Day: March 5, 2012

The Changing Of Seasons

- Roshan

Hmm it depends on which season to which season. Here where I live we have hot fucking summer, then a long monsoon, a break of more summer, then a shorter monsoon and then what can laughably called a winter which turns into hot fucking summer again. Great huh?

When the summer changes and we start to get the monsoon, it usually starts getting a lot muggy, hot, cloudy and sweaty before the skies climax in a giant thrashing crescendo of clouds bursting their pregnant bellies and showering us with rains. You tend to fall sick during these first few days, naturally due to the sudden change in temperature and ofcourse the unnatural way due to the first rains carrying more chemicals & dust that is in the air. Once that settles then you get more fresh rain and it is much better. Might cause some problems with the roads and people getting drenched but still we need the rains.

Now once the rains stops, ofcourse it doesn’t stop all at once but gradually, for a week or so it’s actually quite cool & pleasant until the sun’s heat starts burning us up once again. And then you can fall sick once again, until it starts to get all monsoony again. October / November – this is when I start getting really sick with my bronchitic asthma and fevers and stuff. Warm once again until mid Jan and then a brief chill in the air during the early morning hours to show that yes there is something called a winter :P. That is hardly worth mentioning. And then fucking hot once again as summer sun bakes the land. Come May – glorious rain yet again!

Oxygen Molecules On Saturn Moon Dione

- Roshan

And now from NASA:

NASA’s unmanned Cassini spacecraft has detected molecular oxygen ions in the atmosphere of Dione, one of Saturn’s moons. This discovery confirms the presence of a very thin atmosphere. In fact, scientists reveal that the oxygen ions around Saturn’s moon are extremely exiguous (one for every 11 cubic centimeters of space or approximately 2,550 per cubic foot). This fact highlights the thinness of Dione’s atmosphere. For a comparison that might make more sense to the average reader, scientists believe that the atmosphere at Dione’s surface would only be as dense as Earth’s atmosphere 300 miles above the surface.

Scientists believe that Dione’s oxygen comes from either solar photons or energetic particles from space assaulting the moon’s water ice surface and freeing oxygen molecules. Despite this reasoning, scientists will continue to examine data from the Cassini spacecraft to see if the presence of oxygen around Saturn’s moon can be explained by geological processes or other events.

While a number of solid solar system bodies, like Earth, Venus, Mars and Saturn’s moon Titan, have atmospheres, they are usually a lot denser than the tenuous atmosphere detected around Dione. Back in 2010, however, Cassini scientists found a thin exosphere around Saturn’s moon Rhea, one that was very similar to what has recently been discovered around Dione. In fact, the density of the oxygen at the surfaces of Dione and Rhea is approximately 5 trillion times less than the density of the atmosphere at Earth’s surface.

Scientists reckon more moons around Saturn and Jupiter could also have oxygen in their atmospheres. They also think some of the moons have liquid oceans deep below their surfaces. With the possibility of both water and oxygen, experts hope to explore the moons further to see if there are any signs of life or if humans could survive there.