A simple matter of scale ...

Given the enormous size of the universe shows just how slow light truly is ... :)

To us Earth-dwelling humans, the speed of light is so fast that it appears instantaneous.

But zoom out a bit and it becomes clear how even at the speed of light — the theoretical speed limit of the universe, which our spacecraft can’t even begin to approach — a journey through the cosmos becomes a snail-paced slog.

A simple matter of scale indeed.

A treaty to live by without question ...

The Artemis Accords, NASA's take on how man should cooperate in space, is similar in scope to the Antarctic Treaty System as Antarctica is also a hostile place requiring everybody to play nice as both environments can kill in an instant thus requiring everyone to work together to limit that grim possibility as much as possible.

Via the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024, heralding in a new era for space exploration and utilization.

While NASA is leading the Artemis program, international partnerships will play a key role in achieving a sustainable and robust presence on the Moon while preparing to conduct a historic human mission to Mars.

With numerous countries and private sector players conducting missions and operations in cislunar space, it’s critical to establish a common set of principles to govern the civil exploration and use of outer space.

International space agencies that join NASA in the Artemis program will do so by executing bilateral Artemis Accords agreements, which will describe a shared vision for principles, grounded in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, to create a safe and transparent environment which facilitates exploration, science, and commercial activities for all of humanity to enjoy.

A treaty to live by without question ...

My take without question: :)

Boston Tea Party, among significant others ...

As for Calvin's non-answer... AWESOME!!! :)

The hidden view ...

All of humanity resides on top of huge, invisible plates, constantly moving due to the internal heat engine of earth.

Researchers want to simulate the behaviour of the mantle.

This solid rock layer, which resides between the planet's core and crust, moves very slowly over time - roughly at the speed that a fingernail grows.

The scientists will investigate its complex pattern of upwellings and downwellings.

The team hopes its new circulation models will provide fresh insights into how the mantle has influenced the Earth's surface over hundreds of millions of years.

The impact of the constant motion of these plates goes beyond imagination.

A key target is to understand the upwellings that ultimately result in "hotspots" at the Earth's surface - the places where there have been colossal outpourings of lava and gas through geologic history.

"These are what we call the Large Igneous Provinces, or LIPs," explained Prof Davies.

"There hasn't been anything like this since the Columbia River flood basalts in North America just over 10 million years ago. So, they're rare. And thank goodness, because they can be absolutely catastrophic.

"The Siberian Traps which cover a large part of west Siberia match up with the largest extinction on Earth. A lot of the great extinction events are linked to these LIPs."

Seen below is a Cardiff University graphic detailing the 

heat distribution of earth driving the motion of plate since the beginning of time.

Figure 3: Mantle geodynamics - we study the dynamics and chemistry of the Earth's interior and how it affects the surface, using primarily large-scale numerical modelling.

The hidden view indeed.

Haze Lines

It's not Purple Haze but Jupiter has them, in spades. :)

NASA's Juno mission captured this look at Jupiter's tumultuous northern regions during the spacecraft's close approach to the planet on Feb. 17, 2020.

Some notable features in this view are the long, thin bands that run through the center of the image from top to bottom. Juno has observed these long streaks since its first close pass by Jupiter in 2016. The streaks are layers of haze particles that float above the underlying cloud features. Scientists don't yet know exactly what these hazes are made of or how they form. Two jet streams in Jupiter's atmosphere flank either side of the region where the narrow bands of haze typically appear, and some researchers speculate those jet streams may influence the formation of the high hazes.

Had to show another ...

Jupiter's already vibrant colors become especially striking in this artistic interpretation of an image from NASA's Juno mission that shows the planet's famous Great Red Spot. Citizen scientist Mary J. Murphy processed an image from the spacecraft's JunoCam instrument, increasing the color saturation to create a piece Murphy calls "The Rose."

Stellar

Upsetting the apple cart ...

BRT has discussed the negative impact of man's activities on planet earth for years with an emphasis on the Anthropocene, the era of man, the only species capable of changing how earth does business through the use of fossil fuels, a polluting energy source, if continued unabated, promises to compromise the future of civilization as we move further into the 21st century.

To whit

IT IS ALL, in the end, a matter of chemistry. Carbon dioxide is a form of what chemists call inorganic carbon—a simple molecule that is pretty inert. Fossil fuels are made of carbon in its organic form—often complex molecules that are far from inert. Combustion turns these organic complexities into inorganic simplicities: carbon dioxide, water vapour and heat.

Of the energy that people pay for (as opposed to the energy that comes from burning firewood) 34% comes from burning oil, 27% from coal and 24% from gas. Nuclear power, hydroelectric power and all other renewables combined provide just 15%. The result of all this fossil fuel use is a modern industrial economy and an annual flow of 9.5bn tonnes of carbon out of the ground and into the atmosphere.

Through its effects on the plants, animals and microbes which make up the biosphere, on the climate and on the oceans, this industrial flow of carbon links the Earth’s distant geological past to its future over millennia to come. It is the single clearest piece of evidence for the idea that humans now have a power over the Earth as great as the forces of nature, and that their use of this power has opened up a new geological epoch that some scientists call the Anthropocene.

Read the Economist piece in its entirety. Detailed to a fault IMHO.

Cat 10 & rising ...

Jupiter in visible light, as seen by Hubble on 19 May, 2017. 

Credit: NASA, ESA, M.H. Wong (UC Berkeley)

Jove looks calm and majestic ... but under thermal infrared imaging, it's a whole different story.

Jupiter in thermal infrared light; bright regions are clear air where heat from inside the planet can leak out, while darker regions are where clouds block that heat. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA M.H. Wong (UC Berkeley) and team Acknowledgments: Mahdi Zamani

Jupiter is not here to screw around.

Concurrent observations of the solar system's mightiest planet by Hubble Space Telescope, the Gemini Observatory, and the Juno spacecraft show that Jupiter's thunderstorms are ridiculously huge, towering skyward for 80 kilometers or more, powered by heat from below and water in the atmosphere. That's five times taller than similar storm systems on Earth.

A diagram of convective storm clouds on Jupiter. Warm wet air rises and forms clouds, while cooler dry air sinks. Gemini, Hubble, and Juno observe this with different kinds of light to probe the 3D cloud structure. Credit: NASA, ESA, M.H. Wong (UC Berkeley), and A. James and M.W. Carruthers (STScI)

What they found sounds familiar: Dry cool air sinks, while warm air laden with water vapor rises and makes clouds. This is pretty much how convection works in a cumulonimbus cloud on Earth, too. However, while these thunderclouds on Earth reach heights of 15 km from their base or so, Jupiter's are 80 kilometers high. Yegads

Read the entire SiFi piece. Interesting to a fault. :)

@ 8:00am ... :)

LOL yet again.

Sound in space ... :)

Space becomes “sonified” in this visualization of a cluster of galaxies imaged by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Time flows left to right, and the frequency of sound changes from bottom to top, ranging from 30 to 1,000 hertz. Objects near the bottom of the image produce lower notes, while those near the top produce higher ones. Most of the visible specks are galaxies housing countless stars. A few individual stars shine brightly in the foreground. Stars and compact galaxies create short, clear tones, while sprawling spiral galaxies emit longer notes that change pitch. The higher density of galaxies near the center of the image — the heart of this galaxy cluster, known as RXC J0142.9+4438 — results in a swell of mid-range tones halfway through the video. Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 acquired this image on Aug. 13, 2018.

This is for you D, you're right, there is "sound" in space. :)

Blue Angels yet again :)

The Blue Angels yet again. :)