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short answer: If [Jupiter] were about sixty times more massive than it is, it would indeed be a star!

I'm with you re: Venus vs. Mars for terraforming. In addition to all the points you raised, the gravity of Venus is about 90% that of earth (according to http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/BrowseTheSolarSystem/venus.html). Mars' gravity is approximately 1/3 that of earth. This is important because less gravity == less atmospheric pressure on the surface of the planet. Consequently, the density of the Martian atmosphere is 1% that of earth. That's really freaking thin, even if you are trying to breathe pure oxygen. This site shows that the density at 100,000 feet is roughly 1% that of sea level at earth, and from what I remember reading as a kid who thought the SR-71 was just the coolest airplane ever, pilots above 60,000 feet had to wear pressure suits because a simple oxygen mask couldn't provide enough pressure to sustain consciousness at those atmospheric pressures.

In other words, Total Recall notwithstanding, humans will not ever be able to breathe the atmosphere unaided on a terraformed Mars without some radical genetic engineering.

"Can you imagine the lateral stress on the structure if you attempted to build it horizontally and then hoist?

Ask the Russians, that's how they rig the Soyuz rockets. Been doing it pretty successfully for 40 years or so now.

I don't know why, but I always though of Mars as a planet without an atmosphere. Perhaps like our Moon, just much bigger. So when first reading the article, I thought that as soon as the carbon dioxide gas sublimated, it would be lost to space.

However, the atmosphere is just really thin: http://starryskies.com/solar_system/mars/martian_atmosphere.html

So, thanks to Slashdot, I once again expand my knowledge of the universe and learned something new today!

Maybe now the ending scene in Total Recall makes some more sense? I'll have to rewatch it and see...

• China blows up a satellite with a missile to prove it can be done.
• The U.S. says, "knock it off or I'll blot out the moon", launches missile
• Total lunar eclipse commences. Cannibals are impressed.

Mars atmosphere is quite a bit thinner than Earth's; about one percent as thick to be exact. A simple Google search would have told you this: http://starryskies.com/solar_system/mars/martian_a tmosphere.html Plus, Mars atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide (95 percent) which would suffocate a person in a short period of time.

Since wind is driven by temperature differences within the atmosphere, wouldn't a faster spinning earth have more consistent temperatures across it due to a more even heating?

Not just that, but the series image (pardon the darkness, calibrated for Macintosh) has the hand clutching an Earth that is a top-to-bottom mirror image of a more famous image. Note the cloud pattern by the thumb.

So technically they both clutch from the bottom.

NONE of you have ever wondered why the moon only shows us one face? What're the odds?

The moon is gravitationally locked to the Earth's rotation. Tidal forces from Earth's gravitational field have induced a bulge in the moon; this buldge always points along the line from the center of the Earth to the center of the moon. At one time the moon was rotating faster then it is now, but the moon had to bend and flex as this bulge shifted around. Energy was lost to friction (rocks grinding against one another), and the moon's rotation slowed until it was gravitationally locked to the Earth.

But don't take my word for it, I'm just a rocket scientist.

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I also just noticed that the number MSN gives is misleading. I searched for Leonid Meteor Shower on MSN and it said 35 results, but when I got past 35 it says 10566 results. A Flyer made last year made result number 159 - Leonid Meteor Shower: MeteorStorm!
http://www.starryskies.com/leonids is listed as result 229. ;(

Google yields 33,900 results, and our page is number 25.
http://starryskies.com/The_sky/events/meteors/

Yahoo found 22,300 and our page is number 9 there.

Given our problems trying to get some of our better pages listed on Yahoo's directory, they want $300 per submission now, I was a bit surprised to see we are listed there and did well in this search ranking.

Anyone have any tips on a better way to determine search engine ranking?

We never have bothered with these search engine submission services, they just seemed like a rip off.

Chuck

I also just noticed that the number MSN gives is misleading. I searched for Leonid Meteor Shower on MSN and it said 35 results, but when I got past 35 it says 10566 results. A Flyer made last year made result number 159 - Leonid Meteor Shower: MeteorStorm!
http://www.starryskies.com/leonids is listed as result 229. ;(

Google yields 33,900 results, and our page is number 25.
http://starryskies.com/The_sky/events/meteors/

Yahoo found 22,300 and our page is number 9 there.

Given our problems trying to get some of our better pages listed on Yahoo's directory, they want $300 per submission now, I was a bit surprised to see we are listed there and did well in this search ranking.

Anyone have any tips on a better way to determine search engine ranking?

We never have bothered with these search engine submission services, they just seemed like a rip off.

Chuck

I tried to find a place to write to Norton/Symantec, but they aren't making it easy to find. I would like to tell Norton/Symantec that blocking ads will be very damaging to our efforts to offset costs and improve our sites. We will be recommending to our users that they use other anti-virus products like AVG.

One slashdot reader suggested using a cookie to not allow surfers not viewing ads, so I sent the following note to Google.

Hi,

You may have heard that many computers will be running ad blocking software in the near future because Norton anti-virus. I believe google ads should not be subject to this blocking partly because they aren't completely annoying like the pop up/under and so called rich format ads. A slashdot reader suggested using a cookie to determine if the ads are being viewed. Can you impliment something which allows us to redirect a user to a google page saying "This website has chosen to not allow browsers with ad blocking software, please disable it on your computer and then return to (referrer variable).

Thanks,
Chuck

2004 - First contact. Angry Martiens destroy the Earth.(reason : Massive spying on alien's private life in summer 2003.)

I submitted the story this morning and was rejected. I think Starry Skies did just as good a job if not better of covering the eclipse than space.com. I did the html for Kathy, and find it interesting that while Kathy is disabled and we did the pages with a budget of zero - I think she did a mighty fine job. I would have liked to see what we could have done if we had the resources of space.com, who have paid writers and staff. Furthermore the guy running the NASA eclipse site and Mr Eclipse has asked Kathy for permission to use her Columbus article on those sites.

Here is what I submitted early this morning, I certainly thought it was worthy of the top page of slashdot... Take a look and let us know what you thing.

Total Lunar Eclipse Tonight

The May 15/16 lunar eclipse starts at 9:05 p.m. EDT and will be visible over North and South America as well as western Europe and Africa. Eastern US and Canada will be able to see the entire eclipse. In the western US and Canada, the partial phase of the eclipse begins before the Moon rises and for the Pacific northwest, the Moon will rise while in totality. For times in your area, folklore, an interesting story on the Lunar Eclipse that Saved Christopher Columbus, and more see The StarrySkies Lunar Eclipse Pages.

I submitted the story this morning and was rejected. I think Starry Skies did just as good a job if not better of covering the eclipse than space.com. I did the html for Kathy, and find it interesting that while Kathy is disabled and we did the pages with a budget of zero - I think she did a mighty fine job. I would have liked to see what we could have done if we had the resources of space.com, who have paid writers and staff. Furthermore the guy running the NASA eclipse site and Mr Eclipse has asked Kathy for permission to use her Columbus article on those sites.

Here is what I submitted early this morning, I certainly thought it was worthy of the top page of slashdot... Take a look and let us know what you thing.

Total Lunar Eclipse Tonight

The May 15/16 lunar eclipse starts at 9:05 p.m. EDT and will be visible over North and South America as well as western Europe and Africa. Eastern US and Canada will be able to see the entire eclipse. In the western US and Canada, the partial phase of the eclipse begins before the Moon rises and for the Pacific northwest, the Moon will rise while in totality. For times in your area, folklore, an interesting story on the Lunar Eclipse that Saved Christopher Columbus, and more see The StarrySkies Lunar Eclipse Pages.

I submitted the story this morning and was rejected. I think Starry Skies did just as good a job if not better of covering the eclipse than space.com. I did the html for Kathy, and find it interesting that while Kathy is disabled and we did the pages with a budget of zero - I think she did a mighty fine job. I would have liked to see what we could have done if we had the resources of space.com, who have paid writers and staff. Furthermore the guy running the NASA eclipse site and Mr Eclipse has asked Kathy for permission to use her Columbus article on those sites.

Here is what I submitted early this morning, I certainly thought it was worthy of the top page of slashdot... Take a look and let us know what you thing.

Total Lunar Eclipse Tonight

The May 15/16 lunar eclipse starts at 9:05 p.m. EDT and will be visible over North and South America as well as western Europe and Africa. Eastern US and Canada will be able to see the entire eclipse. In the western US and Canada, the partial phase of the eclipse begins before the Moon rises and for the Pacific northwest, the Moon will rise while in totality. For times in your area, folklore, an interesting story on the Lunar Eclipse that Saved Christopher Columbus, and more see The StarrySkies Lunar Eclipse Pages.

Lots of good stuff at http://StarrySkies.com, not just astronomy.

Also http://StarrySkies.net, http://StarryMessenger.net and coming soon http://88Constellations.com

Love conqueres all... except CANCER

Cancer represents a crab, that sounds nasty.

I submitted this story, but someone didn't think it was worth slashdot, it just happens to be the biggest story StarrySkies has had an early sccop on... It should have been posted!

Information retreived from Columbia's Flight Data Recorder coupled with CAT scan images of shuttle Atlantis' leading wing's RCC panels may provide the answers to what happened to Columbia. Early results from the flight data recorder indicate structural damage to Columbia much earlier than perviously thought, even before re-entry. Also, CAT scans of the reinforced carbon carbon panels from the wing's leading edges off Atlantis, show minute gaps in the layers. These gaps could allow superheated gases to enter into Columbia's wing. If all the data proves correct, Columbia was likely doomed before ever reaching the launch pad.

Wickipdedia may not be all that reliable. It also says HERE [wikipedia.org] That it was "first been spotted by Galileo Galilei over 300 years ago".

This site HERE Says Hooke discovered it. My original source is the 6th Edition of "Universe", by Freedman and Kaufmann.

This site has a biographical sketch of Hooke that also gives him credit for discovery ths spot, and also gives him credit for determining the rotation of the giant planet using the spot as a reference point.

It seems as if Cassini and Hooke are used interchangebaly at times! I wonder if in 300+ years people will use Gates and Jobs interchangebly when talking about early computer history? Or will everything be attributed to Al Gore?

~Z

Nice spin, back in the early 70's NASA's umanned space missions built something better...

My father, Fred Peters, worked at JPL (Jet Propultion Lab) on the navigation team for many of the unmanned space missions. And after 30 years the spacecraft was exactly where it was supposed to be.

Pioneer 10 Launched March 2nd 1972. More than 30 years later they still could send and receive data. In 1997 the mission ended at 67 astronimical units, thats more than 6 billion miles away. The space craft had a 25 watt transmitter, but talk about latency... 9.3 hours one way would put the latency at about 18.8 hours.

The quoted article is tame in comparison to what happened in Rapid City, SD in 1972. Cloud seeding was also suspected. The following link describes the flood and the 238 deaths:
www.crh.noaa.gov/


This link tells a bit more on the cloud seeding:

news.mpr.org/


Another article

starryskies.com

The cloud seeding wasn't proven, as it wasn't in many other cases, but public pressured forced SDSM&T to stop doing the experiments all the same.

A perturbation of the orbit of Tempel-Tuttle, the parent comet, and the debris fields by Jupiter in 2029 will change the orbit such that we won't see another Storm like this until the year 2099.

Chuck
http://starryskies.com

For those in the MST, this
says that the moon will be in the west, while Leo is in the east. Now, I might be smoking crack, but that probably means I can look toward Leo for optimal viewing with little or no moon.

Right?

I don't wanna be a dick, but according to this:

http://starryskies.com/leonids/star-charts-mst.h tm l

The moon will be directly opposite Leo in the sky. Seems like its the optimal viewing position (at least given the circumstances).

But then again, IANAA (I am Not An Astronomer).

I live in the Central Time Zone, you insensitive clod! ;-)

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The Leonid Meteor Shower are remnants of the comet Tempel-Tuttle. A perturbation by the planet Jupiter in 2029, will change the orbit of Tempel-Tuttle away from the Earth. You may have to wait until 2098, 2099 or 2131 to see the next Leonid storm.

StarrySkies, has some very cool images from last year's Leonid, star charts, folklore and more. Also see Near-Live Leonid Watching System, NASA Leonid Multi Instrument Aircraft Campaign and
Gart W. Kronk's Comets & Meteor Showers.