'Make A Green Change' Series Posts

Nikola Tesla once paid an overdue hotel bill with a ‘working model’ of his 'death beam’. He warned the staff never to open it, describing it as a war-ending particle weapon that could stop invading armies and make warfare pointless. After his death in 1943, someone finally pried the box open and found nothing but a bunch of harmless old electrical components. Source

6 Reasons NOAA’s GOES-R Satellite Matters

NOAA’s GOES-R weather satellite will soon be launched into space – becoming our nation’s most advanced geostationary satellite to date. So what does that mean for you? Here are six reasons to be excited about GOES-R:

1. GOES-R helps you know what the weather is going to be

Perhaps you turn on the TV or radio, or check your favorite weather website or smartphone weather app to get the latest forecast. No matter the platform of your weather forecast, the data and information for those forecasts come from NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS).

Weather satellites, like the GOES satellites, are the backbone of NWS forecasts. GOES-R will be more advanced than any other weather satellite of its kind and could make the answer to the question “What’s the weather going to be?” more detailed and accurate both in the near term and further out into the future.

2. GOES-R will get better data faster than ever before

Do you live in an inland state, a state with a coastline or a state with a mountain range? Great, that’s all of you! Data from the GOES-R satellite will be a game changer for forecasters in your area.

Here’s why: satellites are fitted with instruments that observe weather and collect measurements. The primary instrument on the new GOES-R satellite will collect three times more data and provide four times better resolution and more than five times faster coverage than current satellites! This means the satellite can scan Earth’s Western Hemisphere every five minutes and as often as every 30 seconds in areas where severe weather forms, as compared to approximately every 30 minutes with the current GOES satellites. Pretty cool, right?

3. GOES-R is a real life-saver

This expedited data means that forecasts will be timelier, with more “real-time” information in them, allowing NWS to make those warnings and alerts that much faster, thereby potentially saving lives.

And a faster forecast is a big deal for our economy. Commercial shipping and aviation are just two examples of industries that rely on up-to-date weather data for critical decisions about how to route ships and safely divert planes around storms.

4. GOES-R helps keep the electricity flowing

We all depend on a power grid for virtually every aspect of modern life. But power grids are vulnerable to bursts of energy from the sun that can affect us on Earth. 

Luckily, GOES-R will be sitting over 22,000 miles above us, and in addition to measuring weather on Earth, it will monitor incoming space weather.

5. GOES-R is truly revolutionary

How different will GOES-R be? Imagine going from your classic black and white TV to a new high definition one. It will enable NOAA to gather data using three times more channels, four times the resolution, five times faster than the current GOES satellites. 

This faster, more accurate data means better observations of developing storms and other severe weather.

6. GOES-R will be a continuing a legacy

GOES-R may be the first of its kind, but it is the heir to a rich tradition of geostationary earth observation. 

In fact, NOAA has continuously operated a GOES satellite for over 40 years. Since 1975, GOES satellites have taken well over 3 million images!

The GOES-R satellite is scheduled to launch Saturday, Nov. 19 at 5:42 p.m. EST aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Liftoff will occur from our Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Learn more about the mission: https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES-R-Mission

Article Credit: NOAA

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Biotronium series Post-1 Full Story

I have posted a qoute which is took from Holy Bible - Proverbs 11;9 which is "anyone who determine to do right will live, but anyone who insist on doing wrong will die" you will understand what I meant at the end of tjis long post.Let's get to the main part.Brief.Nature warns us and reminds us to stop all those heck ! But still we say 'we got it as a habit'.You, Me and all others will not be eligible to say 'why god ?' as we makes these problems.maybe its all because of us.Right now we really are killing our environment which can be described as a gift from God.And as we are killing it maybe one day it will end up all of these.Scientists estimate that we are nearing an ICE AGE!. Here in kerala we have summer plants and trees flowerd this part of the year which is meant to be the coldest of year!.we have the temprature of 2012's summer temparture here.This may end up like a giant flood , intense drought, etc.what we can do is slow down this 'wipe out'. How can we destroy, forget, ignore , all those things that shaped our lives ?... Love your Nature, save it, It may save you.

HAPPY BDAY TO YOU:(post by DID-YOU-KNOW)

Every year on August 5, the Mars Curiosity rover celebrates the anniversary of its arrival by singing the Happy Birthday song. To itself. All alone. On Mars. Source Source 2

Happy Birthday to the Curiosity rover! 

I had to post this in hopes that maybe it won’t be so lonely if we’re all thinking about… it.

Solar System: Things to Know This Week

There’s even more to Mars.

1. Batten Down the Hatches

Good news for future astronauts: scientists are closer to being able to predict when global dust storms will strike the Red Planet. The winds there don’t carry nearly the same force that was shown in the movie “The Martian,” but the dust lofted by storms can still wreak havoc on people and machines, as well as reduce available solar energy. Recent studies indicate a big storm may be brewing during the next few months.

+ Get the full forecast

2. Where No Rover Has Gone Before

Our Opportunity Mars rover will drive down an ancient gully that may have been carved by liquid water. Several spacecraft at Mars have observed such channels from a distance, but this will be the first up-close exploration. Opportunity will also, for the first time, enter the interior of Endeavour Crater, where it has worked for the last five years. All this is part of a two-year extended mission that began Oct. 1, the latest in a series of extensions going back to the end of Opportunity’s prime mission in April 2004. Opportunity landed on Mars in January of that year, on a mission planned to last 90 Martian days (92.4 Earth days). More than 12 Earth years later, it’s still rolling.

+ Follow along + See other recent pictures from Endeavour Crater

3. An Uphill Climb

Opportunity isn’t the only NASA Mars rover getting a mission extension. On the other side of the planet, the Curiosity rover is driving and collecting samples amid some of the most scenic landscapes ever visited on Mars. Curiosity’s two-year mission extension also began Oct. 1. It’s driving toward uphill destinations, including a ridge capped with material rich in the iron-oxide mineral hematite, about a mile-and-a-half (two-and-a-half kilometers) ahead. Beyond that, there’s an exposure of clay-rich bedrock. These are key exploration sites on lower Mount Sharp, which is a layered, Mount-Rainier-size mound where Curiosity is investigating evidence of ancient, water-rich environments that contrast with the harsh, dry conditions on the surface of Mars today.

+ Learn more

4. Keep a Sharp Lookout

Meanwhile, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter continues its watch on the Red Planet from above. The mission team has just released a massive new collection of super-high-resolution images of the Martian surface.

+ Take a look

5. 20/20 Vision for the 2020 Rover

In the year 2020, Opportunity and Curiosity will be joined by a new mobile laboratory on Mars. In the past week, we tested new “eyes” for that mission. The Mars 2020 rover’s Lander Vision System helped guide the rocket to a precise landing at a predesignated target. The system can direct the craft toward a safe landing at its primary target site or divert touchdown toward better terrain if there are hazards in the approaching target area.

+ Get details

Discover the full list of 10 things to know about our solar system this week HERE.

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

10 Questions for Our New Head of Science

Guess what?! We have a new lead for our science missions, and we’re excited to introduce him to you. Recently, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has named Thomas Zurbuchen as the new head of our organization for science missions. Let’s get to know him…

Zurbuchen was most recently a professor of space science and aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He was also the university’s founding director of the Center for Entrepreneurship in the College of Engineering.

Zurbuchen’s experience includes research in solar and heliospheric physics, experimental space research, space systems and innovation and entrepreneurship.

We asked him a few questions to see what he has in store for science at NASA…let’s take a look:

1. What is your vision for science at NASA?

Right now, I am focusing on my team and I am learning how I can help them achieve the goals we have; to design and build the missions we are currently working on. Once the presidential transition is complete, we will engage in strategic activity with that team. It has been my experience that the best ideas always come from great and diverse teams working together. I intend to do that here as well.

2. What solar system destination are you most eager for NASA to explore?

Tough question to answer. Basically, I want to go where there are answers to the most important questions. One question on my mind is the origin of extraterrestrial life. Some parts of the answer to this question can be answered at Mars, some at Europa or other moons in the outer solar system like Enceladus. Other parts of the answer is around other stars, where we have found thousands of planets…some of which are amazingly similar to Earth!

3. With raw images posted to several websites from our missions, what’s one thing you hope members of the public can help NASA do with that powerful data?

I hope that people all over the world play with the data and find new ways to explore. It’s almost like hanging out in the most amazing libraries talking about nature. Many of the books in this library have never been opened and curious minds can find true treasures in there. I know that there are over a billion data-products NASA is making available about the Earth – it’s a treasure chest!

4. In your opinion, what big science breakthrough from the past informs missions of today?

In science, everything we do builds on successes and also failures of the past. Sometimes we forget our failures or near-failures, which tend to teach us a lot about what to do and what not to do. One of my favorite stories is about the Explorer 1 mission: first they observed almost nothing, until they realized that there was so much radiation that the detectors were chocking. The Van Allen Probes is a mission that are conducting the best exploration today of these radiation belts, discovered by Explorer 1. Our exploration history is full of stories like that.

5. Behind every pretty space image is a team of scientists who analyze all the data to make the discovery happen. What do you wish the public knew about the people and work that goes into each of those pretty pictures?

I wish people knew that every picture they see, every data-set they use, is a product of a team. One of the most exhilarating facts of working in space is to be able to work in teams composed of some of the nicest and most interesting people I have ever met. There are some super-famous people I run with every time we are in the same town, others who like to play music and listen to it, and some who have been in space or climbed mountains.

6. If you were a member of the public, what mission events in the next year would you be most excited about?

The public’s lives will be directly affected by our missions in our Earth Science portfolio. Some of them are done together with NOAA, our sister agency responsible for forecasts. For example, GOES will feature a lightning detector that will enable better predictions of storms. We are also launching CYGNSS in December. This NASA mission, composed of 8 spacecraft will provide unique and high-resolution data designed to provide a deeper understanding and better prediction for hurricanes globally.

7. NASA science rewrites textbooks all the time. What do you hope the kids of tomorrow will know as facts that are merely hypothesis today?

I hope they will know about life elsewhere. They will learn how life evolves, and where there is life today.

8. NASA has explored planets within our solar system. With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018, what do you hope we learn about distant worlds?

James Webb is going to allow us to go back in time and look at the first stars and first galaxies. This is something we have never seen – we can only guess what will happen. James Webb is going to allow us to look at many, many more planets around other stars and will allow us to start doing the kind of research that links to the question about how habitable life is there.

9. What sort of elements make for an exciting new science discovery? What do you hope is the next big discovery?

Almost always, an exciting discovery is a surprise. Sometimes, discoveries happen because we are looking for something totally different. The biggest discoveries are the ones that change everything we thought before. All of a sudden, nature wags the finger at us and says “you are wrong!” That is how you know you are up to something new.

I hope the next big discovery tells us about the origin of the 95% of the universe we don’t know enough about. We call these 95% “Dark Energy” and “Dark Matter”, but – to be honest – we really don’t know. So, we are today living in a time where we know with 100% certainty that we don’t know what makes up 95% of our universe.

10. In your opinion, why should people care about the science at NASA?

They should care because we improve and protect lives on Earth. They should also care because we make the world we live in bigger. This is because we find things out we never knew, which creates new opportunities for humankind. Some of these opportunities are near-term – they are patents, innovations, companies or great educations. But, some of them are long-term – they change how we think about life itself.

Stay updated on science at NASA and Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen by following him on Twitter: @Dr_ThomasZ

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

Hyper artistic

That's a good nature living idea ; green idea😇

An Indian company created shopping bags that are 100% natural, biodegradable, and edible. It took 4 years to develop the bags, which are made of potato, tapioca, corn, starches, and vegetable oils. Though slightly more expensive than plastic, the bags break down quickly, dissolve completely, and become a safe food source for animals rather than a choking hazard. Source

Hunting for Organic Molecules on Mars

Did Mars once have life? To help answer that question, an international team of scientists created an incredibly powerful miniature chemistry laboratory, set to ride on the next Mars rover.

The instrument, called the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer Mass Spectrometer (MOMA-MS), will form a key part of the ExoMars Rover, a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos. A mass spectrometer is crucial to send to Mars because it reveals the elements that can be found there. A Martian mass spectrometer takes a sample, typically of powdered rock, and distinguishes the different elements in the sample based on their mass.

After 8 years of designing, building, and testing, NASA scientists and engineers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center said goodbye to their tiny chemistry lab and shipped it to Italy in a big pink box. Building a tiny instrument capable of conducting chemical analysis is difficult in any setting, but designing one that has to launch on a huge rocket, fly through the vacuum of space, and then operate on a planet with entirely different pressure and temperature systems? That’s herculean. And once on Mars, MOMA has a very important job to do. NASA Goddard Center Director Chris Scolese said, “This is the first intended life-detecting instrument that we have sent to Mars since Viking.”

The MOMA instrument will be capable of detecting a wide variety of organic molecules. Organic compounds are commonly associated with life, although they can be created by non-biological processes as well. Organic molecules contain carbon and hydrogen, and can include oxygen, nitrogen, and other elements.

To find these molecules on Mars, the MOMA team had to take instruments that would normally occupy a couple of workbenches in a chemistry lab and shrink them down to roughly the size of a toaster oven so they would be practical to install on a rover.

MOMA-MS, the mass spectrometer on the ExoMars rover, will build on the accomplishments from the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), an instrument suite on the Curiosity rover that includes a mass spectrometer. SAM collects and analyzes samples from just below the surface of Mars while ExoMars will be the first to explore deep beneath the surface, with a drill capable of taking samples from as deep as two meters (over six feet). This is important because Mars’s thin atmosphere and spotty magnetic field offer little protection from space radiation, which can gradually destroy organic molecules exposed on the surface. However, Martian sediment is an effective shield, and the team expects to find greater abundances of organic molecules in samples from beneath the surface.

On completion of the instrument, MOMA Project Scientist Will Brinckerhoff praised his colleagues, telling them, “You have had the right balance of skepticism, optimism, and ambition. Seeing this come together has made me want to do my best.”

In addition to the launch of the ESA and Roscosmos ExoMars Rover, in 2020, NASA plans to launch the Mars 2020 Rover, to search for signs of past microbial life. We are all looking forward to seeing what these two missions will find when they arrive on our neighboring planet.

Learn more about MOMA HERE.

Learn more about ExoMars HERE.

Follow @NASASolarSystem on Twitter for more about our missions to other planets.

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

best and also an intresting one:)

The First Irregular Moon Discovered on this Day!

On September 19, 1848, astronomers William Cranch Bond, George Phillips Bond and William Lassell discovered the first non-sperical, irregular moon orbiting the planet Saturn, which they named Hyperion (Ὑπερίων) after the Greek god/titan who was the brother of Cronus (the Greek equivalent of Saturn). Looking like a giant potato in the sky, Hyperion is the second largest non-sperical satellite discovered, measuring 360.2×266×205.4 km. Lassell and Bond both observed Hyperion independently of each other only days apart, and only a year after William Herschel had published Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope in which he suggested the name scheme for the first seven moons of Saturn, and which Lassell and Bond used when they proposed Hyperion.

Images of Hyperion courtesy NASA/Cassini