Monday randmoness

Hello on the last day of school! I want to re-iterate my post from Friday about the ISS coming over Portland - I saw it twice this weekend, and it was awesome. The dot is moving VERY quickly (17,000 miles an hour) so it's only in the sky for 5 minutes at a time, but it's very bright, visible even over streetlights. Check the time table to see it!

This will be my last blog post of the year. I've enjoyed it and I hope you have too!

• Did you know that the moon was created by a planet smashing into Earth over 4 billion years ago? Scientists have found more evidence supporting this theory (and remember, theory in science means that it's almost totally proven)

• Here are 13 tricks to really help you refine your Google Searches 

Sweet Solar flare video:

• 12 amazing photos from the National Geographic contest
• Saturn has such a strong magnetic field that it "collapses" behind it in orbit, causing auroras

Check out this parasite fungus that zombifies its incest targets:

And finally, my personal favorite and completely un-science related, the turn down for what button:

ISS is coming over Portland!

I'm suspending the randomness to Monday because I want to report on the visibility of the International Space Station from Portland over the next 10 days!

You'll be able to see the ISS fly over as a fast, bright dot -  check out the schedule here and here's a picture explaining what those degree numbers mean:

More information here

It's only visible for a brief period each time because it's moving INCREDIBLY fast - the ISS orbits the earth more than 15 times each day, going over 17 thousand miles per hour to maintain its orbit (check out my previous post explaining orbit here). So get outside and check it out!

Current Space Exploration

The Rosetta spacecraft that I mentioned yesterday that's lining up to fly next to a comet successfully woke up from hibernation (almost 3 years of it!), here's the NASA reaction:

Houston, we DON'T have a problem

We'll be able to get a close up look at a comet in flight for the first time! Check out my previous post about comets for more info.

Have you ever wondered about living on Mars? Humans may do that in the future, and here's a comprehensive video about that possibility:

It's long but it's awesome.

A Light Year (.com)

Check out alightyear.com; it's an interactive representation of just how long a light year is - and that's long in DISTANCE, not in time! Scroll down past the numbers and you'll start to see the planets, with their distances in light minutes - notice that the Voyager Spacecraft, which is currently 3 times farther away than Pluto, is still within one light DAY of Earth - 19 billion kilometers (you can see the real-time distance of both Voyagers here), but light travels farther than that in a single day. Then continue scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling to get a picture of just how far a light year really is.

Cool graphic from Cosmos with Neil Degrasse Tyson

Even though a light year sounds like a time period, what it really represents is how far light travels in one Earth year. I say "Earth year" because a 'year' is really just how long it takes the Earth to go one full time around the sun - aliens would have very different lengths in mind based on their home planet's orbit!

Also check out this video; NASA is about to land a spacecraft ON A MOVING COMET!

Speed vs. distance

Planes require an INCREDIBLE amount of force to stay in the air, and to go faster they have to burn a lot more fuel. The physics equation that explains this is a little complicated, but the main idea is that in an energy equation, velocity is squared: so it takes 4 times the amount of energy to go twice as fast. We can also see this idea in braking distance, although other factors keep it from being mathematically perfect:

Notice the jump from 30mph to 60mph - twice the speed, more than 3 times the stopping distance

This is one of the main reasons that speeding is so dangerous: not only would a crash be more intense, but avoiding one gets exponentially harder. Check out this article about some of the fastest things ever.

The trade-off for speed, however, is longevity: this very slow solar plane is gearing up to fly all the way around the world off of ONLY solar power. It's already made a trip across the U.S. - but it took 4 days, while jet engines can do it in hours.  This plane can technically stay in the air for weeks at a time, but human pilots can't last that long - the plane stops so that the human energy can recharge, not the plane's :)

Don't fall sleep while you're driving, people!

Global Internet?

Google's plans to take over the world continue with an announcement that they're spending 1-3 billion dollars to put 180 satellites up in orbit, committed to providing internet to under-served areas.

doodoodooododoodooododooododododoododooo

This will probably be profitable for Google eventually, because guess what search engine they'll probably use?