We Have The Privilege To Be Educated. Don’t Waste That.

If you keep dividing the line segment infinitely you get something really interesting. It is called Cantor Dust. You get an infinite number of points with a total length of zero’ Fathom the Universe

Mars will lose its largest moon, but gain a ring

Mars’ largest moon, Phobos, is slowly falling toward the planet, but rather than smash into the surface, it likely will be shredded and the pieces strewn about the planet in a ring like the rings encircling Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.

UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Benjamin Black and graduate student Tushar Mittal estimate the cohesiveness of Phobos and conclude that it is insufficient to resist the tidal forces that will pull it apart when it gets closer to Mars.

Mars tugs differently on different parts of Phobos. As Phobos gets closer to the planet, the tugs are enough to actually pull the moon apart, the scientists say. This is because Phobos is highly fractured, with lots of pores and rubble. “Dismembering it is analogous to pulling apart a granola bar”, Black said, “scattering crumbs and chunks everywhere.”

Read more about the fate of Phobos

Indian rocket rises through the atmosphere carrying a billion dreams and hopes along with its payload.

Solar System: 5 Things to Know This Week

Our solar system is huge, so let us break it down for you. Here are 5 things to know this week:

1. Letting the Air Out

The atmosphere on Mars is whisper-thin and drier than bone–but it wasn’t always that way. For the past year, the MAVEN mission has been orbiting the planet, piecing together clues about what happened to all the air on Mars. At 2 p.m. EST on Nov. 5, we will hold a briefing on some new findings about the Martian atmosphere. Make sure to tune in on NASA Television.

2. How Much Juno about Jupiter?

We’re all going to know a lot more about the king of planets soon, thanks to the Juno mission. Juno’s project scientist will be giving a live lecture on Nov. 5 and 6 to explain what discoveries might await and how the spacecraft is expected to survive Jupiter’s dangerous radiation environment for over a year, long enough to make over 30 close polar passes. Watch the live lecture HERE. 

3. Excitement at Enceladus 

Our Cassini spacecraft has returned stunning images from its ultra-close flyby of Saturn’s active moon Enceladus on Oct. 28. The photos are providing a quick look at Enceladus and its plume of icy vapor from the moon’s geysers. But some of the most exciting science is yet to come, as scientists will be poring over data from Cassini’s instruments to see what they detected as they flew through the plume.

4. A New Dimension in Lunar Landscapes

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter maps the moon in boulder-by-boulder detail daily. The team that operates the spacecraft’s most powerful camera has been releasing 3D versions of its high-resolution looks at the surface. You can see depth and detail in the pictures if you can get or make some red-blue glasses.

5. Pluto in Perspective

The New Horizons spacecraft has fired its engines again as it carries out a series of four maneuvers propelling it toward an encounter with the ancient Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, a billion miles farther from the sun than Pluto. Meanwhile, it continues the ongoing download of data from the Pluto encounter, including this recent stunner. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com 

Muharram 2014/1436 karbala, Iraq 

Epimetheus Above the Rings of Saturn

via reddit

The Extraordinary Oil Paintings of Alessandro Sicioldr

Sicioldr is an italian painter and illustrator born in 1990 in Tarquinia, living and working in Perugia. He works mainly with oil paint, pencils and coloured pencils. His subjects are surreal images coming from unconscious that he represents using a blend of contemporary and traditional techniques. His visionary attitude began to sprout in early childhood, when he used to depict in his drawings strange and uncanny worlds. These early manifestations brought a scared kindergarten teacher to call his parents, asking for an exorcism. He studied and worked under his father’s guidance in his classical painting atelier where he learned not only how to paint but how to prepare wood with Cennino Cennini’s technique, how to mix and grind pigments and how to build and decorate custom frames. In 2014 he moved to his personal atelier. His inspirations often comes from his dreamy visions and from studies of art history, psychology, mythology, philosophy, literature and science