X-37B, a clandestine mini-space shuttle of the US Air Force, is likely to land this week. Some reports say the much anticipated return of X-37B is happening today, June 14, 2012 (June 15 Manila Time).
Air Force officials, however, said the landing day for the unmanned space plane depends on weather conditions at its intended landing site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, as well as other factors.
The X-37B spacecraft has been in orbit since March 5, 2011 but the Air Force has not issued any information of what the craft is doing or where it is orbiting as they are considered as classified.
X-37B is about 29 feet long (8.8 meters) 15 feet wide (4.5 m), and has a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed. It is powered by a solar panel that allows it to stay in orbit for months at a time.
NASA describes its new discovery as "dramatic and unexpected as finding a rainforest in the middle of a desert."
A NASA-sponsored expedition has found a massive phytoplankton bloom growing beneath the sea ice in the Arctic.The discovery stunned scientists as under-ice bloom of such size has never been seen anywhere on the planet. The bloom was spotted last summer by a team of scientists collecting field measurements for NASA's ICESCAPE mission, which explores the effects of climate change in the Arctic.
Sampling took place at the multiple sites along two tracks of ice-covered water in the Chukchi Sea, just north of Alaska. According to observations, the bloom extended for more than 60 miles from the ice edge into the sea ice pack and concentrated in the top layers of water near the ocean surface.
Video footage taken below the sea ice at two different study sites contrasts the Arctic's typical barren and dark blue water with the emeral shades of green produced when teeming with phytoplanktons.
The blooms consisted mainly of diatoms -- microscopic plants that make up the base of the marine food chain aand require large amounts of sunlight to grow.
Scientists previously thought blooms were limited to ice-free expanses of open water, where sunlight isn't reflected by sea ice and prevented from entering the ocean. But thinning ice and an increase in melt ponds have allowed more sunlight to reach the water below the sea ice in recent years, which may account for the presence of these massive blooms.
If such blooms are widespread, scientists will have to evaluate the impact of these carbon-consumers on the amount of carbon dioxide entering the ocean, and what that means for our changing climate.
The perceived benefits of family dinners on teens may not be either as strong or as lasting after controlling for other factors, according to a new study.
"There seems to be something unique about the family dinner, but it’s just less of an effect than prior studies have found," Ann Meier, one of the new study’s co-authors and an associate professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, told the MinnPost Wednesday.
"No one had really tested this very rigorously before," she added.
Despite the findings of this study, Meier said that families should still try to have sit-down meals together. But, she added, parents who can’t pull off the family meal on a regular basis shouldn’t feel guilty.
Family meals "may be a nice kind of ritual context for good parenting to happen," she said, but such parenting "can happen in other ways, in other venues."
'Family meals do matter," she added, "but just a lot less than previously reported."
The large new study, published this week in the Journal of Marriage and Family, used data from a sample of 18,000 children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, a national school-based survey of adolescent behavior that was launched in 1994.
A Venus transit, which occurs when Planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth, is happening, today. The rare spectacle will not happen again in 105 years.
The transits of Venus occur in pairs with more than a century separating each pair. Since the invention of the telescope, there have been only eight of such events that have occurred - 1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882, 2004 and the upcoming one this June 2012. The 2004 and 2012 transits form a contemporary pair separated by 8 years. The next two transits of Venus will occur on 2117 and 2125.
Today's Venus Transit will be visible in Greenland, North and Central America, Pacific Is., Australasia, Asia (including the Philippines), E. Africa and most of Europe. It will start at 22:09 UTC on June 5th until 04:49 UTC on June 6th.
NASA is giving us an opportunity to see the historic astronomical event in the comfort of our own homes through their webcast. Hosting the live stream are NASA scientists who will be giving valuable information about the Transit of Venus.
Check out NASA's Venus Transit 2012 live stream below:
If you plan to watch the Transit outside, you must bear the following in mind:
One should take precautions in watching the Sun during these hours as staring at it without precaution can damage one's retina. The safest manner is to project the image of the Sun through pinholes, telescopes or binoculars onto a screen or by using a filter to shield the naked eye.
A transit of Venus is set occur on June 5-6, 2012. It will be visible in Greenland, North and Central America, Pacific Is., Australasia, Asia (including the Philippines), E. Africa and most of Europe.
The rare spectacle will last for nearly 7 hours, from 22:09 UTC on June 5th until 04:49 UTC on June 6th.
Here's a sampling of local viewing times: 12:10 p.m. Honolulu; 3:06 p.m. Los Angeles; 5:06 p.m. Mexico City; 6:04 p.m. New York — all on Tuesday — and 5:37 a.m. London; 6:09 Manila; 6:10 a.m. Beijing; 6:12 a.m. Hong Kong; 6:38 a.m. Cairo; 7:10 a.m. Tokyo; 8:16 a.m. Sydney; 10:15 a.m. Auckland on Wednesday.
A Venus Transit takes place when Planet Venus passes directly between the Earth and the Sun. But considering the small size of the planet, the Transit is only seen as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun.
The transits of Venus occur in pairs with more than a century separating each pair. Since the invention of the telescope, there have been only eight of such events that have occurred - 1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882, 2004 and the upcoming one this June 2012. The 2004 and 2012 transits form a contemporary pair separated by 8 years. The next two transits of Venus will occur on 2117 and 2125.
One should take precautions in watching the Sun during these hours as staring at it without precaution can damage one's retina. The safest manner is to project the image of the Sun through pinholes, telescopes or binoculars onto a screen or by using a filter to shield the naked eye.
A Venus Transit, which takes place when Planet Venus passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, will be visible on June 5-6, 2012. But considering the small size of the planet, the Transit is only seen as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun.
The transits of Venus occur in pairs with more than a century separating each pair. Since the invention of the telescope, there have been only eight of such events that have occurred - 1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882, 2004 and the upcoming one this June 2012. The 2004 and 2012 transits form a contemporary pair separated by 8 years. The next two transits of Venus will occur on 2117 and 2125.
The principal events occurring during a transit are characterized by contacts, similar to the contacts of an annular solar eclipse. They are as follows:
First contact (external ingress): Venus is entirely outside the disk of the Sun, moving inward
Second contact (internal ingress): Venus is entirely inside the disk of the Sun, moving further inward
Third contact (internal egress): Venus is entirely inside the disk of the Sun, moving outward
Fourth contact (external egress): Venus is entirely outside the disk of the Sun, moving outward.
A fifth named point is that of greatest transit, when Venus is at the middle of its path across the solar disk and which marks the halfway point in the timing of the transit.
Wednesday's Venus Transit, with all its four contacts, will be visible in Greenland, North and Central America, Pacific Is., Australasia, Asia (including the Philippines), E. Africa and most of Europe.
In the Philippines, it can be observed from 6:09 in the morning until 12:49 in the afternoon on Wednesday, June 6.
One should take precautions in watching the Sun during these hours as staring at it without precaution can damage one's retina. The safest manner is to project the image of the Sun through pinholes, telescopes or binoculars onto a screen or by using a filter to shield the naked eye.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully launched on Tuesday its private space capsule called Dragon, kicking off a mission that will make SpaceX the first commercial company in history to attempt to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station.
Dragon, which was carried by a Falcon 9 rocket, was launched at 3:44 a.m. ET at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and now heading toward the International Space Station.
“I would like to start off by saying what a tremendous honor it has been to work with NASA. And to acknowledge the fact that we could not have started SpaceX, nor could we have reached this point without the help of NASA… It’s really been an honor to work with such great people," said SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk at a press conference held after the launch. “We obviously have to go through a number of steps to berth with the Space Station, but everything is looking really good and I think I would count today as a success no matter what happens with the rest of the mission.”
Explaining the significance of the day, Musk stated, “This mission heralds the dawn of a new era of space exploration, one in which there is a significant commercial space element. It is like the advent of the Internet in the mid-1990s when commercial companies entered what was originally a government endeavor. That move dramatically accelerated the pace of advancement and made the Internet accessible to the mass market. I think we’re at a similar inflection point for space. I hope and I believe that this mission will be historic in marking that turning point towards a rapid advancement in space transportation technology.”
This is SpaceX’s second demonstration flight under a 2006 Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) agreement with NASA to develop the capability to carry cargo to and from the International Space Station. Demonstration launches are conducted to determine potential issues so that they might be addressed; by their very nature, they carry a significant risk. If any aspect of the mission is not successful, SpaceX will learn from the experience and try again.
An annular solar eclipse, also known as a "Ring of Fire" eclipse, is set to occur on May 20, 2012.
If you're wondering what time the rare eclipse will start, reports say it will be at 20:56 UTC and will end at 02:49 UTC on May 21.
However, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), it will be visible only within a 240-300 kilometer-wide track that traverses eastern Asia, the northern Pacific Ocean and the western United States. It will start in eastern Asia - in southern China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan- and will then move eastward across the Pacific before entering the California-Oregon area. The Moon's shadow passes in the late afternoon over Nevada, Utah, Arizona, a corner of Colorado, New Mexico, and the annular eclipse ends at sunset in Texas.
A partial eclipse will also be visible in the following areas: most of eastern China, the Philippines, Korea, Japan, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, Hawaii, Mexico and much of the United States except for the eastern seaboard, NASA says.
Experts are reminding everyone not to look directly at the eclipsed sun or they can get a serious eye injury. One should wear specially made protective glasses that is available for purchase online or create his own contraption by punching a small pinhole in a cardboard box.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring the image of the Sun as viewed from the Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun, resulting to the so-called "ring of fire."
The phenomenon is said to occur rarely. The last recorded annular eclipse in the United States was on May 10, 1994 and the next one is projected to occur in October 2023.
An ancient reptile with a neck resembling to that of the Loch Ness Monster had also developed arthritis and eventually died to diseases of old age.
A team of researchers, who studied a fossil of a 150-million-year-old marine reptile called pliosaur, the ancient creature apparently suffered from arthritis-like disease in its jaw. The condition reportedly eroded the beast's left jaw point.
"The most exciting aspect of this research for me is the arthritic condition, which has never been seen before in these or similar Mesozoic reptiles," researcher Judyth Sassoon from the University of Bristol told LiveScience.
She added: "In the same way that aging humans develop arthritic hips, this old lady developed an arthritic jaw and survived with her disability for some time. But an unhealed fracture on the jaw indicates that at some time the jaw weakened and eventually broke. With a broken jaw, the pliosaur would not have been able to feed, and that final accident probably led to her demise."
The findings of Sassoon's group were published online Tuesday in the journal Palaeontology.
