"What’s the most amazing thing about the universe?"
Our Brains Are Like The Milky Way
"A single human brain has as many neurons as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy."
"Around 100 billion."
"Source: a neuroscientist filled with useless facts about the brain."- Afferent_Input
Where Our Deep Uncertainty Comes From
"This is one I thought about recently."
"I believe that Carl Sagan said that we, sentient entities, are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
"With this in mind, when we think about the end of our universe, whether it be through a big shrink, big cooling, or what have you, we get apprehensive."
"We probably will never see this end, many of us will be dead."
"Yet, we still get a cold fear in our hearts."
"We are also a way for the cosmos to fear it's demise."- TheClassyEngineer
A Little Perspective
"If you were on a planet 65 million light years away from Earth and had a really good telescope, you could see the dinosaurs."- Swimmergent
lisa simpson space GIFGiphyWhat Got Us Where We Are
"That every single random event since the dawn of creation."
"The birth and death of stars, planets and galaxies, the very genesis of life has led to you being here right now to ask this question."- Jesus_marley
There's Another World Out There...
"Imagine being transported to a parallel universe that was almost identical to our own."
"Somewhere out in the vastness of that universe, there is a tiny planet."
"This much is true in both universes."
"On this planet, there is a beach, and on that beach, there is a small stone."
"Once again, both universes are alike in this regard."
"Beneath that stone, however, there are several million grains of sand, and while they are all are in precisely the same location in each universe, one of them, a tiny speck of particularly clear quartz, hewn from a larger whole millions of years before, has a single atom that is positioned a fraction of a femtometer differently than its twin in the mirror dimension."
"You may think that such an insignificant difference would label these two universes as being functionally identical, and you would be right."
"In fact, they are so similar that the multiverse has long since combined them into one reality."
"That single atom in that tiny speck of sand on that lonesome beach on a distant planet merely occupies two spaces at once, seeming to an outside observer to vibrate back and forth at a predictable rate."
"That every atom in existence seems to do the same is probably a coincidence."- RamsesThePigeon
Loop Space GIF by xponentialdesignGiphySpeaks For Itself
"That it exists."- phillipsd001
The Age Old Question...
"It must be true that either it didn't exist, then it did."
"Or it has always existed."- realFraaErasmas
What Makes Our Brain Work...
"That somehow all the particles accumulated in a specific way and in specific quantities to give you conscious thought."- Sphyrwa
Stars Glow GIF by Erica AndersonGiphyThe Inevitable End...
That whatever our problems are, big or small, it won’t matter in 1,000,000 years (worst being a nuclear war or something). - Reddit
There are countless things about the universe no one will ever know.
But mysterious and, sometimes, unsettling as it may be, there's something oddly wonderful about the unending exploration and study to learn what is out there.
And all the discoveries we have yet to make.
Koch posted a video of Sadie Lou—who Koch and her husband have nicknamed LBD, for "Little Brown Dog"—to her Twitter and Instagram feeds, where LBD's palpable excitement instantly went viral.
Prepare yourself for cuteness overload.
Not sure who was more excited. Glad she remembers me after a year! https://t.co/sScVXHMHJn— Christina H Koch (@Christina H Koch) 1581621972
What a good girl. There's simply nothing better than when a dog gets so happy they run around not knowing what to do.
And that tail-wagging that shakes her whole body... What a good girl.
Of course, LBD's effusiveness only makes sense—328 days is approximately 6.29 years in dog time.
In any case, it seems certain that Koch needn't have worried about LBD forgetting her.
Pretty sure the velocity of that tail-wagging is some kind of land-speed record.
Speaking to reporters at Houston's Johnson Space Center after her arrival, Koch addressed her tear-jerking reunion with LBD:
"She was very excited, I was very excited, I'm not sure who was more excited!"
Speaking to Houston's KPRC News, Koch also spoke of how she stayed focused and motivated while away from home—and LBD—for so long.
"You have to become a mental cheerleader for yourself...It helps you to recognize every day how special what you have is, which then, in turn, makes you feel you need to bring your best to meet that every single day."
The internet was over the moon, if you will, about this adorable reunion.
@Astro_Christina That is pure joy— LorettaFaucher🇺🇦🌻 (@LorettaFaucher🇺🇦🌻) 1581629172
@Astro_Christina https://t.co/pfV7134K4l— NASA (@NASA) 1581622601
@Astro_Christina @NASA_Astronauts This is so precious. https://t.co/Ly3KlBhRmL— Codie (@Codie) 1581622127
@Astro_Christina this video is EVERYTHING 😭— Sarafina Nance (@Sarafina Nance) 1581624743
@Astro_Christina There are three kinds of happy: 1. Regular happy. 2. Dog happy! 3. Insane dog happy!!!— William Singourd 🇺🇦 Solidarity w/Ukraine 🌈 #BLM (@William Singourd 🇺🇦 Solidarity w/Ukraine 🌈 #BLM) 1581629177
@Astro_Christina This is one of the most pure expressions of joy in history.— Mary Robinette Kowal@🏡 (@Mary Robinette Kowal@🏡) 1581655614
@Astro_Christina Never underestimate animals. When a pet is well cared for and loved by someone, they reciprocate… https://t.co/F4M1XUeCuh— Nazo (@Nazo) 1581629501
Astronaut Christina Koch returning to her dog after her record-breaking stint in space is *truly* delightful https://t.co/MbQNqD0GxH— Colleen Hagerty (@Colleen Hagerty) 1581622791
someone hold me i'm crying so hard https://t.co/yqNM9q4QN0— 🎣 (@🎣) 1581693101
Koch launched into space on March 14, 2019, where she conducted six space walks and conducted hundreds of experiments. She landed back on earth February 6 in Kazakhstan, before returning to the U.S. and her beloved LBD.
Welcome home, Christina!
Ah, science. The framework for literally everything in existence. Learning science as a kid in school could get super boring, but every now and then there's those facts you learn that make you look at the subject in a whole new way. Here are some of those facts.
One Redditor asked:
What's the most mindblowing and mesmerizing science fact not much people know about
Incredible.
"You can build a device at home for about $30 to see subatomic particles. It's called a cloud chamber, and muons from cosmic rays, or alpha particles from americium taken from a smoke detector will leave trails of condensation that you can see with your own eyes."
"Here is a video of a piece of uranium in a cloud chamber. The slower, larger particles (mainly alpha particles aka helium nuclei) leave the shorter fatter trails."
"And here is a guide to building a cloud chamber at home. How much you see depends on things like whether or not you are indoors, and your altitude. In order to increase the amount of radiation you see, you can take the americium out of a smoke detector. Americium is radioactive (you are totally safe unless you do something stupid like swallow it, and even then choking is probably* your bigger concern), and will randomly release alpha particles that your cloud chamber will pick up."
I'd drink that.
Giphy
"Near the centre of the Milky Way, there's a dust cloud known as Sagittarius B2. This dust cloud is really, really big -- almost 150 light years across -- and has a mass about 3 million times that of the sun. Spectrographic analysis has shown what it's made of, and it has fairly high concentrations of both ethanol (which is what gives you the buzz when you make a cocktail), and ethyl formate -- a compound which has a distinct smell of rum, and is also one of the compounds that gives raspberries their taste."
"If you could condense it down to a level where it was detectable, then, the centre of the galaxy would smell not dissimilar to a raspberry daiquiri."
Mind. Blown.
"You have probably heard that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on Earth."
"But what I find more amazing is that there are more atoms in a single grain of sand than grains of sand on Earth. Just shows you how small they really are."
Say its name three times.
"If Betelgeuse, a fairly nearby giant star, goes supernova, it will light up our sky for 2 months."
"The really freaky thing is that if it went supernova today, because of its distance, the light wouldn't reach the earth for over 600 years."
She thicc.
Giphy
"The mass of the Sun makes up 99.98 percent of the total mass of our solar system."
"And Jupiter takes up most of the remaining mass."
Just some confused particles.
"If you take two different types of metal and hold them together in Space they will bond together in a process called "cold-welding".
"I loved how a friend of mine explained it:"
"Then the two metals touch and there is nothing in between. So the electrons start going out for a walk and they become confused because they don't know where one piece of metal ends and where the other one begins. So they wander around both and BOOM now it is just one piece of metal because the electrons don't know where they are."
Mud world!
"Sharks existed before trees!!!"
"And grass. Right? Grass wasn't around either. All those dino movies with lush grassy floors. IT WASN'T THERE! MUD WORLD!"
Beautiful.
Giphy
"Humans are bioluminescent and glow in the dark, but the light that we emit is 1,000 times weaker than our human eyes are able to pick up."
"Poor humans, their glow is so lovely and they can't even see it."
The past is in the past.
"The images your eyes give are 1/100th of a second in the past."
"Because of the time it takes your brain to process inputs from all senses, what is happening in front of you is 1/100th of a second behind."
"Yeah. It's crazy how the present doesn't actually exist."
Amazing.
"Water can boil and freeze at the same time:"
"It's called the triple point, and it occurs when the temperature and pressure is just right for the three phases (gas, liquid, and solid) of a substance to coexist in thermodynamic equilibrium."
This sounds fake.
Giphy
"If you move backwards at the speed of light, you will see a still of the very thing you saw before you started moving, until you slow down."
Terrifying.
"The Amazon rainforest, which is quickly being destroyed, produces 20% of all oxygen on Earth. If the amazon rainforest is cut down, breathing difficulties will become much more common and much more threatening. Just shows how much we are killing ourselves by killing our planet."
We'd all be so tiny!
"Supermassive black holes have masses millions to billions times greater than the sun and have such a great gravitational pull that IF it would swallow the earth we would be compressed to the roughly size of a marble."
Pretty colors.
Giphy
"Mantis shrimps can see in 12-15 different colours, while humans can only see in 3."
"Bonus colour fact: you have no way of knowing that the colour you know as red is the same as the colour everyone else knows as red."
"Bonus mantis shrimp fact: when they "punch", their fists move at around 50mph; bubbles caught near the punch have hit temperatures exceeding 4000 Celsius, nearly the surface temperature of the sun."
There is so much out there to learn! Do you have similar things to share? Let us know.
Three women have recently taken charge in NASA's Earth Science, Heliophysics and Planetary Sciences divisions. These women—Sandra Cauffman, Nicola Fox, and Lori Glaze—are now the leading scientists at NASA, making strides towards new space missions and research projects within the agency.
Sandra Cauffman is the newest acting director of the Earth Science division, and takes the reigns when it comes to learning about our home planet. Born and raised in Costa Rica, Cauffman displayed an interest in space travel from a young age, pouring over every science fiction book she could find.
Even when she was younger, she dreamed of exploring the great beyond.
Cauffman said in an interview with NASA:
"I just remember telling Mom I wanted to go to the Moon."
Early on in her NASA career, she found herself being one of the only women in the room, and quickly learned to speak up in a male-dominated environment. Years later and with several Mars missions under her belt, Cauffman now makes sure that everyone in her division is heard, as she leads them in learning about the benefits of our planet.
"What we do in observing Earth as a system gives us the additional benefit of helping humans here on Earth survive hurricanes, tornadoes, pollution, fires, and help public health. Understanding the oceans, the algae blooms — all of those things help humans right here on Earth."
For the first time in history, three out of the four NASA science divisions are led by women. Also, out of the new… https://t.co/qMzqJdYZlo— Mike Sington (@Mike Sington) 1557663751.0
How inspiring ❤️✨🚀 NASA announces: Women are now in charge of NASA's science missions - https://t.co/WqneVZiN3H— Martha 🕷 (@Martha 🕷) 1557607729.0
Nicola Fox has earned the title of director of the Heliophysics division. She is responsible for all of NASA's research and exploration of the most important star: the sun.
She attributes her love of space to a personal connection with the Apollo 11 moon landing—having watched it on television with her father at only eight months old.
"Dad takes credit [for my space science career]."
Fox added:
"To him, the best thing you could do in life was to work at NASA."
Fox became the lead in the Heliophysics department in September 2018 and immediately was taken by NASA's capacity to accept and include people from all walks of life.
"If you think about the diversity of roles that take getting a mission into space, all different types of jobs come together. If you want to work at NASA, there's a job for you."
Now, her job is to learn how exactly the sun impacts Earth, and to further learn how to protect explorers from its harmful radiation.
👇🏾I love hearing that women are in charge at Nasa. Commenters who were upset about gender being highlighted here mo… https://t.co/tm8bER74XU— Akshita Nanda (@Akshita Nanda) 1557541461.0
“We control everything the light touches in heliophysics.” — @nasa’s Nicola Fox at #AGU100 #SimbaOfSpace https://t.co/Mi54kUp500— David Hitt (@David Hitt) 1544546110.0
Lori Glaze is the new leader of the Planetary Science division. Her job is to maintain all explorations and missions pertaining to the history and evolution of our solar system.
Her mother, an aeronautical engineer, is one of Glaze's biggest inspirations. She admired her persistence to be seen in a male-dominated field.
Glaze said to NASA:
"That was a tremendous inspiration for me, as a young woman, seeing that a technical career, a career in leadership in a mathematical or scientific field, was possible."
While in college, she learned of the impact of volcanoes on Earth, as well as on other planets. This sparked an interest in learning about the formation of lava, and the reasons for eruptions.
She was involved in several of NASA's Venus missions, and was the principal investigator of a Venus atmospheric entry probe concept called Deep Atmosphere Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI).
"It's the most diverse group of people I've ever worked with and it's the kind of place where you feel like everyone's ideas are being heard; and really moving along and advancing our understanding in how we want to go about doing science at NASA. I think it's a great place to be today."
Leading Women @NASA. Shout out to excellent leaders, who happen to be women! @SolarGirl2018 @SandraCauffman… https://t.co/q2BVulnQV3— Dava Newman (@Dava Newman) 1557525134.0
Each of these women bring expertise in their respective fields to make NASA stronger than ever.
They are sure to continue to inspire for years to come.
