The World’s Smallest Snowman Is Only 2.7 Microns Tall (for Comparison, A Human Hair Is 75 Microns Thick).

Know Your Cephalopods!

A photon checks into a hotel and is asked if he needs any help with his luggage. He says, “No, I’m traveling light.”

Cost per kg for human spaceflight

via reddit

23 science facts we didn't know at the start of 2016

1. Gravitational waves are real. More than 100 years after Einstein first predicted them, researchers finally detected the elusive ripples in space time this year. We’ve now seen three gravitational wave events in total.

2. Sloths almost die every time they poop, and it looks agonising.

3. It’s possible to live for more than a year without a heart in your body.

4. It’s also possible to live a normal life without 90 percent of your brain.

5. There are strange, metallic sounds coming from the Mariana trench, the deepest point on Earth’s surface. Scientists currently think the noise is a new kind of baleen whale call.

6. A revolutionary new type of nuclear fusion machine being trialled in Germany really works, and could be the key to clean, unlimited energy.

7. There’s an Earth-like planet just 4.2 light-years away in the Alpha Centauri star system - and scientists are already planning a mission to visit it.

8. Earth has a second mini-moon orbiting it, known as a ‘quasi-satellite’. It’s called 2016 HO3.

9. There might be a ninth planet in our Solar System (no, Pluto doesn’t count).

10. The first written record demonstrating the laws of friction has been hiding inside Leonardo da Vinci’s “irrelevant scribbles” for the past 500 years.

11. Zika virus can be spread sexually, and it really does cause microcephaly in babies.

12. Crows have big ears, and they’re kinda terrifying.

13. The largest known prime number is 274,207,281– 1, which is a ridiculous 22 million digits in length. It’s 5 million digits longer than the second largest prime.

14. The North Pole is slowly moving towards London, due to the planet’s shifting water content.

15. Earth lost enough sea ice this year to cover the entire land mass of India.

16. Artificial intelligence can beat humans at Go.

17. Tardigrades are so indestructible because they have an in-built toolkit to protect their DNA from damage. These tiny creatures can survive being frozen for decades, can bounce back from total desiccation, and can even handle the harsh radiation of space.

18. There are two liquid states of water.

19. Pear-shaped atomic nuclei exist, and they make time travel seem pretty damn impossible.

20. Dinosaurs had glorious tail feathers, and they were floppy.

21. One third of the planet can no longer see the Milky Way from where they live.

22. There’s a giant, 1.5-billion-cubic-metre (54-billion-cubic-foot) field of precious helium gas in Tanzania.

23. The ‘impossible’ EM Drive is the propulsion system that just won’t quit. NASA says it really does seem to produce thrust - but they still have no idea how. We’ll save that mystery for 2017.

A salty situation.

Zooplankton may be the smallest species in the freshwater food chain, but they play a big role in preserving our lakes, streams and wetlands. That’s one of the reasons why IBM  joined forces with the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and The FUND for Lake George to create the Jefferson Project at Lake George to understand and protect freshwater ecosystems. Recently they studied the effects road salt has on a species of zooplankton. Road salt usage has increased 50-fold since 1940, and bodies of freshwater are increasing in salinity because of it. Using IBM technology, the researchers monitored zooplankton in varying levels of salinity and found that the organisms were capable of evolving a higher tolerance to the salt. This is good news for the ecosystem since the loss of plankton could have cascading effects throughout the food chain. See, small can be mighty too.

Explore the study’s results  →

Two New Missions to Explore the Early Solar System

We’ve got big science news…!

We’ve just added two more science missions to our lineup! The two selected missions have the potential to open new windows on one of the earliest eras in the history of our solar system – a time less than 10 millions years after the birth of our sun.

The missions, known as Lucy and Psyche, were chosen from five finalists and will proceed to mission formulation.

Let’s take a dive into each mission…

Lucy

Lucy, a robotic spacecraft, will visit a target-rich environment of Jupiter’s mysterious Trojan asteroids. Scheduled to launch in October 2021, the spacecraft is slated to arrive at its first destination, a main asteroid belt, in 2025. 

Then, from 2027 to 2033, Lucy will explore six Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These asteroids are trapped by Jupiter’s gravity in two swarms that share the planet’s orbit, one leading and one trailing Jupiter in its 12-year circuit around the sun. The Trojans are thought to be relics of a much earlier era in the history of the solar system, and may have formed far beyond Jupiter’s current orbit.

Studying these Trojan asteroids will give us valuable clues to deciphering the history of the early solar system.

Psyche

The Psyche mission will explore one of the most intriguing targets in the main asteroid belt – a giant metal asteroid, known as 16 Psyche, about three times farther away from the sun than is the Earth. The asteroid measures about 130 miles in diameter and, unlike most other asteroids that are rocky or icy bodies, it is thought to be comprised of mostly metallic iron and nickel, similar to Earth’s core.

Scientists wonder whether psyche could be an exposed core of an early planet that could have been as large as Mars, but which lost its rocky outer layers due to a number of violent collisions billions of years ago.

The mission will help scientists understand how planets and other bodies separated into their layers early in their histories. The Psyche robotic mission is targeted to launch in October of 2023, arriving at the asteroid in 2030, following an Earth gravity assist spacecraft maneuver in 2024 and a Mars flyby in 2025.

Get even more information about these two new science missions HERE. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

The Shepard-Risset Glissando

A Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard, is a sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by octaves. When played with the base pitch of the tone moving upward or downward, it is referred to as the Shepard scale. This creates the auditory illusion of a tone that continually ascends or descends in pitch, yet which ultimately seems to get no higher or lower. It has been described as a “sonic barber’s pole”. 

Jean-Claude Risset subsequently created a version of the scale where the tones glide continuously, and it is appropriately called the continuous Risset scale or Shepard–Risset glissando. When done correctly, the tone appears to rise (or descend) continuously in pitch, yet return to its starting note. Basically, it’s a continuously descending tone that never gets any lower. It’s the acoustical version of M.C. Escher’s Penrose Stairs optical illusion. Source.

Doesn’t it sound a little bit creepy?

Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela gets struck by lightning more than 200 times every year – that’s more than anywhere else on earth. Source

Fve-miles above Lake Maracaibo, storm clouds gather up to 160 nights per year and can last for up to 10 hours. 

Do you know what missiles at night look like? They look like this:

and this:

and these:

But do you know what they do not fucking loOK LIKE?? THIS:

OR THIS:

And they don’t fucking sound like this (listen with earbuds/headphones): https://twitter.com/angelsuxx/status/663202170502680577

This has been disproving the government’s bullshit with Lily

A-Z GEMSTONES

BLUE TOURMALINE

Blue Tourmaline strengthens communication skills and psychic awareness. Assists in relating to others lovingly. Helps to live in harmony with your environment. Guides us into service. Tourmaline clears negative emotions and thoughts and opens us to joy and honesty. Aids in the receptivity of inspiration, to flow into the mind. Radiates light protection for wearer.

Blue Tourmaline (Indicolite) Gemstone Meaning:

Blue Tourmaline, also called indicolite or indigolite, is a very rare and special kind of tourmaline. The word Indicolite is derived from the Latin word, meaning ‘indicum plant’. The soothing blue color promotes a calming effect, and offers relief from stress. Blue Tourmaline brings joy and happiness. It promotes harmony, tolerance and kindness.

Some Uses Are: to develop psychic gifts to open doors and communication with the spiritual realm to facilitate deep meditation to better explore and understand past lives 

Combine Blue Tourmaline with these stones: Blue Kyanite, Lapis Lazuli, Aqua Aura, Sodalite

Chakras: Third Eye, Throat Astrological sign: Leo Element: Water Element, Wind Element

BROWN TOURMALINE (DRAVITE)

Dravites or Dravide are excellent for grounding, clearing and opening the connection between the Earth and your body. It protects and shields from negativity that may be directed towards or surrounding you. This Tourmaline brings peace when in a large group and helps with healing in dysfunctional family dynamics. Brown Tourmaline clears your auric field, opening the path for the aligning your energies to its optimum. Plants love Dravite and seem to flourish in its presence.

Dravite (Champagne Tourmaline) Meaning:

Dravite is a brown variety of Tourmaline. It is an ideal stone for self-healing, aids in finding emotional strength and self-acceptance. Dravite inspires courage and persistence. It calms and soothes, grounding and stabilizing the inner self. Use Dravite with these compatible stones to clear and ground the root chakra and provide psychic protection: Black Tourmaline Jet Black Obsidian Smokey Quartz

Chakras: Heart Chakra, Root Chakra Astrological sign: Aries Color: Deep golden brown Element: Earth, Storm Energies: Power, Love