Rorix. Mi Blog en Forocoches.
ForoCoches: Miembro
20-jun-2013 03:07
#511
 Entombed A twig snapped underneath my boot, breaking the awed silence that had befallen me and my companion. Emerging from the forest, the sight shook me to the core. You grew up hearing about it, the great beast, its mouth open in its last roar of defiance that was now forever silence. But nothing could have prepared me for the actual sight... It stood as a reminder to us all, its shadow looming over the city below never letting the inhabitants forget of the time when our lands were ruled by mighty beasts. Yet we had won. This thought I had the most trouble comprehending. The sheer size of the monster had to be seen to be believed, it's wingspan alone stretching as long as the cliff face behind it stood tall. How could one human have prevailed over such a beast? But he had... One lone man, a traveller to the common eye but deep within his veins, magic ran deep. The last dragon had no hope, or that is how they tell the story. That the beast, although the oldest and last living dragon to terrorise the skies and lands below was no match for the spirits that bowed before the mage. He had entombed it in the land that it had once ruled. Not dead just frozen. I felt a shiver run through me as I looked up at the skull, at the holes that still seemed to hold eyes and a hidden power. Magic in the land had died out along ago. If the beast was to awaken.... There was no hope. |
ForoCoches: Miembro
20-jun-2013 07:09
#514
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El cockpit del A350 no me parece nada del otro mundo, de hecho de novedoso tiene poco, si acaso las screen de los fmc algo mas grandes e ya. Lo demás nada fuera de lo normal de lo que viene siendo habitual en airbus.
PD: los sidesticks siguen siendo mas feos que pegarle a un padre con un calcetin sudao. Aunque bastante mas guapos que los cuernos de vaca de los boeing. |
ForoCoches: Miembro
22-jun-2013 08:22
#518
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Imaging Breakthrough: See Atomic Bonds Before and After Molecular Reaction For the first time, scientists have visually captured a molecule at single-atom resolution in the act of rearranging its bonds. The images look startlingly similar to the stick diagrams in chemistry textbooks. Until now, scientists were only able to infer molecular structures. Using atomic force microscopy, the individual atomic bonds — each a few ten-millionths of a millimeter long – that connect the carbon molecule’s 26 carbon and 14 hydrogen atoms are clearly visible. The results are reported online May 30 in Science. The team initially set out to precisely assemble nanostructures made from graphene, a single-layer material in which carbon atoms are arranged in repeating, hexagonal patterns. Building the carbon honeycombs required rearranging atoms from a linear chain into the six-sided shapes; the reaction can produce several different molecules. UC Berkeley chemist Felix Fischer and his colleagues wanted to visualize the molecules to make sure they’d done it right. To document the graphene recipe, Fischer needed a powerful imaging device, and he turned to the atomic force microscope housed in physicist Michael Crommie’s UC Berkeley lab. Non-contact atomic force microscopy uses a very fine, sharp point to read the electrical forces produced by molecules; as the tip is moved near a molecule’s surface, it’s deflected by different charges, producing an image of how the atoms and bonds are aligned. With it, the team managed to visualize not only the carbon atoms but the bonds between them, created by shared electrons. They placed a ringed carbon structure on a silver plate and heated it until the molecule rearranged. Subsequent cooling trapped the reaction products, which as it turned out, contained three unexpected products and one molecule the scientists had predicted.  A ringed, carbon-containing molecule, shown both before and after it has rearranged itself, with the two most common reaction products included. The scale bars measure 3 angstroms, or three ten-billionths of a meter, across. Image and Caption: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California at Berkeley  The reactant molecule, shown on a silver surface, before rearrangement into products. Image: S. Wickenburg, A. Riss, D. J. Mowbray, F. R. Fischer  Product 2 is one of the two most common molecules produced. Image: S. Wickenburg, A. Riss, D. J. Mowbray, F. R. Fischer  Product 3 is one of the two most common molecules produced. Image: S. Wickenburg, A. Riss, D. J. Mowbray, F. R. Fischer  Product 4 is an unexpected reaction molecule. Image: S. Wickenburg, A. Riss, D. J. Mowbray, F. R. Fischer  The team predicted the existence of Product 5, but it accounted for less than 1 percent of the reaction mixture. Image: S. Wickenburg, A. Riss, D. J. Mowbray, F. R. Fischer
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ForoCoches: Miembro
22-jun-2013 09:11
#520
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Concept Art Writing Prompt: Blue Girl in the Chemist's Lair  In his Blue Girl series of illustrations, artist Sungwon creates striking scenes focused on a single character, a girl all in blue. It's left to us, the viewers, to imagine the story behind each individual scene. What can you come up with for this one? When Blue Girl grew older and her color faded to a light periwinkle, she would reflect on that night she spent hidden on the chemist's floor. She'd remember the way her dress kept catching on a splintered plank, and how she kept farting from the black-and-white beans the Dragon of Blacksbane had cooked for her lunch, and worried the chemist might notice the smell. She remember the chemist's long, leather shoes as he paced about, muttering formulas that might as well have been mystical incantations to Blue Girl's ears. She remembered willing him to grow sleepy, to abandon his study of the blue rose and go to bed. She thought she might catch fire from wishing so hard.
But mostly, she remembers the books, the grand tomes of knowledge about things Blue Girl didn't even know she was seeking. What if, instead of stealing the rose and sneaking out in the night, she had shown herself to the chemist? Could he have told her all he knew of the color blue? Could they have studied the rose together and unlocked the secrets of its elusive color? Would she, Blue Girl, have grown up to be as powerful and as frightening as the chemist himself? She'll never know the answers to those questions. Instead, that was the night she learned that even blue girls bleed red. "You don't have to show yourself, my dear, but I get so few visitors and it would be nice to see your face." The little girl draws her knees closer to her chest. She had been to frightened to knock on the door, having come all the way up the hill, but finding it ajar, she had been too curious not to creep inside, and now she is trapped. "Are you too scared to speak, too? Then we shall have to guess why you have come to see me. Are you hungry and lost? No, I do not hear you belly growling, and you can see for miles from the top of my hill. Have you come to do an old woman a mischief? No, you are small and frightened. Then you must have come because you have heard I'm a witch and you want some magic to solve a problem." The visitor nods, aware that her gesture cannot be seen, but unable to get the works from her throat. The woman steeples her fingers and sit on the chair by the table with a creak of wicker and old sinew. "So if you will not speak to me, then I must find out what is wrong. You think I will cast some magic spell and all with be fine, but magic has its own will and way and mind and destiny, so we must use only a little magic and fill in the gaps with science and knowledge, those are a witch's true powers. I have a rose, a pretty rose for a pretty girl, for surely all little girls are pretty, even I was once pretty, if only to my mother. But I see a little blue foot, so we shall mix some iodine and copper sulphate with a drop of aqua vitae, only a drop, mind. Add that to the rose and there we have a pretty little blue flower, see?" The girl draws her foot back sharply, but finds herself craning forwards for a glimpse. "And here we see the problem, being blue is different for a rose and different for a little girl, and you want to know why. So what do we know about blue? It is the colour of the sky and the sea, but you are not a birdgirl or a mermaid, are you? And the sky is lighter and the sea deeper, so that's not right. It is a calm colour, tranquil, but today your heart hammers in you chest, so that is not right. It is cool, cold, but although you shiver, you don't draw in close to the fire, so that is not right. Blue is also the colour of sadness, yes, you are a melancholy little girl, we are close but not quite there. Her head is now poking from under the desk, she can see the woman's sharp unhandsome features, but she can also see the tenderness that they hold. "Blue is a lonely colour, and I think that is the key. You are a little blue girl and different from all the other children, and that is why you feel sad and isolated. You think me very wise to have figured this out, but I'll tell you a secret. I was once a lonesome and melancholy child, different from the others, but then I met someone who taught me that being different was a good thing and thinking different was even better. How would you like to learn some science, and maybe even a little magic?" i want my mommy. i'm scared and cold and i want my mommy. i know i'm bad for wandering away, i only wanted to visit my special blue flower in the woods for just a moment. i'm sorry I didn't tell mommy I was going, and i want her to be here with me now.
// Once upon a time there was a tiny blue girl that wandered into the woods. She had recently discovered a beautiful flower that was magically as blue as she, and she would visit it every day. One particularly grey afternoon when she came to the clearing, there was an old lady in a hooded cloak hunched over her flower. She was worried for her special blue flower and quietly walked up behind the old lady, asking her what she was doing. The witch whirled around, all teeth and nails and snatched her up by the wrist with inhuman strength, the blue flower already in her other clawed hand. Then they were practically flying through the woods together, the wind and tips of the tree branches whipping through the little blue girl's hair. // Samson always followed his little blue charge, sometimes staying back so she wouldn't know he was there. He had been tasked by the wise ones from his very birth to forever protect the little blue girl. He had taken the form of a small back cat, her constant companion, and to her he was always just her well-loved pet. He easily followed the witch as she tore through the woods with the blue girl in her grasp, and watched as they slipped into a tiny overgrown cabin in between a tall, shadowed grove of trees. He slipped into the cabin a moment behind them and silently settled on top of the bookshelves right above the little blue girl who was now shivering in fear under the desk. The witch was completely preoccupied with her new blue prize, that she had now placed under glass and was gently glowing with a soft white light. Samson would now change for the first time since he had taken the form of the blue girl's small cat, and he had decided that a winter wolf would do nicely, and soon the cabin would be very well sprayed with dark witch blood. It was cold. It was always cold, but on days this cold the absent minded chemist would be forced to leave his home to get more wood for his stoves. Knowing that this was the only time the chemist ever left his home, Marta hid in the bushes of a neighbors house and waited for the strangle little man to leave. Sure enough, around two in the afternoon the chemist emerged from his house, dressed in nothing more than his white coat, and headed in the direction of the town store.
As soon as the chemist was out of view, Marta jumped out of her hiding place and ran as fast as her short legs could toward the chemist's worn down home. Knowing that the doors and windows of the home would be locked tight, Marta immediately headed for the back of the house. She had followed a pretty blue eyed cat into the secret entrance before, behind the large bush a small hole led to a loose floor board that led into the basement. The exact place Marta was interested in. The chemist's basement laboratory somehow felt colder than the outside air Marta had just come from. Her breath made little clouds in the air as she walked around the room's many desks, all covered with vials and beakers filled with liquids whose names only the chemist could know. On one desk a beautiful blue flower stood covered by a glass jar. Marta touched the glass with her finger tips, wishing she could hold the flower. Then, something caught her attention in the corner of her eye. On a small desk near the stairs to main floor, the shiny gold sides of a picture frame called out to her. Hidden behind a stack of books was a picture of a familiar couple. The ugly little chemist with his sharp teeth and boney features, looked at least better groomed in his younger days. Next to him stood a young woman that would have been unremarkable if it wasn't for a pair of gorgeous dark blue eyes. Eyes that made the now deceased bride of the chemist look alive and well in the picture. A door slamming upstairs jolted her from her admiration of the women. It was then when she noticed an old leather billfold sitting on the desk, that absent minded chemist had forgotten it. As she listened to the sounds of steps approaching the basement door, Marta ran for cover under one of the lab tables. The door opened, the little man rushed to his desk, retrieved the billfold, and rushed back upstairs. He was about to close the door to the basement when the sound of a book hitting the ground filled the room. The chemist walked slowly down the stairs and then across the room to where Marta was hiding. She watched as a pair of wet shoes stopped next to a book lying on the floor, directly in front of where she was hiding. Slowly, an arm came down and a small hand rested on the book. Marta instinctively reached out an grabbed the chemist's wrist, “Boo,” she screamed. The chemist shouted, grabbed his chest and staggered backward. “What are you doing here!” he screeched. “I'm just checking on your progress,” she said. “And I don't see much. Where are the mice?” “There all dead,” the little man said nervously. “I don't think I can do this.” “Oh,” she said, circling the chemist. “That's too bad,” she motioned at the desk. “You know your wife had beautiful eyes.” She smiled and started for the stairs. “Wait,” he said, a small tear in the corner of his eye. “I'll keep trying.” “Good,” Marta smiled. She saw a reflection of her self in a small mirror on the wall. Her eyes were completely blue with no iris or pupil. They were beautiful she thought, and soon everyone in the town that teased her because of them, would soon have a pair for themselves. At last! I would exclaim it but for fatigue. This proof before me is evidence that I am, if anything, the epitome of perseverance. As a lyrical aside to the entire endeavor, I finished it when I thought I would: in the stillest hours of the night, the late spring air quiet, and the grasses around my laboratory resting. This is done which had been lost decades before. Blue: life giving hue, how we are pained for having lost the Contrariant! Would it be known that an alchemist would restore it?
My grin was painful and my face unused to such joyous exertions. I was much more adept at scowling through glass, my eyes fatigued at watching thousands of reactions. I verged on weeping, my eyes now moist. The elation that shivered across the cooling sweat across my robes only affixed the sequence to arrive at this point. The cat shivered at the sight of it all. The counter on my log had me at hour 2,789. I will keep it at that time and move the notes from ‘antecedent’ to a triumphant, ‘subsequent’. The processes in this last iteration, in a series of some 14 steps, became quicksilver in my memory. Each built upon the other, the success apparent as it moved from base elements, growing, adapting, and then, definitive perception within the lattices of transformative materials. Blue had escaped our known world well before I was born. And with the lack of blue, the world was vastly changed. Our sky became a white, a clear, or a quality of pitch – the oceans became dark. The animus of the creatures shifted and many of them are simply no more. The plants adapted, but the system of dependency erupted into chaos. People starved, populations shifted to an unhappy sustenance. My instructor, well over 90-years in age when he left us, had seen the Contrariant, the opposing element of fire disappear in a series of days when he was no more than six. He infused into me, as one would artemis shade into the bloodstream, all of his studies, the collected works of the entire alchemy endeavor, from libraries that were vacant with death or disinterest. I thought of him through my eyes as I pored over the flower. It lived in a sustaining medium, which would only give me a few hours, but I will say, by the vibrancy of the colour, it will carry beyond its death. If not, I can create more. The formula is but 14 steps of some 17 materials over the course of little more than five hours. The petals were firm, healthy. The leaves reached out towards the artificial light, as best as I could to match the perception of sunlight. I wanted to grab it, smell it, and move it across my cheeks, for no flower of this size had grown before. The seeds for it were long dormant, almost ancient. As a man of letters would say (my own degree from the Falls of Highland), there was even more work to be done. That was for sure. I would now approach the High Councilors for assistants, capital. The process could even be simplified enough to give them each a rose, how such a demonstrative survey would prove my point! And, then, what then? From here, could we restore the seas? The sky? The very world? That is the question that will make those three thousand hours turn to triple the amount. But we will have purpose, we will have aim. There was aberrational Apocrypha to contend with. But I pay it little mind. My instructor was firm in his convictions, but, for my own, I am less inclined to believe the stories. The return of the Contrariant would bring upon us great consternations, since it’s opposite, red, the fire, the moltem of the world, would become irate. The worshippers of Fire, apocryphal as they are to most of us, believe that blue had disappeared as a natural consequence of history. But – here is proof that they are wrong. How this, if I bandied it about their sulfuric temples, would crash their perceptions. They’ve called up on my death before. But, if we are to believe it, then there would be the deaths of what little thousands are left in this world. My work will need to be wildly published; it must survive me and the whims of the mad. But I distinctly remember that Hope, a product of the return of the Contrariant, would, by great trials, bring a Mutual Exclusivity. Now, I said, finally breaking away from the rose, there were two seeds. What happened to its twin? |
Editado: 22-jun-2013 09:18 -
ForoCoches: Miembro
24-jun-2013 23:57
#522
 Original Caption Released with Image: The huge storm churning through the atmosphere in Saturn's northern hemisphere overtakes itself as it encircles the planet in this true-color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. This picture, captured on Feb. 25, 2011, was taken about 12 weeks after the storm began, and the clouds by this time had formed a tail that wrapped around the planet. Some of the clouds moved south and got caught up in a current that flows to the east (to the right) relative to the storm head. This tail, which appears as slightly blue clouds south and west (left) of the storm head, can be seen encountering the storm head in this view. This storm is the largest, most intense storm observed on Saturn by NASA's Voyager or Cassini spacecraft. It is still active today. As scientists have tracked this storm over several months, they have found it covers 500 times the area of the largest of the southern hemisphere storms observed earlier in the Cassini mission (see PIA06197). The shadow cast by Saturn's rings has a strong seasonal effect, and it is possible that the switch to powerful storms now being located in the northern hemisphere is related to the change of seasons after the planet's August 2009 equinox. See PIA12824 for a nearly true-color view taken in December 2010. See PIA12825 for false-color high-resolution views of the storm taken in February 2011. Huge storms called Great White Spots have been observed in previous Saturnian years (each of which is about 30 Earth years), usually appearing in late northern summer. Saturn is now experiencing early northern spring, so this storm, if it is a Great White Spot, is happening earlier than usual. This storm is about as large as the largest of the Great White Spots, which also encircled the planet but had latitudinal sizes ranging up to 20,000 kilometers (12,000 miles). The Voyager and Cassini spacecraft were not at Saturn for previous Great White Spot appearances. The storm is a prodigious source of radio noise, which comes from lightning deep in the planet's atmosphere. The lightning is produced in the water clouds, where falling rain and hail generate electricity. The mystery is why Saturn stores energy for decades and releases it all at once. This behavior is unlike that at Jupiter and Earth, which have numerous storms going on at all times. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from just above the ring plane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 1.4 million miles (2.2 million kilometers) from Saturn. Image scale is 80 miles (129 kilometers) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute |
Editado: 25-jun-2013 00:02 -
*AutoBan Spam/Flood/Troll*
27-jun-2013 15:25
#525
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son blogs sanos http://www.forocoches.com/foro/showt...#post140621926 |
ForoCoches: Miembro
27-jun-2013 15:32
#528
| En este hilo quiero enseñar sobre mis otras aficiones y gustos, para frikadas xinas y follar almohadas ya tengo 32084238483249 otros hilos donde postear. |
Juciis por ***
27-jun-2013 17:02
#533
Joer, como los donettes. Aquí uno habla de fornicar y aparecen amigos por todos lados. 
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ForoCoches: Miembro
28-jun-2013 12:25
#539
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The Alcubierre Drive The idea came to White while he was considering a rather remarkable equation formulated by physicist Miguel Alcubierre. In his 1994 paper titled, "The Warp Drive: Hyper-Fast Travel Within General Relativity," Alcubierre suggested a mechanism by which space-time could be "warped" both in front of and behind a spacecraft.  Michio Kaku dubbed Alcubierre's notion a "passport to the universe." It takes advantage of a quirk in the cosmological code that allows for the expansion and contraction of space-time, and could allow for hyper-fast travel between interstellar destinations. Essentially, the empty space behind a starship would be made to expand rapidly, pushing the craft in a forward direction — passengers would perceive it as movement despite the complete lack of acceleration. White speculates that such a drive could result in "speeds" that could take a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri in a mere two weeks — even though the system is 4.3 light-years away. In terms of the engine's mechanics, a spheroid object would be placed between two regions of space-time (one expanding and one contracting). A "warp bubble" would then be generated that moves space-time around the object, effectively repositioning it — the end result being faster-than-light travel without the spheroid (or spacecraft) having to move with respect to its local frame of reference. "Remember, nothing locally exceeds the speed of light, but space can expand and contract at any speed," White told io9. "However, space-time is really stiff, so to create the expansion and contraction effect in a useful manner in order for us to reach interstellar destinations in reasonable time periods would require a lot of energy."And indeed, early assessments published in the ensuing scientific literature suggested horrific amounts of energy — basically equal to the mass-energy of the planet Jupiter (what is 1.9 × 1027 kilograms or 317 Earth masses). As a result, the idea was brushed aside as being far too impractical. Even though nature allowed for a warp drive, it looked like we would never be able to build one ourselves. "However," said White, "based on the analysis I did the last 18 months, there may be hope." The key, says White, may be in altering the geometry of the warp drive itself.  A new design In October of last year, White was preparing for a talk he was to give for the kickoff to the 100 Year Starship project in Orlando, Florida. As he was pulling together his overview on space warp, he performed a sensitivity analysis for the field equations, more out of curiosity than anything else. "My early results suggested I had discovered something that was in the math all along," he recalled. "I suddenly realized that if you made the thickness of the negative vacuum energy ring larger — like shifting from a belt shape to a donut shape — and oscillate the warp bubble, you can greatly reduce the energy required — perhaps making the idea plausible." White had adjusted the shape of Alcubierre's ring which surrounded the spheroid from something that was a flat halo to something that was thicker and curvier. He presented the results of his Alcubierre Drive rethink a year later at the 100 Year Starship conference in Atlanta where he highlighted his new optimization approaches — a new design that could significantly reduce the amount of exotic matter required. And in fact, White says that the warp drive could be powered by a mass that's even less than that of the Voyager 1 spacecraft. That's a significant change in calculations to say the least. The reduction in mass from a Jupiter-sized planet to an object that weighs a mere 1,600 pounds has completely reset White's sense of plausibility — and NASA's. Hitting the lab Theoretical plausibility is all fine and well, of course. What White needs now is a real-world proof-of-concept. So he's hit the lab and begun work on actual experiments. "We're utilizing a modified Michelson-Morley interferometer — that allows us to measure microscopic perturbations in space time," he said. "In our case, we're attempting to make one of the legs of the interferometer appear to be a different length when we energize our test devices." White and his colleagues are trying to simulate the tweaked Alcubierre drive in miniature by using lasers to perturb space-time by one part in 10 million. Of course, the interferometer isn't something that NASA would bolt onto a spaceship. Rather, it's part of a larger scientific pursuit. "Our initial test device is implementing a ring of large potential energy — what we observe as blue shifted relative to the lab frame — by utilizing a ring of ceramic capacitors that are charged to tens of thousands of volts," he told us. "We will increase the fidelity of our test devices and continue to enhance the sensitivity of the warp field interferometer — eventually using devices to directly generate negative vacuum energy." He points out that Casimir cavities, physical forces that arise from a quantized field, may represent a viable approach. And it's through these experiments, hopes White, that NASA can go from the theoretical to the practical. Waiting for that "Chicago Pile" moment Given just how fantastic this all appears, we asked White if he truly thinks a warp-generating spacecraft might someday be constructed. "Mathematically, the field equations predict that this is possible, but it remains to be seen if we could ever reduce this to practice." What White is waiting for is existence of proof — what he's calling a "Chicago Pile" moment — a reference to a great practical example. "In late 1942, humanity activated the first nuclear reactor in Chicago generating a whopping half Watt — not enough to power a light bulb," he said. "However, just under one year later, we activated a ~4MW reactor which is enough to power a small town. Existence proof is important." His cautious approach notwithstanding, White did admit that a real-world warp drive could create some fascinating possibilities for space travel — and would certainly reset our sense of the vastness of the cosmos. "This loophole in general relativity would allow us to go places really fast as measured by both Earth observers, and observers on the ship — trips measured in weeks or months as opposed to decades and centuries," he said. But for now, pursuit of this idea is very much in science mode. "I'm not ready to discuss much beyond the math and very controlled modest approaches in the lab," he said. Which makes complete sense to us, as well. But thanks to these preliminary efforts, White has already done much to instill a renewed sense of hope and excitement over the possibilities. Faster-than-light travel may await us yet. |
ForoCoches: Miembro
28-jun-2013 17:41
#540
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Voyager’s Long Journey: 35 Years of Incredible Solar System Images Starting 35 years ago, our view of the solar system was forever changed. The launch of the Voyager 1 probe on Sept. 5, 1977 ushered in a golden era of planetary exploration. Along with its sister probe, Voyager 2, the spacecraft took the first detailed images of planets in the outer solar system, discovering magnificent rings, churning atmospheric processes, and volcanic activity on tiny moons. Voyager 2 actually launched on Aug. 20, slightly earlier than its counterpart, but took a longer route to reach Jupiter and Saturn after Voyager 1. The Voyager probes were a scaled-back version of a proposed “Grand Planetary Tour” mission, which would have used a rare alignment in the outer solar system to swing from planet to planet with minimal fuel. In the original plan, four spacecraft would have visited all the gas giants and even tiny Pluto (then still a planet). But without budgetary support from President Nixon and Congress, the ambitious mission was canceled. Since the 1977 planetary configuration occurred only once every 177 years, NASA engineers decided to go forward with a new plan — the Voyager probes, two identical robots that would travel to Jupiter and Saturn and, if successful, on to Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 1 ultimately performed a closer encounter with Saturn’s moon Titan that flung it out of the solar system, and only Voyager 2 made it to the latter planets. We’re lucky that both probes made it as far as they did, since data from these missions was unparalleled until the more recent Galileo and Cassini probes. Both Voyager 1 and 2 are still operational, becoming some of the most distant man-made objects ever built (Voyager 1 is currently 11 billion miles from the sun) and have enough power to keep going until 2025. Here we take a look at some of the best images and discoveries that these incredible probes produced during their flight through our solar system.  Above:Great Red Spot A centuries-long storm rumbles through Jupiter’s atmosphere in this image from Voyager 1, taken in 1979. The Great Red Spot, which is large enough to swallow three Earths, is a persistent cyclone large enough to be seen with some backyard telescopes. Image: NASA/JPL  Jupiter’s Rings Jupiter’s faint rings make a remarkable appearance in this photo, taken through orange and violet filters to bring out the contrast. First imaged by the Voyager probes, the four rings are made mostly of fine dust and are spread out between an area about 60,000 to 140,000 miles from Jupiter. Image: NASA/JPL  Io’s Volcanoes The Voyager probes gave astronomers their first close-up peek of Jupiter's moons. The spacecraft discovered intense volcanic activity on Io caused by constant stretching and squeezing from Jupiter’s gravitational field. The above image shows a massive eruption from Io’s Loki Patera, a massive volcanic depression with an active lava lake. Below is a view of Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system showing razed craters, bright rays, and young, clean surface ice. The photo below that shows long cracks in the surface of Europa, which indicate a deep subsurface ocean, a possible location to search for life in the solar system.   Images: 1) NASA/JPL/USGS. 2) NASA/JPL. 3) NASA/JPL.  Saturn Shadow Voyager 1 made it to Saturn after a speedy three years, taking many incredible images, such as this one of the gas giant’s well-known ring system. This shot was taken as the probe departed Saturn, swinging its way out of the solar system. Image: NASA/JPL  Saturn and Moons Two of Saturn’s tiny moons can be seen in this impressive shot, along with the gas giant’s rings. The moons, Tethys (above) and Dione, are mostly composed of water ice. Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, can be seen in the image below, its surface obscured by thick orange clouds of methane and ethane.  Images: 1) NASA/JPL. 2) NASA/JPL.  Saturn’s Rings False-color images (above) show off Saturn’s C- and B-rings in brilliant shades. High-resolution shots (below) also show off dark spoke-like features swirling around in the ring structure. Astronomers suspect that Saturn’s electromagnetic field is interacting with the rings in some way to produce these spokes but their ultimate cause remains a mystery.  Images: 1) NASA/JPL. 2) NASA/JPL.  Saturn’s Atmosphere This image from Voyager 2 combines images taken in ultraviolet, violet, and green filters to bring out features in Saturn’s atmosphere. Changes in the atmosphere from Voyager 1’s pass a year earlier suggested seasonal variations taking place on the planet. Image: NASA/JPL  Uranus Farewell The aquamarine crescent of Uranus can be seen above in this parting shot from Voyager 2, taken in 1986. The spacecraft – the only probe to ever visit both Uranus and Neptune – discovered a number of the planet’s moons and provided close-up shots of its impressive ring system (below).  Images: 1) NASA/JPL. 2) NASA/JPL  Uranus’ Moons The image above shows Uranus’ largest moon, Titania. Covered in impact scars, Titania is a cold gray world that also features many canyons and scarps. The patchwork surface of another moon, Miranda, can be seen in the photo below. Abundant features known as chevrons indicate past geologic activity.  Images: 1) NASA/JPL. 2) NASA/JPL  Neptune in Full Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to visit distant Neptune, the farthest planet in our solar system, arriving in 1989. This full image (above) shows the planet’s Great Dark Spot, a hole in Neptune’s methane clouds that appears and disappears periodically. Below is a closer shot of the structure, with feathery white clouds that lie along its edge.  Images: 1) NASA/JPL. 2) NASA/JPL  Triton’s Surface This enormous mosaic shows the surface of Neptune’s largest moon Triton in exquisite detail. The moon’s surface is the coldest recorded place in the solar system, with temperatures reaching -391 degrees Fahrenheit. The moon is covered mostly in nitrogen ice, though pinkish deposits of methane ice can also be seen. Image: NASA/JPL/USGS  The Solar System In 1990, NASA engineers had Voyager 1 turn and face the solar system and take a parting shot. Stitched together from several pictures, this image shows the only view of our solar system from the outside. The planets appear as tiny dots, with Earth and Venus less than a pixel wide. The pale, blue Earth appears conveniently in the center of a sunbeam. Voyager 1 and 2 continue their speeding path out of the solar system. In 2003, Voyager 1 reported that it was passing through the heliosheath, a region where the last vestiges of the sun’s influence are felt. In 2010, the spacecraft reported entering the heliopause, an area where cosmic currents overcome the solar wind, and is heading out further, expecting to produce the first data about interstellar space in 2014.  Images: 1) NASA. 2) NASA |
Editado: 28-jun-2013 17:48 -