We seemed to have had an infestation from planet Uranus...... everyday, l see more and more Assho!es.
A long but very interesting read if you wish to understand the Boeing 737 MAX issue. https://www.vox.com/business-and-finance/2019/3/29/18281270/737-max-faa-scandal-explained
I struggle to stay on a skateboard for more than a few seconds these days, I'd be toast on that thing (but what fun it would be!)
Amazing - and the black hole they took pictures of a few days ago is probably even bigger....we are so insignificant in this universe
Just watched a great documentary on stars on BBC4..... BBC Four - Seven Ages of Starlight https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00yb434 This is the epic story of the stars, and how discovering their tale has transformed our own understanding of the universe. Once we thought the sun and stars were gods and giants. Now we know, in a way, our instincts were right. The stars do all have their own characters, histories and role in the cosmos. Not least, they played a vital part in creating us. There are old, bloated red giants, capable of gobbling up planets in their orbit, explosive deaths - supernovae - that forge the building blocks of life and black holes, the most mysterious stellar tombstones. And, of course, stars in their prime, like our own sun. Leading astronomers reveal how the grandest drama on tonight is the one playing above our heads.
please log in to view this image The sharpest ever view of the Andromeda Galaxy. This is what a trillion stars look like! So amazing ...
Mariana Trench: Deepest-ever sub dive finds plastic bag By Rebecca Morelle Science Correspondent, BBC News 43 minutes ago please log in to view this image The latest dive reached 10,927m (35,849ft) beneath the waves - a new record please log in to view this image An American explorer has found plastic waste on the seafloor while breaking the record for the deepest ever dive. Victor Vescovo descended nearly 11km (seven miles) to the deepest place in the ocean - the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench. He spent four hours exploring the bottom of the trench in his submersible, built to withstand the immense pressure of the deep. He found sea creatures, but also found a plastic bag and sweet wrappers. It is the third time humans have reached the ocean's extreme depths. please log in to view this image The explorers believe they have discovered four new species of prawn-like crustaceans called amphipods please log in to view this image The first dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench took place in 1960 by US Navy lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard in a vessel called the bathyscaphe Trieste. Movie director James Cameron then made a solo plunge half a century later in 2012 in his bright green sub. The latest descent, which reached 10,927m (35,849ft) beneath the waves, is now the deepest by 11m - making Victor Vescovo the new record holder. please log in to view this image Don Walsh (left), who dived to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in 1960, congratulated Victor Vescovo (right) please log in to view this image In total, Mr Vescovo and his team made five dives to the bottom of the trench during the expedition. Robotic landers were also deployed to explore the remote terrain. Mr Vescovo said: "It is almost indescribable how excited all of us are about achieving what we just did. "This submarine and its mother ship, along with its extraordinarily talented expedition team, took marine technology to a ridiculously higher new level by diving - rapidly and repeatedly - into the deepest, harshest, area of the ocean." please log in to view this image Victor Vescovo descended almost 11km in a submersible to the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean Witnessing the dive from the Pacific was Don Walsh. He told BBC News: "I salute Victor Vescovo and his outstanding team for the successful completion of their historic explorations into the Mariana Trench. "Six decades ago, Jacques Piccard and I were the first to visit that deepest place in the world's oceans. "Now in the winter of my life, it was a great honour to be invited on this expedition to a place of my youth." please log in to view this image The team believes it has discovered four new species of prawn-like crustaceans called amphipods, saw a creature called a spoon worm 7,000m-down and a pink snailfish at 8,000m. They also discovered brightly coloured rocky outcrops, possibly created by microbes on the seabed, and collected samples of rock from the seafloor. Humanity's impact on the planet was also evident with the discovery of plastic pollution. It's something that other expeditions using landers have seen before. Millions of tonnes of plastic enter the oceans each year, but little is known about where a lot of it ends up. please log in to view this image Victor Vescovo spent four hours exploring the bottom of the trench The scientists now plan to test the creatures they collected to see if they contain microplastics - a recent study found this was a widespread problem, even for animals living in the deep. The dive forms part of the Five Deeps expedition - an attempt to explore the deepest points in each of the world's five oceans. It has been funded by Mr Vescovo, a private equity investor, who before turning his attention to the ocean's extreme depths also climbed the highest peaks on the planet's seven continents. please log in to view this image The 4.6m-long, 3.7m-high DSV Limiting Factor submersible was built by the US-based company Triton Submarines please log in to view this image please log in to view this image After the record dive, the submersible was brought back on the expedition's main vessel - the DSSV Pressure Drop As well as the Mariana Trench in the Pacific, in the last six months dives have also taken place in the Puerto Rico Trench in the Atlantic Ocean (8,376m/27,480ft down), the South Sandwich Trench in the Southern Ocean (7,433m/24,388ft) and the Java Trench in Indian Ocean (7,192m/23,596ft). The final challenge will be to reach the bottom of the Molloy Deep in the Arctic Ocean, which is currently scheduled for August 2019. The 4.6m-long, 3.7m-high submersible - called the DSV Limiting Factor - was built by the US-based company Triton Submarines, with the aim of having a vessel that could make repeated dives to any part of the ocean. At its core is a 9cm-thick titanium pressure hull that can fit two people, so dives can be performed solo or as a pair. It can withstand the crushing pressure found at the bottom of the ocean: 1,000 bars, which is the equivalent of 50 jumbo jets piled on top of a person. please log in to view this image Atlantic Productions for Discovery Channel Mariana Trench 10,994Deepest natural trench in metres 1960First dive 3Number of dives to date 2,146Higher than Mount Everest in metres, if inverted Source: Deepsea Challenge/Geology.com As well as working under pressure, the sub has to operate in the pitch black and near freezing temperatures. These conditions also made it challenging to capture footage - the Five Deeps expedition has been followed by Atlantic Productions for a documentary for the Discovery Channel. Anthony Geffen, creative director of Atlantic Productions, said it was the most complicated filming he'd ever been involved with. "Our team had to pioneer new camera systems that could be mounted on the submersible, operate at up to 10,000m below sea level and work with robotic landers with camera systems that would allow us to film Victor's submersible on the bottom of the ocean. "We also had to design new rigs that would go inside Victor's submersible and capture every moment of Victor's dives." After the Five Deeps expedition is complete later this year, the plan is to pass the submersible onto science institutions so researchers can continue to use it. The challenges of exploring the deep ocean - even with robotic vehicles - has made the ocean trenches one of the last frontiers on the planet. Once thought to be remote, desolate areas, the deep sea teems with life. There is also growing evidence that they are carbon sinks, playing a role in regulating the Earth's chemistry and climate.
Chang'e-4: Chinese rover 'confirms' Moon crater theory By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website please log in to view this image Image copyright CLEP Image caption The Chang'e-4 rover has been exploring Von Kármán crater since January this year The Chinese Chang'e-4 rover may have confirmed a longstanding idea about the origin of a vast crater on the Moon's far side. The rover's landing site lies within a vast impact depression created by an asteroid strike billions of years ago. Now, mission scientists have found evidence that impact was so powerful it punched through the Moon's crust and into the layer below called the mantle. Chang'e-4 has identified what appear to be mantle rocks on the surface. It's something the rover was sent to the far side to find out. Chunlai Li, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, and colleagues have presented their findings in the journal Nature. The lunar far side, which is turned away from Earth, is more rugged than the familiar near side and has fewer "maria" - dark plains formed by ancient volcanic eruptions. The Chinese spacecraft touched down on 3 January, becoming the first spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the lunar far side. The rover then rolled off the lander to explore its surroundings. The rover landed inside a 180km-wide impact bowl called Von Kármán crater. But that smaller crater lies within the 2,300km-wide South Pole Aitken (SPA) Basin, which covers nearly a quarter of the Moon's circumference. please log in to view this image Image copyright NASA Image caption The South Pole Aitken Basin is one of the largest known impact craters in the Solar System It's not known exactly how old the SPA Basin is, but it's thought to be at least 3.9 billion years old. The asteroid that carved it out is thought to have been about 170km wide. The Yutu-2 rover has now identified rocks with a very different chemical make-up to those found elsewhere on the Moon. Early results from the rover's Visible and Near Infrared Spectrometer (VNIS) suggest the rocks contain minerals known as low-calcium (ortho)pyroxene and olivine. They fit the profile of rocks from the lunar mantle and suggest that the ancient impact that created the SPA drove right through the 50km-deep crust into the mantle. Observational data taken by Moon-orbiting spacecraft have been inconclusive as to the presence of mantle rocks on the surface. The authors of the paper want to continue their examination of these rocks and find others. They have also raised the possibility of sending another mission to deliver some of them to Earth for study in laboratories. please log in to view this image Image copyright CLEP Image caption A picture of the lander taken by the rover's panoramic camera (PCAM) The results could now help scientists understand the chemical and mineralogical composition of the mantle, which could shed light on the origins and evolution of the Moon itself. The team members also want to find out more about what happened after the asteroid collided with the Moon and formed the SPA Basin. Scientists predict that the hole in the surface may have been filled by molten rock - forming a "melt sheet" within the impact bowl, which complicates the picture of this region's geology. Patrick Pinet, from the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP) in Toulouse, France, called the results "thrilling" and said they "could have considerable implications for characterising the composition of the Moon's upper mantle". He added: "It is of the utmost importance to make progress towards unpacking the geology of the lunar far side, expanding our fundamental knowledge of the Moon's formation and the origin of the crustal asymmetry that exists between its near and far sides, and preparing future sample-return missions."
Who and how the hell do they perform this research? It is mindboggling, especially if it is empirical! Do bearded men get stopped in the street and get asked " Excuse me Sir, I am performing a research study and would you mind showing me your *********?"
