reach a peak sometime in early 2013. But, as with weather, we won't know exactly when the peak will occur until after it's passed and solar activity begins to relax again, sloping off toward Solar Minimum in the years to come. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml\" title=\"The Solar Cycle\" target=\"_blank\">11-year solar cycle\u003c/a> has been known of for a few hundred years now, practically since the time when observers first were able to make routine counts of sunspots using telescopes. Galileo is attributed with being one of the first to make regular observations of sunspots, recording their positions, sizes, shapes, and numbers regularly. After decades of observations by different astronomers a pattern in the rise and fall of sunspot numbers was detected: a fairly regular peak-and-trough pattern over time, with the peak sunspot numbers separated by about 11 years on average. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was not known at first what \u003ca href=\"http://www.windows2universe.org/sun/images/sunspots_earth_size_big_jpg_image.html\" title=\"Sunspot\" target=\"_blank\">sunspots\u003c/a> are, but they were eventually identified as effects caused by the presence of strong magnetic fields at the sun's visible surface. Once we began sending scientific instruments into space, outside of Earth's light-obscuring atmosphere, we learned that there is a lot more going on than merely dark spots making cyclical appearances. Observations of the sun's ultraviolet light, X-rays and gamma rays showed us the sun's intensely hot atmosphere and regions of magnetic activity surging up from within the sun -- marking its surface with sunspots on its way out and looping and arcing far outward into space. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sun is mostly a giant sphere of hydrogen and helium plasma (ionized gas) with an enormous thermonuclear reactor at its core, where pressure and temperature are great enough to cause nuclear fusion, hydrogen nuclei are fused together to form helium nuclei, then release energy in the process -- the same process that powers hydrogen bombs. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Energy liberated at the sun's core makes its way outward, eventually, through various layers of the sun's interior. (One of my opening questions that I put to kids visiting Chabot is, \"Why is the sun like an ogre?\" Answer: \"It has layers.\" Don't get it? The kids do -- at least, those who have seen the movie Shrek.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its final sprint upward to the sun's visible surface, solar plasma rises in enormous, high-speed updrafts called convection cells, with a typical cell being close to the size of a state like California. The motion of all that plasma -- which is essentially electrified gas -- generates magnetic fields, much as the circulating electric current in an electromagnet's coil does. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that's where sunspots, \u003ca href=\"http://planetsave.com/2012/12/01/super-solar-flares-20-times-more-powerful-than-any-known-in-modern-times-are-possible-on-the-sun-research-finds/\" title=\"Solar Flare\" target=\"_blank\">solar flares\u003c/a>, space weather storms and the solar cycle itself come in: they are all effects of the dynamic, ever-lively dance of magnetism generated by the swirling, twisting motions of solar plasma. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings me back to the soon-to-open \u003cem>Touch the Sun\u003c/em> exhibition at Chabot. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you've enjoyed your favorite movie or TV show or a Superbowl game on a nice big high-def plasma TV, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Come experience the biggest and most awesomely stunning plasma display around: the sun. You'll not only get to play with the sun's ogre-like layers, you'll get to play with the stuff of the sun itself: with a 20-inch plasma globe you can pull your own filaments of plasma like electric pizza dough and with a 3-foot \"Ferro-fluid\" dish you can sculpt your own sunspots with a magnet. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So (punchline alert), come to Chabot on (or after) December 22nd and touch the sun. \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Still Curious About Mars in 2012",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_47544\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/11/30/still-curious-about-mars-in-2012/pia14156/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-47544\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/PIA14156.jpg\" alt=\"Artist illustration of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity.\" title=\"Artist illustration of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-47544\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/PIA14156.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/PIA14156-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist illustration of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We've been thinking about life on Mars for a long, long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first it was easy. Before the telescope, Mars was a brilliant spark of orange light that moved about the sky with the other planets, seemingly with a life of its own. Its light grew and faded as its distance changed, and it would routinely reverse its course through the stars in retrograde ebbs. Long ago, many cultures saw Mars, and the other visible planets, as living beings themselves: deities that journeyed through the heavens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the invention of the telescope, and especially in the late 19th-century when they got powerful enough to see some details on Mars' face, it was still pretty easy to think about Mars and life, though life on Mars, and not Mars as a living being, was the main fare for the imagination. Polar ice caps reminiscent of Earth's and perceptible surface markings and color variations, both of which changed in extent and detail with Martian seasons, seemed to make Mars—or the human imagination—pulse with life. Fiction writers and scientists alike \u003ca href=\"http://cde.nwc.edu/SCI2108/course_documents/solar_system/innerplanets/mars/lowell/lowell_mars.htm\" title=\"Percival Lowell's Mars\" target=\"_blank\">speculated on the existence\u003c/a> of vegetation, animal life, liquid water, and even intelligent civilizations existent on the Red Planet. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as our telescopes grew even more powerful, and especially when we started sending cameras and telescopes to Mars on robotic spacecraft, imagining Martian life became more challenging. Even the first robots to land on Mars only added to the sterile picture of a lifeless Mars. It seemed that the possibilities of finding life there were drying up like the dusty, rusty, desert planet itself. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week I heard a rumor, which many of you heard as well, that NASA is preparing to make a big announcement concerning Mars and a recent discovery by the SAM instrument on board the rover Curiosity. People have been asking, \"What big announcement is NASA going to make? Will it really be earth-shaking, as some have suggested?\" \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/msl/121128rumors/\" title=\"Curiosity discovery\" target=\"_blank\">NASA is qualifying the rumor\u003c/a>—which spread through the blogosphere and Twittersphere like cyberfire—with a sober and soundly scientific assessment that the announcement (expected on Monday) will be scientifically interesting, but not earth-shaking. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given that the SAM instrument (a set of chemistry experiments including a mass spectrometer, a laser spectrograph, a gas chromatograph, and a pre-subinertial photomegatronic oscillator—okay, only kidding about the last one) is designed to find organic compounds required by life as we know it, I'd say that the announcement will have something to do with organic compounds. I'm not being flippant; my point is that SAM (and Curiosity for that matter) was not designed to find life, fossils, remains or excrements of life, or even megalithic pyramids created by intelligent civilizations. (Although, the latter would certainly show up on one of Curiosity's cameras if it were pointed in the right direction….)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curiosity was sent to Mars to assess the suitability for life in Mars' past. Other missions (Spirit and Opportunity, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.space.com/18174-mars-water-streals-seasonal-flows.html\" title=\"Seasonal streaks on Mars captured by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\" target=\"_blank\">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/a>) have revealed that liquid water, one basic requirement for life as we know it, very likely once flowed on Mars. But life (AWKI) also requires the right mix of organic compounds—compounds of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon—to emerge, form, and thrive. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That is Curiosity's charge, a mission that will unfold over the next two years as the rover climbs the slopes of Mount Sharp, a huge pile of sedimentary layers formed over the last 2 billion years or so--the very pages of the book of Mars' geologic history. Read on, Curiosity, read on!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think the wildfire of speculation, the furor of questing curiosity that erupted and became amplified by cyberspace, is an indication that we, as a culture and a species, are still looking for life on our neighbor planet; still hunting for life there, still wanting, hoping, to find it. I'm optimistic that we may find it, eventually—and in the meantime, I only have to wait until Monday to hear the latest from NASA, whatever exactly that will be. \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_47544\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/11/30/still-curious-about-mars-in-2012/pia14156/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-47544\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/PIA14156.jpg\" alt=\"Artist illustration of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity.\" title=\"Artist illustration of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-47544\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/PIA14156.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/PIA14156-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist illustration of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We've been thinking about life on Mars for a long, long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first it was easy. Before the telescope, Mars was a brilliant spark of orange light that moved about the sky with the other planets, seemingly with a life of its own. Its light grew and faded as its distance changed, and it would routinely reverse its course through the stars in retrograde ebbs. Long ago, many cultures saw Mars, and the other visible planets, as living beings themselves: deities that journeyed through the heavens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the invention of the telescope, and especially in the late 19th-century when they got powerful enough to see some details on Mars' face, it was still pretty easy to think about Mars and life, though life on Mars, and not Mars as a living being, was the main fare for the imagination. Polar ice caps reminiscent of Earth's and perceptible surface markings and color variations, both of which changed in extent and detail with Martian seasons, seemed to make Mars—or the human imagination—pulse with life. Fiction writers and scientists alike \u003ca href=\"http://cde.nwc.edu/SCI2108/course_documents/solar_system/innerplanets/mars/lowell/lowell_mars.htm\" title=\"Percival Lowell's Mars\" target=\"_blank\">speculated on the existence\u003c/a> of vegetation, animal life, liquid water, and even intelligent civilizations existent on the Red Planet. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as our telescopes grew even more powerful, and especially when we started sending cameras and telescopes to Mars on robotic spacecraft, imagining Martian life became more challenging. Even the first robots to land on Mars only added to the sterile picture of a lifeless Mars. It seemed that the possibilities of finding life there were drying up like the dusty, rusty, desert planet itself. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week I heard a rumor, which many of you heard as well, that NASA is preparing to make a big announcement concerning Mars and a recent discovery by the SAM instrument on board the rover Curiosity. People have been asking, \"What big announcement is NASA going to make? Will it really be earth-shaking, as some have suggested?\" \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/msl/121128rumors/\" title=\"Curiosity discovery\" target=\"_blank\">NASA is qualifying the rumor\u003c/a>—which spread through the blogosphere and Twittersphere like cyberfire—with a sober and soundly scientific assessment that the announcement (expected on Monday) will be scientifically interesting, but not earth-shaking. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given that the SAM instrument (a set of chemistry experiments including a mass spectrometer, a laser spectrograph, a gas chromatograph, and a pre-subinertial photomegatronic oscillator—okay, only kidding about the last one) is designed to find organic compounds required by life as we know it, I'd say that the announcement will have something to do with organic compounds. I'm not being flippant; my point is that SAM (and Curiosity for that matter) was not designed to find life, fossils, remains or excrements of life, or even megalithic pyramids created by intelligent civilizations. (Although, the latter would certainly show up on one of Curiosity's cameras if it were pointed in the right direction….)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curiosity was sent to Mars to assess the suitability for life in Mars' past. Other missions (Spirit and Opportunity, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.space.com/18174-mars-water-streals-seasonal-flows.html\" title=\"Seasonal streaks on Mars captured by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\" target=\"_blank\">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/a>) have revealed that liquid water, one basic requirement for life as we know it, very likely once flowed on Mars. But life (AWKI) also requires the right mix of organic compounds—compounds of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon—to emerge, form, and thrive. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That is Curiosity's charge, a mission that will unfold over the next two years as the rover climbs the slopes of Mount Sharp, a huge pile of sedimentary layers formed over the last 2 billion years or so--the very pages of the book of Mars' geologic history. Read on, Curiosity, read on!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think the wildfire of speculation, the furor of questing curiosity that erupted and became amplified by cyberspace, is an indication that we, as a culture and a species, are still looking for life on our neighbor planet; still hunting for life there, still wanting, hoping, to find it. I'm optimistic that we may find it, eventually—and in the meantime, I only have to wait until Monday to hear the latest from NASA, whatever exactly that will be. \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "The Leonids Are Back!",
"title": "The Leonids Are Back!",
"headTitle": "QUEST | KQED Science",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_47101\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/11/16/the-leonids-are-back/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-47101\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2.jpg\" alt=\"Leonid Meteors. Credit: Carter Roberts, Eastbay Astronomical Society\" title=\"Leonid Meteors. Credit: Carter Roberts, Eastbay Astronomical Society\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-47101\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leonid Meteors. Credit: Carter Roberts, Eastbay Astronomical Society\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Leonids are back—and they're not a family circus group from Russia! This is the annual meteor shower of November that offers us the chance to see a bit of very ancient history disintegrate in a fiery second. What an opportunity! And, this meteor shower has a personal connection for me, touching on my childhood as well as the young adulthood of my grandfather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, the facts for those of you who just want to know where to go and when to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The peak of the annual \u003ca href=\"http://meteorshowersonline.com/leonids.html\" target=\"_blank\">Leonid meteor shower\u003c/a> occurs in the early morning hours this Sunday, November 18. The shower has actually been going on for about a week and will continue for a few more days, but November 18 is when you can expect to see the most meteors per hour. The shower will become visible post-midnight and into the early morning hours of Sunday as its radiant point (the patch of sky they appear to fly out of, in this case the constellation Leo) rises in the eastern sky. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the anticipated meteor rate—the \"ZHR,\" or \"Zenith Hourly Rate\"—is somewhere in the 10 to 15 range. That is, under good viewing conditions (clear sky, low light pollution levels and minimal interference from moonlight) and if the shower's radiant point were positioned directly overhead at the zenith, you could expect to see 10 to 15 meteors each hour. That may not sound like a lot, but really that's a meteor every 4-6 minutes!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The moon is not an issue this year; it will be setting before midnight, leaving moonless skies for the rest of the night. The trick is to have clear skies and to get away from city lights as much as possible. If you live in the city, but want to see Leonids, plan a trip to a spot away from major congestion. In the San Francisco Bay Area, there are a few good places to try: Henry Coe State Park near San Jose, Skyline Blvd. on the peninsula south of San Francisco, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Mount Diablo and quite a few points north in Marin and Sonoma counties. In the East Bay, the hills from Berkeley down through Hayward have a lot of roadside light-sheltered areas to find. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Leonid shower occurs each year when the Earth passes through the trail of dust left behind by comet Tempel-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun every 33 years. When the Earth plunges through the dust trail at its orbital speed of 18 miles per second, tiny bits of rock and metal -- typically anywhere from pebble-sized to dust grains -- burn up in our upper atmosphere from friction. In a mere second or so a bit of rock or metal that has been around for billions of years -- either as a free bit of material or locked up in the ices of the parent comet -- burns up in a flash. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason that meteor shower aren't visible until after midnight is that you need to be on the side of the Earth that is moving forward in space, into the dust—similar to how in a car on the highway if you drive through a cloud of flying insects, you need to look at the windshield to see the bug streaks on the glass. The morning skies are Earth's \"windshield\" in this case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now for the family reminisce. Comet Tempel-Tuttle passes by our part of the Solar System every 33 years, laying down a fresh trail of dust for us to pass through and causing an increase in the ZHR of the Leonid shower. The comet passed through a little over a decade ago, in 1999, so in the early 2000's there was an upswing in the Leonid rate that made for some spectacular shower viewing. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1966, after the next previous passage of Tempel-Tuttle, when I was 4 years old, we were told to expect a spectacular meteor show—unfortunately, it was overcast in Oakland that evening and my parents only took me outside in the evening hours when you can't expect to see a Leonid anyway. I remember seeing the glow of city lights reflected off the overcast and thinking that was the light of the shower shining through! Ah, four-year-olds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1933, after the next previous passage by the comet, my grandfather witnessed a superb Leonid meteor storm. He described it as seeing meteor after meteor radiating from a point in the sky. That shower was estimated to have produced around 200 meteors per hour! Lucky you, grandpa -- I have yet to see anything like that!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, happy primordial dust speck incineration watching, everyone!\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_47101\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/11/16/the-leonids-are-back/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-47101\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2.jpg\" alt=\"Leonid Meteors. Credit: Carter Roberts, Eastbay Astronomical Society\" title=\"Leonid Meteors. Credit: Carter Roberts, Eastbay Astronomical Society\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-47101\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/meteors-leonids-carter-roberts-2-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leonid Meteors. Credit: Carter Roberts, Eastbay Astronomical Society\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Leonids are back—and they're not a family circus group from Russia! This is the annual meteor shower of November that offers us the chance to see a bit of very ancient history disintegrate in a fiery second. What an opportunity! And, this meteor shower has a personal connection for me, touching on my childhood as well as the young adulthood of my grandfather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, the facts for those of you who just want to know where to go and when to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The peak of the annual \u003ca href=\"http://meteorshowersonline.com/leonids.html\" target=\"_blank\">Leonid meteor shower\u003c/a> occurs in the early morning hours this Sunday, November 18. The shower has actually been going on for about a week and will continue for a few more days, but November 18 is when you can expect to see the most meteors per hour. The shower will become visible post-midnight and into the early morning hours of Sunday as its radiant point (the patch of sky they appear to fly out of, in this case the constellation Leo) rises in the eastern sky. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the anticipated meteor rate—the \"ZHR,\" or \"Zenith Hourly Rate\"—is somewhere in the 10 to 15 range. That is, under good viewing conditions (clear sky, low light pollution levels and minimal interference from moonlight) and if the shower's radiant point were positioned directly overhead at the zenith, you could expect to see 10 to 15 meteors each hour. That may not sound like a lot, but really that's a meteor every 4-6 minutes!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The moon is not an issue this year; it will be setting before midnight, leaving moonless skies for the rest of the night. The trick is to have clear skies and to get away from city lights as much as possible. If you live in the city, but want to see Leonids, plan a trip to a spot away from major congestion. In the San Francisco Bay Area, there are a few good places to try: Henry Coe State Park near San Jose, Skyline Blvd. on the peninsula south of San Francisco, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Mount Diablo and quite a few points north in Marin and Sonoma counties. In the East Bay, the hills from Berkeley down through Hayward have a lot of roadside light-sheltered areas to find. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Leonid shower occurs each year when the Earth passes through the trail of dust left behind by comet Tempel-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun every 33 years. When the Earth plunges through the dust trail at its orbital speed of 18 miles per second, tiny bits of rock and metal -- typically anywhere from pebble-sized to dust grains -- burn up in our upper atmosphere from friction. In a mere second or so a bit of rock or metal that has been around for billions of years -- either as a free bit of material or locked up in the ices of the parent comet -- burns up in a flash. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason that meteor shower aren't visible until after midnight is that you need to be on the side of the Earth that is moving forward in space, into the dust—similar to how in a car on the highway if you drive through a cloud of flying insects, you need to look at the windshield to see the bug streaks on the glass. The morning skies are Earth's \"windshield\" in this case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now for the family reminisce. Comet Tempel-Tuttle passes by our part of the Solar System every 33 years, laying down a fresh trail of dust for us to pass through and causing an increase in the ZHR of the Leonid shower. The comet passed through a little over a decade ago, in 1999, so in the early 2000's there was an upswing in the Leonid rate that made for some spectacular shower viewing. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1966, after the next previous passage of Tempel-Tuttle, when I was 4 years old, we were told to expect a spectacular meteor show—unfortunately, it was overcast in Oakland that evening and my parents only took me outside in the evening hours when you can't expect to see a Leonid anyway. I remember seeing the glow of city lights reflected off the overcast and thinking that was the light of the shower shining through! Ah, four-year-olds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1933, after the next previous passage by the comet, my grandfather witnessed a superb Leonid meteor storm. He described it as seeing meteor after meteor radiating from a point in the sky. That shower was estimated to have produced around 200 meteors per hour! Lucky you, grandpa -- I have yet to see anything like that!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, happy primordial dust speck incineration watching, everyone!\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_46709\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/11/02/ten-random-astro-facts-to-entertain-and-boggle/beyondthesky-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-46709\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/beyondthesky1.jpg\" alt=\"From a Flammarion woodcut, unknown artist.\" title=\"From a Flammarion woodcut, unknown artist.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-46709\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/beyondthesky1.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/beyondthesky1-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From a Flammarion woodcut, unknown artist.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I decided that instead of blogging on just one topic in astronomy, I'd blog about ten of them! Here are some of the astronomy fun facts from my archive that struck my fancy today, randomly chosen and in no particular order:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1. \u003cem>In the city we can see maybe a few dozen stars on a \"dark” night—still, there are about 2000 stars overhead that are within our eye's ability to see, if only the skies were darker!\u003c/em> The total \u003ca href=\"http://www.universetoday.com/24310/how-many-stars-can-you-see/\" title=\"How many stars can you see?\" target=\"_blank\">number of individual stars perceptible\u003c/a> by the human eye, in all directions in space, is around 6000, give or take depending on how good your eyesight and night vision are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2. \u003cem>In terms of size, the Earth is over 6 million times larger than a human being; compared to a typical atom, a human is over 20 billion times larger!\u003c/em> Our personal scale in the universe is a lot closer that of even the vast Earth we live on than to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.factmonster.com/dk/encyclopedia/atoms.html\" title=\"How big is an atom?\" target=\"_blank\">atoms that make us\u003c/a>!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>3. \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NQwIJJtJ8E\" title=\"Ten largest known stars\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>The largest known star\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, \u003cem>the red supergiant NML Cygni, is approximately 1650 times the diameter of our sun, or over 1.4 billion miles across!\u003c/em> Placed where our sun is, this star would swallow up all the planets closer to the sun than Saturn—and Saturn itself would practically skim the star's surface!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>4. \u003cem>In about 5 billion years a day on Earth will be 48 hours long and the sun will start to run out of fuel.\u003c/em> So, yes, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/05/18/the-once-and-future-earth/\" title=\"The Once and Future Earth\" target=\"_blank\">we live on a planet\u003c/a> orbiting a star, both of which are slowly winding down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>5. \u003cem>Television transmissions from the earliest TV broadcasts have traveled over\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/universe/duguide/mwt_radio_sphere.php\" title=\"The Radio Sphere\" target=\"_blank\">70 light years into space\u003c/a> \u003cem>and have passed through over 500 star systems, many with known planets.\u003c/em> I Love Lucy original broadcasts are at this moment reaching other planets!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>6. \u003cem>There is roughly the same number of stars in the universe as water molecules in a drop of water.\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2008/11/21/stars-and-sand-grains/\" title=\"Stars and Sandgrains\" target=\"_blank\">This kind of fact\u003c/a> always turns my attention away from how big the universe is to how ridiculously small its constituent parts are. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>7. \u003cem>The old Greek word for \"comet” is \"disaster”. It means literally \"bad star.” Many cultures regarded the appearance of a comet in the skies a bad omen or harbinger of doom.\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://nineplanets.org/comets.html\" title=\"Comets\" target=\"_blank\">Have you seen a disaster lately?\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>8. \u003cem>The moon may be 400 times smaller than the sun, but since it's 400 times closer to us they appear exactly the same size! What a coincidence.\u003c/em> Since the moon was once much closer to Earth, and will in the future get much farther away (at a rate of mere inches per year), it is a bit of a coincidence, really. But, of course, it was \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2011/12/02/luna-nova-moon-of-the-cretaceous-skies/\" title=\"Luna Nova\" target=\"_blank\">bound to pass through this state\u003c/a> at some point, and the only real coincidence is that we are alive at present to remark on it. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>9. \u003cem>The most distant object in the Universe perceivable to the unaided human eye is the\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1112/\" title=\"Hubble views of the Andromeda Galaxy\" target=\"_blank\">Andromeda Galaxy\u003c/a>, \u003cem>about 2.5 million light years away! That's 15 billion billion miles!\u003c/em> Everything else we can see without a telescope is a lot closer to us!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>10. \u003cem>Imagine taking the entire Earth and everything in it and crushing it to a mere point in space, infinitely smaller than a grain of sand. \u003c/em> This idea may be beyond imagination, but it's not beyond nature. \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/what-is-a-black-hole-k4.html\" title=\"Black Holes\" target=\"_blank\">Black holes\u003c/a> are points in space where the mass of entire stars, and even millions or billions of stars, has collapsed. Kind of makes one re-think what solid matter actually means.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the list goes on. What a privilege to exist in a reality where such mind-boggling facts absolutely abound!\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_46709\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/11/02/ten-random-astro-facts-to-entertain-and-boggle/beyondthesky-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-46709\">\u003cimg src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/beyondthesky1.jpg\" alt=\"From a Flammarion woodcut, unknown artist.\" title=\"From a Flammarion woodcut, unknown artist.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-46709\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/beyondthesky1.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2012/11/beyondthesky1-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From a Flammarion woodcut, unknown artist.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I decided that instead of blogging on just one topic in astronomy, I'd blog about ten of them! Here are some of the astronomy fun facts from my archive that struck my fancy today, randomly chosen and in no particular order:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>1. \u003cem>In the city we can see maybe a few dozen stars on a \"dark” night—still, there are about 2000 stars overhead that are within our eye's ability to see, if only the skies were darker!\u003c/em> The total \u003ca href=\"http://www.universetoday.com/24310/how-many-stars-can-you-see/\" title=\"How many stars can you see?\" target=\"_blank\">number of individual stars perceptible\u003c/a> by the human eye, in all directions in space, is around 6000, give or take depending on how good your eyesight and night vision are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2. \u003cem>In terms of size, the Earth is over 6 million times larger than a human being; compared to a typical atom, a human is over 20 billion times larger!\u003c/em> Our personal scale in the universe is a lot closer that of even the vast Earth we live on than to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.factmonster.com/dk/encyclopedia/atoms.html\" title=\"How big is an atom?\" target=\"_blank\">atoms that make us\u003c/a>!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>3. \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NQwIJJtJ8E\" title=\"Ten largest known stars\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cem>The largest known star\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, \u003cem>the red supergiant NML Cygni, is approximately 1650 times the diameter of our sun, or over 1.4 billion miles across!\u003c/em> Placed where our sun is, this star would swallow up all the planets closer to the sun than Saturn—and Saturn itself would practically skim the star's surface!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>4. \u003cem>In about 5 billion years a day on Earth will be 48 hours long and the sun will start to run out of fuel.\u003c/em> So, yes, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2012/05/18/the-once-and-future-earth/\" title=\"The Once and Future Earth\" target=\"_blank\">we live on a planet\u003c/a> orbiting a star, both of which are slowly winding down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>5. \u003cem>Television transmissions from the earliest TV broadcasts have traveled over\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/universe/duguide/mwt_radio_sphere.php\" title=\"The Radio Sphere\" target=\"_blank\">70 light years into space\u003c/a> \u003cem>and have passed through over 500 star systems, many with known planets.\u003c/em> I Love Lucy original broadcasts are at this moment reaching other planets!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>6. \u003cem>There is roughly the same number of stars in the universe as water molecules in a drop of water.\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2008/11/21/stars-and-sand-grains/\" title=\"Stars and Sandgrains\" target=\"_blank\">This kind of fact\u003c/a> always turns my attention away from how big the universe is to how ridiculously small its constituent parts are. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>7. \u003cem>The old Greek word for \"comet” is \"disaster”. It means literally \"bad star.” Many cultures regarded the appearance of a comet in the skies a bad omen or harbinger of doom.\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://nineplanets.org/comets.html\" title=\"Comets\" target=\"_blank\">Have you seen a disaster lately?\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>8. \u003cem>The moon may be 400 times smaller than the sun, but since it's 400 times closer to us they appear exactly the same size! What a coincidence.\u003c/em> Since the moon was once much closer to Earth, and will in the future get much farther away (at a rate of mere inches per year), it is a bit of a coincidence, really. But, of course, it was \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/2011/12/02/luna-nova-moon-of-the-cretaceous-skies/\" title=\"Luna Nova\" target=\"_blank\">bound to pass through this state\u003c/a> at some point, and the only real coincidence is that we are alive at present to remark on it. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>9. \u003cem>The most distant object in the Universe perceivable to the unaided human eye is the\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1112/\" title=\"Hubble views of the Andromeda Galaxy\" target=\"_blank\">Andromeda Galaxy\u003c/a>, \u003cem>about 2.5 million light years away! That's 15 billion billion miles!\u003c/em> Everything else we can see without a telescope is a lot closer to us!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>10. \u003cem>Imagine taking the entire Earth and everything in it and crushing it to a mere point in space, infinitely smaller than a grain of sand. \u003c/em> This idea may be beyond imagination, but it's not beyond nature. \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/what-is-a-black-hole-k4.html\" title=\"Black Holes\" target=\"_blank\">Black holes\u003c/a> are points in space where the mass of entire stars, and even millions or billions of stars, has collapsed. Kind of makes one re-think what solid matter actually means.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the list goes on. What a privilege to exist in a reality where such mind-boggling facts absolutely abound!\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
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"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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}
},
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"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
"city-arts": {
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"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"order": 1
},
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"here-and-now": {
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"order": 15
},
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"order": 18
},
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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