Teaching creativity to children from a galaxy away

by EarthSky
» Science Wire
2 hours ago

Image Credit: Ronnie Kaufman/Larry Hirshowitz/Blend Images/Corbis

Encouraging “expansive thinking” opens children to creative possibilities, says a TAU researcher. Playing make-believe is more than a childhood pasttime. According to psychologists, it’s also crucial to building creativity, giving a child the ability to consider alternative realities and perspectives. And this type of thinking is essential to future development, aiding interpersonal and problem-solving skills and the ability to invent new theories and concepts. That has been shown to be a component of future professional success in fields from the arts to the sciences and business.

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What makes a halo around the sun or moon?

by EarthSky
FAQs » Space
3 hours ago

Sun halo seen in Washington state on May 16, 2012. Image via EarthSky Facebook friend Sean Abbasi

Sometimes you look up on a clear day or night and see a huge circle of light around the sun or moon. This ring or circle is called a halo by scientists. We get many messages throughout each year from people who’ve just spotted a ring around the sun or moon. Solar and lunar haloes are pretty common, but they’re so mysterious-looking that people often express amazement upon seeing them. Yesterday – May 16, 2012 – EarthSky’s Facebook page received a rash of photos of a beautiful sun halo seen in Washington state.

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Urban heat island effect has upside for oaks in NYC

by Deborah Byrd
Blogs » Human World
4 hours ago

Red oaks in New York City were found to grow eight times faster than nearby rural oaks. The difference is thought to be due to the urban heat island effect. Image via Inhabit NYC

Native red oak seedlings grew as much as eight times faster in New York’s Central Park than in more rural, cooler settings in the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains, in an experiment conducted by Columbia University scientists. These scientists say the urban heat island – a well-documented phenomenon that makes large cities hotter than surrounding countryside – is the primary reason. A fallout of airborne nitrogen — a fertilizer — from urban pollution might have helped the trees as well.

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How many killer asteroids are out there?

by EarthSky
Blogs » Space
6 hours ago

New results from a NASA survey suggest there are roughly 4,700 potentially hazardous asteroids in our solar system. Potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs, are a subset of the larger group of near-Earth asteroids. The PHAs have the closest orbits to Earth’s, coming within five million miles (about eight million kilometers), and they are big enough to survive passing through Earth’s atmosphere and cause damage on a regional, or greater, scale.

New results from NASA's NEOWISE survey find that more potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs, are closely aligned with the plane of our solar system than previous models suggested. This diagram shows an edge-on view of our solar system. The dots represent a snapshot of the population of NEAs and PHAs that scientists think are likely to exist based on the NEOWISE survey. Positions of a simulated population of PHAs on a typical day are shown in bright orange, and the simulated NEAs are blue. Earth's orbit is green. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Milky Way hiding along the horizon on May evenings

by Bruce McClure
Tonight
13 hours ago

Starlit band of the Milky Way. Photo by Larry Landolfi via NASA

Where is the starlit band of the Milky Way on these May evenings? That luminous band of stars crossing the dome of sky is nowhere to be seen during the evening hours in May. Why?

The disk of our Milky Way galaxy is shaped like a pancake. On May evenings, the plane of the pancake-shaped galactic disk coincides with the plane of the horizon. Because the Milky Way rims the horizon in every direction in the evening in May, we can’t see this roadway of stars until later at night right now.

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What’s the best way to view a solar eclipse safely?

by Deborah Byrd
FAQs » Space
21 hours ago

Watching a solar eclipse through special filters. You could use these to watch the May 20-21 annular or ring eclipse, and the June 5-6 transit of Venus. Buy them here. Image via Dionne Bunsha.

You must find a way to protect your eyes if you plan to watch either the annular solar eclipse on May 20-21, 2012 or the transit of Venus on June 5-6, 2012 – or both events. You basically have three options. First, you can purchase solar eclipse glasses from commercial manufacturers. Second, you can go to a welding supply store and get #14 welder’s glass. Third, you can try a home-rigged indirect viewing method. Whatever you do, never look at the sun directly without a safe filter in place to protect your eyes. That is, unless the sun is totally eclipsed by the moon – which is not happening in May or June 2012.

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Watch May 2012 solar eclipse at a National Park

by EarthSky
Blogs » Space
23 hours ago

Imagine watching this Sunday’s annular eclipse here …..

Photo credit: Brice Canyon. NPS/Kevin Poe and Ron Warner

National parks from California to New Mexico are inviting people to watch either the partial or the annular eclipse of the sun on May 20, 2012. This eclipse is the first solar eclipse of any kind in the mainland U.S. (not including Hawaii and Alaska) in the 21st century (2001-2100). Plus the May 20, 2012 eclipse is the first time in 18 years that the moon will cross directly in front of the sun as seen from U.S. shores. A National Park near you wants to help you view it.

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OMG! Texting ups truthfulness, new iPhone study suggests

by EarthSky
» Science Wire
1 day ago

Text messaging is a surprisingly good way to get candid responses to sensitive questions, according to a new study to be presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.

“The preliminary results of our study suggest that people are more likely to disclose sensitive information via text messages than in voice interviews,” said Fred Conrad, a cognitive psychologist and director of the Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

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NASA spacecraft spots 12-mile-high Martian dust devil

by Deborah Byrd
Blogs » Space
1 day ago

A Martian dust devil roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) high, captured on the sands of the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars on March 14, 2012 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

A Martian dust devil roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) high! NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter – which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2006 – caught sight of this beauty as it whirled on the sands of the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars on March 14, 2012.

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Dazzling planet Venus and little Elnath still close after sunset

by Bruce McClure
Tonight
2 days ago

Stacked image of Venus and Elnath, taken on May 13, 2012 by EarthSky Facebook friend Lee Phillips.


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In May 2012, Venus still shines brightly in the west after sunset. You can see it near a little star – actually the second-brightest star in the constellation Taurus – called Elnath. After mid-May 2012, watch as the planet Venus falls sunward and heads for its inevitable conjunction with the sun. How many days will pass before you can tell that Venus is no longer stationary in front of Taurus, but is actually dropping below the star Elnath in the western evening sky?

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