Amazing Story of Perseid Meteor Shower Thursday August 12,2010

Adrian Morrow
Toronto — Globe and Mail Update
Published on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010 12:27PM EDT
Last updated on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010 2:42PM EDT
.One of the year's brightest shows is on Thursday night – and best of all, it's free.
The Perseid meteor shower, one of the most spectacular of the year, will be visible all night, as debris from the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle falls into the earth's atmosphere.
The meteors are centered on a spot near the Perseus constellation. In the early evening, it will sit low in the northeastern sky. As the night progresses, it will move steadily upward.
The most spectacular point of the shower will happen about 3 or 4 a.m., in the hours before first light.
At the shower's peak, as many as 100 meteors per hour will streak across the sky. Light pollution, however, could mean that far fewer of these objects will be visible to city-dwellers. It will, however, be more visible than last year, as the moon will be smaller.
Ray Jayawardhana, an associate professor at the University of Toronto's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, said those hoping to see the shower should seek out a dark place.
“I certainly think from the outskirts of the city or perhaps from the roof of a building,” he said.

amazing meteor shower

 
 If the skies are clear enough for good viewing, the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill will hold an open house from 9:30 p.m. ET to midnight. Participants are encouraged to bring a blanket or a lawn chair to lie back and watch the sky. Members of the Royal Astronomical Society will have telescopes set up and will be on hand to answer questions.
The observatory will post a notice on its website around 6 p.m. indicating if the weather will be clear enough for good viewing.

HMS Investigator – Ship Lost 150 Years Found » Right Pundits

HMS Investigator – Ship Lost 150 Years Found » Right Pundits

Amazing, Ship Lost for 150 Years!

Don’t give up the ship, no matter how long it’s been missing! The HMS Investigator, a ship lost over 150 years, was found! Archeologists from Parks Canada located the vessel in 15 minutes thanks to a sonar scan. A merchantman, the HMS Investigation was on it’s second voyage to the high Arctic searching for the lost Franklin expedition. She became trapped in the ice on Banks Island in the Beauford Sea in 1853 and was abandoned. Lost for 157 years, her remains have been located.








Sir John Franklin was an explorer who had mapped two-thirds of the northern coastline of North America. He firmly believed that there was a Northwest Passage to the Orient through the Canadian Arctic. Two ships, the HMS Erebus and Terror were dispatched on May 19, 1845. Equipped with the latest technology, including steam engines and canned food, 24 officers and 110 crewmen set sail for the Arctic.



The ships were last seen by a whaler, the Prince of Wales on July 26, 1845 near Lancaster Sound, in the high Arctic near Baffin Bay. The two ships apparently became trapped in the ice near King William Island around September, 1846. What happened after that is not fully known.



Several rescue expeditions were launched in search of the crews. A note was found telling of how Sir John Franklin died on June 11, 1847. Sketchy details of possible interaction with local Inuit tribes were reported. Also darker stories of cannibalism. Most of Franklin’s expedition probably died from starvation, the extreme cold and other diseases. More recent theories say they may have succumbed to insanity due to lead poisoning from the crude canned food of the time.



In 1848, the HMS Investigator and Enterprise sailed to search for Franklin’s group. Commanded by Robert McClure, the ship was trapped in the ice in Mercy Bay on June 3, 1853. In 1857, The HMS Resolute found her still stuck, but in fair condition. McClure and his crew did make it back to England. But after time, the exact location of the HMS Investigator became unknown. An account from Inuit stories from 1910 tell of them using the ship as a source for copper and iron. A voyage in 1915 failed to find the vessel.



On July 22, 2010, a team from Parks Canada began their search for the missing vessel. Just three days later, a sonar scan was begun in the Beaufort Sea near Banks Island. In just 15 minutes, the remains of the HMS Investigator, lost for over 150 years, was found! There are no plans to raise the vessel, however a robotic ROV will dive and take pictures. The team will then continue to search for the HMS Erebus and Terror.

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Kevin Coster Helps Oil Spill With Cleaning Machine: May 20: Video | The News is NowPublic.com

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Amazing Molecular "Spider" Robots!

Amazing Nano-Robots!

The latest installment in DNA nanotechnology has arrived: A molecular nanorobot dubbed a "spider" and labeled with green dyes traverses a substrate track built upon a DNA origami scaffold. It journeys towards its red-labeled goal by cleaving the visited substrates, thus exhibiting the characteristics of an autonomously moving, behavior-based robot at the molecular scale. Credit: Courtesy of Paul Michelotti

A team of scientists from Columbia University, Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have programmed an autonomous molecular "robot" made out of DNA to start, move, turn, and stop while following a DNA track.

http://www.physorg.com/