Grab your camera and a snack, the night sky will put on a spectacular show throughout March.
The comet, Pan-STARRS is visible without a telescope and will make regular appearances in the Northern Hemisphere throughout the month. It was named after the Hawaiian telescope (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) where it was discovered in 2011.
It is believed that it will take more than 100 million years to make a single orbit around the sun.
Graphic courtesy NASA
Officially known as C/2011 L4, Pan-STARRS has brightened as the sun’s hot wind melts it, forming a long tail. On March 5th, it traveled its closest to Earth, getting about as close to our planet as the distance between us and the sun.
Pan-STARRS made its first appearance in the Northern Hemisphere on March 7th, but has been difficult to spot due to its low position in the sky. As of March 12th, the comet’s position is higher and the thin, dark crescent moon will help.
Google has opened its online international Science Fair for kids between the ages of 13 and 18. Students can work alone or in teams.
Find your passion, learn a little science and maybe win a prize.
To enter, you only need a little inspiration, an idea and a Google account. Sign up at GoogleScienceFair.com. After signing up, run your test or experiment and enter all information on the project site. Submissions are due by April 30, 2013.
After the first round of judging, we’ll announce 90 regional finalists, whose work will then be reviewed even more closely by a panel of judges. The top 15 students will be invited to our finalist event at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA, where they’ll present their work to a panel of scientists, tech innovators and Nobel Laureates. In the end, we’ll be honoring three winners, including a Grand Prize winner.
What is the grand prize, you ask? Just a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Expeditions and $50,000 in scholarship funding. There are also lots of other prizes for finalists and in age categories.
Meet Brittany, 17, the grand prize winner in 2012. Her winning project was an app to test for breast
The first images and video of a giant squid swimming in the ocean depths has been captured by a Japanese-led group of scientists, with support from the Japanese national broadcaster NHK and the Discovery Channel.
The squid was on the small side – only about 3 meters (10 feet) long. The largest ever found measured about 18 meters. The giant mollusk’s eyes are the size of a human head and it can weigh up to a ton.
Little is known about the giant squid, also believed to be the mythical Kraken in folk-lore stories. Researchers have searched for the real creature for years in hopes of learning more about the species. Giant squid have been found washed ashore but never fully observed in the ocean. No one has caught the beast on film in its natural habitat like this.
This cephalopod was found near the Ogasawara Islands, south of Tokyo.
Giant squid are very elusive, solitary and shy animals.
The crew spent hours in a small submersible that used lights invisible to both human and squid eyes. At 630 meters,
Don’t fear the werewolves and vampires this weekend. An annular eclipse will make it’s way across the western United States.
This Sunday, May 20th in the late afternoon, an annular eclipse of the sun will be visible to the United States and a narrow path across the northern Hemisphere. A partial eclipse will be visible in East Asia, the North Pacific, North America and Greenland.
Solar eclipses happen all over the globe all the time, but this will be the first in the continental U.S. in more than 18 years.
An annular eclipse is a “ring of fire” solar eclipse. A total eclipse is when the moon’s shadow completely covers the sun and makes it dark during the day. This eclipse will cover about 85% of the sun leaving a visible ring.
If you want to see it, set a reminder, because it won’t last long. The eclipse will be visible first along Oregon and northern California at 1:23 p.m. local time. It will last 4 1/2 minutes as it tracks across the U.S. to Redding, CA, to Central Nevada, southern Utah
Today is a day that only happens once a century. A day most of us will only see once in our lifetime. A day where many will get married, some will celebrate a birthday, maybe even an 11th birthday and some will wait for the end of the world.
But what does it all mean? Will the world really end because of a series of numbers or is it all in our minds?
Mathematical
The mathematical reason the date is special is because it is the only double-figure palindromic date. The date reads the same backwards as forwards. There isn’t a 22nd month, so 11 is the only number where the palindrome will occur. There are also some interesting math equations with the number 11.
The number 11 is a prime number, meaning it is greater than 1 and is only divisible by itself and one. (11 can only be divided by 11 and 1). Here are some fun equations for you math fans out there -
