Good evening!
At around six this morning, I spotted the International Space Station passing above my house. It was one of the best spottings I have ever seen because it was one of the largest, brightest, and longest passings I've ever seen. The space station was visible for two minutes straight, which is pretty long considering how quick the space station travels ( 5 miles every second, that's 18,000 MPH or 28,968.192 KPH for you folks not in the States). It's not of terribly good quality, but attached is a photo of the International Space Station this morning. Thanks for reading this article! For more science news and cool science stuff, check back often on the SciLines blog.
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Good morning, all my wonderfully readers. Today, I have a big announcement for the Science Blurbs blog.
For the past few months, the Science Blurbs blog has been straying away from the science fun facts it started with to a focus more on science news and the science behind the headlines. Seeing this, I have changed the name of the blog to SciLines. Nothing else has changed except for the name. Anyways, thanks for reading this post and the SciLines blog. See you all later! On Monday, we had the largest moon since 1948. Why did the Moon get bigger? It's because of some things we call perigee and apogee. The perigee is the closest the Moon comes to Earth. The apogee is the opposite, it is the farthest the Moon goes away from our Earth. This Monday, the moon's perigee was less than it usually was, making it closer and it made it look bigger. Now you know the science behind this week's super-moon!
Be sure to check back on the Science Blurbs blog for more cool science news explained! New Horizons, the probe that arrived at Pluto fifteen months ago, has sent the last bit of data about Pluto back to Earth.
In July of 2015, the New Horizons probe arrived at Pluto. It had been traveling for nine and a half years to get to Pluto and find out more about the tiny dwarf planet. There, it recorded lots of information about Pluto and its moons for over a year. Now the probe is moving on to another body called 2014 MU69, which is thought to be around 30 miles across. This tiny body is in the Kuiper Belt, a group of small solar system bodies at the edge of the solar system. What New Horizons will find next, we don't know. But we do have lots of data and information that scientists are sifting through now. For more cool science news, check back on the Science Blurbs blog! On August 3, scientists decided which exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system, we're best for humans to live on in the future. They looked through four thousand exoplanets and decided that 216 of the planets would be good for humans to live on and 20 of them were the best to live on. For more science and technology info, stay tuned to the Science Blurbs blog.
This weekend is more than just the 4th of July weekend. On July 4th, NASA's probe Juno arrives at Jupiter. It was launched on August 5th, 2011 and has been traveling to Jupiter ever since. Juno has seven scientific instruments to measure and record data and information about Jupiter.
The big thing about Juno, though, is that it will see below the clouds of Jupiter. No other mission has ever done this and that is why scientists are very excited for Juno's arrival at Jupiter this weekend. Juno's mission to Jupiter has a lot of records. For example, Juno will be the fastest probe to enter into orbit (when something goes around the planet, like the International Space Station) at 130,000 MPH. That's over 2,000 times faster than a car on the highway! Juno will also fly only 2,600 miles away from the top of Jupiter's clouds. That's really close, especially since Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. Soon, we'll find out more about Jupiter. It's an exciting time in space travel, with New Horizons having arrived at Pluto and its moons last July, and scientists are looking forward to great scientific discoveries to come. Recently, scientists have been studying a certain fish. But this fish is not just any fish. It's Spider-Fish (no, it doesn't actually have Spider-Man powers, but something close to that). It's real name is the Waterfall Climbing Cave Fish. As its name says, it can climb up waterfalls. Now you see why I call it Spider-Fish? Anyways, the fish has anatomical features (body parts) that are usually only seen in animals with four legs. This discovery is being considered huge for evolution. For more cool science facts like this (SPIDER-FISH!), be sure to check back often on the Science Blurbs blog for more cool science facts!
Did you know that the phrase "once-in-a-blue-moon" actually refers to a real event? Blue moons are when we have two full moons in one month, but the moon isn't actually blue. The reason we have blue moons is that our months are usually between 30-31 days (unless we're talking about February, then that's 28-29 days) but the moon goes from new moon to full moon back to new moon in 29.5 days. That means that every couple years, we get a blue moon because two full moons happen in one month. For more cool science facts like this, check back often on the Science Blurbs blog!
Did you know that sound travels four times faster in water than in air? This is because of a thing called compression. I'll explain it like this. When you push the air, like sound does, the particles in the air hold some of the energy a bit before moving the energy to the next particle. However, in water there is none of that. The energy goes right from one particle to the next. For more cool facts like this, check back often on the Science Blurbs blog!
Did you know that if you were to travel to other planets you would weigh less? This is because of the different between mass and weight. Most people think mass and weight are the same thing, but they're actually different. Mass measures how much stuff, or matter, is inside of you. Weight is the measure of how much a planet's gravity pulls down on you. That's why you'd have a different weight on other planets because of different gravity, but you'd still keep the same mass. For more cool science facts, check back often on the Science Blurbs blog!
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