Welcome back for another edition of The Weekly News. Can you hear my booming voice? It’s super cool–Darth Vader style even. Well…maybe that’s just in my own head. A lot of good things happen in my head, but not nearly enough of them make their way out. What’s up with that? 😉
This past week I took some beautiful pictures of the lake near my house, and it has me all atwitter about photography. Here are some other photos that really struck me. The first half dozen display the beauty of Earth and the rest show many faces of people.
Time lapse images of Earth from Japan’s new satellite.
And in science news, Pluto. The New Horizons probe has sent back images that give us information about the dwarf planet, and in doing so, change things for geophysicists. New information brings new understanding. This is why we explore, and why we need to continue funding exploration. Knowledge.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33543383
That’ll do it for me. Time to curl up on my chair and relax a bit before bed. Ooh…and have my tea. Yum. See you next week.
kimlajevardi 
Pluto should definitely be a planet – it’s got moons! (In my head, that’s all it needs :-))
The satellite footage is beautiful.
When they set about defining planets because of the discovery of what later became the other dwarfs, they looked at more than whether there were moons or not. Pluto is right on the cusp of what they looked at, and many astronomers never bought Pluto as a planet from day one. Tricky but part of science.
I agree about the footage. 🙂
I agree with Alex – give Pluto back planet status!! That Japanese satellite’s amazing. I hope you enjoyed your tea. 😉
Most people are frustrated by the change to Pluto’s status. When it happened, I was teaching astronomy, and my students and I followed the coverage and discussed why the scientists were making the decisions they were making. Even knowing everything that went into the decision, my students voted to keep Pluto on the wall as our 9th planet. I gave them the choice because the planets were already there from the previous year. Following years saw the removal of Pluto, but that group got to make their own decision.
I loved my tea. Thanks!
The photos of Pluto are amazing. Now they’re talking about making it a planet again. Should never have downgraded it in the first place!
Poor Pluto. So much debate. It came down to needing a viable definition, but it’s never been fully accepted by the public because it is seen as a downgrade or slight by many. Funny how that works. 🙂