Below is a video from NASA, explaining this month’s “Super Moon”.
“Super Moon” of May 2012
By May 6th, 2012, underThe Sun: March 2012
By March 18th, 2012, underBelow is a video of the sun during March 2012:
From Nasa News:
This movie of the March 6, 2012 X5.4 flare was captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in the 171 Angstrom wavelength. One of the most dramatic features is the way the entire surface of the sun seems to ripple with the force of the eruption. This movement comes from something called EIT waves — because they were first discovered with the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) on the Solar Heliospheric Observatory. Since SDO captures images every 12 seconds, it has been able to map the full evolution of these waves and confirm that they can travel across the full breadth of the sun. The waves move at over a million miles per hour, zipping from one side of the sun to the other in about an hour. The movie shows two distinct waves. The first seems to spread in all directions; the second is narrower, moving toward the southeast. Such waves are associated with, and perhaps trigger, fast coronal mass ejections, so it is likely that each one is connected to one of the two CMEs that erupted on March 6.
By February 27th, 2012, under
Dear 6th Graders,
Use the picture and the article below to help you diagram, compare and contrast gravity according to Newton and Einstein.
(You can also use the “trampoline and bowling bowl example.)
Remember: Test is Thursday, March 1st …
From Discovery News:
It’s a sad day for physics crackpots bent on disproving relativity, because once again, it turns out that Einstein was right.
The last bits of data collected several years ago by NASA’s Gravity Probe B satellite have been analyzed, and the result is a resounding confirmation of two critical predictions of the general theory of relativity.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “Wait a minute — NASA has a satellite up there testing the predictions of relativity?” Yes it does! NASA launched Gravity Probe B in April 2004, and these new results are the culmination of more than 50 years of effort.
Per Isaac Newton, the spin axis of a perfect gyroscope orbiting the Earth would remain unchanged for all eternity. But Newton saw gravity as a force between objects. Einstein re-envisioned gravity as arising from the warping of spacetime. That’s the central tenet of General Relativity, and Einstein made several predictions that could be used to test the accuracy of his theory.
One was confirmed right away: Einstein said that a ray of light passing near the sun would be deflected by a certain degree, because the sun’s mass would warp the surrounding spacetime and the light ray would follow that curvature.
This effect would be observable during a solar eclipse, when the sun’s light was temporarily blocked. In May 1919, two separate scientific expeditions — one in Brazil and another on an island off the coast of West Africa — observed just such a deflection during a solar eclipse.
Einstein also predicted that the Earth’s mass would warp its surrounding spacetime, and that it would “drag” the fabric of spacetime by a certain degree as it rotates. Those last two predictions are the reason Gravity Probe B was first conceived in 1959 by two Stanford scientists named George Pugh and Leonard Schiff.
5/6th Graders: Do Your Science Homework On-line
By January 22nd, 2012, under***Dear 5th and 6th Graders,
The CAS Homework Page is now up and working. You can now view, complete, and submit your Science homework online. There will always be the option of doing homework on paper. Please see me if you need a hard copy of the homework or if you have any questions.
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To access your Science homework, click the CAS ONLY button at the top menu or click below:
(NO LOGIN INFORMATION IS NEED.)
5th Grade Homework Page
6th Grade Homework Page
“Pink Meanie” Jellyfish and “Cyclops Shark” and Others
By January 22nd, 2012, under
Dear 5th Grade,
As we begin studying the classification of living things, I thought you would enjoy seeing some recently “discovered” species… Below is a description of a couple of interesting new species of 2011, from the National Geographic Website:
“Pink Meanie” Jellyfish
Photograph courtesy Don Demaria
Off the Florida Keys (map), hundreds of stinging tentacles dangle from a “pink meanie”—a new species of jellyfish with a taste for other jellies that was discovered in January.
Like other species in the genus Drymonema, the new jelly has an appetite for moon jellyfish, which the predators feed on almost exclusively as adults.
Adult Drymonema do the majority of their digestion using specialized “oral arms” that dangle alongside their tentacles. The oral arms exude digestive juices, which break down the prey, scientists said in January.
Cyclops Shark
Photograph courtesy Marcela Bejarano-Álvarez
An extremely rare cyclops shark, recently confirmed in Mexico, is an editor’s pick for one of the ten oddest life-forms found in 2011.
The 22-inch-long (56-centimeter-long) fetus has a single, functioning eye at the front of its head, scientists announced in October. The eye is a hallmark of a congenital condition called cyclopia, which occurs in several animal species, including humans. Scientists have documented cyclops shark embryos a few times before, said Jim Gelsleichter, a shark biologist at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. The fact that none have been caught outside the womb suggests cyclops sharks don’t survive long in the wild.
From 2009:
Coin-Sized Frog
Below is a photo from National Geographic News:
March 26, 2009–As the smallest known frog species in the world’s second largest mountain range, this new amphibian is easy to miss.
But scientists searching the Andes mountains’ upper Cosnipata Valley in southern Peru, near Cusco, spotted the coin-size creature–a member of the Noblella genus–in the leaf litter of a cloud forest between 9,925 and 10,466 feet (3,025 and 3,190 meters).
From 2005
Kiwa hirsuta
(aka”Yeti-Crab”, “Hairy Lobster”, and “The Hoff” )
From: BBC New.uk
Furry ‘lobster’ found in Pacific
Marine biologists have discovered a crustacean in the South Pacific that resembles a lobster or crab covered in what looks like silky fur.
Kiwa hirsuta is so distinct from other species that scientists have created a new taxonomic family for it.
A US-led team found the animal last year in waters 2,300m (7,540ft) deep at a site 1,500km (900 miles) south of Easter Island, an expert has claimed.
Details appear in the journal of Paris’ National Museum of Natural History.
The diving expedition was organised by Robert Vrijenhoek of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.
The “Yeti Crab”, as it has been dubbed, is white and 15cm (5.9in) long, according to Michel Segonzac of the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer).
In what he has described as a “surprising characteristic”, the animal’s pincers are covered with sinuous, hair-like strands. It seems to reside around some Pacific deep sea hydrothermal vents, which spew out fluids that are toxic to many animals.
