NASA
If the full moon looks like it’s a little larger than usual this weekend, that’s because it is — or at least, because it’s a little closer than usual.
“Super moon” is the name given to the full moon that best coincides with the moon’s closest pass to Earth in any given year. Do you ever notice the moon looks extra large on the horizon as it’s setting? That mysterious moon illusion will be enhanced this weekend, says the Komo News.
The moon will appear roughly 14 percent larger and 30 percent more luminous than most full moons because it will be about 50,000 miles closer than its farthest point in its elliptical orbit, according to NASA. The moon will reach perigee, or the part of its orbit closest to Earth, at 8:34 p.m. and will align with the sun one minute later, appearing even more resplendent.
Scanning electron microscope image of the nerve scaffolding
SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND — A team of British scientists have designed computer-generated implants that help restore movement and sensation in severely injured limbs.
The implants work like a scaffolding that guides nerves as they rewire. Once the nerves are fully regrown and reconnected, the device dissolves.
Ted Thornhill of the Daily Mail reports that surgeons have always been very good at reattaching bone and muscle, but the problem has always been in attaching the nerves.
(Joel Allen)
WHISTLER, CANADA — Once he found the tree of his dreams, Joel Allen started building his treehouse. No matter that the tree was on public land; he kept mum as he worked.
The computer technician-turned-carpenter created a scale model to test the strength and durability of his oval design beforehand.
“Finding that perfect spot on Crown land wasn’t so easy,” he told Leon Watson of the Daily Mail. “I had an informal checklist of requirements, the most important ones being that it within a reasonable distance to a road, yet out of sight and out of earshot of human traffic.”
Space.com columnist Joe Rao mans the public inquiry phone lines at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. In recent weeks, he’s been getting lots of calls from folks who are dazzled by a splendid celestial show, if “not quite sure exactly what they have been looking at.”
They’ve been seeing the crescent moon glide past the luminous Venus — the brightest of all the planets, or so it seems because of its relative closeness to Earth. Venus appears to float high above and to the right of the moon.
Photo: Rao shared this photo by Roberto Porto, who caught an amazing scene of Jupiter, Venus and the moon conjoined over a spinning carousel in Costa Adeje, Tenerife, Spain, on March 26.
Recent Comments