Unseen Titanic

"Unseen Titanic"

 At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, the “unsinkable” R.M.S. Titanic disappeared beneath the waves, taking with her 1,500 souls. One hundred years later, new technologies have revealed the most complete—and most intimate—images of the famous wreck.

More than two miles down, the ghostly bow of the Titanic emerges from the darkness on a dive by explorer and filmmaker James Cameron in 2001. The ship might have survived a head-on collision with an iceberg, but a sideswipe across her starboard side pierced too many of her watertight compartments.

The propellers of the Olympic—the nearly identical sister ship of the Titanic—dwarf workers at the Belfast shipyard where both ocean liners were built. Few photographs exist of the Titanic, but the Olympic gives a sense of its grand design.

With her rudder cleaving the sand and two propeller blades peeking from the murk, Titanic’s mangled stern rests on the abyssal plain, 1,970 feet south of the more photographed bow. This optical mosaic combines 300 high-resolution images taken on a 2010 expedition.

Ethereal views of Titanic’s bow offer a comprehensiveness of detail never seen before. The optical mosaics each consist of 1,500 high-resolution images rectified using sonar data.

As the starboard profile shows, the Titanic buckled as it plowed nose-first into the seabed, leaving the forward hull buried deep in mud—obscuring, possibly forever, the mortal wounds inflicted by the iceberg.

Titanic’s battered stern, captured here in profile, bears witness to the extreme trauma inflicted upon it as it corkscre

 

 Two of Titanic’s engines lie exposed in a gaping cross section of the stern. Draped in “rusticles”—orange stalactites created by iron-eating bacteria—these massive structures, four stories tall, once powered the largest moving man-made object on Earth.

wed to the bottom.

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How to Spot Asteroid Juno in the Night Sky

How to Spot Asteroid Juno in the Night Sky





 

On Sunday May 20, the same evening as the annular eclipse of the sun, the asteroid Juno reaches opposition, directly opposite the sun in the sky, between the constellations Ophiuchus and Serpens Caput.
CREDIT: Starry Night


A small, faint asteroid will be coming into view this week, and lucky skywatchers with the right tools could catch a glimpse of the space rock.

In the first few years of the 19th century, astronomers discovered four new bodies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Three of these asteroids, Ceres, Pallas and Vesta, were fairly large objects, measuring between 592 and 319 miles (952 and 513 kilometers) across.

The fourth asteroid, Juno, was much smaller and fainter. It was discovered by the German astronomer Karl Harding in 1804.

Irregular in shape, Juno measures 199 by 166 by 124 miles (320 by 267 by 200 km), with an average diameter of 145 miles (233 km). This makes Juno about the size of the state of Maine.

At its brightest, Juno is only magnitude 7.4, which is much too faint to be visible with the unaided eye. Astronomers use magnitude to determine how bright objects appear in the night sky. Essentially, the lower the magnitude, the bright something will appear. [Skywatching Maps, Charts and Books]

This week, Juno will arrive at a point opposite the sun, in what astronomers call "opposition." But since the asteroid will be only magnitude 9.8, conditions are not favorable.

This is because Juno has one of the most eccentric orbits of any of the large asteroids. At its closest (perihelion), Juno is only twice as far from the sun as the Earth. At its farthest (aphelion) it is 3.4 times farther from the sun than Earth. This week's opposition finds it close to aphelion, which was on May 8.

At magnitude 9.8, Juno will be a challenging object to see using binoculars, but should be easily visible in most telescopes, provided viewing conditions are good. However because of its tiny size, it will look like a star-like point of light in even the largest telescopes.

 
 

A more detailed view of the asteroid Juno, half way between Yed Prior in Ophiuchus and Mu Serpentis.
CREDIT: Starry Night


If Juno looks just like a star, how will you know if you've seen it? Make a sketch of the field and check again the next night or even the next hour. Juno will have moved detectably. This is exactly the way that astronomers detect new asteroids and comets: by their movement.

On Sunday night (May 20), Juno will be nicely framed by two fairly bright stars, Yed Prior in Ophiuchus and Mu Serpentis in the western part of the only two-part constellation, Serpens.

Ophiuchus was in the news recently when some astrologers decided to add it to the 12 zodiac constellations. Astronomers found this amusing because they had recognized Ophiuchus as a large and important constellation for thousands of years. In fact, the sun, moon, and planets spend far more time in Ophiuchus than they do in Scorpius next door.

Ophiuchus is known as "the serpent bearer" also called Asclepius in roman mythology, the father of medicine. Early physicians used snake venom in some of their treatments, so Asclepius is depicted holding a severed snake: head in one hand, tail in the other.

These two halves of Serpens are known as Serpens Caput and Serpens Cauda. Juno is located between Mu, the southernmost star in Serpens Caput, and Yed Prior (Delta Ophiuchi), the westernmost star in Ophiuchus.

Be sure to also take a look at Venus, which should appear low in the northwest just after sunset. Venus is dropping rapidly towards the sun, heading for its transit on June 5 and 6. Even in modest binoculars you can clearly see Venus as a tiny crescent, backlit by the sun.

 

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Google Chrome beats Internet Explorer in browser war

Google Chrome beats Internet Explorer in browser war 

 

 

 

LONDON: Google Chrome has now overtaken Internet Explorer to become the world's most widely used web browser.

Google Chrome briefly became the world's most popular web browser for one weekend in March, but according to figures from Statcounter it has now overtaken Microsoft's Internet Explorer for the foreseeable future.

On desktops, Chrome and IE have been on around 33 per cent each, but the last week shows Chrome taking the lead, media report said.

Speaking in March, Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter's chief executive, said 'at weekends, when people are free to choose what browser to use, many of them are selecting Chrome in preference to IE.'

On March 18, Chrome was used for 32.7 per cent of all browsing, while Internet Explorer had 32.5 per cent share, according to the report.

Chrome's market share has surged from 17 per cent a year ago, while Explorer has slipped from 45 per cent a year earlier, the report said.

The Statcounter figures also suggest that Google Android's built-in browser is now the most popular programme on mobile phones. 

 

 

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A History of Asteroid Collision Near Misses

A History of Asteroid Collision Near Misses


If an asteroid hits earth it could very well be the end of days. We will not have Bruce Willis ready to give his life to save humanity and the human race may not recover. Doom and gloom? If an asteroid attack is keeping you up at night, you should know that the earth has been in the trajectory of asteroids, meteors and other space debris for thousands of years.
Actually Factually



Asteroids were formed when the space between Jupiter and Mars did not allow the formation of any planetary bodies. The objects in the space broke and fragmented giving rise to asteroids which can have a diameter of over 500 miles or as small as 20 feet. Asteroids travel around the sun in an elliptical orbit and due to their irregular shape can bounce off course, tumble and change orbit. Changing orbit sometimes means that an asteroid can encounter other planets. One of those is our home planet.

Historically we have little to go on when it comes to asteroid near misses in history. The Comet of 1491 came dangerously close, possibly less than four times the distance to the moon. In 1972, a comet bounced off the surface of the atmosphere streaking through the sky as a fireball over Utah. Only 14 meters in diameter, this near miss could have delivered an impact about half the strength of the atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima. Comet Hyakutake passed very close in 1996 and was discovered only two months before it started its earth approach.
Close Encounters Of the Earth Ending Kind

NASA recorded the closest near miss of an asteroid in February of 2011. A small asteroid barely 1 metre in diameter passing as close as 5480 km from earth. That’s close, real close. Close enough to get people worried. Asteroid 2011CQ1 may have been small, but it was very definitely in our back yard and climbing up the front stairs. The scary part is that the asteroid, which had left its normal trajectory and had been pulled so close to the earth by the gravitational force, was only discovered 14 hours before it passed. Close, is of course a relative term when you’re talking about distances in space.



Asteroid 2011MD, credit: Jaicoa

2011MD passed within 11 000 miles of our home and gave off a light so bright it could be seen with a small telescope. 32 times closer than the moon is considered a little close for comfort. The threat of an asteroid collision may not be imminent but astronomers and scientists are not able to predict what happens when an asteroid is pulled into our orbit and how it may behave due to its irregular shape.

2005YU5 came into the moons orbit on November 8 2011, giving scientists a rare chance to capture footage of its orbit. 2005YU55 is no stranger to us, and has been orbiting for thousands of years. This close though and who knows what happens.

Large asteroids have the ability to wipe out all life on earth if there is impact. We’re talking about asteroids the size of apartment buildings, houses and city blocks here.
Asteroids That Keep Coming Back

Apophis is a 25 million ton asteroid that keeps threatening our skies. Having several near misses, this large celestial body seems to be getting closer and closer. Discovered in 2004, you can track the travels of Apophis (2004MN4) on several websites around the world. The closest pass of Apophis is estimated for 2029. Just around the corner really.



Trajectory of Apophis in 2029, source: Wikipedia

The threat of an asteroid impact is measured on the Torino Scale. Apophis has always been at Level 1, which is a negligible threat, but scientists upped that to a level 4 for a short while when discussing the gravitational effect of both earth and the asteroid.
Threats On The Horizon

Currently NASA has 959 asteroids that could possibly change course and threaten earth. 5 of those will pass between earth and the moon in the next 100 years; knocking on our door.

2012DA14 had to fly past the moon 7 times before astronomers discovered it. Set to come into close contact with our atmosphere next year, this asteroid is considered a threat because of its irregular shape and size. Just 50 metres in diameter, this hunk of rock would have the power to wipe out a small city on impact. On 15 February 2013, the asteroid will pass less than 24 000 kms from earth, closer than some satellites. So close you’ll be able to observe it with a pair of binoculars.

Some would say this is too close for comfort…

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