Space & Other Pretty Things

Hail the Hexagon…

The full light of our sun allowed the Cassini spacecraft to capture this image of Saturn’s hexagonal polar jet stream, but the sun does not provide much warmth. In addition to being low in the sky (just like summer at Earth’s poles), the sun is nearly ten times as distant from Saturn as from Earth. This results in the sunlight being only about 1 percent as intense as at our planet. 

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 560,000 miles (900,000 kilometers) from Saturn. Image scale is 33 miles (54 kilometers) per pixel.

More info: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia21327/hail-the-hexagon

This has been a baby turtle (and tortoise) post.

(Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10)

Bonus:

A new discovery from NASA’s Cassini mission hints at potential life on Saturn’s Enceladus. 

Recent research from the Cassini mission, published in Science this week, has found new excitement on one of Saturn’s moons: plumes of vapor emerging from Enceladus contain large amounts of molecular hydrogen. More importantly, this hydrogen seems to be the product of hydrothermal activity in the moon’s ocean…and is a strong hint that the moon has conditions favorable to microbial life.

Secondary Craters in Bas Relief

Indian-Americans raise $100,000 for Ian Grillot, the man who intervened in racist Kansas bar shooting

Ian Grillot, 24, accepted a $100,000 check from India House Houston on Saturday as a reward for intervening in a February attack on two Indian engineers in Kansas.

“It is not every day that one meets a genuine hero — a person who risks his life for another and takes a bullet for a complete stranger,” the Texas-based community group said in a Facebook post on Monday. “Ian Grillot is a man who reminds us of the promise of America and its greatness.”

According to court documents, 51-year-old Adam Purinton allegedly shot Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani on Feb. 22 at a bar in Olathe, Kansas — just outside Kansas City — after reportedly asking for their immigration status and yelling at them to “get out of my country." 

Kuchibhotla died from the shooting, and Madasani was sent to the hospital in critical condition. 

Grillot, who is white, took a bullet to the hand and chest while rushing at Purinton to stop him shortly after he opened fire.

This #MondayMailbag warmed even the Pedantic Astronomer’s heart! (Links added by me):

My name is Nicholas and my daughter Diana love science. She wants to learn as much as she can to become a “roller coaster engineer and astronaut”, she already builds her own robots, roller coaster models, codes, star watches, and many more experiments. We learned about Startorialist from @startalkradio (listen to the episode here! -E), which we listen to every week. Diana found some clothes she want to show off to you. She was so happy to be able to get clothes like these and now wants to find some accessories to go with it for the March for Science. She had a question to ask you as well; she was wondering if any clothing has solar cells on them to help make power?

Diana’s tank top and leggings are from “tween brand” Justice, which is new to me but just jumped to the top of my “I’m Not Too Old For This, Right?” list. On a quick search I found a hair bow, sequin Saturn tee, and earrings, and I will most certainly be posting more soon!

To answer Diana’s questions: you have come to the right place for science-y accessories! For a budding engineer, @sci-chic leaps to mind (gears! stars! everything from our collaboration!) for fun jewelry, and their new subscription boxes provide themed surprises every month.

Second question: there is indeed clothing (and accessories, and more!) with solar cells, mostly for charging your phone, but also for storing and converting to heat on demand.

Diana, we cant wait to see what you discover and create!