The flu still has me down ... now I'm trying desperately to re-hydrate what was de-hydrated. Don't ask, and I won't tell. But, it meant no morning post again. Instead, I hope you will enjoy these wonderful things gleaned from recent science news.
The first image is today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (link at right). Focus your attention on the polar ice cap, and you will quickly observe the swath of brown dust that has swept across the white surface. Dust storms like these are considered harbingers of spring on Mars.
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The next image is also Mars, and was Astronomy Picture of the Day on January 20. The mystery here is the striated lines that almost look like trees. Astronomers assure us that the striations are not trees, but having read WAY too much Edgar Rice Burroughs, I'm not totally convinced.
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And one more picture from Mars -- this one is perhaps the first photo of Mars' two tiny moons -- Deimos and Phobos -- which are both less than 20 miles across -- where they are captured together in the same image. This photo was located
here, where you will also find an interesting animation of the two moons interacting.
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And finally, while we're still on the topic of Mars, here is a photo I posted elsewhere the other day of a "fog bow" taken from the top of one of the Hawaiian volcanoes. This photo was Astronomy Picture of the Day on February 2. The bow itself was caused by moonlight; the bright "star" in the upper left is actually Mars. The photo was taken during the conjunction between the Moon and Mars that occurred during last week's "Wolf Moon" (the largest full moon of the year).
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It must have been
moonbow ...
Anyway. I have a few more photos to post, but I'll save them for another time. For now, I suddenly feel hungry for spaghetti, and as luck would have it, I have spaghetti at hand. I THINK this is a good sign. Catch you later.
Until then ...
