I agree. Bush had to balance the calls for him to be pardoned by Libby's allies and those who wanted to see Libby go to jail. Given the harsh sentence, I think this action of commutation makes sense. Personally, I think this was the only course Bush could take politically.
As far as placing Bush among the top 5 US presidents, probably not, maybe somewhere in the middle. He had a strong first few years, but after Iraq has failed to go as planned, I don't see him getting above the top 15.
Great description. One comment I have is that these plumes can cast a shadow, see this image of the Prometheus plume (a smaller plume about 75-100 km height): http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00703 .
hehe, funny. The volcanoes name is Tvashtar Paterae, that is what we call it in English. Tvashtar comes from the Vedic solar deity, Tvastar (see the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tvashtar).
Nearly all of the material that is ejected in this plume returns to the surface and forms a giant red ring surrounding Tvashtar. Here is an image that shows the effects of a similar eruption in 2000 and 2001: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02588
As far as what it would look like, we don't have a higher resolution image of the plume, but the plume source was well imaged by Galileo during several encounters in 1999, 2000, and 2001. The source is a curtain of lava, very similar to what you might see at Kilauea in Hawaii. Here is a graphic showing two views taken during those Galileo encounters: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02584 The image on the left shows the fire fountain eruption from 1999 (the actually fire fountain is a drawing of what it would have looked like if the eruption weren't so bright, it saturated the detector, see http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02519 for the original image). During the New Horizons encounter, a similar fire fountain event occurred at the same site (as evidenced by the glow from the lava being visible, during daytime, at visible wavelengths, from a spacecraft 2.5 million km away!) and was the source of the plume linked in the article above.
Jupiter's rings are formed through micrometeorite impacts on the surfaces of its inner satellites, particularly Metis and Adrastea. There is a torus of plasma (mostly sulfur and oxygen ions) sharing Io's orbit, but the material for that ring, if you can call it that, comes from Io's atmosphere, not from Io's volcanoes directly. Only 1% of the material ejected by Io's volcanoes reaches escape velocity, while most of the material is ejected at a maximum of 1 km/sec. (compared to Io's escape velocity of 2.6 km/sec.)
If you read that quote, you would note that Smythe is making a distinction between volcanoes and volcanic plumes (like is shown in the image linked in the article) and the possible fureroles and geysers that might exist on Io. So these volcanoes DO erupt like volcanoes on Earth, just on a different scale, with less viscous lava, and with no entrained water and carbon dioxide.
Bandwidth and in this case, distance from the target. New Horizons required 3 months to return all the data it took during the mission, which included more than just images, but specta and in situ data as well. In addition, the images used to make this movie were taken from a distance of 3.8 million km! The image quality and resolution (~19 km/pixel) is actually much better than we would have gotten at a similar distance from Galileo, Cassini, or Voyager, the previous three missions to observe Io.
I think the Wikijunior article on Io's volcanism is being a bit simplistic. Basically, Io's volcanoes erupt like Kilauea in Hawaii, except the lava is a little less viscous (similar in viscosity to olive oil) so they don't build up large shield volcanoes like on Earth or Mars. The output also tends to be much greater.
The plumes we are see on Io are not themselves the volcano, but are byproducts of Io's volcanism. Their size is a combination of the lack of a substantial atmosphere on Io and that moon's low gravity. Volatiles, like sulfur and sulfur dioxide exsolve from Io's lava as it erupts, carrying small, dust-sized particles from the lava along with it. This gas and dust is what you see in this movie (actually, you are only looking at the dust, the gas is invisible in images like this). In this case, the gas and dust is exsolving from a 1-km tall fire fountain. Smaller plumes, like the one at Prometheus, form slightly differently. At these volcanoes, lava flows over terrain covered in sulfur and sulfur dioxide. The underlying sulfur dioxide heats up, and once reaching a critical pressure, bursts through the overlying lava.
So these are not like geysers. These volcanoes erupt much like volcanoes on Earth, but the interplay between volatiles and lava, the near-vacumn environment, and the slightly less-viscous lava, help make spectacular displays like you see here at Tvashtar.
What you are seeing in this image is mostly sulfur and sulfur dioxide that has condensed out of the gas in the plume. There is also a mix of basaltic ash. The plume consists of gas and dust that escapes from an erupting lava curtain on the surface.
This movie is one of the best observations of Io's plumes taken. You can clearly see dust clumping within the plume and how those structures evolve over the 8-minute sequence. Galileo could have taken many movies like this, had it not been for the low bandwidth thanks to the broken high-gain antenna.
This same praise can't be said for the description used in this article. First, this image was released almost a month ago. While very cool, and I'm certainly happy for Io to be discussed here (Uranus jokes not withstanding), but this is not news. Second, puking and barfing? Couldn't we use better terminology than puking and barfing... Makes Io sound ill, not the cool place it really is.
hmm, isn't the debate about climate change/global warming all about trying to maintain the status quo: expensive beach front property, building cities/entire nations on land that is at less than 5 m above sea level, preventing the developing world from doing just that, inhibiting progress, etc.
Personally, I don't see why we just don't start calling them Belgian Fries, correct the historical mistake. Belgium hasn't pissed us off recently as far as I know.
I, for one, like this resolution. The IAU decision last year consisted of one of the most ridiculous definitions I have ever seen and it is nice to see a legitimate resolution being offered to attack it. There was a resolution last year in the California statehouse, but that read more like a joke, than something more serious like this one. I've emailed my state assemblyman this story so maybe Arizona will do the same thing. After all, this PLANET was discovered using an Arizona telescope.
For those who think this is a waste of money, how much money do you think this will cost? This is a symbolic resolution, no appropriations are associated with it. The text looks like it took 10 minutes to write. As commented earlier, this will take about a minute to vote on. So certainly compared to other government wasteful spending, this ranks pretty far down there.
The NH legislature can't do any worse than the IAU. Dwarf Planet? Small Solar System Body? I'm sorry, you can't convince me that this resolution is more ridiculous than what the IAU came up with.
There are some lower clouds that been observed in the "Sierras" (assuming of course these are in fact mountains, which I'm not convinced they are) region, but most of the features we see in these VIMS, RADAR, and ISS (yes, ISS does see the surface...) images are surface features. Yes, there is a thick haze layer in Titan's upper atmosphere, but at the near-infrared and microwave wavelengths that those instruments use, we can see through the haze and observe the surface.
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I agree. Bush had to balance the calls for him to be pardoned by Libby's allies and those who wanted to see Libby go to jail. Given the harsh sentence, I think this action of commutation makes sense. Personally, I think this was the only course Bush could take politically. As far as placing Bush among the top 5 US presidents, probably not, maybe somewhere in the middle. He had a strong first few years, but after Iraq has failed to go as planned, I don't see him getting above the top 15.
Great description. One comment I have is that these plumes can cast a shadow, see this image of the Prometheus plume (a smaller plume about 75-100 km height): http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00703 .
hehe, funny. The volcanoes name is Tvashtar Paterae, that is what we call it in English. Tvashtar comes from the Vedic solar deity, Tvastar (see the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tvashtar).
Nearly all of the material that is ejected in this plume returns to the surface and forms a giant red ring surrounding Tvashtar. Here is an image that shows the effects of a similar eruption in 2000 and 2001: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02588 As far as what it would look like, we don't have a higher resolution image of the plume, but the plume source was well imaged by Galileo during several encounters in 1999, 2000, and 2001. The source is a curtain of lava, very similar to what you might see at Kilauea in Hawaii. Here is a graphic showing two views taken during those Galileo encounters: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02584 The image on the left shows the fire fountain eruption from 1999 (the actually fire fountain is a drawing of what it would have looked like if the eruption weren't so bright, it saturated the detector, see http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02519 for the original image). During the New Horizons encounter, a similar fire fountain event occurred at the same site (as evidenced by the glow from the lava being visible, during daytime, at visible wavelengths, from a spacecraft 2.5 million km away!) and was the source of the plume linked in the article above. Jupiter's rings are formed through micrometeorite impacts on the surfaces of its inner satellites, particularly Metis and Adrastea. There is a torus of plasma (mostly sulfur and oxygen ions) sharing Io's orbit, but the material for that ring, if you can call it that, comes from Io's atmosphere, not from Io's volcanoes directly. Only 1% of the material ejected by Io's volcanoes reaches escape velocity, while most of the material is ejected at a maximum of 1 km/sec. (compared to Io's escape velocity of 2.6 km/sec.)
No the movie is already magnified by 2x from the original data. Here is an example of one of the images that went into this movie: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/data/jupiter/level2/lo r/jpeg/003509/lor_0035099189_0x630_sci_1.jpg
If you read that quote, you would note that Smythe is making a distinction between volcanoes and volcanic plumes (like is shown in the image linked in the article) and the possible fureroles and geysers that might exist on Io. So these volcanoes DO erupt like volcanoes on Earth, just on a different scale, with less viscous lava, and with no entrained water and carbon dioxide.
Bandwidth and in this case, distance from the target. New Horizons required 3 months to return all the data it took during the mission, which included more than just images, but specta and in situ data as well. In addition, the images used to make this movie were taken from a distance of 3.8 million km! The image quality and resolution (~19 km/pixel) is actually much better than we would have gotten at a similar distance from Galileo, Cassini, or Voyager, the previous three missions to observe Io.
I think the Wikijunior article on Io's volcanism is being a bit simplistic. Basically, Io's volcanoes erupt like Kilauea in Hawaii, except the lava is a little less viscous (similar in viscosity to olive oil) so they don't build up large shield volcanoes like on Earth or Mars. The output also tends to be much greater. The plumes we are see on Io are not themselves the volcano, but are byproducts of Io's volcanism. Their size is a combination of the lack of a substantial atmosphere on Io and that moon's low gravity. Volatiles, like sulfur and sulfur dioxide exsolve from Io's lava as it erupts, carrying small, dust-sized particles from the lava along with it. This gas and dust is what you see in this movie (actually, you are only looking at the dust, the gas is invisible in images like this). In this case, the gas and dust is exsolving from a 1-km tall fire fountain. Smaller plumes, like the one at Prometheus, form slightly differently. At these volcanoes, lava flows over terrain covered in sulfur and sulfur dioxide. The underlying sulfur dioxide heats up, and once reaching a critical pressure, bursts through the overlying lava. So these are not like geysers. These volcanoes erupt much like volcanoes on Earth, but the interplay between volatiles and lava, the near-vacumn environment, and the slightly less-viscous lava, help make spectacular displays like you see here at Tvashtar.
What you are seeing in this image is mostly sulfur and sulfur dioxide that has condensed out of the gas in the plume. There is also a mix of basaltic ash. The plume consists of gas and dust that escapes from an erupting lava curtain on the surface.
This movie is one of the best observations of Io's plumes taken. You can clearly see dust clumping within the plume and how those structures evolve over the 8-minute sequence. Galileo could have taken many movies like this, had it not been for the low bandwidth thanks to the broken high-gain antenna. This same praise can't be said for the description used in this article. First, this image was released almost a month ago. While very cool, and I'm certainly happy for Io to be discussed here (Uranus jokes not withstanding), but this is not news. Second, puking and barfing? Couldn't we use better terminology than puking and barfing... Makes Io sound ill, not the cool place it really is.
hmm, isn't the debate about climate change/global warming all about trying to maintain the status quo: expensive beach front property, building cities/entire nations on land that is at less than 5 m above sea level, preventing the developing world from doing just that, inhibiting progress, etc.
Personally, I don't see why we just don't start calling them Belgian Fries, correct the historical mistake. Belgium hasn't pissed us off recently as far as I know.
I, for one, like this resolution. The IAU decision last year consisted of one of the most ridiculous definitions I have ever seen and it is nice to see a legitimate resolution being offered to attack it. There was a resolution last year in the California statehouse, but that read more like a joke, than something more serious like this one. I've emailed my state assemblyman this story so maybe Arizona will do the same thing. After all, this PLANET was discovered using an Arizona telescope. For those who think this is a waste of money, how much money do you think this will cost? This is a symbolic resolution, no appropriations are associated with it. The text looks like it took 10 minutes to write. As commented earlier, this will take about a minute to vote on. So certainly compared to other government wasteful spending, this ranks pretty far down there.
The NH legislature can't do any worse than the IAU. Dwarf Planet? Small Solar System Body? I'm sorry, you can't convince me that this resolution is more ridiculous than what the IAU came up with.
There are some lower clouds that been observed in the "Sierras" (assuming of course these are in fact mountains, which I'm not convinced they are) region, but most of the features we see in these VIMS, RADAR, and ISS (yes, ISS does see the surface...) images are surface features. Yes, there is a thick haze layer in Titan's upper atmosphere, but at the near-infrared and microwave wavelengths that those instruments use, we can see through the haze and observe the surface.