Summer Triangles Over Japan By Shingo Takei

Ten Years After Katrina

As we remember the devastation that Hurricane Katrina caused ten years ago, we also look to the improvements made in the past decade in storm prediction and forecasting.

Hurricane Katrina impacted many people, businesses and communities; and even two NASA facilities were hit by the storm. Marshall Space Flight Center and Michoud Assembly Facility were both hit by the harsh storm (seen below).

During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, our satellites were hard at work monitoring and watching the storm from above. Thanks to the higher resolution models we have today, simulations can recreate historical storms, like the below of Hurricane Katrina. Scientists can then study these and learn about past events.

Surprisingly, the United States hasn’t experienced the landfall of a Category 3 hurricane or lager since 2005. This is the longest period of time that has passed without a major hurricane making landfall in the U.S. since reliable records began in 1850.

Although we don’t know when a severe storm will form, we do know that advancements in technology can help us better prepare and predict its path. So, on this ten year mark of this devastating storm, we look back to remember what we saw: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/sets/72157656646633089

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Pluto in Enhanced Color : Pluto is more colorful than we can see. Color data and images of our Solar System’s most famous dwarf planet, taken by the robotic New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in July, have been digitally combined to give an enhanced view of this ancient world sporting an unexpectedly young surface. The featured enhanced color image is not only esthetically pretty but scientifically useful, making surface regions of differing chemical composition visually distinct. For example, the light-colored heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio on the lower right is clearly shown here to be divisible into two regions that are geologically different, with the leftmost lobe Sputnik Planum also appearing unusually smooth. New Horizons now continues on beyond Pluto, will continue to beam back more images and data, and will soon be directed to change course so that it can fly past asteroid 2014 MU69 in 2019 January. via NASA

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This Monday, Aug. 17, marks the final targeted flyby of Dione, one of Saturn’s many moons, in Cassini’s long mission. During this flyby, the science team will conduct a gravity experiment that will contribute to our knowledge of the internal structure of Dione. We will also learn more about its outer ice shell, and will be able to compare this with Saturn’s other icy moons.

Beyond the icy moons, Saturn is adorned with thousands of beautiful ringlets, While all four gas giant planets in our solar system have rings – made of chunks of ice and rock – none are as spectacular or as complicated as Saturn’s. Like the other gas giants, Saturn is mostly a massive ball of hydrogen and helium.

This image of Saturn was taken using an infrared filter. Using this type of filter can help scientists determine the location of clouds in the planet’s atmosphere. The darker areas reveal clouds that are lower in the atmosphere, while the bright areas are higher altitude clouds. 

Since Cassini reached Saturn in 2004, it has captured important data and images. This spacecraft has the ability to “see” in wavelengths that the human eye cannot, and it can “feel” things about magnetic fields and tiny dust particles that no human hand could detect. These heightened “senses” have allowed us to have a better understanding of Saturn, its moons and the solar system.

Learn more about Cassini & Saturn: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

Sea Level Rise

For thousands of years, sea level has remained relatively stable. But now, Earth’s seas are rising. Since the beginning of the 20th century, they have risen about eight inches, and more than two inches in the last 20 years alone!

As water warms, it expands and takes up more space. That means that when oceans warm, the sea level rises. This summer, we’ve been researching exactly how global warming has impacted Greenland’s ice sheet. Our ICESat-2 mission will use a laser to measure the height of the planet’s surface. Over time, we will be able to provide a record of elevation change, and estimate how much water has melted into the ocean from land ice change.

So how much ice are we actually losing? Great question, but the answer might shock you. In Greenland alone, 303 gigatons of ice was lost in 2014!

Since we know that ice is melting, we’re working to gain a better understanding of how much and how fast. We’re using everything from planes, probes and boats, to satellites and lasers to determine the impact of global warming on the Earth’s ice.

Follow along for updates and information: http://climate.nasa.gov/

Disclaimer: These are online resources that I have found, They are not meant to be your only source of study, instead you can use them to your enhance your normal study. I don’t know what level these resources are aimed at, but I’ve tried to provide a range for a number of different topics. I don’t study Physics, so I don’t know how accurate these are, or how they relate to course syllabi.

Space & the universe:

How do we know the Big Bang actually happened?

Visible Earth - A catalogue of satellite images of our home planet detailing everything from atmospheric data to city lights or natural disasters.

NASA - NASA homepage with links to other NASA sites. FAQ

British National Space Centre - Site containing information about current satellites launches, solar system and Earth observation. There are links from the ‘Learning Zone’ to other Space sites.

Online Physics Lecture Notes - A directory of online undergraduate level astronomy and physics lecture notes from various universities.

Physics in Perspective: 2013 lectures - Video: Dr Andreas Freise talks about finding black holes with lasers.

Galileo: An educational film - An educational film dramatising the life of Galileo and his scientific discoveries.

Why our universe might exist on a knife-edge

Is our universe the only universe?

Distant time and the hint of a multiverse

The hunt for a supermassive black hole

The story behind the Mars Rovers

The design of the universe

Shedding light on dark matter

Why did Pluto get kicked out of the planet club?

Geocentrism and heliocentrism

Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation

An overview of orbital mechanics

Orbital mechanics -  These drawings simplify the physics of orbital mechanics, making it easy to grasp some of the basic concepts.

Gravity is More Than a Name

Circular and Satellite Motion Interactives

Vectors, Motion & Momentum

Vectors - Motion and Forces in Two Dimensions

Vectors, Projectiles, and 2-D Motion Interactives

One dimensional motion - velocity, speed, time, acceleration, projectiles.

Two dimensional motion - projectile velocity, inclines, centripetal force and acceleration.

Introduction to vectors and scalars - Khan Academy  (YouTube)

Physics: Introduction to Vectors (YouTube)

Momentum and Its Conservation

Momentum and Collisions Interactives

1-D Kinematics Interactives

The simple pendulum - Excellent animations proving assorted points about the simple harmonic motion approximation for pendulums.

The Physics of Body Mechanics

Momentum and forces (BBC Bitesize)

Forces and Newton’s laws

Impacts and linear momentum

Moments, torque and angular momentum

Oscillatory motion

Work & Energy:

Work, Energy, and Power

Work and Energy Interactives

Introduction to work and energy - Khan Academy

SparkNotes: SAT Physics: Work, Energy, and Power

Thermal Physics:

Thermal Physics

Thermodynamics

SparkNotes: SAT Physics: Thermal Physics

Thermal Physics - Heat and Temperature (YouTube)

Electricity & Magneticism:

Static Electricity

Static Electricity Interactives

The Electromagnetic Spectrum Song by Emerson & Wong

Electromagnetic Spectrum - Introduction

Electricity and magneticism (Khan academy)

Current Electricity

Magnetism Interactives

Direct Current Versus Alternating Current

Circuits

Circuit symbols review notes

Circuit components overview

Resistors in Circuits

Batteries in Circuits

Capacitors in Circuits

Online circuit lab

Electric Current

Electric Resistance

Electric Power

Light & Sound:

Waves

Waves and Sound Interactives

Sound Waves and Music

Mechanical waves and sound

Light Waves and Color

Light waves

Reflection and the Ray Model of Light

Refraction and Lenses Interactives

Refraction and the Ray Model of Light

Circles of light: the mathematics of rainbows - An in-depth study of the mathematics involved in the study of rainbows. For advanced students only.

The Discovery Of Radioactivity - 100 years ago, a group of scientists unknowingly ushered in the Atomic Age. Their work initiated paths of research which changed our understanding of the building blocks of matter.

Light: Particle or a Wave?

Refraction of Light

Diffraction of Light

Sources of Visible Light

Laser Fundamentals

Prisms and Beamsplitters

What is the speed of dark? Vsauce. YouTube (2014).

Primary Colors

Diffraction of Light

Atoms:

The Discovery and Research on the Atom - A description of some of the important developments in understanding the atom an its constituents. Some parts of the site are very mathematical and go beyond college level physics.

Large Hadron Collider finds elusive new particle after 50 years

Building atoms

Revise atom structure (S-cool, intro level)

Build an atom - Move the electrons, protons and neutrons yourself to create different atoms.

Definitions & Tools:

Torques - Definitions of various torques, statements of Euler’s equations.

Elasticity - Definitions for a selection of topics related to elasticity.

Forces - Glossary of terms and mathematical derivations for various forces.

Friction - A few good definitions relating to friction.

Mass and Weight - Brief definitions for various mass and weight related topics.

A Dictionary of Units of Measurement - The history and conversion of different numeric systems

Physics Forums - A busy forum covering every physics topic under the sun. Great for everything from homework questions to discussing the origins of the universe.

The Laws List - The Laws List is an alphabetised guide featuring several hundred laws, rules, principles and other related topics in physics, from aberration to the Zeeman effect.

Astro Physical Calculator - A fully working physical calculator with physical constants stored in memory.

Other:

Introduction to MRI physics - A detailed page on the workings of mri scanners with lots of animations (requires shockwave).

How Does a Cat Land on its Feet? - The saying is that cats always land on their feet. This animation explains how they do this.

X‑rays

What physics taught me about marketing

Physics Timeline

Careers:

Careers in physics

What can I do with my degree in physics?

Careers In Physics - American Physical Society

Important Dates and Discoveries - The Physics of the Universe

The night sky. 09/03/15 Watch as the colour of the sky changes due to the rising Moon. This was a 4 hour time lapse recorded last night from 21:00-01:00.

New Video! Reflection nebulae in a nutshell! Follow Evant Horizon for more astronomy posts!

Saturn, Cincinnati Observatory. _Popular astronomy_ 1860.