PLANET OF THE WEEK : uranus

Hanging like a giant cue ball in space, Uranus has hidden its secrets in frozen gases. The icy planet Uranus is a smaller version of Jupiter and not the small rocky bodies like Earth. It have faint rings and a number of moons. Uranus takes some 84 years to orbit the sun. It rotates on its side and so half the time one pole is toward the sun and then the other making each of the four seasons last about 20 years. The faint bluish color of the planet is because the methane gas in the atmosphere absorbs red light and reflects blue light.
On March 13, 1781, an English astronomer named William Herschel discovered the planet but thought it might have been a comet. More observations and calculations by Herschel and others confirmed that it was indeed a planet. Since it was the first new planet found, Herschel had the honor of naming it, so, Herschel's Planet became Georgium Sidus (George's Star) after King George III of England.
Knighted for his many astronomical contributions, Sir William Herschel was born Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel in Hanover, Germany on November 15, 1738. Due to poor health he moved to England in his teens where he changed his name to William. He was an accomplished musician as well as an astronomer. His sister, Caroline, faithfully helped record his nightly observations. See more about Women in Astronomy here.
After the astronomer's death the planet was changed to Uranus as suggested by German astronomer Johann Bode. He thought that since Saturn was Jupiter's father then the next outward planet should be called Saturn's father, Uranus. Uranus is the only planet called by a Greek name rather than a Roman name, however, most of the moons of the various planets are named from Greek mythology. See below for Planet Myths and Lore.
New Moon for UranusObservations of Uranus taken in Chile in August, 2002, with the 4-meter Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory Blanco telescope have revealed a probable new moon for Uranus. The object is likely 7 to 19 kilometers across and would be the 16th moon orbiting Uranus. Five moons were known before the Voyager 2 Mission which found 10 more totaling 15. All of the planets' natural satellites seem to be about 50% water ice, 30% rock, and 20% carbon and nitrogen materials.

When the legend announced his Deafness

BETHOVEN'S DEAFNESS

One of the most surprising facts about Ludwig van Beethoven is that he was deaf. How can a musician, a composer, lack what we would imagine to be his most important sense?
The first people he confided in were those who were gorgraphically far from him, but in whom he had absolute confidence: those who lived at Bonn.
When he could no longer hide his handicap, Beethoven used notebooks in which visitors could write what they wanted him to know, or equally ask what they wanted to know. Because of this, we lack, of course, the most important part to understanding better his personality.

Beyond the fact that Beethoven's deafness was exaggerated and dramatized, it is important to note that it was not complete deafness from the start. To be true, it was an infirmity that established itself slowly, and also developed itself quite erratically. What was really dramatic indeed, was the moment in which the young and successful composer and virtuoso had to accept that he was suffering from a chronic, incurable illness with which he will have to live. And that was going to get worse.
Later no, when he could not hide his deafness anymore, he accepted it. It was in the midst of his heroic period and it was documented by himself, in a quote written in the margins of the Razoumovsky Quartets.
We could safely state that even to the end of his life, there were days in which he could hear a bit. Many many others in which he was stone deaf. Then finally when the communication difficulties became really great, --more or less around 1818-- Beethoven got to use leafs of paper, or tablets, where his friends and visitors could write what they wanted to tell him, or ask him. These are known now as the "Conversation Books". Naturally we lack the answers the Master provided to the questions written there. except for a few cases, all we can do is guess what he might have said.

This blog provides a more detailed learning about Bethoven's biography. To accses, click here.

PLANET OF THE WEEK : saturn

Saturn is the next biggest planet in the solar system. Saturn and some of its moons can be seen in the composite image at left. Four more moons were found in late 2000 and 9 more were discovered recently for a total of 31. Scientists are tracking more objects that may be additional moons.
The Voyager missions found winds, magnetic field, auroras and lightning on the planet similar to Jupiter. Also, the planet has light colored cloud bands (zones) and darker bands (belts) like the larger gas giant.
The facinating ring system observed by Galileo in 1610 is only begining to be understood. At first thought to be a solid ring it is now known to be thousands of water ice particles with some chunks as big as a small car. The rings are held in place by moons that "shephard" the particles and keep them in a series of ringlets. Some gaps like the Casinni Division separate the ringlets called the "A Ring", "B Ring" and so on. The Cassini/Huygens spacecraft will pass through between the "F" and "G" rings on its way to orbit Saturn.

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PLANET OF THE WEEK : jupiter

Jupiter takes about 12 years to orbit the sun and rotates in about 10 hours. This short Jupiter "day" is amazing since the planet is roughly 11 Earth diameters wide.
Unlike the rocky planets, Jupiter is a ball of dense hydrogen, helium, water, nitrogen and other gases over a tiny rocky core. Powerful winds dominate the atmosphere with criss-crossing jet streams, lightning and huge hurricane-like storms like the Great Red Spot. This storm has been raging for over 300 years and is about 2 Earth diameters wide. The Great Red Spot can be seen on Jupiter along with four moons: Io (smallest), Europa, Callisto and Ganymede in this NASA image.
The planet had 39 known moons at the time of this image and a slight ring of smoke-sized particles and dust. The planet contains 71% of the planetary matter in the solar system and so its huge gravity pulls every object toward it. In fact, most of its moons were captured rather than forming with Jupiter. Scientists watched in awe as comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke up and smashed into Jupiter making explosions the size of the Earth.
New Moons for JupiterScientists keep finding more moons orbiting Jupiter. In May of 2002 Scott S. Sheppard and David C. Jewitt of the University of Hawaii announced the discovery of 11 new moons around the planet. As of March, 2003, Jupiter had 52 confirmed satellites. These newest moons are all no more than 2 to 4 kilometers across (if their surfaces are very dark), they all have retrograde (backward) orbits, and take somewhere between 557 and 773 days to orbit. These latest moonlets were announced by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on Circular number 8089. In April, 2003, 8 more moons were confirmed for a total of 60 moons with the possibility of more as the search continues.
The box below shows how the four main satellites or moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) of Jupiter would look in realtime (right now). If you have binoculars or a telescope you can see the moons as tiny points of light. If you look the next night you can see for youself that they move.

COMING SOON

Coming soon to CYBERTRON ASTRO NOTES

If you want to test your logic skills and have fun, then this is the right place! You can tackle some of my favorite brain teasers. The puzzles are sorted by category including optical illusions, lawyer jokes and beyond.

WHAT CAN YOU BENEFIT IN ASTEROIDS ???

There are two options for processing an asteroid:
bring back raw asteroidal material, or
process it on-site to bring back only processed materials, and produce fuel propellant for the return trip.
It appears most likely we will choose option 2 because the equipment required to process asteroidal material is simple. The question is: How much we will process the material? Do we want to return only metal granules and ices? At what purity?
The next few sections cover only processing of asteroidal material. Transport of the asteroidal materials was covered in the web section on transportation, but it's notable that fuel propellants would be one product of asteroidal materials. If chemical rocketry is chosen then hydrogen and oxygen will likely be produced from water when needed. Likewise for alternative propulsion methods, e.g., instead of using chemical rocketry, use steam rockets which consume only water without any further processing.

SOLAR CAR

A solar vehicle is an electric vehicle powered by a type of renewable energy, by solar energy obtained from solar panels on the surface (generally, the roof) of the vehicle. Photovoltaic (PV) cells convert the Sun's energy directly into electrical energy. Solar vehicles are not practical day-to-day transportation devices at present, but are primarily demonstration vehicles and engineering exercises, often sponsored by government agencies. Solar cars combine technology typically used in the aerospace, bicycle, alternative energy and automotive industries. The design of a solar vehicle is severely limited by the energy input into the car (batteries and power from the sun). Virtually all solar cars ever built have been for the purpose of solar car races (with notable exceptions).
Like many race cars, the driver's cockpit usually only contains room for one person, although a few cars do contain room for a second passenger. They contain some of the features available to drivers of traditional vehicles such as brakes, accelerator, turn signals, rear view mirrors (or camera), ventilation, and sometimes cruise control. A radio for communication with their support crews is almost always included.
Solar cars are often fitted with gauges as seen in conventional cars. Aside from keeping the car on the road, the driver's main priority is to keep an eye on these gauges to spot possible problems. Cars without gauges almost always feature wireless telemetry, which allows the driver's team to monitor the car's energy consumption, solar energy capture and other parameters and free the driver to concentrate on driving.
Solar cars depend on PV cells to convert sunlight into electricity. While the sun emmits 1370 +/-3.4% watts per square meter of energy, 51% of it actually enters the earth's atmosphere and therefore approximately 700 watts per square meter of clean energy can be obtained. [1]Unlike solar thermal energy which converts solar energy to heat for either household purposes, industrial purposes or to be converted to electricity, PV cells directly convert sunlight into electricity. [2]When sunlight (photons) strike PV cells, they excite electrons and allow them to flow, creating an electrical current. PV cells are made of semiconductor materials such as silicon and alloys of indium, gallium and nitrogen. Silicon is the most common material used and has an efficiency of 15-20%.

PLANET OF THE WEEK : mars

MARS

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is commonly referred to as the Red Planet. The rocks, soil and sky have a red or pink hue. The distinct red color was observed by stargazers throughout history. It was given its name by the Romans in honor of their god of war. Other civilizations have had similar names. The ancient Egyptians named the planet Her Descher meaning the red one.
Before space exploration, Mars was considered the best candidate for harboring extraterrestrial life. Astronomers thought they saw straight lines crisscrossing its surface. This led to the popular belief that irrigation canals on the planet had been constructed by intelligent beings. In 1938, when Orson Welles broadcasted a radio drama based on the science fiction classic War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, enough people believed in the tale of invading Martians to cause a near panic.
Another reason for scientists to expect life on Mars had to do with the apparent seasonal color changes on the planet's surface. This phenomenon led to speculation that conditions might support a bloom of Martian vegetation during the warmer months and cause plant life to become dormant during colder periods.
In July of 1965, Mariner 4, transmitted 22 close-up pictures of Mars. All that was revealed was a surface containing many craters and naturally occurring channels but no evidence of artificial canals or flowing water. Finally, in July and September 1976, Viking Landers 1 and 2 touched down on the surface of Mars. The three biology experiments aboard the landers discovered unexpected and enigmatic chemical activity in the Martian soil, but provided no clear evidence for the presence of living microorganisms in the soil near the landing sites. According to mission biologists, Mars is self-sterilizing. They believe the combination of solar ultraviolet radiation that saturates the surface, the extreme dryness of the soil and the oxidizing nature of the soil chemistry prevent the formation of living organisms in the Martian soil. The question of life on Mars at some time in the distant past remains open.
Other instruments found no sign of organic chemistry at either landing site, but they did provide a precise and definitive analysis of the composition of the Martian atmosphere and found previously undetected trace elements.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere of Mars is quite different from that of Earth. It is composed primarily of carbon dioxide with small amounts of other gases. The six most common components of the atmosphere are:
Carbon Dioxide (CO2): 95.32%
Nitrogen (N2): 2.7%
Argon (Ar): 1.6%
Oxygen (O2): 0.13%
Water (H2O): 0.03%
Neon (Ne): 0.00025 %
Martian air contains only about 1/1,000 as much water as our air, but even this small amount can condense out, forming clouds that ride high in the atmosphere or swirl around the slopes of towering volcanoes. Local patches of early morning fog can form in valleys. At the Viking Lander 2 site, a thin layer of water frost covered the ground each winter.
There is evidence that in the past a denser martian atmosphere may have allowed water to flow on the planet. Physical features closely resembling shorelines, gorges, riverbeds and islands suggest that great rivers once marked the planet.
Temperature and Pressure
The average recorded temperature on Mars is -63° C (-81° F) with a maximum temperature of 20° C (68° F) and a minimum of -140° C (-220° F).
Barometric pressure varies at each landing site on a semiannual basis. Carbon dioxide, the major constituent of the atmosphere, freezes out to form an immense polar cap, alternately at each pole. The carbon dioxide forms a great cover of snow and then evaporates again with the coming of spring in each hemisphere. When the southern cap was largest, the mean daily pressure observed by Viking Lander 1 was as low as 6.8 millibars; at other times of the year it was as high as 9.0 millibars. The pressures at the Viking Lander 2 site were 7.3 and 10.8 millibars. In comparison, the average pressure of the Earth is 1000 millibars

PLANET OF THE WEEK : earth

EARTH

Earth, also known as Tellus, is the third closet planet to the sun. It is largest of the solar system's terrestial planets and the only planetary body that modern science confirms harbors life. It has a single moon, dubbed 'the moon'.
The Earth's crust varies in thickness, usually thinner at the oceans and thicker under the continents. The inner core and crust are solid; outer core and mantle layers are plastic or semifluid.
Earth is the densest major body in the solar system.
Unlike other terrestial planets, the Earth's crust is divided into several seperate solid plates which float around independently on top of the hot mantle below. This theory is described as plate tetonics.
There are (at present) eight major plates:
North American Plate - North America, western North Atlantic and Greenland Earth's Plate Boundaries delineated by earthquake epicenters
South American Plate - South America and western South Atlantic
Antarctic Plate - Antarctica and the "Southern Ocean"
Eurasian Plate - eastern North Atlantic, Europe and Asia except for India
African Plate - Africa, eastern South Atlantic and western Indian Ocean
Indian-Australian Plate - India, Australia, New Zealand and most of Indian Ocean
Nazca Plate - eastern Pacific Ocean adjacent to South America
Pacific Plate - most of the Pacific Ocean (and the southern coast of California!)
The Earth is belived to be fairly young.
71% of the Earth's surface is covered by water. Earth is the only planet which water can exist as a liquid form on the surface. Liquid water, of course, is essential for life as we know it.
The Earth's atmosphere is made up of 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, with traces of argon, carbon dioxide and water.

WINDOWS 7 IN ITS CORE

While Microsoft is still mute when it comes down to communicating details related to the first Beta of Windows 7, reportedly due either at the end of October or in mid-December 2008, the company is addressing issues such as the high definition model of the operating system.

However, taking into consideration display hardware data gathered from end users as well as the limitations imposed by GDI applications which are not DPI aware, Ryan Haveson, program manager lead on the Desktop Graphics team, revealed that establishing a default high definition model for Windows 7 is not as simple as it might appear. “Our thinking for Windows 7 was that if we enable high DPI out of the box on capable displays, we will enable users to have a full-fidelity experience and also significantly reduce eye strain for on-screen reading. There is even infrastructure available to us to detect a display’s native DPI so we can do a better job of configuring default settings out of the box. However, doing this will also open up the door to expose some issues with applications which may not be fully compatible with high DPI configurations,” Haveson explained. The high DPI infrastructure is nothing new to Windows 7. In fact, it has been around for several Windows versions, and thus a high fidelity experience would indeed be possible. Still, the implementation of the model of high definition TV could have resulted in shortcomings in relation to applications that fail to perform well under high DPI. “What we found was that one of the most significant issues was with clipped UI. Looking into this deeper, it became apparent that most of these cases were in configurations where the effective screen resolution would be quite low (800x600 or lower). Based on this, we were able to design the configuration UI in such a way that we minimized the number of cases where users would configure such a low effective resolution. One by one we looked at the categories of issues and when possible, we came up with mitigations for each bucket,” Haveson added. Microsoft indicated that Windows Vista and Windows XP had so far managed to stay away from the benefits of high DPI. Haveson's conclusion is that the fault is with the Windows operating system and not with the hardware or end users. In fact, the Redmond giant is committed to delivering a high fidelity experience with Windows 7 (1080p) in order to take advantage of the hardware capabilities already available. “We saw clearly that we had an opportunity to help users easily configure their display such that they would enjoy a high fidelity experience for media as well as crisp text rendered at an appropriate size. With that said, anytime we invest in a feature that can potentially impact the ecosystem of Windows applications we want to be careful about bringing forward your investments in software. We also want to make sure that we engage our community of ISVs early and deeply so they can take advantage of the platform work we have done to seamlessly deliver those benefits to their customers,” Haveson concluded.

TOBACCO ATTACK !!! DRUGS

BEETLES

In nature, you will come across a huge variety of beetles. They are the largest and diverse group of insects. There are a large number of species of beetles found throughout the world. Let’s know more about types of beetles.

There are about 800,000 species of insects existing on the earth. Beetles are the biggest group of insects. They can be classified as: Kingdom-Animalia (Animals), Phylum-Arthropoda (Arthropods), Class-Insecta (Insects) and Order-Coleoptera (Beetles). A meaning of Coleoptera is ‘sclerotised/sheathed wings’. Order Coleoptera is subdivided into various suborders such as Adephaga, Archpstemata, Polyphaga and Myxophaga. There are several families categorized under these suborders. There are about 30,000 known species of beetles found in USA and Canada. Beetles are found in all types of habitats including terrestrial and freshwater environments. However, they are not found in the sea or Polar Regions. Most beetles are predators, while some are scavengers and some are parasites. They generally feed on fungi and plants, parasites of vertebrate animals and other invertebrates. They break down plant and animal debris. Almost all leaf beetles are the leaf feeders and all ground beetles are mostly predaceous. Most members of the lady beetle family (family-Coccinellidae) are predators. However, few species (including the pestiferous Mexican bean beetle) are plant feeders and rests are fungus feeders. Some species of beetles are a prey of birds and mammals. Characteristics of Beetles The size of beetles is variable, ranging from 5 1/8 inches (tropical insects) to less than 1/16 in length. They can be found in water and on the land. Some species of beetles can fly and they can be identified by their rough, armor-like fore wings. These fore wings cover and protect their membranous hind wings, which are used for flying. Like all arthropods, a beetle has a segmented body. The beetle’s body is divided into three sections such as head, abdomen and thorax. From thorax, three pairs of legs and two pairs of wings arise. They have compound eyes and antennae. Beetles are characterized by a hard exoskeleton and fore wings (elytra). The exoskeleton is made from several plates, sclerites. They are separated by thin sutures, which maintains flexibility as well as creates the armored defense for the beetles. The fore wings/elytra are not used for flying, but to cover the hind body part and protect the second pair of wings called alae. The ground beetles (family-Carabidae) and true weevils (family-Curculionidae) as well as some cave and desert dwelling species are not able to fly. These species have two elytra combined together to form a solid shield over the abdomen.

VIRUS HACKING

A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the owner. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, adware, and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability. A true virus can only spread from one computer to another (in some form of executable code) when its host is taken to the target computer; for instance because a user sent it over a network or the Internet, or carried it on a removable medium such as a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB drive. Viruses can increase their chances of spreading to other computers by infecting files on a network file system or a file system that is accessed by another computer.[1][2]
The term "computer virus" is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to include all types of malware. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest adware, crimeware, and other malicious and unwanted software), including true viruses. Viruses are sometimes confused with computer worms and Trojan horses, which are technically different. A worm can exploit security vulnerabilities to spread itself to other computers without needing to be transferred as part of a host, and a Trojan horse is a program that appears harmless but has a hidden agenda. Worms and Trojans, like viruses, may cause harm to either a computer system's hosted data, functional performance, or networking throughput, when they are executed. Some viruses and other malware have symptoms noticeable to the computer user, but many are surreptitious.
Most personal computers are now connected to the Internet and to local area networks, facilitating the spread of malicious code. Today's viruses may also take advantage of network services such as the World Wide Web, e-mail, Instant Messaging, and file sharing systems to spread.

RELEASE - TRANFORMERS REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

Movie Review - Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, and Optimus Prime.

After what seemed like an amazingly long wait - Transformers 2 finally hits the big screen in a huge way. This is a long, addictive, action-packed, true to the series, almost offensive in parts, crazy and wild movie that is almost guaranteed to satisfy fans even if most critics are so far not enjoying the thrill ride. Only one glance at most review sites including the rottentomatoes.com poll and you find that out of a possible 100% - Transformers is currently ranking at 38%. Not exactly a good number, but the first flick didn't quite hit all time highs either coming in at a final score of 57%.

I'm a critic but I'm also a 'fanboy' which means I'm pretty much a fan of Transformers no matter how stupid the story or acting or movie-making in general is - just as long as they get the overall feel correct and they did. A friend of mine pointed out how correct they actually did get it according to details that even I didn't catch as I was too busy being bombarded by awesomeness throughout the entire flick. He mentioned little details like how different robots like Soundwave do and say things that are correct according to Transformers history. They also put in little knowing references to past Transformers properties such as the original animated film and the TV show. Overall - they treat Transformers with respect according to the comic books and other stories that have already been told.
Transformers picks up where the first film left off with Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots hunting down the rest of the Decepticons on Earth. Little do they know, a war is brewing beneath them as an ancient Decepticon is making his return to Earth. The humans - mainly Sam played by the ever excellent Shia LaBeouf - is going to college and dealing with leaving current girlfriend Makayla(Megan Fox) behind while still retaining her as a girlfriend. He also has a severe case of not wanting to deal with the supernatural circumstances he's in but lead a regular life.
Transformers starts with a bang and never lets up - the action is pretty much non-stop and the only time they slow down is to get all the characters to the next place to blow some more stuff up. All of the fight sequences are laid out back to back with extreme dedication to making each scene seem new and fresh instead of the same old robots hitting each other. The special effects and CGI that is on display here is impressive. The robots and humans interact seamlessly allowing the viewer a suspension of disbelief to really get involved in the story. However, the story - even if it is a great Transformers story adapted to the big screen - is still lacking, but there's no much you can do with the story when the biggest two reasons to see this movie are the robots and everything they do - blow stuff up, transform and look awesome.

SUPERNOVA EXPLOSIONS

Type Ia Supernovae

Interpretation: Thought to result from the explosion of massive binary stars. There are spectroscopic and photometric indications that the progenitor stars of type Ia supernovae are white dwarfs that are composed of C + O with strongly degenerate electrons. Such stars are formed from intermediate mass stars, < 8 M¤, ### "White dwarfs composed of C+O are formed from intermediate mass stars (M < 8 Mo, where Mo is the mass of our sun), undergo cooling, and eventually become dark matter as they evolve towards fainter luminosities. In a close binary system, the white dwarf evolves differently because the companion star expands to transfer matter to the white dwarf; the accreting white dwarfs are rejuvenated and, in certain cases, undergo thermonuclear explosions to give rise to SNe Ia. Theoretically, the Ch [Chandrasekhar mass] white dwarf models and the sub-Ch models have been considered to explain the origin of SNe Ia [Branch et al. 1995; Renzini 1996]. Various evolutionary scenarios have been proposed, including (i) merging of double C+O white dwarfs with a combined mass exceeding the Ch limit (a DD scenario) [ref. 8 - not on my hardcopy; check PDF] and (ii) accretion of H or He by mass transfer from a binary companion at a relatively high rate (an SD scenario) [refs. 7 & 9 - not on my hardcopy; check PDF]" (Nomoto et al., pp. 1378-1379). Thermonuclear reactions power the expansion of the core and eventual disruption of the star, but not the luminosity of the expanding gas. The energy source for the latter is provided by the slow radioactive decay sequence 56Ni ® 56Co ® 56Fe (Gamezo et al. 2002, p. 77). The supernova occurs when the white dwarf has accreted sufficient mass from its companion to trigger an explosion. However, the progenitor systems and hydrodynamical models are still controversial. (After Nomoto et al. 1997.) Type Ia supernova explosions are caused by the complete thermonuclear disruption of a white dwarf. Model studies attempting to elucidate the explosion mechanism have been limited to spherically symmetric one-dimensional models. Recently, Gamezo et al. (2002, p. 77) developed a three-dimensional model which may herald a new era of model complexity in supernova studies.

my dad, my HERO

PLANET OF THE WEEK : venus

The Planet Venus

The Planet Venus is the second closest planet to the sun. It is located between our Earth and Mercury. It is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty.

Venus is covered with thick clouds that create a greenhouse effect that makes it very hot.
Venus has no moons.

Facts about Planet Venus

* Diameter: 12,100 km. It is about 1040km smaller in diameter than Earth
* Temperature: Ranges from 900F+/- 50F (about 500°C +/- 32°C) at the surface* Distance from Earth: At its closest, Venus is 41,840,000 km away
* Atmosphere: Carbon dioxide (95%), nitrogen, sulfuric acid, and traces of other elements
* Surface: A rocky, dusty, waterless expanse of mountains, canyons, and plains, with a 200-mile river of hardened lava
* Rotation of its axis: 243 Earth days (1 Venusian Day)
* Rotation around the Sun: 225 Earth days
* Magnetic Field: No

Venus is the brightest object in the sky besides our Sun and the Moon. It is also known as the morning star because at sunrise it appears in the east and and evening star as it appears at sunset when it is in the west. It cannot be seen in the middle of the night.
A Venusian day is 243 Earth days and is longer than its year of 225 days. Oddly, Venus rotates from east to west (retrograde - opposite to that of earth). If you were on Venus, the Sun would rise in the west and set in the east.
Planet Venus SpacecraftVenera: Soviet, Magellan: US Spacecraft
News: Venus Express is the first European Space Agency (ESA) mission to Planet Venus. It will be launched in 26 October 2005 by a Soyuz Fregat Rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
The spacecraft design is derived from the Mars Express spacecraft.

Did you know?
Venus is often called Earth's twin because the two planets are close in size, but that's the only similarity.
The next Transit of Venus will occur on June 6th, 2012.

PLANET OF THE WEEK : mercury

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.

Mercury is a battered and baked planet just larger than Earth's moon. Evidence of heavy bombardment from the chaos of the formation of the solar system is left in the hundreds of craters and resulting lava flows on this small, barren planet. The largest crater is Beethoven at 643 km in diameter and is the largest in the solar system. The largest feature, Caloris Basin, is 1300 km in diameter and was probably caused by an impact from an object larger than 100 km in diameter. Some craters have ice in them even though the planet is so hot because the sun never reaches into the shadows due to the planet's tilt and orbit. With no atmosphere, there is a temperature difference of about 600 degrees between the coldest spots and hottest spots on the planet.
Mercury orbits the sun in about 88 Earth days but takes 58 Earth days to rotate once. On this planet a year takes a (Mercury) day and a half!

YESTERDAY TODAY

Long, long ago, singers would wander around the countryside, going from castle to castle, from town to town, playing and singing the songs they knew. These wandering musicians were called minstrels. Other minstrels would hear the songs, learn them by heart and set off on their own travels, spreading the tunes far and wide.
Today, musical combinations outstands with various types of combination including orchestra and marching bands. An orchestra is made up of four families of instruments, string, woodwind brass and percussion.
A scale is a set of eight notes arranged in steps going up and coming down. Singers practice by singing scales. Each step has given a name. And altogether now, its do re mi fa so la ti do.
The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms. Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial. Within "the arts", music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art, and auditory art. How many different kinds of music are there ?
Well is obvious that there is something for everyone. There are slow, sad songs likes the blues, rhythmic songs like reggae and rap. Songs that tells stories and music without words.