Tres-4b-blog - ✰

Chemical Space Gardens

You know that colorful crystal garden you grew as a kid?

Yeah, we do that in space now. 

Chemical Gardens, a new investigation aboard the International Space Station takes a classic science experiment to space with the hope of improving our understanding of gravity’s impact on their structural formation.

Here on Earth, chemical gardens are most often used to teach students about things like chemical reactions.

Chemical gardens form when dissolvable metal salts are placed in an aqueous solution containing anions such as silicate, borate, phosphate, or carbonate.

Delivered to the space station aboard SpaceX’S CRS-15 cargo mission, the samples for this experiment will be processed by crew members and grown throughout Expedition 56 before returning to Earth.

Results from this investigation could provide a better understanding of cement science and improvements to biomaterial devices used for scaffolding, for use both in space and on Earth. 

Follow the growth of the chemical garden and the hundreds of other investigations constantly orbiting above you by following @ISS_Research on Twitter.

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

Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage!

Liftoff of SpaceX’s CRS-17 Dragon Cargo Craft via NASA https://go.nasa.gov/2V6UPic

A new neutron star merger is caught on X-ray camera

Two stellar remnants smashed together in a galaxy more than 6 billion light-years away, forming a single monster magnetic star.

In October 2017, astronomers announced the first detection of gravitational waves from the merger of two neutron stars earlier that year. The event also rung in the era of multi-messenger astronomy, as more than 70 telescopes observed the event’s afterglow in optical light, X-rays, gamma rays, and more. Now, an X-ray signal dubbed XT2 from a galaxy 6.6 billion light-years away has revealed another neutron star merger, which left behind a single, heavier neutron star with an incredibly powerful magnetic field: a magnetar.

Read more ~ astronomy.com

Image: Chandra observations show the flare-up and subsequent dimming of XT2, which matches predictions for the signal from a pair of merging neutron stars and the birth of a magnetar. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Uni. of Science and Technology of China/Y. Xue et al; Optical: NASA/STScI

2019 April 28

All of Mercury Image Credit: NASA/JHU Applied Physics Lab/Carnegie Inst. Washington

Explanation: Only six years ago, the entire surface of planet Mercury was finally mapped. Detailed observations of the innermost planet’s surprising crust began when the robotic have been ongoing since the robotic MESSENGER spacecraft first passed Mercury in 2008 and continued until its controlled crash landing in 2015. Previously, much of the Mercury’s surface was unknown as it is too far for Earth-bound telescopes to see clearly, while the Mariner 10 flybys in the 1970s observed only about half. The featured video is a compilation of thousands of images of Mercury rendered in exaggerated colors to better contrast different surface features. Visible on the rotating world are rays emanating from a northern impact that stretch across much of the planet, while about half-way through the video the light colored Caloris Basin rotates into view, a northern ancient impact feature that filled with lava. Recent analysis of MESSENGER data indicates that Mercury has a solid inner core.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190428.html

Hi, do you know any resources to start learning coding, preferably for free? Ty!!

Hiya!  ✨ Yeah, I’ll see what I can find! However! Online courses often have a build in a code editor. Don’t. Honestly, do not. Get a full software and install it, don’t be restricted to just an online code editor, even on a basic level. First of all decide what language you want to start learning. For complete beginners, I’d recommend Python or C. 

💡  codeacademy (this I’ve tried myself and yep, it’s really well written and good for beginners; it doesn’t have many courses tho) 💡 programmr.com 💡 codeavengers💡 code.org💡 Bucky’s wonderful tutorials (these are amazing! I’ve only done the c++ ones, but they were really well explained and included stuff like installing a software as well!)

And now here are some “tools” to use while programming: 

🔌 stackoverflow - biggest platform there is; you can ask them anything, but it’s probably been asked before so try looking on it at first🔌 cppreference.com - has all the information about c++ built in libraries, functions, variables and anything you’ll possibly need 🔌 python visualizer - helps you visualize code if you don’t have a compiler on your laptop - they also have other languages🔌 learnpython 🔌 python tutorial🔌 game development with pygame - do something FUN! It’s not that hard, just try it That’s about it! Hope this helps! x 

They both make magic.

A 5.5 hour time lapse I made of Mercury transiting the Sun the other week, shot from my apartment roof [OC]