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We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.

Stephen Hawking's big ideas... made simple | Guardian Animations

Hubble - 15 Years of Discovery (2005)

Master Of The Universe Stephen Hawking Episode 1... MUST WATCH

Journey through the universe beyond the speed of light [HD]

Planets, Stars, Nebulae, Galaxies - Universe Size Comparison [HD]

Rosetta’s probe Philae ‘sniffed’ organic matter on comet, scientists say.

http://www.news.com.au/

Touchdown...a combination photo shows Rosetta’s lander Philae after touching down on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Picture: AP Photo/Esa/Rosetta/Philae, FILE Source: AP

THE first-ever probe of a comet found traces of organic molecules and a surface much harder than imagined, scientists say.

Robot lab Philae fell asleep on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Saturday, having run out of on-board battery power after 60 hours of prodding and probing an object zipping towards the Sun at 18 kilometres per second.
The lander control centre in Cologne, operated by German Aerospace Centre (DLR), said Philae had uncovered much about the comet despite a rough touchdown in a less-than-perfect spot.
“We are well on our way to achieving a greater understanding of comets,” said Ekkehard Kuhrt, project scientific director.
“Their surface properties appear to be quite different than was previously thought.”
Philae landed on “67P” last Wednesday after a nailbiting seven-hour descent from Rosetta, its orbiting mothership.

Space ... an image taken by Rosetta’s camera shows the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from a distance of 285km. Picture: AFP / ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team Source: Supplied

Rosetta had travelled more than a decade and 6.5 billion kilometres to meet up with the comet in August this year.
The touchdown 510 million kilometres from Earth did not go entirely as planned, when Philae’s duo of anchoring harpoons failed to deploy and it bounced twice before ending up in a crevice, which left its solar panels shadowed from the sunlight needed to power its batteries.
The DLR said the MUPUS probe, one of Philae’s 10 on-board science instruments, hammered into the comet to discover it was “a tough nut to crack”.
Electric and acoustic experiments confirmed the comet was “not nearly as soft and fluffy as it was believed to be” underneath a surface layer of dust.

Journey ... A combination image of enlarged photographs released by the ESA shows the journey of Rosetta’s Philae lander as it approached and then rebounded from its first touchdown on the comet. Picture: AP Source: AP

The team said Philae’s COSAC gas analyser managed to “sniff’ the atmosphere and detect the first organic molecules” shortly after landing.
Some astrophysicists theorise that comets “seeded” our fledgling planet with the beginnings of life-giving water and organic molecules, and hoped that analysis of “67P” would prove this.
“Analysis of the spectra and the identification of the molecules are continuing,” said the statement.
Project manager Stephan Ulamec said he was confident Philae would make contact later “and that we will be able to operate the instruments again” as the comet moves closer to the Sun

ScienceCasts: How to Land on a Comet

Hubble Site

http://hubblesite.org/the_telescope/hand-held_hubble/

                     

Since the earliest days of astronomy, since the time of Galileo, astronomers have shared a single goal — to see more, see farther, see deeper.
 
  The Hubble Space Telescope's launch in 1990 sped humanity to one of its greatest advances in that journey. Hubble is a telescope that orbits Earth. Its position above the atmosphere, which distorts and blocks the light that reaches our planet, gives it a view of the universe that typically far surpasses that of ground-based telescopes.
Hubble is one of NASA's most successful and long-lasting science missions. It has beamed hundreds of thousands of images back to Earth, shedding light on many of the great mysteries of astronomy. Its gaze has helped determine the age of the universe, the identity of quasars, and the existence of dark energy.

 http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/    
 PICTURE ALBUM View an expansive collection of Hubble images: planets, stars, nebulae, galaxies and more. Picture Album spreads the universe out before you in all its dazzling complexity.

Make a scale model of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope using easy-to-find supplies and the printable materials.
These models aren’t working telescopes – you can’t peer at the sky with them. But they can give you an up-close look at the telescope’s structure and a challenging project to engage your model-making skills.

Into The Universe With Stephen Hawking The Story of Everything

   

 Please answer the following questions:

 1. What is the title of the video?

 2. Doing what Stephen Hawking spends much of his time?

 3. Where every single piece of matter found on planet Earth was made?

 4. How old look the galaxies from planet Earth?

 5. What is the principle that explains the apparent change in the pitch of the sound of the car?

 6. When the Big Ban occurred?

 7. What happen every moment after the Big Bang?

 8. What happens when matter and antimatter make contact?

 9. How many galaxies are there in the visible universe?

10. What discovery Hawking and other scientists made in 1982?

11. Where in the early universe the stars and galaxies started to form?

12. What is a remarkable property of hydrogen?

13. The fusion of hydrogen atoms produces what new element?

14. The energy which allows people do work and survive is coming from where?

15. What is the last element form in some stars before they explode?

16. What is the name given to exploding stars?

17. How old is the Milky Way galaxy?

18. What is the dark side of gravity according to Hawking?

19. From what size to what size a star collapse into a black hole?

20. What discovery about the color of black holes was made by Hawking?

21. What is the size of a small black hole?

22. When after the Big Bang, we have stars and galaxies with supermassive black holes?

23. What chemical elements are found in stardust?

24. Which planets are the rocky planets?

25. What people don't know today about our planet?

26. When people appeared on planet Earth?

27. What is one reason Hawking loves cosmology?

28. What is Apophis?

29. When Apophis will be located the nearest to planet Earth?

30. Why Hawking says that intelligence is not always beneficial for the survival of the human species?

31. How often a supernova explosion occurs in the Milky Way galaxy?

32. How far away from Earth there is a star than could produce a dangerous gamma ray burst?

33. How long ago scientists believe the Earth was hit by a gamma ray burst?

34. When people landed on the moon for the first time?

35. What the robots sent to Mars show about the planet?

36. What may be a serious problem for the astronauts that live in Mars for long periods of time?

37. How Mars could be changed to make it more suitable for humans?

38. How much hotter the sun becomes every billion years?

39. How many times bigger the sun will grow in about seven billion years?

40. In what way Gliese 581d may ne very beneficial to humans?

41. What spacecraft traveled to several planets in our solar system?

42. What types of energy engineers believe future spacecrafts will use?

43. What technology will be able to do in about 1,000 years according to Hawking?

44. What is to Hawking the ultimate mystery about the universe?

45. What will happen to the atoms that today make our bodies?

46. What important question Hawking asks the viewer?

47. According to Hawking, the fate of the universe depends on the behavior of what?

48. If there is a Big Crunch, when another Big Bang might occur?

Stephen Hawking - The Big Bang

Stephen Hawking - Black Hole Time Travel

Stephen Hawking - The Birth of Stars

Stephen Hawking - Supernovas

Stephen Hawking - Formation of the Solar System

Stephen Hawking - Formation of the Solar System

The History of Earth

 

The History of Earth

1.   1   How did Earth form?           2.     How old is Earth?  3.      How did the moon form?  4.      Where did Earth’s water come from?  5.      Name one reason life was impossible on early Earth.  6.      Where is life suggested to have begun?  7.      What was the only type of life on the planet for hundreds of millions of years?  8.      What important gas did stromatolites (cyanobacteria) release into the atmosphere?  9.      What happened during the Cambrian Explosion?  10.   Describe the first land plants.  11.   What was special about Tiktaalik?  12.   Why were insects so big hundreds of millions of years ago?  13.   Why are eggs important?  14.   What was the name of the supercontinent 200,000,000 years ago?  15.   What did dinosaurs evolve from?  16.   What is oil made of?  17.   What caused dinosaurs to go extinct?  18.   How long ago did dinosaurs go extinct?  19.   How did mammals survive this mass extinction?  20.On which continent did humans evolve?

Earth's Oldest Crust Dates to 4.4 Billion Years Ago

Earth's oldest known piece of continental crust dates to the era of the moon's formation.

    

Zircon crystals from the Jack Hills of Australia, like the one above, reveal that continents arose just 160 million years after our solar system formed, much earlier than previously thought.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN VALLEY, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

Birthday Stars. What's this all about?

Click here to find your birthday star: http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/birthstars/

Light travelling in empty space is the fastest thing in the universe. It travels at 186,000 miles per second!
The stars are so far away from us that their light still takes a long time to reach Earth. One light year is the distance light travels in a year: 5,878,499,812,499 miles. The closest star apart from the Sun is 4.2 light years away, so its light takes 4.2 years to reach Earth.
Tell the Birthday Stars computer when you were born, and it will look for a star that is your age in light years away from Earth. This means that the light we're seeing from that star today actually left the star around when you were born, and has taken your entire life to reach Earth.
From month to month you may see your birthday star changing. This is because as you get older the light from more and more distant stars has had the time to travel to Earth in during your life.

Designed by the Joint Astronomy Centre, using some data from the Yale Bright Star Catalog and the NStars project.

7 most common and poisonous plants in gardens

The Castor oil plant – Ricinus communis

The Castor oil plant is found all over the Mediterranean region and is particularly toxic to humans and animals. All parts of the plant are dangerous. However, the flowers at the top contain little pods, there are three seeds within each pod, these seeds are particularly lethal, containing high concentrations of Ricin.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records (1997 edition) this plant is the most poisonous in the world.

Angel’s Trumpets – Datura

Another common sight across Spain are Angel’s Trumpets, commonly known as Datura. A beautiful plant with white or pink flowers.
The seeds and leaves are the most toxic part, although, most parts of the plants contain toxics.
Datura plants contain tropane alkaloids, children are particularly vulnerable to this kind of poison and the prognosis is often fatal.

The Calla Lily – Zantedeschia

A very common plant found throughout the Mediterranean and all over Spain. Originally from South Africa. It is an exceptional beautiful plant that flowers in late winter or early Spring, then dies down until the following year.

Its leaves are toxic. When in contact with skin, eyes or lips will cause a nasty burn or irritation.

Adelfa – Nerium oleander

Being particular drought resistant, Adelfa is found throughout Spain.
The flowers can be red, white, pink or yellow. All parts of the plant are highly toxic and particular care should be taken when pruning as the sap is particularly dangerous.

Wisteria - Fabaceae

Extremely popular as ornamental plants across Asia, Wisteria is ideally suited to the Mediterranean climate. All parts of the plant are toxic if consumed, but, the pods and the seeds are the most dangerous parts.

Lantana – Verbenaceae

The Lantana plants are drought resistant and extremely colourful, with a mix of orange, red, yellow, blue and white florets.

The berries and leaves are toxic. Less so, than some of the other plants listed above. But they are still classified as hepatogenic.

Poinsettia – Euphorbia pulcherrima

Known across Spain as the ‘Estrella de Navidad – Christmas Star,’ no Spanish home is complete without one over Christmas time.

All parts of the plant are mildly toxic with white sap being slightly more dangerous.

 http://www.spain-holiday.com/blog/7-most-common-and-poisonous-plants-in-your-spanish-garden.php

The Biggest Stars In The Universe

Geocentric and Heliocentric models.

 

http://www.slideshare.net/KatParker1724/heliocentric-vs-geocentric-models

  


The geocentric model was developed thousands of years ago by Greek philosophers and was the accepted model of the Solar System for centuries. Geocentric actually means earth centered. This model is also called the Ptolemaic system in honor of the Greek scientist and philosopher Claudius Ptolemy, although the thory was around years before him. The geocentric model places the Earth at the center of the universe with the Sun, Moon, stars, and planets circling it.

 The heliocentric model, which means sun centered, gradually replaced the geocentric model. This new system places the Sun at the center of the Solar System with the Earth and all the other planets orbiting it. This theory revolutionized everything because it reversed centuries of established opinion. Although the idea of a heliocentric model had been around as early as 200 B.C., it did not gain popularity until the 16th century.