Photos of the Earth taken from from the outer solar system are rare. The most famous is the "Pale Blue Dot" shot of 23 years ago, by Voyager 1, from 4 billion miles away. Friday afternoon, there'll be another shot.
Instead of regurgitating the facts, I'm just going to include most of NASA's well written press release on the topic below.
PASADENA, Calif. -- Two NASA spacecraft, one studying the Saturn system, the other observing Mercury, are maneuvering into place to take pictures of Earth on July 19 and 20.
The image taken from the Saturn system by NASA's Cassini spacecraft will occur between 2:27 and 2:42 p.m. PDT (5:27 and 5:42 p.m. EDT, or 21:27 and 21:47 UTC) Friday, July 19. Cassini will be nearly 900 million miles (nearly 1.5 billion kilometers) away from Earth. NASA is encouraging the public to look and wave in the direction of Saturn at the time of the portrait and share their pictures via the Internet.
The Cassini Earth portrait is part of a more extensive mosaic -- or multi-image picture -- of the Saturn system as it is backlit by the sun. The viewing geometry highlights the tiniest of ring particles and will allow scientists to see patterns within Saturn's dusty rings. Processing of the Earth images is expected to take a few days, and processing of the full Saturn system mosaic will likely take several weeks. ...
Details on how to find Saturn in the sky and participate in the event are available at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/waveatsaturn .
The public can share pictures by using the hashtag #waveatsaturn on Twitter, or uploading pictures to the event's Flickr page at:http://www.flickr.com/groups/wave_at_saturn/ .I found a blog that gives the most straightfoward instructions regarding where to look "at" Saturn at the appointed time (you won't really be able to see it, of course). Go here: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/waveatsaturn/viewing/
the event's Facebook page is: http://bit.ly/waveatsaturn .
The bottom line: For those in the west, you should wave at Saturn very low on the eastern horizon from 2:27 to 2:42 p.m. PDT. (That's right, you have to wave for 15 minutes straight! Ha ha, just kidding. Do whatever feels right for you.)
Image courtesy: NASA/JPL
We'll certainly be doing it - from the grounds of Seattle Center, as we have a 3 p.m. appointment there tomorrow afternoon for the exhibit feedback study group we're in at Pacific Science Center.
The nice NASA folks have even come up with an interface so that you can print out your official "I Waved at Saturn" certificate. Go here: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/waveatsaturn/certificate/
BRITISH INVASION: We've been counting down the days until Sir Paul McCartney's concert at Safeco Field on Friday night.
It's exciting for a number of reasons, the most obvious reason being, well, it's Paul McCartney. ;) But another reason the event will be special is because it's the first full blown concert at Safeco Field - which is kind of hard to believe given that the stadium opened in 1999, 14 years ago. The Seattle Times had a front page story about it yesterday. It's a pretty Big Darn Deal.
I had the kids read the story so they can better appreciate all the work that's going on behind the scenes in order to make their Friday night memorable.
We also watched the BrainPOP movie about The Beatles (a BrainPOP subscription is required). From it, the kids learned a bit about The Beatles roots and their discography, as well as the British Invasion in general.
After the BrainPOP video, the kids took a related quiz, and then completed an activity called 'Analyze It." They had to read lyrics from "I'm Looking Through You" and "Eleanor Rigby" and give their own interpretations of what they meant.
The BrainPOP video made mention of the Beatles' debut appearance in 1964 on the Ed Sullivan show. Of course, we had to find that on YouTube. The video we watched has been nicely remastered. The kids loved it.
ON THE PAD: It's a little early for most West Coasters, but if you're up early Friday morning, you an watch the launch of a pretty United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral. On board is the the U.S. Navy's second Mobile User Objective System (MUOS-2). The launch window is 5:48-6:32 a.m. PDT on Friday, July 19.
Built by Lockeed Hartin, the MUOS-2 will provide narrowband tactical communications for U.S. forces on the move.
Here's a video of technicians encapsulating the satellite inside a ULA Atlas V 5-meter diameter payload fairing.
Spaceflight now will have live, streaming coverage of the event, and updates prior. Check it out here:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av040/status.html
BALANCING ACT: Our progress in "The Science of Gastronomy" continues. This morning's lectures were about balancing tastes and flavors and the infinite possibilities for combining them.
Professor King explaned how taste inhibitors and enhancers work. For instance, we learned that adding salt to something can enhance its sweetness and inhibit sour notes; adding acid to something enhances the salty taste, and sugar inhibits both salt and bitter taste.
For our homework today, we had to whip up five liquid concoctions:
Drink A: 1 teaspoon of vinegar into 100 ml of waterThe trepidation grew as we did the mixing. "It seems disgusting, drinking vinegar, to me," CJ weighed in. But being the good researcher he is, CJ soldiered through tasting all of the solutions. Heck, by the time we got to Drink D, CJ wanted more than one sip. :)
Drink B: 1 teaspoon of vinegar and 1/8 teaspoon of sugar into 100 ml of water
Drink C: 1 teaspoon of vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon of sugar into 100 ml of water
Drink D: 1 teaspoon of vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar into 100 ml of water
Drink E: 1 teaspoon of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of sugar into 100 ml of water
WHAT A DIFFERENCE TWO DAYS MAKES: I've been experimenting around with kale smoothies the past couple of days. The first day (kale, strawberries, and Greek yogurt), as you might recall, was an abject failure. Yesterday was better. I used less kale (the first day I had waaaay too much by any recipe you'll find), and used watermelon instead of strawberries, and that helped. Today, using info I've gleaned from our gastronomy class, BTW, I opted for a healthy mountain of kale complimented with a big banana, nonfat Greek yogurt and a teaspoon of organic honey. Miraculously, when Annabelle saw the ingredients, she asked, "Can I like the spoon?"
Naturally, I gave her a spoonful and offered up more in her own cup.
"Man, this kale smoothie is good! And that, coming from a kid, is amazing," was her review.
Hearing that, CJ wanted in on the action, of course. He ran and fetched a cup and approached me, asking, "May I have a kale smoothie, please?" Naturally, I was happy to oblige. I poured a nice helping from my cup to his. He chugged it down and declared, "One thing I'll say is it's definitely better than the first one."
PANDA CAM: Zoo Atlanta has a new pair of giant panda cubs! Their mother is 15-year old Lun Lun.
Wonderful photo by: Curt http://www.flickr.com/photos/curt/566225918/?reg=1&src=comment
The cubs, both boys, are the first giant panda twins to be born in the U.S. since 1987.
You can watch the action (well mostly lots of inaction, but it's still interesting) here: http://www.zooatlanta.org/1212/panda_cam
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