Category: space

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The Apollo 11 Astronauts Had to Go Through Customs When They Came Back from the Moon

July 20 marked the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s famous moon landing. Those brave men did something no one had ever done before, uniting humanity in awe and wonder at the mysteries of the universe.

Apparently, humanity is also united in experiencing the joys of going through customs upon entering the country – even those astronauts.

Just like anyone coming off a long trip—for work no less—the men of Apollo 11 were probably ready for a beer and a nice steak dinner. Instead, a brief interaction with the local, friendly customs agent was in order.

The astronauts declared moon rock, moon dust and other moon samples on the form as they entered the United States through Honolulu Airport, Hawaii, after landing in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969. Their ocean splash-down was the end of their historic voyage to the moon.

All three crewmen—Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin—signed the form. Their point of departure was recorded as Cape Kennedy, Florida, with a stopover on the moon before arrival in Honolulu.

Photo Credit: NASA

Website Space.com found the customs form on the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol site, where it went up as a commemoration for the 40th anniversary of the moon visit. NASA verified that, yes, the form is real. But it was all done in fun.

The actual return to earth happened about 920 miles southwest of Hawaii and only 12 miles from the USS Hornet, the navy ship deployed to pick up the astronauts. The trip to Honolulu would take an additional two days.

As for the declaration of health, Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin were all quarantined inside a NASA trailer on board the USS Hornet to prevent the spread of any moon diseases. They even had to wear special biohazard suits while on deck after getting pulled from the seas.

Photo Credit: NASA

The astronauts, trailer and all, were taken to Houston. Then, three weeks later they were allowed to leave isolation and go to all the parties and parades they were due.

Present day astronauts don’t have to sit in isolation. When they return from the International Space Station, they receive a quick medical checkup before they are free to move about the earth. But whenever they return, they—like the rest of us earthlings—have to go through customs.

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The Apollo 11 Astronauts Were Honored with Butter Sculptures at the Ohio State Fair

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing, the three astronauts on that mission are being honored with life-sized sculptures made out of butter at the Ohio State Fair.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins landed on the moon and changed the course of history. The state of Ohio has a strong kinship with space travel: Neil Armstrong was an Ohio native and so was John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. Ohio also has a long history of dairy production. Combine all those factors together and you get the magnificent butter display at this year’s Ohio State Fair.

If you are lucky enough to be able to go to the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, don’t miss the traditional “cow made out of…

Posted by Suellen Brady-Nugent on Thursday, July 25, 2019

Dairy farmers donated over 2,000 pounds of butter to help create the sculptures. An artist from Cincinnati named Paul Brooke and a team of sculptors spent 400-500 hours creating the buttery tributes in a cooler set at 46 degrees to prevent the pieces from melting.

Here’s a cool time-lapse video of the butter being sculpted:

Alexander Balz, one of the artists, said, “The space suits were a real challenge, to be honest. It’s easy to sculpt things that you know. When you sculpt a human being you memorize it, so this was a challenge.”

Roughly 500,000 people are expected to have attended the State Fair in late July and early August. Here’s a video with some great footage of the display.

What a unique and cool way to honor a pivotal event in American, and human, history!

And, by the way, I’m really hoping that this butter sculpting catches on more widely because it is fabulous.

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Scientists Discovered a Giant Structure Under the Surface of the Moon

Space keeps getting less and less mysterious every day, doesn’t it?

This most recent discovery concerns the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon, one of the largest preserved impact craters in the Solar System. The US and China, among others, have been particularly interested in the area, and now NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission has discovered something truly massive beneath it.

The structure weighs 2.18 billion kilograms and stretches more than 186 miles deep, suggesting that it might be leftover from the asteroid that formed the crater, says lead author Peter B. James.

“Imagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground. That’s roughly how much unexpected mass we detected.”

The mission was out to measure subtle changes in the gravitational field of the moon, then use the observations to study the moon’s internal composition, but what they discovered was a surprise to everyone involved.

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“The vast loneliness up here of the Moon is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth. The Earth from here is a grand oasis to the big vastness of space.” — Apollo 8 astronaut Jim Lovell Fifty years ago today, this iconic 'Earthrise' photo was taken aboard Apollo 8 by Bill Anders. Before humanity ventured to the Moon, our view of our home planet consisted of what we could see from horizon to horizon. It was not until this stunning photo (along with many others) came back to Earth with the three Apollo 8 astronauts in December 1968 that we saw Earth as a vibrant, delicate, blue and white globe framed by the velvety blackness of space. This iconic picture shows Earth peeking out from beyond the lunar surface as the first crewed spacecraft circumnavigated the Moon. Image credit: NASA #space #earth #nasa #earthrise #moon #lunar #earth #iconic #picoftheday #1968 #apollo8 #apollo #astronaut #astronomy #planet #science

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“When we combined that [data] with lunar topography data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, we discovered the unexpectedly large amount of mass hundreds of miles underneath the South Pole-Aitken basin. One of the explanations of this extra mass is that the metal from the asteroid that formed this crater is still embedded in the Moon’s mantle.”

The team isn’t sure exactly what they’ve found at this point, though computer simulations indicate it is possible that when an asteroid hit the moon roughly 4 billion years ago it embedded itself in the mantle, never sinking into the moon’s core.

Another theory is that the mass formed when the moon was still solidifying – as the magma of the moon cooled and hardened, perhaps a concentration of oxides may have developed.

More research will follow, but anything we learn from the unique basin should help scientists understand how and when the moon formed, as well as give us an idea as to how it might weather an impact from an asteroid in the future.

And when it comes to space, the more information we have, the better.

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This Guy Tried to Explain Science to a Female Astrophysicist…Not a Good Idea

We get to see how clueless a lot of people can be because of social media.

If you’re going to engage in a debate with someone online, at least take five seconds to look at their bio so you can see who you’re about to tangle with. Case in point, let’s look at Twitter user Katie Mack’s short bio:

“(a.k.a. Dr Katherine J Mack) astrophysicist/cosmologist, occasional freelance science writer, connoisseur of cosmic catastrophes”

Okay, you probably wouldn’t want to debate Ms. Mack about, oh I don’t know, astrophysics or anything science-related. Let’s see how this unfolded, shall we?

Here was the tweet that started the exchange.

Then this fella decided to throw in his two cents. Bad move, bro.

Photo Credit: Twitter

To be clear, that’s a screenshot because Mr. Jackson has since deleted his tweets.

Ms. Mack responded with this tweet, which you really can’t argue with in any way.

Ouch. Immediately roasted. Gary, Gary, Gary…bad move, my friend.

Other people weighed in on Twitter with their thoughts about the exchange.

And then another mindless troll just had to step in to try to take up Gary’s fight. Another bad idea.

I’ll never understand the anti-science, anti-education, anti-reason people out there. And there seems to be A LOT of them.

The lesson here? If you don’t know what you’re talking about, do yourself a favor and keep your mouth shut. Or else you’ll end up looking incredibly stupid, and you’ll have to hang your head in shame.

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This Guy Tried to Explain Science to a Female Astrophysicist…Not a Good Idea

We get to see how clueless a lot of people can be because of social media.

If you’re going to engage in a debate with someone online, at least take five seconds to look at their bio so you can see who you’re about to tangle with. Case in point, let’s look at Twitter user Katie Mack’s short bio:

“(a.k.a. Dr Katherine J Mack) astrophysicist/cosmologist, occasional freelance science writer, connoisseur of cosmic catastrophes”

Okay, you probably wouldn’t want to debate Ms. Mack about, oh I don’t know, astrophysics or anything science-related. Let’s see how this unfolded, shall we?

Here was the tweet that started the exchange.

Then this fella decided to throw in his two cents. Bad move, bro.

Photo Credit: Twitter

To be clear, that’s a screenshot because Mr. Jackson has since deleted his tweets.

Ms. Mack responded with this tweet, which you really can’t argue with in any way.

Ouch. Immediately roasted. Gary, Gary, Gary…bad move, my friend.

Other people weighed in on Twitter with their thoughts about the exchange.

And then another mindless troll just had to step in to try to take up Gary’s fight. Another bad idea.

I’ll never understand the anti-science, anti-education, anti-reason people out there. And there seems to be A LOT of them.

The lesson here? If you don’t know what you’re talking about, do yourself a favor and keep your mouth shut. Or else you’ll end up looking incredibly stupid, and you’ll have to hang your head in shame.

The post This Guy Tried to Explain Science to a Female Astrophysicist…Not a Good Idea appeared first on UberFacts.

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10 Facts That’ll Totally Open Your Eyes

They say you learn something new every day, but just in case you didn’t today, we’ve got you covered!

Here are 10 incredible facts that you can use to smarten up with right now!

1. Let’s be official about it

Photo Credit: did you know?

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2. Wow!

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3. I’d like to see one of those

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4. Doesn’t sound right…

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5. I don’t know if I want one of these…

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6. First Amendment

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7. As they should

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8. Awwwwww

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9. That comma is important

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10. Trippy

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See what I mean?

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8 Great Facts That’ll Put a Smile on Your Face

Some facts will bum you out, like finding out that honey bees are seriously endangered.

These facts, however, are the opposite of that. They will make you smile, maybe even laugh. So let’s get to it!

1. Resting place

Photo Credit: did you know?

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2. It’s easy!

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3. Look at ’em go!

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4. Perfect!

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5. It really does

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6. You better believe it

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7. Love, South Korean style

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8. Think about that

Photo Credit: did you know?

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I saw that frown go upside down…

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Amsterdam Enacts a Ban on All Gas and Diesel Vehicles

Pollution is the global issue of our time, and around the world more and more cities are trying to take measures to reduce their carbon impact.

Most recently, the city of Amsterdam has taken a MAJOR step towards cleaner air: the Dutch city has announced that it is planning to phase out all gas and diesel vehicles by 2030.

Amsterdam’s traffic councillor recently said, “Pollution often is a silent killer and is one of the greatest health hazards in Amsterdam.” You might be surprised that such a world-renowned bike-friendly city (30% of Dutch commuters travel by bike) has such an awful pollution problem, but air pollution in the Netherlands is worse than European rules permit. This is mainly due to the heavy traffic in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

The city’s plan is to replace all gas and diesel engines with electric or hydrogen cars, or other emission-free alternatives, by 2030. The plan will begin next year when diesel engines built before 2005 will be banned from Amsterdam. The plan then calls for gradual banning of more vehicles from city streets.

The current levels of nitrogen dioxide and particle matter in Amsterdam’s air can cause respiratory illnesses and shorten life expectancy by more than a year. The city plans to get rid of public buses that run on gas by 2022, to increase the number of electrical charging stations to 23,000 by 2025, and to offer subsidies and special parking permits to encourage residents to make the switch to electric and hydrogen cars sooner than later. We all know how crucial a nice parking spot can be, right?

Hopefully, other cities around the globe will take note – and in fact Brussels, Belgium, is already looking to follow Amsterdam’s lead.

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Physics Professor Wrecks Flat Earthers Using Simple Math

I am constantly amazed by the whole flat earther movement. Even though there’s a truly staggering (like multiple centuries’ worth) amount of scientific data proving without a doubt that the Earth is round, they still keep insisting that it’s flat. What century is this?

A physics professor at the University of Porto in Portugal named Pedro Teles was obviously fed up with this nonsense so he took to Imgur to put these flat earthers in their place.

This is how Professor Teles began.

Photo Credit: Imgur

Now pay attention and try to keep up…

Photo Credit: Imgur

That’s right! Clockwise! Now on to the North Pole!

Photo Credit: Imgur

You have to reproduce the same experiment, flat earther…and pay attention to that pendulum.

Photo Credit: Imgur

You’re not done yet!

Photo Credit: Imgur

And here’s the proof, friends.

Photo Credit: Imgur

Nice work, professor! Now, I understand if you need to go back and read this again.

But remember the most important part of this experiment…forward this to everyone in your life who believes the earth is flat!

Thank you in advance.

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