Astronomy

This short video shows how varied the terrain is on Pluto: http://earthsky.org/space/best-close...plutos-surface.

The nitrogen ice plains where the strangest feature. I didn't expect anything like that being there.

Galaxy Zoo is a way of classifying galaxies. I read an article in Popular Astronomy on citizen science by Alice Sheppard (p.9). School pupils found the subject confusing as they "never really knew the answers". "This is a fundamental misconception of science that is developed in schools" as a monolith, a mystery and an authority, rather than a method." "They didn't want to get it wrong"(Ben Goldacre) "Only by muddling around, getting confused, can we improve our knowledge. But for school children who had only been taught to pass tests, this was daunting."

There is more, but the above is a good way to describe it succinctly.

This post had me rolling in the aisles. Very funny and very perceptive: http://www.space.com/33005-where-is-...dge-op-ed.html

The seas of Titan are methane, but the plan is to send a submarine to explore them for signs of primitive life. The idea is only at the planning stage and may take 20 years to implement:
https://www.nasa.gov/content/titan-s...ths-of-kraken/

http://earthsky.org/space/pluto-hear...y-active-young

Scientists with NASA’s New Horizons mission used state-of-the-art computer simulations to show that the surface of Pluto’s heart-shaped Sputnik Planum region is covered with churning ice “cells.” These icy cells are geologically young, less than a million years old.

It was interesting that those nitrogen cells are active on Pluto. The planet isn't dead.

That's right, Pluto is very much an active dwarf planet.

The hunt for gravitational waves is on. See http://www.space.com/33094-lisa-path...n-results.html, an interesting post.

The first video in that link was interesting. The gravitational ways occur when objects collide.

This selection of pics is of iridescent clouds. Rather pretty: http://earthsky.org/earth/i-saw-a-cl...what-causes-it

I don't recall if I've ever seen cloud iridescence before. There is an iridescence in some stones. I picked up one for my wife recently The stone is called Labradorite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labradorite

I saw a lens cloud today, my first ever. Lenticular clouds they are called: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_cloud

Those lenticular clouds do look like big flying saucers. I guess I'd have to wait for them to beam me up to be sure.

Kepler has found a large planet orbiting 2 stars.

http://www.space.com/33155-biggest-t...uns-found.html