Author Archives: marcia

Weekend Solar Blast

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Large Detached Solar Prominence

by Stephen W. Ramsden

While displaying the Sun to 500+ kids and their families at the Virginia Highlands Summer Festival in Atlanta, GA, we were all witness to this incredible display of solar activity. Early in the morning a large magnetically supercharged chunk of Hydrogen Plasma was ejected from the limb of the Sun right before our eyes. It just hung there over the Sun almost 25 Earth Diameters high. It was breathtaking to watch and really got the attendees interested in our nearest star.


To see more images and to read more go to:    http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Stephen-W.-Ramsden-spaceweather-submission_1307328834.jpg

Chilean Puyehue Volcano Erupts

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Volcano in the Caulle Cordon of southern Chile erupts violently

According to Wikipedia: Puyehue and Cordón Caulle are two coalesced volcanic vents that form a major mountain massif inPuyehue National Park in the Andes of Ranco Province, Chile. In volcanology this group is known as the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Volcanic Complex (PCCVC). Four different volcanoes constitute the volcanic group or complex, the Cordillera Nevada caldera, thePliocene Mencheca volcano, Cordón Caulle fissure vents and the Puyehue stratovolcano.

Reuters

Lightning bolts strike around the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain in the Patagonia region at sunrise June 5. The volcano dormant for decades erupted in south-central Chile on Saturday, belching ash over 6 miles into the sky, as winds fanned it toward neighboring Argentina, and prompting the government to evacuate several thousand residents, Chilean authorities said.

Claudio Santana / AFP – Getty Images

Aerial picture showing the cloud of ash billowing from Puyehue volcano near Osorno in southern Chile, 870 km south of Santiago, taken on June 5. Puyehue volcano erupted for the first time in half a century on June 4, prompting evacuations for 3,500 people as it sent a cloud of ash that reached Argentina. The National Service of Geology and Mining said the explosion that sparked the eruption also produced a column of gas six miles high, hours after warning of strong seismic activity in the area.

for more about this, go to:    http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/05/6790909-volcano-in-the-caulle-cordon-of-southern-chile-erupts-violently

 

Lunar Eclipse June 15

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And The Moon Is Eclipsed By The Earth

by JASON MAJOR on MAY 31, 2011

 

The Moon grows dark during a total lunar eclipse on December 21, 2010/ Credit: Jason Major

On June 15 there will be a total lunar eclipse visible from Australia, Indonesia, southern Japan, India, a large area of Asia, Africa, Europe and the eastern part of South America. This is expected to be one of the darkest eclipses ever (with a magnitude of 1.7), second only to the July 2000 eclipse.

to read more go to:  http://www.universetoday.com/86138/and-the-moon-is-eclipsed-by-the-earth/

June 5-11

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Color of the Week:   Grainy White

This week can lead you to do things that might surprise you. Be prepared for that. There are experiences that will be coming your way that will be new to you. moreover there are people who will be coming into your field that will resonate with some deep held convictions. This is a week in which you cannot allow fear to take over. Caution is always well advised, but being overly cautious can lead to the loss of some opportunities. Continue reading →

Jerusalem Underground

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Beneath Jerusalem, an underground city takes shape

AP

    • In this May 17, 2011 photo, a view of Zedekiah's Cave is seen in Jerusalem's Old City. Underneath the stone buildings and crowded alleys of old JerusaAP – In this May 17, 2011 photo, a view of Zedekiah’s Cave is seen in Jerusalem’s Old City.
By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press – Mon May 30, 12:09 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Underneath the crowded alleys and holy sites of old Jerusalem, hundreds of people are snaking at any given moment through tunnels, vaulted medieval chambers and Roman sewers in a rapidly expanding subterranean city invisible from the streets above.

At street level, the walled Old City is an energetic and fractious enclave with a physical landscape that is predominantly Islamic and a population that is mainly Arab.

Underground Jerusalem is different: Here the noise recedes, the fierce Middle Eastern sun disappears, and light comes from fluorescent bulbs. There is a smell of earth and mildew, and the geography recalls a Jewish city that existed 2,000 years ago.

to read more go to:    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110530/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_underground_jerusalem

Quantum Measurement Without Distortion

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Quantum Physics First: Physicists Measure Without Distorting

ScienceDaily (June 2, 2011) — Quantum mechanics is famous for saying that a tree falling in a forest when there’s no one there doesn’t make a sound. Quantum mechanics also says that if anyone is listening, it interferes with and changes the tree. And so the famous paradox: how can we know reality if we cannot measure it without distorting it?

An international team of researchers, led by University of Toronto physicist Aephraim Steinberg of the Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control, has found a way to do just that by applying a modern measurement technique to the historic two-slit interferometer experiment in which a beam of light shone through two slits results in an interference pattern on a screen behind.

In a new experiment, researchers have succeeded for the first time in experimentally reconstructing full trajectories which provide a description of how light particles move through the two slits and form an interference pattern. (Credit: iStockphoto/Karl Dolenc)

That famous experiment, and the 1927 Neils Bohr and Albert Einstein debates, seemed to establish that you could not watch a particle go through one of two slits without destroying the interference effect: you had to choose which phenomenon to look for.

“Quantum measurement has been the philosophical elephant in the room of quantum mechanics for the past century,” says Steinberg, who is lead author of Observing the Average Trajectories of Single Photons in a Two-Slit Interferometer, to be published in Science on June 2. “However, in the past 10 to 15 years, technology has reached the point where detailed experiments on individual quantum systems really can be done, with potential applications such as quantum cryptography and computation”

to read more go to:   http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110602143159.htm

Whale Dialects

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Whales Have Accents and Regional Dialects: Biologists Interpret the Language of Sperm Whales

ScienceDaily (May 12, 2011) — Dalhousie Ph.D. student Shane Gero has recently returned from a seven-week visit to Dominica. He has been traveling to the Caribbean island since 2005 to study families of sperm whales, usually spending two to four months of each year working on the Dominica Sperm Whale Project. One of the goals of this project is to record and compare whale calls over time, examining the various phrases and dialects of sperm whale

When they dive together, sperm whales make patterns of clicks to each other known as “codas.” Recent findings suggest that not only do different codas mean different things, but that whales can also tell which member of their community is speaking based on the sound properties of the codas. Just as we can tell our friends apart by the sounds of their voices and the way they pronounce their words, different sperm whales make the same pattern of clicks, but with different accents

to read more go to:   http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110512104252.htm

Mirror Neurons

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Curious Phenomena:

frhttp://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/m/mirror_neuron.htm

A mirror neuron is a neuron which fires both when an animal performs an action and when the animal observes the same action performed by another (especially conspecific) animal.

Thus the neuron “mirrors” the behavior of another animal, as though the observer were itself performing the action.

These neurons have been observed in primates, including humans, and in some birds.

In humans, they have been found in Broca’s area and the inferior parietal cortex of the brain.

Some scientists consider mirror neurons one of the most important findings of neuroscience in the last decade.

 

Mexican Volcano Spewing Ash

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Volcano blasts tower of ash near Mexico City

No report of threat to populated areas from Popocatepetl eruption

Image: Popocatepetl volcano emits smoke column

Ulises Ruiz Basurto  /  EPA

Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano emits a plume of smoke and ash on Friday.
Ulises Ruiz Basurto  /  EPA 

MEXICO CITY — The Popocatepetl volcano that towers over Mexico City is rumbling again.

The 17,886-foot mountain shot a blast of ash about 2 miles above its crater at dawn Friday.

Mexico’s national disaster prevention agency says the cloud drifted first to the west and then turned back east toward the city of Puebla.

It says the mountain shook for several minutes before the ash burst out.

The agency urges people to stay at least 7 miles from the crater, which is about 40 miles southeast of Mexico’s capital.

There were no reports of threat to populated areas.

Fr/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43268083/ns/world_news-americas/