Ends and Beginnings

WHALE TALE: A few days back we got notice of an opportunity to pre-screen a new IMAX 3D movie at Pacific Science Center, "Humpback Whales 3D" for free. Of course, I jumped on it!

What a treat it was. 

First and foremost, it's worth noting the movie was wonderful. It gives an extraordinary glimpse into the world of these amazing, mammoth marine animals. Though they were driven to the edge of extinction 50 years ago, today, these 50-foot long, 48-ton animals are holding their own. 

Here's a very-not -3D-not-IMAX trailer for the movie ...

Here are the things CJ remembered most about the movie:

In 1978, the king of the South Pacific island of Tonga banned whaling, slowly starting an increase of the whale population in that area. Japan, Norway, and Iceland all still practice commercial and scientific whaling. Around age 1, a Humpback Whale starts exploring the world on it's own, away from it's mother. Centuries ago, men in boats used to (and sadly, still do today) be the most common cause of death of Humpback Whales. Now, many scientists in boats are working to save Humpback whales. Humpback whales that live in the South Pacific ocean, at one point in their lives, may migrate to Antarctica, for food. Humpback Whales in the North Pacific ocean, however, often migrate to Alaska for food.

And Annabelle's memories:

Humpback whales can travel thousands of miles while migrating. Humpback whales also populate all of the world's oceans. Humpback mothers are pregnant with their calves for a year and stay with them for the same amount of time. Some groups of whales use a method of feeding called "bubble netting" to catch tons of food at the same time. Humpbacks also have fish called Remora fish glide along with them sometimes.

As an added bonus, today wasn't just a sneak preview for the movie, it was also an introduction to one of the best IMAX movie theaters in the nation! In fact, it was on the front page of the Seattle subreddit today. 




MISSION COMPLETE: Guess who got a new crater today? Our neighbor Mercury!

About 12:26 p.m. our time, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft crashed into Mercury's surface, after delivering 10 stellar years of scientific service. Finally out of propellant, the force of solar gravity caused MESSENGER's demise today.

When MESSENGER met the end, it was traveling around 8,700 miles per hour. It's estimated its memorial crater will be 52 feet in diameter. You can see the impact area of MESSENGER in the NASA graphic immediately below. It's in a basin named Shakespeare, color coded by topography, with the red areas around 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) higher than the low lying blue areas. 

To give you an idea for scale, the large crater on the left border is Janacek, 30 miles (48 kilometers) in diameter. According to NASA, the impact basin in the photo is "filled with smooth plains material, likely due to extensive lava flooding in the past."  Interesting. 

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

MESSENGER was the first spacecraft to ever orbit Mercury. During its four years circling the planet closest to our shared sun, MESSENGER acquired over a quarter million images. 

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

MESSENGER was a workhorse. Check out its numbers!

I asked the kids to read about the MESSENGER mission on NASA's Web site and write down five things we've learned about the planet closest the sun.  Here's what CJ shared. ...

In 2004, the MESSENGER probe, sent to planet Mercury, is, unfortunately, going to crash today on the surface of Mercury. Here are five facts we learned about Mercury from MESSENGER:

First, according to NASA's website, NASA scientists believe that Mercury may be suggesting that it is hit by a constant meteor shower, with the clues pointing to Mercury’s shower being discovered in the very thin halo of gases that make up the planet’s exosphere. MESSENGER's Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) has detected spectra on Mercury's surface that, when mapped on to different wavelengths, appear very colorful. In 2012, MESSENGER was reported to have possibly discovered frozen water harboured in some craters on the cold side of Mercury. According to NASA's website, A dark layer covering most of the water ice deposits supports the theory that organic compounds, as well as water, were delivered from the outer solar system to the inner planets and may have led to prebiotic chemical synthesis and, thusly, life on Earth. Prior to the MESSENGER mission examining Mercury, Mercury's surface was often compared to the surface of Earth's moon, when, in fact, they are not too similar. In 2014, MESSENGER was reported to have discovered a hot flow anomaly, or HFA, which, according to NASA's website, has previously been spotted at Earth, Venus, Saturn and Mars. According to NASA's website, planets have bow shocks, the same way that supersonic jets have them, and that HFAs are when hot solar wind is deflected off the bow shock of the planet.

Overall, MESSENGER taught us some very interesting things.

Annabelle went for a list format to share facts she found out. 

5 things we learned about Mercury from MESSENGER:
1. Mercury appears to be hit by a periodic meteor shower (possibly from the trail of comet Encke)
2. Mercury's north and south poles are asymmetrical.
3. The ice in Mercury's polar regions, if spread over an area the size of Washington, would be more than two miles thick.
4. 115 craters have been named since MESSENGER's first flyby of Mercury.
5. A hot flow anomaly (HFA) was detected on Mercury in 2014. According to NASA, a hot flow anomaly is made of very hot solar wind deflected off a bow shock, much like one on a supersonic jet. Hot flow anomalies have been seen on Earth, Venus, Saturn and Mars.

We watched a short (silent) movie about MESSENGER, featuring many of its images. 

https://youtu.be/ENwD31EDFjc