MATTNOYES.NET - Weather Website & Blog

PHOENIX MARS LANDER TOUCHES DOWN ON MARS

The Phoenix Mars Lander touched down on the surface of the Red Planet on Sunday, making the first soft landing of a spacecraft since 1976.  A soft landing is one in which the craft settles onto the surface, rather than parachuting down and bumping or crashing into the surface.  This is a wonderful accomplishment for NASA and the United States, as it puts an interactive spacecraft on the Martian surface that will be able to measure its surroundings, focused especially on drilling below the surface of the planet to the arctic fields that lay beneath, chock full of subsurface water that may have life in it - or at least evidence that life once existed on Mars.

You can keep track of the Phoenix Mars Lander Mission through the official homepage from NASA, found by clicking here.  NASA also has put together a fun, interactive model of the Lander so we can all learn a bit more about what each part of the craft does - click here to access it.  As you surf around the NASA site, you'll find plenty of images and video that will fascinate you for the duration of the trip!

Matt

MERCURY TO IMPRESS IN MAY

Yesterday we examined the potential of an out-of-control Mercury that could put an end to life as we know it...even if the odds of it happening in the next few billion years is only one percent!  ;)  Today, I thought this article from Sky and Telescope was worth passing along as a note of beauty from the planet...Mercury will put on a rare and enjoyable show during the month of May - for the naked eye observer the first half of the month, and for those who enjoy the view through the telescope during the latter half!  (Photo courtesy Pete Lawrence, from his website).

MERCURY TO IMPRESS IN MAY

Yesterday we examined the potential of an out-of-control Mercury that could put an end to life as we know it...even if the odds of it happening in the next few billion years is only one percent!  ;)  Today, I thought this article from Sky and Telescope was worth passing along as a note of beauty from the planet...Mercury will put on a rare and enjoyable show during the month of May - for the naked eye observer the first half of the month, and for those who enjoy the view through the telescope during the latter half!  (Photo courtesy Pete Lawrence, from his website).

COULD MERCURY AND EARTH BE ON A COURSE FOR COLLISION?

Here's another interesting article for your enjoyment - this time from Sky and Telescope Magazine - for those of us who enjoy contemplating the inevitable, regardless of how many hundreds, thousands, or millions of years into the future it may be.  As it turns out, a couple of different, independent studies both have yielded the same result, that the inner solar system is far more unstable than has traditionally been thought.  Made simple, this means the orbits of the planets near the sun and near earth could become far less predictable and varied in the future (the looooonnnnngggg future), and Mercury is subject to wild fluctuations that could send it into the sun, completely out of the solar system, or directly into earth.  Of course, the scientists put the chance of Mercury shooting out of orbit prior to the sun's deterioration billions of years from now at 1%...so you and I should be safe!

COULD MERCURY AND EARTH BE ON A COURSE FOR COLLISION?

Here's another interesting article for your enjoyment - this time from Sky and Telescope Magazine - for those of us who enjoy contemplating the inevitable, regardless of how many hundreds, thousands, or millions of years into the future it may be.  As it turns out, a couple of different, independent studies both have yielded the same result, that the inner solar system is far more unstable than has traditionally been thought.  Made simple, this means the orbits of the planets near the sun and near earth could become far less predictable and varied in the future (the looooonnnnngggg future), and Mercury is subject to wild fluctuations that could send it into the sun, completely out of the solar system, or directly into earth.  Of course, the scientists put the chance of Mercury shooting out of orbit prior to the sun's deterioration billions of years from now at 1%...so you and I should be safe!