Purport

Purport:

1. to present, especially deliberately, the appearance of being; profess or claim, often falsely: a document purporting to be official.
2. to convey to the mind as the meaning or thing intended; express or imply.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/purport

Defying Expectations: Lovejoy lives on!

Usually a sun-grazer, a comet approaching the Sun, reaches the end of its life as it gets closer and closer to the Sun. It burns or maybe evaporates. Like what we saw past July for a sun-grazer for the first time.

This was not the case for the Lovejoy comet, which was discovered just this November! As all eyes were on Lovejoy, it defied expectations, and stayed alive! Worthy of its name, Lovejoy lives on!



References:
[1]http://geeked.gsfc.nasa.gov/
[2]http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/12/16/lovejoy-lives/
[3] http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/track-comet.html
[4] http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/comet-streaks-sun.html

An institution is being overthrown in America!

"
The share of all U.S. adults who are married has dropped to a record low 51 percent, according to a new report. If the trend continues, the institution will soon lose its majority status in American life.

"But what it does bring home to us is that we can no longer pretend that marriage is the central organizing principle of society. We have to take account of the many, many social networks and relationships that people cycle through, marriage being just one of them," Coontz says.

"

Read or listen to the complete report here.

Credulity

Credulity: willingness to believe or trust too readily, especially without proper or adequate evidence; gullibility.

Sun Could 'Sandblast' the Moon

Solar storms and ejections can significantly affect and erode the surface of the moon. "In addition to removing a surprisingly large amount of material from the lunar surface, this could be a major method of atmospheric loss for planets like Mars that are unprotected by a global magnetic field." Learn more about this research being led by Rosemary Killen at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md, and watch her computer simulations here. I envy Rosemary Killen for studying Sun and Moon everyday and learning how they interact and affect each other.

Reference:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/dream-cme.html

First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star!

"NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the "habitable zone," the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. Kepler also has discovered more than 1,000 new planet candidates, nearly doubling its previously known count. Ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of their host star. Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets."*

* Learn more here.

Butterflies

Did you know that little butterflies can travel 2000 miles to find a new sanctuary? That is what butterflies in Mexico did and what I learned last night from a NOVA show.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/journey-butterflies.html