Asteroid Incoming

As we sit soundly in our homes, a menace lurks up in the sky, slowly approaching Earth more and more every year. This menace is an asteroid, that could bring about the downfall of humanity. NASA has named this asteroid Apophis, after the Egyptian god of evil.

Apophis is estimated to hit the Earth in 2036, a shockingly soon date. Scientists all around the Earth have collaberated ideas to stop this catastrophe from occuring. Of course, there is no certainty that it will collide with us. On a rating of 1 to 10, there is a 4 rating of collision. However scientists must be prepared for the worst. so, they came up with a plan.

The easiest plan could be the solution. NASA will send two space crafts. One will collide with Apophis at a ridiculously high speed, while the other craftt will study the change in the rocks orbit. But this is no gaurentee.

Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer from Queen's University Belfast, said: "When it does pass close to us on April 13 2029, the Earth will deflect it and change its orbit. There's a small possibility that if it passes through a particular point in space, the so-called keyhole, ... the Earth's gravity will change things so that when it comes back around again in 2036, it will collide with us." The chance of Apophis passing through the keyhole, a 600-metre patch of space, is 1 in 5,500 based on current information.

So, there is hope of survival. Untill then, keep on working scientists! Valuble info from http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/dec/07/spaceexploration.research

Honey Bees Vanish from Earth

As humans buy fruit from the grocery store, or as we gaze at beautiful flower garden and inhale the wonderful scent, people don't realise who are responsible for these pleasures. Well, the answer is honey bees. However, we might not have as much fruit in the future as we do now. Honey Bees have been rapidly vanishing from the Earth for 35 years now. No one is sure why this is happening. Some people say that this is due to global warming or desecration to forests. German bee expert Professor Joergen Tautz from Wurzburg University said: "Bees are vital to biodiversity. There are 130,000 plants for example for which bees are essential to pollination, from melons to pumpkins, raspberries and all kind of fruit trees - as well as animal fodder - like clover." As stated, bees serve an extensive role in ecology. So, when plants are ready to be pollinated, bees come and take the pollen to make honey. But if the plants are not pollinated, the plants decompose instead of turning into seeds to allow new life. Eventually, there might be no more honey bees, which would lead to no more plants, endangering the animal kingdom. To conclude we must do something about the extinction of bees before time runs out.

Valuble informatin from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1545516/Honey-bees-in-US-facing-extinction.html

The Sun: An Essential Key in Food Chains

From polar bears to crocodiles to even humans, all organisms need the sun to survive. Though the sun may be on the bottom of the food chain, every organism relies on the sun's energy and resources to prosper.
Many people think that plants and fungi are on the bottom of the food chain. Yet as organisms, they must have someway to consume energy. This is done through photosynthesis. The plants absorb energy through sunlight and make it into glucose. So say in a desert food chain, a coyote eats a roadrunner, who eats a snake, who eats a mouse, who eats a cactus, who absorbs sunlight. So, if the sun is blocked out, the cactus that the mouse should have eaten does not grow so the mouse starves to death. The same happens to the snake, roadtunner, and coyote. And right there is whole region wiped out due to the absense of the sun. So, the sun is important to everyone. Even us humans. We eat animals that eat plants that use sunlight. So we, as omnivores, would starve from the lack of plants and animals if the sun should cease to serve it's purpose. In conclution, for a sucessful ecosystem, the sun is a valuble factor.

Valuble info from: http://http://digital-desert.com/wildlife/food-chains/

New Horizons Is On Its Way

As humans discover and seek out the last regions unexplored in our solar system, Pluto became the last world to be unvisited. Space crafts have explored every other planet. Now Pluto is the object left, and NASA has already sent a craft there. That craft is New Horizons, which will pass by Pluto in 2015. It is the size of a grand piano, and is certainly on its way.
Launched on January 16, 2006, its mission is to land and explore Pluto and then to go on out to the edge of the solar system and explore the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is much bigger than our asteroid belt. It is home to many dwarf planets including Pluto, Makemake, Haumea, and many more.
Glen Fountain, the project manger, says that "You've got to remember that it takes nine-and-half years to even get to where we want to take the mission. So we need a highly reliable system. So, we have built into the electronics nearly two of everything. We are redundant. We have two guidance control processors, computers. We have two command and data handling processors. We have two solid-state recorders. Even if there is a failure, you can switch from one to the other."
So, as said in the quote, since New Horizons is going to take so long to reach Pluto, it is using the highest technology to get there. Well, until 2015, lets wish New Horizons a sucessful jouney.

http://http//www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/glen_fountain_transcript.html
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_993.html

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Hi! My name is Sokka. I am excited to become a part of this cyber-world. Woo-hoo!