Melissa's Idea Garden

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's the Moon Rover!!!!!

Just in time for a 2020 roll out date, NASA is hard at work on the next Moon Rover which will combine old school smarts with new technology.

From National Geographic:

The new lunar rover, informally known as the Chariot, is a prototype being developed as part of NASA's Constellation program, which aims to put people back on the moon by 2020.

One of the biggest modifications is an optional pressurized cabin that comes fully equipped with beds, a pantry, a waste-management system, and a pair of space suits, allowing astronauts to live and work "on the road" for up to two weeks.

Sign me up! I want to take a test drive!

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National Geographic has the best photos! And they have had them for a long, long time. Here are some that caught my eye this week.

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Now this is a story!

Note that NASA's rebuttal did claim that Dr. Mitchell was on medication or seeking any kind of mental health treatment. Merely that they didn't agree with his opinions. Dr. Mitchell doesn't appear to be voicing opinions, but facts....

Posted by Melissa Markham at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Go check out this article, photos and video from NASA as we get back images of what Earth looks like from 31 million miles away. This will give astronomers ideas of how to look for other earthlike planets...cool, eh?

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This is a photo taken by an obsevatory of the Supernova Remnant, Cassiopeia A. Isn't it gorgeous? And study has given scientists the ability to figure out the cause for the Supernova. Very cool.

Posted by Melissa Markham at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out this beautiful new Red Spot on Jupiter. Though it is tinier than the other red spots and it may have a short life, it is still very cool to look at!

Did you realize that the giant red spot is as wide as the Earth! Jupiter is hugamongus!!!!!! Scientists are waiting to see if the 'tiny' spot will be repelled by the big red spot or absorbed...

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Yesterday evening, Daniel and I were anxious to watch the news and see if the Phoenix landed safely on Mars. But then the rain came and the signal went out and we had to wait until today to see how it all turned out.

Well done, NASA! The Phoenix completed its soft landing and is now exploring the icy soil to see if it can find any signs of life. The Phoenix now has 3 months to explore and take samples of the soil and run these samples through tests looking for water and life. While they are only expecting the Phoenix to last three months, one never knows. Since Spirit and Opportunity are still chugging along after 4 years!

For more information on The Phoenix you can read articles at Bloomberg.com and BBC News.

And here is a video with explanation and pictures

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G1.9+0.3A, seen here in a composite x-ray, radio, and infrared image, is the Milky Way's youngest supernova, a new study has found.

If it weren't so obscured by dust, people in the late 1800s would likely have seen G1.9+0.3 appear in the constellation Sagittarius.

Isn't that just the coolest thing you ever saw!!!!???

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If you have seen the amazing movie Apollo 13, or if you were alive during those dramatic days when NASA and the astronauts aboard Apollo 13 worked around the clock to return three astronauts home safely after a huge explosion, then you will remember the moments of terror when communication with Apollo 13 was disrupted and how the world waited in silence for the crew to speak so we would know they were okay.

This is the same kind of terror that the NASA team is preparing for on May 25th. Minutes of silence when they will lose communication with the Mars Lander, Phoenix. They are praying that communication will resume and the landing will be successful, but there is always a chance that during that critical time, communication will be lost forever.

If successful, the probe will be the first lander to reach a Martian pole and the first to actually touch the planet's water ice.The tension for this mission seems especially intense, since Phoenix is not the first craft to attempt a landing at a Martian pole.

I have been fascinated with the images the Rovers have sent back to Earth. I think it would be awesome for astronauts to visit Mars. I want our world to reach out to the stars to explore, and to me, this seems like the logical next step. With bated breath, I will be waiting to see how things go on the 25th. Good luck, Phoenix!

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I am more than a bit behind with my National Geographic feed reading. So I am going to make a big post linking to some of the stories that interested me the most from the past couple of weeks. Hopefully you will find something here that interests you as well!

"Extinct" Plants Discovered Blooming in Australia - these plants haven't been seen since 1891 and were listed as extinct in 1922.

VIDEO: Terra-Cotta Army Coming to U.S. - This would be very neat to see!

Colossal Squid Thawing; Hints at Even Bigger Beasts A Colossal Squid that was accidentally captured February 2007 is revealing answers to the scientists in charge of thawing it and studying it.

Continue reading "National Geographic News - Animals, Archaeology and Astronomy" »

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I never ever tire of seeing photos from space. The colors, the formations...it is all so cool! National Geographic has 7 photos (one of which is below) that show astronomical sights that resemble some down-to-earth creatures.

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1. First Lungless Frog Found The Indonesian frog pictured above respires entirely through its skin and lacks lungs, a new study says. The trait, though rare in nature, may have evolved because of the amphibian's habitat of oxygen-rich, fast-moving water—which might more easily carry away a frog with air-filled lungs.

2. Rare Seahorses Found in the River ThamesShort-snouted seahorses have set up residence in the recovering River Thames, conservationists announced.

3. Alligator Blood May Lead to Powerful New AntibioticsAlligators often engage in violent fights over territories and mates, and scientists have puzzled over why their wounds rarely get infected. Now researchers think the secret lies in the reptiles' blood. Chemists in Louisiana found that blood from the American alligator can successfully destroy 23 strains of bacteria, including strains known to be resistant to antibiotics. In addition, the blood was able to deplete and destroy a significant amount of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Continue reading "National Geographic News - Animals, Archaeology and Astronomy" »

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World's Greatest Extinction Not Caused By Toxic Gases The thing I like most about this article is it points out how little we still know....even about things we think we understand!

"Mountains of the Moon" Glaciers Melting in Africa Below you will see the photo that shows the difference between the glacier 50 years ago and today. This shows us how our world is growing warmer. Though I am not convinced that this is not a normal trend for our earth. There are too many conflicting views on that for me to make up my mind at this point.

Wildlife Park Official Arrested in Gorilla Killings Congrats on ferreting out the wolf in sheep's clothing that was guarding these endangered animals. There is a photo on this site of the dead gorillas.

New "Sea Monster" Species Identified - The Cretaceous-period reptile, dubbed Nichollsia borealis, is not only a new species—it represents a whole new genus, scientists announced on March 20. It's also one of the oldest and most complete plesiosaur fossils ever unearthed in North America.

Continue reading "National Geographic Headlines Week of March 24th - Astronomy, Archaeology and Animals" »

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Rare Leatherback Turtles Gain Protection in Costa Rica - these turtles come out of the water to lay their eggs on beaches around the world. Scientists and volunteers now have governmental backing to protect these precious nests from poaching and beach development.

Word War II Ships Finally Found Off Australia - The H.M.A.S. Sydney sank on November 19, 1941, in a battle with a German vessel, the D.K.M. Kormoran. Rudd said he had instructed the Defense Department to contact relatives of the sailors who died aboard the Sydney about the find, and described the wreck as a tomb for Australian sailors that would be protected as a sacred site.

Stone Age Hand Axes Found at Bottom of North Sea An amateur archaeologist has found an unprecedented collection of Stone Age hand axes among material collected at the bottom of the North Sea. Jan Meulmeester of the Netherlands found 28 axes, possibly up to 100,000 years old, in marine sand and gravel scooped up by a British construction materials supplier. During ice-age periods of the Paleolithic era, which ended about 10,000 years ago, sea levels were lower and the North Sea was grassland hunting grounds.

Continue reading "National Geographic Headlines Week of March 17th - Astronomy, Archaeology and Animals" »

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Rome Subway Digs Reveal Medieval, Renaissance Treasures -- It never ceases to amaze me how we continue to find signs of our past even in the seemingly most developed of areas.

"Monstrous" Robot to Be Assembled in Space -- it would be really cool to watch this be assembled and even cooler to visit the space station. And isn't it wonderful to see nations working together for a common goal?

Pygmy Hippo Caught on Camera - This photograph shows that the pygmy hippo is still surviving in war torn West Africa.

Continue reading "National Geographic Headlines Week of March 10: Archaeology, Astronomy, Animals" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know that i love learning about animals, space and anything to do with archaeology. I have been so busy with cleaning and homeschooling and life, that I am a bit behind with sharing the interesting things from National Geographic. I have over 90 stories to wade through. I only share the ones most interesting to me here, and currently, I don't link to the videos because my computer is getting a tad ancient and I can't watch the videos anymore (there is a new laptop in my future...probably April), but I don't want to link to videos when I don't know what is in them. Anyway, since I don't want to right up a kazillion posts to catch up, I am going to briefly share links that interest me in this post in order to get caught up. And maybe some photos to.

1. Mysterious Pyramid Complex Discovered in Peru - what fascinates me about stories like this is the fact that we find pyramid and pyramid shapes all over the world. This vast ceremonial site is believed to have been used by a little known ancient culture, Vicus.

2. Ancient Maya Used "Glitter" Paint to Make Temple Gleam - A new study of paint flakes taken from masks on the temple's exterior found that the Maya used mica to make the temple's colorful paint glimmer in the sun. It appears, glitter paint has been around for a long, long time! We love glitter paint in our house. We used it on our snowmen, our pine cones and whatever else we want to give an extra sparkle!

Continue reading "National Geographic Headlines: Archaeology, Astronomy, and Animals" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Entrepreneur Richard Branson and aircraft designer Burt Rutan unveiled this model of SpaceShipTwo—a shuttle planned to start ferrying tourists into space within a few years—in New York on January 23, 2008.

Within a few years a handful of rich tourists may be blasting into space in a craft that combines the aesthetics of the space shuttle and a corporate jet.

British billionaire Richard Branson and aerospace designer Burt Rutan unveiled a model Wednesday of SpaceShipTwo, the vehicle they hope will take passengers on suborbital joy rides.

"Breathtakingly beautiful," was Branson's assessment of the ship, which is now under construction at a hangar in the Mojave Desert and which may begin test flights as soon as this year.

I don't know that I will ever be privledged enough to ride in such a vehicle, but I have always been attracted to space travel, and I hope that the private sector continues to work in this arena for future generations!

Photo and story courtesy of National Geographic

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1. Competing Theories Proposed for Superbright SupernovaAn x-ray image taken by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals supernova 2006gy (left) shining as bright as the nucleus of its galaxy. This puzzling brilliance has led scientists to propose two unusual formation mechanisms: a collision between two massive stars or a single, repeatedly exploding star.

2. Photo in the News: Star May Be Forming Rocky Planets The violent formation of a new solar system has left one heck of a mess around a nearby star—and suggests that Earthlike planets may be far more common than previously believed, scientists say. The debris indicates that the star system is in the midst of a violent planetary formation process, as dust particles—the "building blocks of planets"—form into comets and small asteroids and eventually into larger bodies, research team member Inseok Song of the Spitzer Science Center said in a press release.

The finding suggests that rocky planets like Earth, Mars, and Venus could be quite common in the universe. The vast majority of the 200 or so alien planets found so far have been giant gas worlds; only a few are less than 20 times the mass of Earth and only one is considered habitable.

"This is the first clear evidence for planet formation in the Pleiades, and the results we are presenting strongly suggest that terrestrial planets like those in our solar system are quite common," study leader Joseph Rhee, a postdoctoral student at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a statement.

3. Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Saturday The annual light show, which occurs in mid-November, will return this year with a maximum of about a dozen meteors an hour at around 11 p.m. EST. North American skywatchers will get an unusually clear view, as the moon will set early and leave a dark canvas for the illuminations to begin.

As always, thanks to National Geographic for helping me to keep up with the latest in animal news, archaeology news and astronomy news!

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A planet that is 45 times as massive as Earth has been found circling 55 Cancri, a star that is 41 light years away in the constellation Cancer. This discovery means that this is the first Quintuple Planetary system we have found! Scientists are jubilant as this discovery leads them to believe that our multi-planetary system is not as unique as originally thought! And this new planet that they have discovered is orbiting 55 Cancri in what is considered the 'habitable' zone. Other two or three planetary systems have been located, but this is the first with five! Yahoo!

Come on Zephram Cochran! Hurry up and get us that warp drive so we can get busy exploring!

Hat tip: more information can be found at National Geographic. Photo is courtesy of National Geographic.

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Isn't that a beautiful picture? Saturn's rings are seen here in a panoramic mosaic of 165 images taken by the Cassini spacecraft. The color contrast has been greatly exaggerated to better show the color and size differences between the rings.

Saturn's rings are one of the most mysterious and beautiful sights in our universe. For a long time scientists have believed the rings are created by matter left over from Saturn's formation. New information leads them to believe that the rings are particles that have been left behind by the pulverization of a large moon in Saturn's orbit.

Hat Tip: National Geographic

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In the best tradition of Star Trek, NASA used the gravity of Jupiter to help slingshot the New Horizons probe on its journey towards Pluto.

While slingshotting around Jupiter, New Horizons took photos and sent them back to scientists here on earth.

They saw lightning strikes at the poles (previously polar lightning has only been spotted on earth). Also, climate changes were evident from previous flybys (1979 and 2003). Meanwhile, the study led by Baines at JPL found that cloud cover on Jupiter has thinned significantly since the Cassini-Huygens probe made its flyby in 2000. That means climate on the gas giant varies over the long term, possibly seasonally. New Horizons also captured images of fresh ammonia clouds. Reuter's team studied these images and found that storms that were bringing ammonia up from lower in the atmosphere.

Something on the planet is generating atmospheric waves like those that flow out from a disturbance on the surface of a pond, Reuter, of NASA's Goddard Center, said. What's causing the disturbance remains a mystery for now.

In other news, my husband broke the story today that someone is trying to send us a message from Io! Be sure to check out what he has discovered!

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If you can look at the above image and not be thrilled by the beauty that God has created for us, you need to have your head examined! What a gorgeous sight that has been captured by the Hubble Telescope. It makes me wish that we had starships so I could explore the wondrous galaxy and universe out there.

I will have to be content with exploring our own planet. God knows there is plenty here to see and enjoy and be amazed over. But from time to time, I will gawk at these glorious pictures of the universe and dream...

If you want to read more about the photo of NGC 3603, be sure to visit National Geographic.

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The Discovery Channel is reporting that the Mars Odyssey spacecraft has relayed images of seven dark, nearly perfectly circular features ranging in diameter from 328 to 820 feet. At first the dark spheres puzzled scientists, but Odyssey's infrared camera then checked the daytime and nighttime temperatures of the circles and suggested they were, in fact, openings to subsurface spaces.

These caves are at a very high altitude and located on the sides of the volcano Arsia Mons. It is possible that if there was life on Mar or if there is life there now, it could have found shelter in this caverns. It will be interesting to see what they find in these caverns and if they find more now that they have an idea of what to look for.

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A rare meteor shower is expected to peak in the around 4:30 AM on September 1st, west coast time. So for those of you living in the Western US, set your alarms and go outside for a view that won't be repeated for another 50 years! Scientists aren't sure whether the view will be specatacular (100 meteors an hour) or a flop,but observatories are going to be busy captureing whatever data they can.

The shower should be easily visible to the naked eye, telescopes are not necessary. The Aurigid shower results from the debris of a comet tail. This comet only circles the sun once every 2000 years. For more information, visit National Geographic!

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I do not claim to understand what dark matter is, but I think it is interesting that it has gravity and that gravity bends light. Below is a photo from the Discovery Channel of what scientists say is evidence that Dark Matter exists.

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Giulio Magli has published a book, Secrets of the Ancient Megalithic Towns. In his study, he studied 38 Italian towns that date back to Roman times. He studied the orientations of their streets and has come to the conclusion that Romans used Astronomy when laying out their towns. By determining this fact, then it will enable scientists and archaelogists to learn more about what the Romans knew about astrology.

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This story makes me chuckle. For every time the scientist proclaim they know the answer, there are a hundred times where they are still trying to figure things out!

In this case, it turns out that Mercury's core is molten which explains it's weak magnetic field, but scientists are unsure of how it has maintained its molten middle so close to the sun. One question answered...another dozen asked!

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Some studies show that there are cycles of mass extinction on earth every 62 million years. It is now believed that these mass extinctions could be caused by the Milky Way orbiting through space and periodically going through heavy cosmic radiation. Not all extinctions coincide with the 62 million year cycle (for instance, the large dinosaur extincition), but this would explain the 62 million year cycle pattern that has been noticed. The next predicted cycle is to occur in about ten million years...so I think we at least are safe. Stilll, amazing to think about. Here is the link to the rest of the article.

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hexagon Cloud at Saturn's North Pole

This interesting cloud formation at the North Pole of Saturn is interesting for two reasons.

One, it is a relatively stable feature on a planet not known for stable features (it has been present for 25 years that we know of).

Two, it may give clues as to the true rotation of Saturn.

Visit National Geographic for the rest of the article.

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

7 potential caves have been located on Mars by the Mars Odyssey. The are near the volcano,Arsia Mons, located in the equator region. The Orbiter is going to try to get pictures inside of the caves when it passes over the region again. The Odyssey has recorded temperatures in the cave as being constant despite cooler or warmer temperatures on the outside (which is the way a cavern works). Exploring these caverns could lead to remarkable finds, as the caves would serve to protect biological evidence that may be inside from the forces of sun and radiation. The caves are also significant because they could conceivably provide the first shelter on Mars, especially if water/ice sources are located inside!

Book me on the first trip! I want to go! For the complete article, click here.

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Way to go New Mexico! I have visited this lovely state twice and have particularly enjoyed Albuquerque and Sandia Peak. Now I have another reason to cheer this state. They are not letting Pluto go without a fight!

Continue reading "New Mexico is Pulling for Pluto!" »

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