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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...

While talking to RFK Jr. about Jake Tapper, I learned what happened Simpsonwood. It's a fascinating story of corruption 20 years ago. Not much has changed it seems. The CDC is still corrupt.Steve Kirsch17 hr ago 343358 If you read my story about RFK Jr. and how he became an anti-vaxxer, it mentions the Simpsonwood transcripts.There is a book, “Evidence of harm” that talks about what happened there in detail. Some people think the author wasn’t sure who was telling the truth. That’s not true. The book author takes an objective viewpoint, leaving it to the reader to determine who...

We all know why mercury is extremely hot and have a valid reason. But It is also proved that its surface is extremely cold also like temperature fell up to -170degrees.On the day its temperature is around 840-degree Fahrenheit (451-degree Celsius) but at night it goes minus 275 Fahrenheit (-170 degrees Celsius.) You can see a change of temperature of nearly 1100 degrees Fahrenheit (600-degree Celcius). It’s all because of Mercury’s thin atmosphere that can not maintain the heat that it gets in the day and because of its huge day and night.

When British environmental geochemist Jon Hawkings arrived in Greenland for the first time in 2012, he was impressed. “It’s mind-blowing: You look onto the horizon and it’s just ice and it goes on for 150, 200 kilometers at least.” He went to the Arctic with a group of international scientists. Their goal was to investigate the relationship between nutrients entering coastal ecosystems from glacial meltwater. But the group’s research took an unexpected turn. The scientists analyzed samples from meltwater rivers and fjords and found concentrations of dissolved mercury among the highest ever recorded. Despite it being a pristine and remote...

FRIDAY, MAY 7Greet Mercury and Venus low in the west-northwest in the fading afterglow of sunset. You may first spot Venus, bright at magnitude –3.9, very low exactly west-northwest. As the sky darkens further, Mercury will come into view some 9° above Venus as shown below. Mercury fades from magnitude 0.0 to +0.5 this week.Much higher to their upper left, in the west as night falls, is little [currently very distant] Mars. [Mars is currently on the other side of the Sun, many millions of miles more distant than where it is on the same side as Earth] New Moon...

Explanation: Sixty years ago, near the dawn of the space age, NASA controllers "lit the candle" and sent Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard arcing into space atop a Redstone rocket. His cramped space capsule was dubbed Freedom 7. Broadcast live to a global television audience, the historic Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Florida at 9:34 a.m. Eastern Time on May 5, 1961. The flight of Freedom 7, the first space flight by an American, followed less than a month after the first human venture into space by Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The 15 minute sub-orbital flight achieved...

What better way to celebrate the start of May than by catching a glimpse of a meteor shower? The 2021 Eta Aquarid meteor shower will peak on the evening of Tuesday, May 4, through the early morning of Wednesday, May 5, according to AccuWeather. The month of May starts off with the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. Mercury will be visible in the middle of the month, and some parts of the U.S. will see a super total lunar eclipse on the 26th. What better way to celebrate the start of May than by catching a glimpse of a meteor shower?...

From Jan. 9-12, Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn will be visible in the southwestern sky. The celestial event is known as a “triple conjunction,” which means two planets and a third planet meet each other in the sky for a short period of time. Shortly after sunset on Jan. 9, look above the west-southwestern horizon and you will see Mercury to the left of Saturn and Jupiter positioned just above Saturn. “From Friday evening to Monday evening, the planet Mercury will appear to pass first by Saturn and then by Jupiter as it shifts away from the horizon, visible each evening...

Snake and eggs? Floridians could soon eat invasive pythons Python Bowl kicks off Friday in Florida Everglades Python Bowl kicks off Friday in Florida Everglades FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Donna Kalil estimates she’s eaten a dozen pythons in the last three years or so. That’s not including the python jerky, says Kalil, a python hunter for the South Florida Water Management District. “I eat that several times a week because I take it out with me on python hunts and I eat it out there.” State officials would like to see more people like Kalil putting pythons on the menu...

1949 -1951 Mercury Lead SledsMyHotRodTVWithin its era and beyond, the Mercury was popular with customizers. In 1949, Sam Barris built the first lead sled from a 1949 Mercury, became the definitive “lead sled”, much as the Ford V-8 (as the “deuce”) was becoming the definitive hot rod. The Mercurys were among the first models to receive an aftermarket OHV engine swap, since Oldsmobile and Cadillac developed the first high-compression OHV V8 engines in 1949, whereas Ford was still using a sidevalve engine.Sam and George Barris also used the 1949 body style to build “the most famous custom car ever” the...

Mercury will likely be the hardest planet to spot, and binoculars would help. First, look for Venus. Venus is still the brightest of the planets and the third brightest celestial object, only behind the sun and the moon. Venus will be easy to find in the east before and during dawn. Once you’ve located Venus, look beneath it toward the horizon. Mercury will be low in the east-southeast about an hour before sunrise. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible in the evening. Mars is getting less bright by the day, but it will still be easy to find in...

Set your alarm for two hours before sunrise to catch the best view of Jupiter sinking in the southwestern sky with Saturn just above and to the right, according to Travel and Leisure magazine. Trace a curved line through both planets into the southern sky and you'll hit Mars high above the southeastern horizon. To see Venus and Mercury, trace Mars' curve down to the horizon in the northeast. Before you get there, you'll easily spot Venus, one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Also, be sure to pencil in a special date between these five planets. Just...

Reservoirs in the heart of an ancient Maya city were so polluted with mercury and algae that the water likely was undrinkable. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati found toxic levels of pollution in two central reservoirs in Tikal, an ancient Maya city that dates back to the third century B.C. in what is now northern Guatemala. UC's findings suggest droughts in the ninth century likely contributed to the depopulation and eventual abandonment of the city. "The conversion of Tikal's central reservoirs from life-sustaining to sickness-inducing places would have both practically and symbolically helped to bring about the abandonment of...

Early Tuesday morning, the waning crescent moon will be visible with the four planets down and to the left. As the sky begins to brighten, Mercury will rise and both Saturn and Mars will begin to fade from view. Both the Moon and Jupiter will remain visible as it gets lighter. By Wednesday morning, the moon will be closest to Jupiter and Mars. Jupiter is currently the brightest morning planet and it will be easy to pick out. Mars will be much dimmer in comparison. The moon will continue to get thinner as the week goes on. On Thursday morning,...

Observe Mercury partially eclipsing the Sun.

Missing Venus? The third brightest natural object in the heavens returns to prime time dusk skies in 2015 after being absent and lingering in the dawn for most of 2014. But there’s another reason to hunt down the Cytherean world this week, as elusive Mercury chases after it low in the dusk. If you’ve never seen Mercury for yourself, now is a great time to try, using brilliant Venus as a guide.

The most bashful of all the naked eye planets makes its best dawn appearance of 2014 this weekend for northern hemisphere observers. And not only will Mercury be worth getting up for, but you’ll also stand a chance at nabbing that most elusive of astronomical phenomena — the zodiacal light — from a good dark sky sight. DST note: This post was written whilst we we’re visiting Arizona, a land that, we’re happy to report, does not for the most part observe the archaic practice of Daylight Saving Time. Life goes on, zombies do not arise, and trains still run...