Showing posts with label space. Show all posts
Showing posts with label space. Show all posts

August 21 - Voyager 2 Reached Triton!

   Posted on August 21, 2022     

This is an update of my post published on August 21, 2011:





By this date in 1989, the little-space-probe-that-could had already accomplished its mission goals. It had gathered a lot of information about Jupiter and Saturn—and their moons and rings—and it had continued the Grand Tour by flying by Uranus and Neptune. Now Voyager 2 was about to exit the solar system, collecting and transmitting information as it went, and following in its identical twin's footsteps. (Voyager 1 was launched a few weeks after Voyager 2 but only visited Jupiter and Saturn on its way out of the solar system.) Scientists wanted Voyager 2 to check out one more world before it left:
Triton.

Triton is Neptune's largest moon. It's only half the size of Earth's moon, but it is far colder (of course, being so very far away from the sun), and it has a thin atmosphere.


Triton is unusual in that it is the only large satellite with a retrograde orbit. What does that mean? Well, all of the moons in the solar system orbit their planet in the same direction as the planet rotates. (Scientists explain that this is due to the way that planets and moons form.) That is, all but one: Triton orbits Neptune in the opposite direction of Neptune's rotation on its axis.


Voyager 2 sent back to Earth some pretty great photos of Triton. Check out NASA's photojournal


By the way, both Voyager 1 and 2 are still operating, still sending us information about deep space! It's been more than 34 years—far longer than the expected lifespan of the space probes—and they are still working for us! Here is a NASA site that shows how far away they are - it's constantly being updated!




Anniversary of the theft of the Mona Lisa!


July 18 - Extreme Vehicle Day

Posted on July 18, 2021


This is an update of my post published on July 18, 2010:



On this day in 1986, videotapes were released from the deep-sea Alvin vehicle—showing the wreck of the Titanic!




AND

On this day in 1990, the airlock hatch on the Soviet space station Mir was damaged during a spacewalk and could not be closed. Their supply of oxygen running out, cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Aleksandr Balandin had to use the middle compartment of the space station module as an airlock. A week later, they managed to finally close the hatch and repressurize the middle compartment.

The Mir

Do you know what an airlock does? It is an airtight room with two doors—one to the interior of the spaceship, which has air, and one to the airless vacuum outside of the spaceship. Astronauts go into the airlock while it has air, put on their pressurized suits with oxygen tanks, and then use the controls that pump the air out of the room. Once the airlock is a vacuum (airless), the outer door is opened to space.

 


Check out the Titanic and deep-sea vehicles:

  • Here is a YouTube video on the sunken Titanic.



Check out a 
spaceship's airlock:

This video explains how airlocks work.

 


 

Also on this date:









































 

June 24 - First “Flying Saucer” Reports

 Posted on June 24, 2021

This is an update of my post published on June 24, 2010:



On this day in 1947, pilot Kenneth Arnold saw nine lights that seemed to pace his airplane and then zoom past Mount Rainier in Washington. He described the moving lights as boomerang shaped but also said that they moved like saucers skipping over water. 

Somehow Arnold was misunderstood and misquoted, and many people thought he said that the strange objects he saw looked like saucers flying through the sky. Soon reporters dubbed the sighting as “flying saucers.” Suddenly many people, worried or thrilled, started studying the night sky and seeing saucer-shaped unidentified flying objects.

And so began the modern UFO craze. Since people expected to see saucer-shaped items, they did see saucer-shaped items. This was very frustrating for Arnold, who has been photographed with a picture of what he did see (remember, he said shaped like a boomerang - see the photo at the top of the article).


These clouds are called "UFO clouds" - but their proper name
is "lenticular clouds." They sometimes look really solid.



Of course, many people over the years have assumed that "flying saucers" - aka UFOs - are and were extra-terrestrials (aliens) in spaceships.




All of these four pictures (above) are things that humans have drawn
or painted - NOT things that anyone has actually seen!

However, most reliable accounts and photos of unidentified flying objects can be explained in ordinary, non-E.T. ways: birds, the planet Venus, fireballs, meteors, human-built aircraft, mirages, hoaxes, clouds - the list goes on and on.

What is the explanation for Arnold's sighting? Given the shapes and motions he saw, some likely explanations are pelicans, mirages of mountain peaks, or meteors. We will never know for sure, but those explanations are far more likely than aliens.


Also on this date: