Science Friction

What were you doing on Valentine's Day in 1990? I don't remember what I was doing(probably looking at Saturn). This photo is a famous one. On Valentine's Day 1990, Voyager I was speeding away from Saturn on its journey to the outer limits of the solar system and eventually interstellar space. Voyager's camera captured our tiny pale blue dot at a distance of nearly four billion miles. About the photo, astronomer Carl Sagan opined: ""We succeeded in taking that picture, and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there – on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam."

Cassini took 165 photos in the shadow of the giant ringed-world to create this backlit backlit mosaic. Almost by accident, a tiny speck appears to be hiding off to the left. Look for the arrow. That's your home again...this time from nearly a billion miles away!!!

Smile.... The Spirit rover is taking your picture!!! From the surface of Mars, that's your home where the arrow is pointing... some 161 million miles away. That's nearly twice the distance from the Earth to the Sun. No wonder you're just a damned dot! Btw, I've always loved this photo because its the first one that ever captured the Earth from the surface of another planet.

Captured by the Juno spacecraft on its way to Jupiter in 2011, this is our world along with our closest neighbor, the moon.

I love this because it was the first photo ever captured of the Earth and Moon in a single frame! Taken by Voyager I from 7.25 million miles away, this photo is both haunting and beautiful.

No need for me to ask the coach. I was at the game. Not sure why the Lex. Cath. game from LAST season is brought up in every Corbin thread ; nevertheless, I was there and I know the facts from the fiction(and the friction). The Knights' coach decided to run out to midcourt with his team leading and time running down in the fourth quarter. The ref had absolutely no choice to T him up. Had he stayed on the bench instead of confronting the ref at midcourt , the Knights would have won by a bucket or two. Let's focus on THIS season and a terrific matchup looming between the Redhounds and Panthers. #factsoverfiction

Earthrise captured by Apollo 10- May,1969. Come on people, can't we all just get along? We get so caught up in fighting one another that we fail to realize just what a blessed civilization we are.

Always loved that historic photo. Thanks for posting.

What our sun might look like in 5 billion years... There will come a time when our sun can no longer fuse its fuel efficiently, at which point it will partially collapse, blow its outer shells of plasmatic gas into space, eventually becoming a white dwarf, and forming a planetary nebula in its surroundings. One such nebula is the Calabash Nebula. The image below of the Calabash, or "rotten egg" nebula ,was taken earlier this year. We can see in the picture what happens when a star like our sun dies. The yellow-colored gas(loaded with sulfur) is moving in excess of 620,000 mph.

Nope again. Corbin drubbed Harlan County both at Corbin and in Harlan last year. The only game they lost to them was at Corbin(regional final). #factsnotfiction

2017 will be a year I will never forget because of the fantastic astronomical event that took place on August 21. It was a spiritual re-awakening, of sorts. I felt a closer connection to the universe on that day than ever before. So many great memories and images of that day. For your pleasure, here is an image captured from Wyoming on that day by a NASA photographer. Yes, that's the football field- size laboratory known as the International Space Station moving in front of the sun as the moon attempts to do the same. The ISS orbits the Earth at about 17,150 mph(about 5 miles/sec.) That means it orbits Earth(and sees a sunrise) once every 92 minutes!!!

I love this image of Earth and our celestial neighbor captured by GOES-16.

As we come to the close of yet another year on our planet, I like to reflect upon our little blue marble we call home. It's easy to forget that our home is just a 7,917 mile rock drifting through the vacuum of space at 67,000 mph and spinning on its axis ,from our vantage point here in KY, at 819 mph. I love our little blue dot in space. I wish we would be better caretakers of it. We are not guaranteed that it will remain the same beautiful life-flourishing world it is today. In fact, we are all but assured that if we continue the course we're on, our world will look very different generations from now. For your pleasure, here is the probably the most detailed image ever taken of our lovely blue marble. It was taken early this year by NOAA's GOES-16 satellite. How could we not love this world??? Just breathtaking!!!

Corbin comes home after a very good showing in the prestigious City of Palms Tourney in Florida. They defeated a previously unbeaten top five ranked team from Pennsylvania and had Georgia's defending 4A state champs on the ropes, almost ending their 43- game winning streak. Knox Central looks likely to get their first of three shots at the Redhounds next Saturday evening in the CFIT. Get there early!!!

Here we go again with that stuff! And no, Knox is not a "way better" team. The reason Corbin will win the region come March is because they will be the better team. Knox has a couple or three superb talents but Corbin will win all three matchups with the Panthers this year because of "team" concept and coaching. Watch and see!!!

Hounds led for all but one second(the last second) of the game over the highly-regarded team from GA. Upton-Lee came into the game as the reigning undefeated 4A state champs and riding a 43 -game winning streak. Corbin led 48-35 heading into the fourth quarter. When the Redhounds get completely healthy, they'll be a tough team for anyone to beat. Look for a Corbin-Knox Central final in the CFIT a week from tonight. Should be a dandy.

That's great !!!! The Geminid shower is one of the best of the year.

Friday, December 15 • As the Summer Triangle sinks lower in the west, Altair is the first of its stars to go. Start by spotting bright Vega in the northwest right after dark. The brightest star above Vega is Deneb. Altair, the Triangle's third star, is farther to Vega's left or lower left. How late into the evening, and into the advancing season, can you keep it in view? Jupiter, Mars and Moon at dawn, Dec. 16, 2017 Jupiter shines bright in early dawn all month. Can you catch the super-thin, super low waning Moon on Saturday morning the 16th? Mercury, Jupiter, Mars at dawn, Dec. 23, 2017 By December 23rd, Mercury is emerging low into dawn view where the Moon was a week before. • As dawn begins to brighten on the morning of Saturday the 16th, look very low in the southeast to try to spot the thinning crescent Moon. It's far lower left of the diagonal line of Jupiter, Mars, and Spica . Saturday, December 16 • Have you ever watched a Sirius-rise? Find a spot with an open view right down to the east-southeast horizon, and watch for Sirius to come up about two fists at arm's length below Orion's vertical Belt. Sirius rises sometime around 8 p.m. now, depending on your location. When a star is very low, it tends to twinkle quite slowly and often in vivid colors. Sirius is bright enough to show these effects well, especially with binoculars. Sunday, December 17 • At this time of year the Big Dipper lies down lowest just after dark, due north. It's entirely below the north horizon if you're as far south as Miami. By 11 or midnight the Dipper wheels around to stand straight up on its handle, in fine view in the northeast. Monday, December 18 • The Pleiades star cluster, the size of your fingertip at arm's length, shines very high in the southeast after dinnertime. How many Pleiads can you count with your unaided eye? Take your time and keep looking. Most people can count 6. With sharp eyesight, a dark sky, and a steady gaze, you may be able to make out 8 or 9. • New Moon (exactly new at 1:30 a.m. on the 18th EST). Tuesday, December 19 • The five brightest stars of Cassiopeia are usually called a W. At dusk the W stands nearly on end very high in the northeast. It soon turns over to become a flattened M even higher in the north. Explore Cassiopeia's telescopic jewels (there are many!) with Sue French's Deep-Sky Wonders article, chart, and photos in the December Sky & Telescope, page 55. Wednesday, December 20 • This is the time of year when M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, passes your zenith soon after dark if you live in the mid-northern latitudes. The exact time depends on your longitude. Binoculars will show M31 just off the upraised knee of the Andromeda constellation's stick figure; see the big evening constellation chart in the center of Sky & Telescope. • Algol, the prototype eclipsing binary star, shines at its minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.3, for about two hours centered on 11:11 p.m. EST (8:11 p.m. PST). Thursday, December 21 • Today is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and the longest day in the Southern Hemisphere. The December solstice occurs at 11:28 a.m. EST, when the Sun reaches its southernmost declination for 2017 and begins its six-month return northward. • The weak Ursid meteor shower should be at its peak tonight and/or tomorrow night. Its radiant (its perspective point of origin) is circumpolar, near Kochab at the bowl of the Little Dipper. So the shower is active to some degree from dusk to dawn. But, barring a rare outburst, you're likely to see only a few Ursids per hour of steady watching. Friday, December 22 • This is the time of year when Orion shines in the east-southeast after dinnertime. He's well up now, but his three-star Belt is still nearly vertical. The Belt points up toward Aldebaran and, even higher, the Pleiades. In the other direction, it points down to where bright Sirius rises to twinkle furiously. Saturday, December 23 • Sirius and Procyon in the balance. Sirius, the Dog Star, sparkles low in the east-southeast after dinnertime. Procyon, the Little Dog Star, shines in the east about two fist-widths at arm's length to Sirius's left. If you live around latitude 30° , the two canine stars will be at the same height above your horizon soon after they rise. If you're north of that latitude, Procyon will be higher. If you're south of there, Sirius will be the higher one.

Anyone spotted any Geminid meteors this week? The peak was Thursday at dawn. You might still catch a few "stars" if you head outside tonight(and have a clear sky, of course).

Knox vs Corbin , if it happens in the CFIT on Dec. 30, should be highly entertaining HS hoops.

How much is way undersold, in your opinion? Should they be top 15 ? Top 10?

Knox is in the CFIT @ Corbin. Game will probably be Dec.30. Also, Knox comes back to Corbin again on Jan. 19. Should be something else. Andrew Taylor had 42pts and 15 boards on Sat. Will be fun watching Taylor and Turner battle it out.

And he carries the ball a lot. He should be a running back.

Hounds bounce back after a tough night on Tuesday. When they get healthy and have their full complement of players around Taylor, Corbin will be a very nice team.

Not that I recall. From what I remember, and I was there, a LC player imploded after a foul call and then the LC coach went bonkers and was out at midcourt confronting the ref. Ref had no choice but to hit him with Double T's. Lex Cath losing their cool late in the game cost them the W. All of the technicals were well earned. Without the T's the Knights would have won. Nothing raw occurred.