Free Republic

The best chance to see as many planets as possible will be just after sunset on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Four of the planets - Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars - will be visible to the naked eye. Saturn will be harder to see because it will be low in the horizon. You will need a telescope to spot the other two planets - Uranus and Neptune. A good view of the horizon and clear skies will offer the best chance of spotting them all. However, the window to see all seven planets will be very brief. Dr Edward...

Using a water-based solution with this amino acid draws mercury out of fish and requires no additional production steps.An estimated 10% of Americans eat canned tuna at least once a week, according to a 2022 Consumer Reports survey. Consumer Reports also found that certain types of canned tuna can have unhealthy levels of mercury, which is particularly harmful for pregnant women. However, researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden say they've developed a new method of packaging that helps reduce mercury levels in each can. “Our study shows that there are alternative approaches to addressing mercury contamination in tuna,...

A spacecraft built in the UK has captured new images of Mercury as it made its sixth and final flyby ahead of entering the planet's orbit in 2026. BepiColombo was built by the Stevenage-based company Astrium, now Airbus, and launched in 2018. The spacecraft comprises two satellites that will gather data for at least a year, and needs special shielding to withstand the heat from the sun. Monitoring cameras on the spacecraft captured images of the planet as it flew 295km (183 miles) above Mercury's surface, including views of the planet's north poles, as it was lit by sunlight. ......

Explanation: Based on its well-measured orbit, 3200 Phaethon (sounds like FAY-eh-thon) is recognized as the source of the meteoroid stream responsible for the annual Geminid meteor shower. Even though most meteor shower parents are comets, 3200 Phaethon is a known and closely tracked near-Earth asteroid with a 1.4 year orbital period. Rocky and sun-baked, its perihelion or closest approach to the Sun is well within the orbit of innermost planet Mercury. In this telescopic field of view, the asteroid's rapid motion against faint background stars of the heroic constellation Perseus left a short trail during the two minute total exposure...

Mercury Morris, a running back and kick returner on the Miami Dolphins’ undefeated Super Bowl team in 1972, has died, according to a member of his family. He was 77. The Miami Herald has confirmed Morris’ death through the Dolphins. “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Eugene ‘Mercury’ Morris, legendary Miami Dolphins running back and cherished member of the NFL family, at the age of 77,” his son GhostWridah, a Miami-based musical artist born Troy-Jeffery Morris, posted on X. “Known for his electrifying speed and dynamic play, Mercury was a cornerstone of the Dolphins’ historic...

How On Earth Did Ancient Civilisations Get MERCURY? | 13:03Chemistorian | 7.07K subscribers | 255,286 views | Premiered January 14, 2024

An object uncovered by archaeologists in Norfolk, England, is “completely unlike” anything else ever discovered, experts said Monday. The tiny 19.4 mm (o.7 inch) object is a gilded silver relic, adorned with intricate designs appearing to show an animal looking over its shoulder, according to The Telegraph. The piece is believed to be at least 1,200 years old and archaeologists reportedly can’t determine the purpose of the mysterious object. Detectorists found the piece in a crumpled condition, but it appears to be a round object with shallow sides, making it somewhat dish-shaped. “It was made by someone with a real...

Maya... were entranced by elemental mercury as well as its vermillion-hued offspring, mercury sulfide, also known as cinnabar. Cinnabar is by far the most prevalent of the two compounds in the archaeological record. Archaeologists have unearthed numerous artifacts made of it and turned up evidence that the Maya extensively used cinnabar-based paints. Pure elemental mercury is a rarer find, usually linked with ritual caches or elite burials. One of the most dazzling discoveries was a bulbous vessel retrieved from an underwater site in Guatemala holding as much as 500 cubic centimeters of elemental mercury. The wide presence of the toxic...

A new analysis of chaos in the solar system reveals how planetary collisions are avoided over billions of years.Earth probably shouldn't exist. That's because the orbits of the inner solar system planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars — are chaotic, and models have suggested that these inner planets should have crashed into each other by now. And yet, that hasn't happened. New research published May 3 in the journal Physical Review X(opens in new tab) may finally explain why. Through a deep plunge into the models for planetary motion, the researchers discovered that the motions of the inner...

Have you seen the “planetary parade” after sunset? It’s getting a lot of media attention, partly because Jupiter is about to sink into the Sun’s glare and ruin it, but you can glimpse some to all of the five planets naked-eye and with binoculars on any night this week. Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Mars are all visible right after sunset. Get somewhere high with a clear view of the western horizon to watch the sunset. After sunset have a look for Jupiter and Mercury very close to the horizon. You may need binoculars. Above them will be a very...

During the past couple of weeks, skywatchers around the world have been observing the western evening sky soon after sundown, as four naked-eye planets -- Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter - have stretched out in a long line. The line has slowly contracted each night, as the four planets draw closer to each other.Even the Moon got involved, closely passing each of the four planets over a span of five nights in mid-April. Now through the first days of May will likely be the best time to see yet a fifth planet: Mercury. Mercury has actually been visible for the...

A grand celestial reunion is due in Earth’s skies throughout June. Sky-watchers will get a rare chance to see all the major planets in our solar system bunched together—with the moon joining the festivities, too, from June 17 to June 27. This rare alignment includes the five planets easily spotted with the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Each is bright enough to be seen even in light-polluted city skies, with brilliant Venus being the brightest and Mercury the faintest. Our closest planets will appear to be arranged across the sky in the same order as their distance...

This Sunday, April 17th, Jupiter will move into position closest to the eastern horizon, and almost on top of Venus. A bit south and above will be Mars looking very red, and then Saturn further up and further south. For most people in North America, the ideal time will be to go out and look southeast about 45 minutes before the sun begins to rise. On April 23rd, the Moon will appear in conjunction with the other spheres, appearing to the right and above Saturn, before moving off again by April 29th. In mid-June, due to its rapid orbiting around...

Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars are expected to align March 28.. A spectacular celestial sight is on the horizon and you won't want to miss it. Planets Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars are expected to align in the night sky on March 28. Planetary alignments occur when the orbit of several planets coincide with each other and they appear to be lined up in the sky. Alignments typically only include two or three planets and are fairly brief, making a 5-planet alignment fairly noteworthy. This rare planetary parade will first become visible in the western sky just after...

The impending demise of Kepler-1658b as it orbits its aging star offers an opportunity for scientists to gain insight into the fate of other planets and their evolving solar systems....provides a new understanding of the gradual process of planetary orbital decay by offering the first glimpse of a solar system in its final stages.. the ultimate destiny for many planets, including Earth in about 5 billion years... the exoplanet Kepler-1568b has less than 3 million years left before it meets its demise...The first author is Shreyas Vissapragada, a 51 Pegasi b Fellow at Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution...The ill-fated...

So, after dodging it for nearly three years (and precisely 14 days post-omicron booster), the little SOB finally got me. Pretty crappy timing if you ask me. Rather than bitch and moan about how lousy I feel (plenty), I found something else to bitch and moan about: Digital thermometers. I hate them on the molecular level because, in my limited experience, they work properly about 0% of the time. And what could be a better opportunity for generating a superior dataset than neurotically checking my temperature every 17 seconds? But it did not go well. I experienced thermomageddon at the...

JANUARY 17, 2015 Ted Cruz and the Ice Giants Senator Ted Cruz now oversees NASA, and that’s a very good thing.By Josh Gelernter Neptune, photographed by Voyager 2 in 1989. (NASA)With the GOP in charge of the Senate, Ted Cruz has taken charge of the Science, Space, and Competitiveness subcommittee. Which means Ted Cruz now oversees NASA. On Wednesday, Cruz issued a statement saying that “Our space program marks the frontier of future technologies for defense, communications, transportation and more, and our mindset should be focused on NASA’s primary mission: exploring space and developing the wealth of new technologies that...

Toxic levels of a pollutant commonly associated with the wastes of modern industry have been uncovered amid the most unlikely of archaeological sites. Long before conquistadors from far-off lands introduced the decay of war and disease, Maya cultures were dusting the soils of their urban centers with the heavy metal mercury. - snip - "Discovering mercury buried deep in soils and sediments in ancient Maya cities is difficult to explain, until we begin to consider the archaeology of the region which tells us that the Maya were using mercury for centuries." - snip - Perhaps the most widely used form...

Five planets will be visible in the predawn sky this weekend, offering an opportunity for sky watchers to see a rare alignment of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn with the naked eye. Beginning Friday and lasting through this month, the five planets will appear strung across the eastern horizon before sunrise. The parade of planets will be aligned in order of their distance from the sun, with Mercury, closest to the star, appearing lowest on the horizon and Saturn highest in the night sky. For the best views, sky watchers in the Northern Hemisphere should head outside roughly 30...

Explanation: That's no comet. Below the Pleiades star cluster is actually a planet: Mercury. Long exposures of our Solar System's innermost planet may reveal something unexpected: a tail. Mercury's thin atmosphere contains small amounts of sodium that glow when excited by light from the Sun. Sunlight also liberates these atoms from Mercury's surface and pushes them away. The yellow glow from sodium, in particular, is relatively bright. Pictured, Mercury and its sodium tail are visible in a deep image taken last week from La Palma, Spain through a filter that primarily transmits yellow light emitted by sodium. First predicted in...