Ranger Robin Wrote Books On Birds.

the Guardian

Farewell to the Guardian's science blog network

After eight brilliant years, the Guardian’s science blog network comes to a close today

Farewell to The Science Blog Network!

There could be other universes out there in The Cosmos. 

Here are two interesting Books to read. A Star_Wars Atlas and Vistas of Many Worlds.

Sanders will host health-care town hall, aiming for online audience bigger than cable

The senator's talk on universal Medicare will be streamed by progressive video outlets.

Really excited for this. Sadly, I’ll be working, but I strongly encourage others (especially on the East coast) to not only watch, but to participate in this awesome opportunity.

Also, if you hate how the mainstream media treats subjects you care about, then this is doubly important. It shows tv outlets that there’s a hunger for real talk about real issues… and if they don’t cover it, citizens will continue to move toward alternative media outlets.

Highlights:

On the evening of Jan. 23, Sanders will host a 90-minute “national town hall” on proposals for universal Medicare, streamed by the progressive video outlets NowThis, Attn:, and the Young Turks. …

“The mainstream media continues to ignore how income inequality and the lack of a decent health-care system devastates the middle class,” said Ana Kasparian, a co-host of the Young Turks’ flagship series. …

The senator will host three segments: one on the current state of health care in the United States, one on the potential economic impact of universal Medicare, and one on how single-payer works in the rest of the developed world. …

Happy 4th of July!

@americanhumanist #humanism

Someday there might be a Transcontinental Passenger Train that transports Passengers between China and The U.S.

Project Blue for Alpha Centauri.

One Search for Planets in The Alpha_Centauri System is: Project Blue. https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/10/project-blue-aims-to-snap-the-first-picture-of-an-exoplanet-in-alpha-centauri/

This is The Smallest Sized EXOPLANET Discovered by NASA's TRANSITING EXOPLANET SURVEY SATELLITE so far!

NASA's TESS mission finds its smallest planet yet

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered a world between the sizes of Mars and Earth orbiting a bright, cool, nearby star. The planet, called L 98-59b, marks the tiniest discovered by TESS to date.

Two other worlds orbit the same star. While all three planets’ sizes are known, further study with other telescopes will be needed to determine if they have atmospheres and, if so, which gases are present. The L 98-59 worlds nearly double the number of small exoplanets – that is, planets beyond our solar system – that have the best potential for this kind of follow-up.

“The discovery is a great engineering and scientific accomplishment for TESS,” said Veselin Kostov, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. “For atmospheric studies of small planets, you need short orbits around bright stars, but such planets are difficult to detect. This system has the potential for fascinating future studies.”

A paper on the findings, led by Kostov, was published in the June 27 issue of The Astronomical Journal.

Keep reading

What The Future of Autonomous Driving will bring to the world.  

We Found the Universe’s First Type of Molecule

For decades, astronomers searched the cosmos for what is thought to be the first kind of molecule to have formed after the Big Bang. Now, it has finally been found. The molecule is called helium hydride. It’s made of a combination of hydrogen and helium. Astronomers think the molecule appeared more than 13 billion years ago and was the beginning step in the evolution of the universe. Only a few kinds of atoms existed when the universe was very young. Over time, the universe transformed from a primordial soup of simple molecules to the complex place it is today — filled with a seemingly infinite number of planets, stars and galaxies. Using SOFIA, the world’s largest airborne observatory, scientists detected newly formed helium hydride in a planetary nebula 3,000 light-years away. It was the first ever detection of the molecule in the modern universe. Learn more about the discovery:

Helium hydride is created when hydrogen and helium combine. 

Since the 1970s, scientists thought planetary nebula NGC 7027—a giant cloud of gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus—had the right environment for helium hydride to exist. 

But space telescopes could not pick out its chemical signal from a medley of molecules. 

Enter SOFIA, the world’s largest flying observatory! 

By pointing the aircraft’s 106-inch telescope at the planetary nebula and using a tool that works like a radio receiver to tune in to the “frequency” of helium hydride, similar to tuning a radio to a favorite station…

…the molecule’s chemical signal came through loud and clear, bringing a decades-long search to a happy end.

The discovery serves as proof that helium hydride can, in fact, exist in space. This confirms a key part of our basic understanding of the chemistry of the early universe. SOFIA is a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that allows astronomers to study the solar system and beyond in ways that are not possible with ground-based telescopes. Find out more about the mission at www.nasa.gov/SOFIA

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