Happy Holidays!
Table of Contents
In The Heights: SCIENCE! With Josh
Space On Earth
Space On Earth
by Joshua Sagalchik; December 2021
Many interesting things happen in space. Thousands of stars are born each second. There are trillions and trillions of galaxies, a number that is uncountable under any circumstance. But from what we observe here on Earth, there’s an uncountable number of amazing occurrences that happen each and every day.
Jack-O-Lantern Sun
Jack-O-Lantern Sun
Halloween season just passed, and the sun had some cool images to offer us! Although this image was taken by the Goddard Space Flight Center in October of 2014, it still is an amazing spectacle that is quite fitting.
Active regions on the sun’s surface combined to make the sun look spookier than normal… and more interesting too! This phenomenon was the result of complex magnetic fields hovering in the sun’s corona, and they stand out because they emit more light and energy than other regions on the sun.
Sources: NASA SDO Image: Jack-o-Lantern Sun
Glass Comet
Glass Comet
In the Atacama desert, there are hundreds of thousands of glass slabs littering the barren wasteland. A study in 2012 suggested that the answer to this was that a giant fireball comet crashed into Chile some 12,000 years ago. The impact caused such extreme heat that the sand around it turned into giant slabs of twisted glass. The study even showed that humans may have inhabited the area at the time!
This is a great example of the interesting things caused by extreme heat and pressure.
Sources: Glass slabs in Chile's Atacama Desert come from comet explosion: Study
Asteroids? Not On Our Watch!
Asteroids? Not On Our Watch!
“Later this month, NASA will launch a mission to smack an asteroid into a new orbit to prepare for the possibility that an asteroid in the future might threaten Earth. But don't worry, experts agree that there is no possibility that (even if it goes awry) this asteroid-smashing could threaten Earth.” NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, is launching from California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on November 24th at 1:20 AM EST. It is supposed to reach its target asteroid in late 2022 if all goes according to plan. NASA astronomers say that even if the mission goes wrong, there is no possibility that the asteroid could threaten Earth.
This mission is to plan for the possibility that maybe, one day, an asteroid will pose a threat to Earth.
Sources: NASA wants to smash a spacecraft into an asteroid, but don't worry. Earth isn't at risk.
©2021 In The Heights
8010 12th Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11228
Page updated
Report abuse