The July 22, 2009 eclipse is the longest solar eclipse of 21st century. It lasted a maximum of 6 minutes and 39 seconds and can be tatolly seen off the coast of Southeast Asia, particularly in China, India and Nepal. Many tourist have gathered to this country to witness this natural phenomenon.
Not to be surpassed until June 2132, the eclipse was the the second in the series of three eclipses in a one-month period, being book-ended by two minor penumbral lunar eclipses, first on July 7 and last on August 6.
Thousands of pilgrims gathered on the banks of the Ganges River in Varanasi, India to experience the eclipse as a religious or spiritual event. Some people expected that there would be a relationship, either positive or negative, between their health and the occurrence of the eclipse. Indian scientists observed the solar eclipse from an Indian Air Force plane
Here's a satellite image of the Earth showing the sunlight and clouds. This image was taken today, Dec. 28, 2008 at 21:00 UTC. The picture on the left is dawn, while the right is dusk.
In case you haven't noticed it, the full moon last Friday, Dec 12 is the year 2008's biggest full moon. This is because the moon is nearest to the Earth on that day (and night) as a result, it will be 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than the other full moons this year.
Earth, the moon and the sun are all bound together by gravity, which keeps us going around the sun and keeps the moon going around us as it goes through phases. The moon makes a trip around Earth every 29.5 days. But the orbit is not a perfect circle.
The moon's average distance from us is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km). Friday night it will be just 221,560 miles (356,567 km) away. It will be 14 percent bigger in our sky and 30 percent brighter than some other full moons during the year, according to NASA.
A freak hailstorm turns parts of Central Kenya white with snow covering the land an area of 30 acres. Villagers who were first time to see a snow rush to the scene of hailstorm. They originally thought there was a big white sheet covering the land. Villagers tasted the snow and play with the thing they only see on tv.
"We thought a big white sheet had been spread, so we decided to come and see for ourselves. We thought that it was Jesus who had come back," one villager told reporters.
This is the before and after NASA's Terra satellite photos of Cyclone Nargis that hit southern Myanmar on May 2 and 3 this year. It left massive floodwaters the devastated the region and killed nearly 100,000 based on the latest estimate.
The Great Blue Hole of Belize is a large underwater sinkhole. It is almost perfect circular in shape, over 1,000 feet in diameter and 400 feet deep. It was formed as a limestone cave system during the last ice age when sea levels were much lower. As the ocean began to rise again the caves flooded, and the roof collapsed.
This site was made famous by Jacques-Yves Cousteau who declared it one of the top ten scuba diving sites in the world. In 1971, he brought his ship, the Calypso to the hole to chart its depths. [3] Investigations by this expedition confirmed the hole's origin as typical Karst limestone formations, formed before rises in sea level in at least four stages, leaving ledges at depths of 70, 160 and 300 feet. Stalactites were retrieved from submerged caves, confirming their previous formation above sea level. Some of these stalactites were also off-vertical by 10° - 13° in a consistent orientation, thus indicating that there had also been some past geological shift and tilting of the underlying plateau, followed by a long period in the current plane.
Scientists discovered the biggest black hole in the entire universe. It has the size of 18 billion suns.
The biggest black hole in the universe weighs in with a respectable mass of 18 billion Suns, and is about the size of an entire galaxy. Just like in the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito flick “Twins”, the massive black hole has a puny twin hovering nearby. By observing the orbit of the smaller black hole, astronomers are able to test Einstein's theory of general relativity with stronger gravitational fields than ever before. The biggest black hole beats out its nearest competitor by six times. Fortunately, it’s 3.5 billion light years away, forming the heart of a quasar called OJ287. Quasars are extremely bright objects in which matter spiraling into a giant black hole emits large amounts of radiation.
12-year-old Joe Falciatano calls himself "Magneto Man". Every computer he touches goes haywire.
Joe, 12, began calling himself "Magneto Man" last year, after his teachers concluded that his presence could crash the school computers. "Another student could use a computer, and it would be fine. But if Joe was on it, weird things started to happen," said Marie Yerdon, computer lab teacher at Lura Sharp Elementary School in Pulaski, NY. "I think there's something in his body chemistry, something in his makeup, that causes the computers to go haywire."
Avalanches on the North Polar Scarps in the Planet Mars was caught by the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - the first ever image of active avalanches near it's north pole.
Ingrid Daubar Spitale of the University of Arizona, Tucson, who works on targeting the camera and has studied hundreds of HiRISE images, was the first person to notice the avalanches. "It really surprised me," she said. "It's great to see something so dynamic on Mars. A lot of what we see there hasn't changed for millions of years."
"We don't know what set off these landslides," said Patrick Russell of the University of Berne, Switzerland, a HiRISE team collaborator. "We plan to take more images of the site through the changing Martian seasons to see if this kind of avalanche happens all year or is restricted to early spring."
Snakehead fish, a carnivorous fish tagged as the world’s most evil fish because it eats almost everything in it's path, is now is Britain. It was originally can be found only in Southeast Asia.
News that a 2ft specimen had been hooked in an English river caused widespread panic among anglers and conservationists. An Environment Agency source said last night: "The reaction was, ‘Oh s***’. This is the ultimate invasive species — if it starts breeding here it’s a disaster." Angler Andy Alder caught the snakehead while using a sprat as bait for pike on the River Witham near North Hykeham, Lincs. Andy, of Lincoln, said: "It had a gob full of razor-sharp teeth. To be honest it looked terrifying."
Craig O'Connor, an American furniture maker claims to have discovered an image of Jesus Christ inside a pine tree trunk he had cut down for a friend.
"People have said that it is art made by God and I have to agree with them," the Roman Catholic churchgoer said. Growth rings around the figure's head create a halo-like effect, he adds. He initially offered it for sale on the eBay auction website, where it attracted a top bid of $500, but he has now decided to keep the log and make it the centre piece of a new item of furniture he is building.
Situated in Brazil in South America, the Pantanal is the world’s largest area of wetlands covering to a total of 75,000 sq miles.
The region, whose name derives from the Portuguese word "pântano" (meaning "swamp" or "marsh"), is situated in South America, mostly within the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. There are also small portions in Bolivia and Paraguay. In total, the Pantanal covers about 195,000 square kilometers (75,000 sq mi). The Pantanal floods during the wet season, submerging over 80% of the area, and nurturing the world's richest collection of aquatic plants. It is thought to be the world’s most dense flora and fauna ecosystem. It is often overshadowed by the Amazon Rainforest, partly because of its proximity, but is just as vital and interesting a part of the neotropic.
A total lunar eclipse will be experience over the United States on the evening of 20th of February 2008 at 10 pm EST. This eclipse last for about an hour.
On Wednesday evening, February 20th, the full Moon over the Americas will turn a delightful shade of red and possibly turquoise, too. It's a total lunar eclipse—the last one until Dec. 2010.
Transiting the shadow's core takes about an hour. The first hints of red appear around 10 pm EST (7 pm PST), heralding a profusion of coppery hues that roll across the Moon's surface enveloping every crater, mountain and moon rock, only to fade away again after 11 pm EST (8 pm PST). No special filter or telescope is required to see this spectacular event. It is a bright and leisurely display visible from cities and countryside alike.
In 1993, the Southern Region of Australia experienced the world's worst mouse plague which cost $70 million dollars of lost crops, livestocks and properties. The plague lasted 6 months and ended in just a matter of days after the government put poison in the affected region.
Here's a nice and happy face from Planet Mars that is said to be a crater about 3 kilometers in diameter.
This picture of a crater resembling a "happy face" was acquired by the Context Camera (CTX) on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on January 28, 2008. The unnamed crater is about 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) across. It is located among the Nereidum Montes, north of the Argyre basin, near 45.1°S, 55.0°W. North is toward the right and sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper right.
The FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), the agency of the US government tasked with Disaster Mitigation, Preparedness, Response & Recovery planning listed the most expensive presidentially-declared disasters in the USA in modern history.
Thousands of pilgrims gathered on the banks of the Ganges River in Varanasi, India to experience the eclipse as a religious or spiritual event. Some people expected that there would be a relationship, either positive or negative, between their health and the occurrence of the eclipse. Indian scientists observed the solar eclipse from an Indian Air Force plane
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