Sunday, March 10, 2013

Rare ‘Zodiacal Light’ will be visible in night sky soon


Rare ‘Zodiacal Light’ will be visible in night sky soon
Posted By: RumorMail [Send E-Mail]
Date: Saturday, 9-Mar-2013 16:29:54
March 8, 2012 – SPACE – The solar system’s small bodies have been often in the news lately. There are currently two bright comets in the southern sky, one of which, Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) will soon be moving into the northern sky. An asteroid named 2012 DA14 recently passed close to the Earth. There have been two bright meteors in the past month, one in Russia and one in California. But these types of bodies aren’t the smallest relics of the solar system visible from here on Earth. A rare and hard to spot phenomenon called the Zodiacal Light, made from tiny solar system dust particles, can only be sighted under the best conditions. And a good time to view it is coming up soon. Most stargazers are unaware that they can actually see this interplanetary dust, when conditions are right. In some ways this disk of interplanetary dust is similar in appearance to the Milky Way. The glow of the Milky Way is the result of the combined light of millions of stars too faint to be resolved by the unaided eye. The interplanetary dust disk, called the Zodiacal Light, is the result of millions of dust particles too faint to be resolved. Unlike the Milky Way, which can be resolved with a telescope, the particles that make up the Zodiacal Light are too small to be resolved by any optical instrument. There are only a few windows of opportunity during the year to see the Zodiacal Light, and one of these is coming up over the next couple of weeks. One factor is that the moon will move out of the evening sky, leaving it darker and making fainter objects more easy to spot. A second factor is that the ecliptic, where the Zodiacal Light is brightest, will be perpendicular to the horizon in the early evening in the northern hemisphere. Wait until the sky is completely free of scattered light from the sun, at least an hour and a half after sunset. First of all, choose an observing location with a very dark sky. It must be dark enough that the Milky Way is easily visible, because the Zodiacal Light is fainter than the Milky Way. At this time of year in the northern hemisphere, the Milky Way is setting in the northwest in the early evening, marked by Cassiopeia and Cygnus. The ecliptic, marked with a green line in the chart, is due west, passing through the faint constellation of Pisces. In a dark sky, you will see the Zodiacal Light and the Milky Way as two distinct but very faint objects. The Milky Way gets wider and brighter higher in the sky, while the Zodiacal Light gets narrower and fainter. The first is a band, the second a cone. If you succeed in spotting the Zodiacal Light over the next few weeks, you will have observed one of the rarest phenomena in the night sky. -MNN
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/rare-zodiacal-light-will-be-visible-in-night-sky-soon/

Giant Ancient Impact Crater Confirmed in Iowa
Posted By: RumorMail [Send E-Mail]
Date: Saturday, 9-Mar-2013 16:31:14
A monster lurks under northeastern Iowa. That monster is in the form of a giant buried basin, the result of a meteorite impact in central North America over 470 million years ago.
A recent aerial survey conducted by the state of Minnesota Geological Survey and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) confirms the existence of an impact structure long suspected near the eastern edge of the town of Decorah, Iowa. The goal of the 60 day survey was a routine look at possible mineral and water resources in the region, but the confirmation of the crater was an added plus.
“These findings highlight the range of applications that these geophysical methods can address,” Says, USGS geophysicist Paul Bedrosian. The surveys were carried out using a combination of airborne gravity gradiometry to measure relative rock density and an airborne electromagnetic system capable of measuring how rocks conduct electrical currents.
Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/100534/giant-ancient-impact-crater-confirmed-in-iowa/#ixzz2N53Ue0AS
pics on link:
http://www.universetoday.com/100534/giant-ancient-impact-crater-confirmed-in-iowa/

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