The Internet Isn’t Full Of Stupid People. The WORLD Is. The Internet Is Just The Proof.

After kinda losing faith today in humanity's future, this was restorative. Thanks, NASA, for continuing to explore and share, despite (to spite?) the bullshit.

NASA Science Show & Tell

This week, we’re at one of the biggest science conferences in the country, where our scientists are presenting new results from our missions and projects. It’s called the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting.

Here are a few of the things we shared this week…

The Sun

A few months into its seven-year mission, Parker Solar Probe has already flown far closer to the Sun than any spacecraft has ever gone. The data from this visit to the Sun has just started to come back to Earth, and scientists are hard at work on their analysis.

Parker Solar Probe sent us this new view of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona. The image was taken by the mission’s WISPR instrument on Nov. 8, 2018, and shows a coronal streamer seen over the east limb of the Sun. Coronal streamers are structures of solar material within the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, that usually overlie regions of increased solar activity. The fine structure of the streamer is very clear, with at least two rays visible. Parker Solar Probe was about 16.9 million miles from the Sun’s surface when this image was taken. The bright object near the center of the image is Mercury, and the dark spots are a result of background correction.

Hurricane Maria

Using a satellite view of human lights, our scientists watched the lights go out in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. They could see the slow return of electricity to the island, and track how rural and mountainous regions took longer to regain power.

In the spring, a team of scientists flew a plane over Puerto Rico’s forests, using a laser instrument to measure how trees were damaged and how the overall structure of the forests had changed.

Earth’s Ice

Our scientists who study Antarctica saw some surprising changes to East Antarctica. Until now, most of the continent’s melting has been on the peninsula and West Antarctica, but our scientists have seen glaciers in East Antarctica lose lots of ice in the last few years.

Our ICESat-2 team showed some of their brand new data. From the changing height of Antarctic ice to lagoons off the coast of Mexico, the little satellite has spent its first few months measuring our planet in 3D. The laser pulses even see individual ocean waves, in this graph.

Scientists are using our satellite data to track Adélie penguin populations, by using an unusual proxy – pictures of their poop! Penguins are too small to be seen by satellites, but they can see large amounts of their poop (which is pink!) and use that as a proxy for penguin populations.

Asteroid Bennu

Our OSIRIS-REx mission recently arrived at its destination, asteroid Bennu. On approach, data from the spacecraft’s spectrometers revealed chemical signatures of water trapped in clay minerals.  While Bennu itself is too small to have ever hosted liquid water, the finding indicates that liquid water was present at some time on Bennu’s parent body, a much larger asteroid.

We also released a new, detailed shape model of Bennu, which is very similar to our ground-based observations of Bennu’s shape. This is a boon to ground-based radar astronomy since this is our first validation of the accuracy of the method for an asteroid! One change from the original shape model is the size of the large boulder near Bennu’s south pole, nicknamed “Benben.” The boulder is much bigger than we thought and overall, the quantity of boulders on the surface is higher than expected. Now the team will make further observations at closer ranges to more accurately assess where a sample can be taken on Bennu to later be returned to Earth.

Jupiter

The Juno mission celebrated it’s 16th science pass of #Jupiter, marking the halfway point in data collection of the prime mission. Over the second half of the prime mission — science flybys 17 through 32 — the spacecraft will split the difference, flying exactly halfway between each previous orbit. This will provide coverage of the planet every 11.25 degrees of longitude, providing a more detailed picture of what makes the whole of Jupiter tick.

Mars

The Mars 2020 team had a workshop to discuss the newly announced landing site for our next rover on the Red Planet. The landing site…Jezero Crater! The goal of Mars 2020 is to learn whether life ever existed on Mars. It’s too cold and dry for life to exist on the Martian surface today. But after Jezero Crater formed billions of years ago, water filled it to form a deep lake about the same size as Lake Tahoe. Eventually, as Mars’ climate changed, Lake Jezero dried up. And surface water disappeared from the planet.

Interstellar Space

Humanity now has two interstellar ambassadors. On Nov. 5, 2018, our Voyager 2 spacecraft left the heliosphere — the bubble of the Sun’s magnetic influence formed by the solar wind. It’s only the second-ever human-made object to enter interstellar space, following its twin, Voyager 1, that left the heliosphere in 2012.

Scientists are especially excited to keep receiving data from Voyager 2, because — unlike Voyager 1 — its plasma science instrument is still working. That means we’ll learn brand-new information about what fills the space between the stars.

Learn more about NASA Science at science.nasa.gov. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com 

Thank you!

People now are like, “Your right to free speech doesn’t mean you can express an offensive opinion” Like what the fuck does right to free speech mean, then?

We are all one bad decision away from ending up on the news

OMG! Shout-out to @jilljoycearts for the most awesome Valentines!

Super cursed meme sort-of-collab with @dueliz  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Merry Valentine’s!

I'm loving this story already! Can't wait for the next chapter!

Chapter I: "Golden Soil" now available and Patreon page relaunched! | Nicolas Lietzau on Patreon

Official Post from Nicolas Lietzau: Dear Patreons, It's time! The first chapter of "Dreams of the Dying" is finally available. To all my German readers - the translation of Chapter 1 releases February 15, alongside Chapter 2. Admittedly, I'm a bit nervous - I've been working on this for eight months now, and it's probably one of my mo

Chapter One of “Dreams of the Dying” is now available on my Patreon and WattPad (for free). Give it a read and let me know what you think! :)

Wow! Eye-opener! Honestly, I never understood why people don't do this...It seems so logical to me.

I no longer struggle with math, though...once you realize it's just a language that describes the world around us, the veil is lifted and tossed to the wind.

finding out people dont usually add numbers by first adding something to make a ten (for example 7+6= 7 plus 3 is 10 plus another 3 is 13) & that its actually an adhd thing is the WILDEST shit literally ive lived like 10 years (or however old i was when i learned to add and stuff) thinking thats how everyone does it. what the fuck

Oh, bloody Hell! I laughed so hard at this... What a dork Jespar can be!

I can’t stop laughing, for some reason Jespar wouldn’t stop sneaking or grinning like a madman and he kinda forgot about the concept of personal space

hELLO

I'm so sick of this fuck-stick, ass-hat, inept, ignorant, pitiful excuse for a human. And we're not even though one friggin' year!

Oh, I'm glad this is still making the rounds...it's one of my favorites among all your stunning work.

First snow.  She just found out it doesn’t melt on her skin anymore. She can’t feel cold. She barely feels anything.

My local library has a "Thingery" section with all kinds of things you can borrow... sewing machines, drones, skates, GPS units, kayaks, video recorders, laptops, telescopes... So many things to try! Libraries have reinvented themselves in the most interesting ways.

Today I learned