While it seems our own planet and its inhabitants are falling apart NASA continues to do amazing things in outer space.
This time orbiting Jupiter, our solar system’s largest and oldest planet (more than 1,300 Earths could fit inside it) — after a near 5-year journey by the solar-powered Juno spacecraft, named for the Roman goddess who could see through clouds.
Last night, fittingly on July 4th, just a few minutes before midnight, NASA staff erupted in applause as their 10-year-long project to orbit Jupiter reached success. Now begins the science, the study of its mini solar system with 67 moons, some that might even contain life forms.
Congratulations again to NASA for overcoming stingy politicians, media disinterest (unless something goes wrong) and public indifference to fiercely keep on going where humankind has never gone before. (At $1.1 billion this project cost less than a third of what we spent every month on the Iraq/Afghan wars.)
NASA: “Secrets lie deep within Jupiter, shrouded in the solar system’s strongest magnetic field and most lethal radiation belts. NASA’s Juno spacecraft will plunge into uncharted territory, entering orbit around the gas giant and passing closer than any spacecraft before. Juno will see Jupiter for what it really is.”
The Washington Post: How NASA’s Juno mission could help tell us where we came from …“It is becoming increasingly clear that the formation of Jupiter was the defining event of our solar system,” Yale University astrophysicist Gregory Laughlin, who isn’t part of the Juno mission team, told The Post. “The discovery of thousands of alien solar systems over the past two decades has shown us that Jupiter, with its large mass and its relatively distant circular orbit, is somewhat unusual. We may, in fact, owe the existence of Earth’s habitability to Jupiter’s sculpting influence on the Earth’s formation, and it is imperative to peel some of the mystery from our mute, strange, and gargantuan planetary neighbor.”
and according to wiki, the mythological juno is: “the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister (but also the wife) of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan.”
and in another but closer to home techie turn is the to do about tesla. wapo editors go to its defense:
THE GOVERNMENT revealed Thursday that a Tesla Model S crashed into a truck in Florida in May, killing the electric car’s driver. This, the headlines roared, is the first known example of a fatal road accident involving a self-driving car.
Except it is not. The Tesla’s “Autopilot” feature was turned on. But the model was not designed to be and should not have been considered to be fully self-driving….
[….]
When real self-driving technology is ready for prime time, it will change all sorts of things about the way people get around — for the better. The elderly and the blind will be able to travel with much less assistance. Road deaths may not disappear, but they will decline. Cars will talk to one another and drive more predictably, so traffic will drop. Americans will not have to spend as much time finding parking spots. Commuters will feel less stress. Many will choose not to own a car at all, since they will probably be able to simply hail an inexpensive ride from a driverless car service. The country will also waste less gasoline.
very cool. happy belated 4th all. glad you had a good day craig, was thinking of you.
Space is a wild place. I find it amazing that it is possible to light off the firework on Earth and drive the little spacecraft millions of miles and then put it in orbit on another planet.
I was looking for anyone who might be a TrailMix commentariat last night, but did not spot any of you on the Mall. It was off and on rain, most of us were very wet. Low clouds, several planes were waved off National to go around and land later. The temperature was cool and anytime you talked to the EMT’s one of the first things said was “no heat strokes”, same for experienced American Red Cross volunteers.
The fireworks were fun and occasionally strange. Most of the show was below the clouds, but occasionally a rocket would pierce a cloud and explode above it. A few fun things included spelling USA, hearts, smiley faces and boxes. Many in the crowd approved with ooo’s and ah’s, with clapping for the best.
Overall, well worth the aches and pains this morning.
Even the Google logo is celebrating!
And on Jupiter Island, a man has been arrested for stealing sea turtle eggs. Hoomans. ?
tony, here’s one you’ll enjoy
bizpac review:
MSNBC’s Al Sharpton really likes a Hillary Clinton/Elizabeth Warren pairing and suggested that anyone who doesn’t is “anti-woman” — even of the dissenter is a woman herself.
“Apparently just the sight of two powerful outspoken women on stage together is enough to send the right into a tail spin,” the shake-down artist said Sunday on his show, “PoliticsNation.”
Sharpton then showed clips of mostly female personalities at Fox News having a little fun at the expense of Clinton and Warren, who appeared together last week at a Ohio campaign rally wearing similar outfits.
very fitting on this day for this thread:
1687 Isaac Newton‘s great work PRINCIPIA published by Royal Society in England. Outlines his laws of motion and universal gravitation.
I’ve always been intrigued by the idea that Jupiter was a “failed star” and of course the finale of the movie 2010 when it becomes a second sun (All these worlds are yours except Europa)
It is difficult to overestimate the accomplishments of nasa.5 years and a retro burn one second from its target time. Should be interesting to learn about earth’s big sister.
If anyone ever sez to you it’s not the heat it’s the humidity feel free to tell them it’s both. TheN punch them. Destin forecast 91, heat index 105. Not much air in the air.
pogo, anywhere near the brain eating algae? ‘course with all that debilitating heat and humidity, one probably couldn’t tell the difference.
this article one of the best Jupiter explainers I’ve seen, I’m a happy space nerd today (luv those videos, Jamie) ..
After a journey of five years, and decades in the planning, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has achieved orbit around Jupiter. Soon begins the next stage in humanity’s quest to explore the largest of the gas giants in our solar system. But what do we know of Jupiter to date?
Brightest, biggest, first
Jupiter’s brightness in the night sky is due to its enormous size. It is by far the biggest planet of the solar system, containing more than double the mass of all the other planets, moons, comets and asteroids combined.
Its great size suggests that Jupiter was also the first planet to form around the sun. The planets emerged out of the debris left over when an interstellar cloud of gas and dust coalesced to form our star. Early in its life, the young sun generated a wind that blew away most of the remaining interstellar cloud, but Jupiter was able to hold on to that history.
Locked up in Jupiter, therefore, is the recipe for how a solar system is made – the ingredients from which the planets and other smaller bodies came to be, and the processes and conditions that enabled this material to come together to form such amazing and diverse worlds.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-07-jupiter.html#jCp
After a journey of five years, and decades in the planning, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has achieved orbit around Jupiter. Soon begins the next stage in humanity’s quest to explore the largest of the gas giants in our solar system. But what do we know of Jupiter to date?
Brightest, biggest, first
Jupiter’s brightness in the night sky is due to its enormous size. It is by far the biggest planet of the solar system, containing more than double the mass of all the other planets, moons, comets and asteroids combined.
Its great size suggests that Jupiter was also the first planet to form around the sun. The planets emerged out of the debris left over when an interstellar cloud of gas and dust coalesced to form our star. Early in its life, the young sun generated a wind that blew away most of the remaining interstellar cloud, but Jupiter was able to hold on to that history.
Locked up in Jupiter, therefore, is the recipe for how a solar system is made – the ingredients from which the planets and other smaller bodies came to be, and the processes and conditions that enabled this material to come together to form such amazing and diverse worlds.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-07-jupiter.html#jCp
sjwny… it is beautiful… and I LOVE living here!
I think I’m too old to party 3 days in a row… I’m taking a day off today to recover. But I did have lots of fun in the sun with friends and family at the family camp. Got to hold my new great niece. Took some nice boat rides around the lake with the new pontoon boat.
Craig… the first part of your first sentence sounded like something CBob would say. I do think our species is too ornery to annihilate ourselves… but god knows we do try… 🙂
another interesting piece:
RR, yep I was so ready for a feel-good story. All this killing worldwide gets me down.
Btw, thanks to Sturgeone for sharing the Crab hat pic on our sidebar. Laughed my ass off when I saw that, and it still laugh out loud everytime I look at — neatly sums up the foolish state of our political discourse these days.
FBI is ending the investigation into HRC without charges. Trump goes beserk and wants to be judge, jury and executioner once again.
Nasa is making some cool videos for this mission. Here’s actual footage from Juno’s camera on approach, just before they had to turn it off for orbit insertion. Can see the orbiting Moons Galileo first discovered, hence their name, the Galilean Moons. Looking forward to some amazing images once “Juno Cam” is back on ..
NASA: “Juno spacecraft captured a unique time-lapse movie of the Galilean satellites in motion about Jupiter. The movie begins on June 12th with Juno 10 million miles from Jupiter, and ends on June 29th, 3 million miles distant. The innermost moon is volcanic Io; next in line is the ice-crusted ocean world Europa, followed by massive Ganymede, and finally, heavily cratered Callisto. Galileo observed these moons to change position with respect to Jupiter over the course of a few nights. From this observation he realized that the moons were orbiting mighty Jupiter, a truth that forever changed humanity’s understanding of our place in the cosmos. Earth was not the center of the Universe. For the first time in history, we look upon these moons as they orbit Jupiter and share in Galileo’s revelation. This is the motion of nature’s harmony.”
Trump is not a populist but he is the ultimate practitioner of the oh so Republican technique – the big lie
The crabhat thing is laugh out loud funny
Oh and Hillary is not going to be charged but the director said she is guilty of benign neglect
usatoday:
While FBI Director James Comey criticized Clinton and her aides for carelessly handling classified, top-secret information, he said there is no evidence she intended to do so, the basis for criminal charges.
“Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information,” Comey said in a 15-minute statement explaining the investigation, “our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
Comey said his agency acted apolitically, and went where the facts took them. While, technically, the FBI makes recommendations to Justice Department prosecutors over potential charges, Attorney General Loretta Lynch has said she would accept the bureau’s views in this case.
“In looking back at our investigations into mishandling of removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts,” Comey said.
[….]
Comey, meanwhile, take Clinton and State Department officials to task for their procedures in handling sensitive information.
“Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” he said.
As I read this Post a story about the Noah’s Ark Theme Park was featured on NPR.
****
Could the deliberate decision by parents to keep children ignorant of fact based learning in favor of faith based learning be considered a form of child abuse? I know legally this would never fly, but what about the social responsibility to raise the next generation to reach their full potential? We already see the dismal results when parents send their children to school ill-prepared for learning. Everyone should have the Right to their Beliefs but there has to be public standards for society to progress.
It’s time for gowdy to investigate the CIA and Navy regarding Benghazi.
Oh, I forgot. They aren’t running for president.
SJNY,
An interesting theory, but progress isn’t mentioned in the Constitution. Maybe under the Common Good Clause….
Mr. Pogo, Esq., what do you think ?
Trump is the “gas giant” who shaped the Repuglican party this season. (Apologies to Jupiter.)
Al Sharpton’s suggestion that anyone who doesn’t like a Clinton/Warren ticket is flawed, in that it means the paramount reason to vote for them is simply based on gender. It is what I suspect is the underlying reason, but they may want to distance themselves from that line of thinking.
Looking forward to what the convention offers Berniecrats, if anything.
China has a new, radio telescope. The enormous size means it can explore over 1,000 light years into space.
No excuses – time for Bernie to get the f out
Was trump the last person to see JonBenet Ramsey alive ?
Space is big.
hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy
https://youtu.be/yU4g9R28i7I
Congressional repubs vote to abolish the FBI
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/congressional-republicans-vote-to-abolish-f-b-i?mbid=nl_070516%20Borowitz%20Newsletter%20(1)&CNDID=19845016&spMailingID=9155882&spUserID=MTA5MjM5OTg5ODk3S0&spJobID=960339422&spReportId=OTYwMzM5NDIyS0
xrepublican,
It’s a slippery slope. People have the Right to their Beliefs …. however commonsense/common good has to be the “umbrella” over society. A very tight rope 😉
Ha, watching a really cheesy true crime reenactment show. Just heard the line “Suckled by sin.” My day is complete.
Blue
What are they looking at.
In this day and age 1000 light years isn’t much. The farthest exoplanet is 13000 light years away.
some one must have dropped a few zeros, given the quality of todays science reporting I wouldn’t be surprised
Jack
SJNY, I think kids deserve to get a good education in lit, hist, and science. If they choose to believe something else, fine, as long as they have the training. It is the same with foreign language instruction: if you get to learn Coptic in school, you are still free to use English only later in life. Learning Coptic is not going to make a child un-American. By analogy, learning natural selection, geology, or geography isn’t going to make a Baptist, Pentacostal, or Jehovah’s Witness into a heathen.
“…what about the social responsibility to raise the next generation to reach their full potential?”
sjwny, if you’re setting standards for child abuse cases, one might want to start at the in utero stage with mom drugging/drinking/smoking/eating improperly when pregnant. maybe even before that with prospective dad’s behavior which would affect development of healthy baby. also take in consideration environmental abuse (lead paint, toxic air, stress etc) affecting a growing brain.
“….isn’t going to make a Baptist, Pentacostal, or Jehovah’s Witness into a heathen”
xr, heathens are born not made…
so too are Baptists and the rest of those guys but they have to be born twice.
Someone should put Brian Williams out of his misery. Listening to him blather on it’s painful
he must have enough money to retire
tony, according to Orlando sentinel lizzie’s going to be down your way. say hi for us.
Best speech she has ever given
Obama on a roll for Hillary in Charlotte, a real stemwinder, haven’t seen him this fired up in a long time.
Pat,
Lol, would love to hear Warren speak.. You bet its anti women if someone says they can’t support 2 women on a ticket. No one ever questions 2 men on a ticker..
KGC,
Yes a great speech by Hillary today.. So inspired she must be by Obama’s presence and support.. Obama is a natural at this and so so good at conveying his reasons for support of HRC.. This is for real… Democrats have an embarrassment of riches going on, it’s terrific…
Our POTUS does do some fine speechifying. I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. Of course, the Trumpeting Tweeter did counter point to provide the the nadir to their zenith.
Given the subject of the day, it is another good reason to play the Galaxy Song one more time since there is bugger all intelligent life on earth.
Hey, @wolfblitzer @andersoncooper @chriscuomo – your boss hired a FOURTH @RealDonaldTrump marionette? You all gonna stand up, or roll over? – Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) calling out those desperately in need of being called out.
OK, any Profiles in Courage working over @CNN? Why am I even asking this? 😉
CNN we do not watch it. I can’t stand to listen to Wolfie it’s like the right wing version of the Weekly Reader
I have been trying to write this today, just keep getting the forgets before touching the keyboard.
Walking around the crowd last night and answering questions about what is what (“is that the White House?”), and where is where (“how do i get to the Martin Luther King Monument?”) I always become overwhelmed at the diversity on the Fourth on the Mall. My usual location is on the NW area of the Washington Monument, not the area immediately at it, but the fields north of it. The fields usually fill last, mostly because the Lincoln Memorial is not in view. But, tens of thousands of people are on the paths looking for a spot to sit down and watch the fireworks.
So many people are there because they are new Americans, or wanting to become new Americans. You hear all languages, many do not speak English, many have a child with them to do the translating, and occasionally we work it out with a map and pointing. Families who might have fought each other in distant lands sit next to each other. Couples with children are a delight. Each year I see more same gender families with their children coming in to watch entertainment and fireworks.
So many people from around the world arrive in the District and have the Fourth on their agenda. It is an amazing day.
if you’re setting standards for child abuse cases, one might want to start at the in utero stage with mom drugging/drinking/smoking/eating improperly when pregnant.
patd… that description of “child abuse” is only a hair’s breath away from saying the ultimate child abuse is abortion. If we’re going to now say that a fetus has a right to not have to ingest Mom’s Pepsi/and or glass of wine, wouldn’t the fetus also have the right to not be dead. Pretty slippery slope there, IMO.
BlueBronc… thanks for that wonderful image of working on the National Mall on the 4th.
Another “On This Day” to go with our science nerd out: Marie Curie, who won two Nobel Prizes, died July 4,1934
Bob Corker trying to make Trump a human being
The optics of Trump and Corker are weird – it makes Corker looks like a miniature person
Pogo……emerald coast…….I think that’s an old Native American phrase meaning, “Oven”.
i did 4 years in that neck of the woods……when I got back to Charleston I ripped Florida unceremoniously from my road atlas. That’s how long ago it was…..I had a road atlas.
I’ll tell ya, Florida like to have shot a hole in my soul…….
Trump is bizarre.
holes in souls
Jack – It’s a radio telescope. They aren’t looking, they’re listening.
Obama on Hillary
renee, yep, you’re right to caution me on that comment. I meant it to apply only and strictly to those who are purposefully planning parenthood. sometimes I think folks are more excited about having the baby than about caring for its healthy production and its development to adulthood…. sorta like the obsession with having a spectacular wedding with all its bells and whistles but not caring enough about what goes into the production of maintaining a solid marriage/home/family/community.
sjwny’s concerns about not exposing/teaching your child about the world of reality being a form of abuse is valid. the forms of abuse I wanted to mention can start earlier or encompass actions/neglect other than those of the mind.
again, you made a good point…. slippery slope for sure.
too bad the media only want to play the loops of goper grumbles about comey’s finding and recommendation. little to no coverage was on those good speeches by Hillary and Obama today. just photos mostly, nothing of what they said.
they’re even hinting at comey being in cahoots with the Clintons and repeating the “rigged” accusation.
Blue ID
oops my bad , (jack slaps self on head, “read for content” )
Looks like the Chinese are getting in on the hunt for the wild SETI
Here it is
Pat remember no Clinton scandal is over until Congress spends many millions to find nothing.
Jack
That must mean, gowdy and lyin’ ryan are part of the cover up. Time to investigate them ?