The sun looks like caramel corn

A new telescope built to study the Sun has released its first images. They show the surface of the Sun in the most exquisite detail we’ve ever seen – revealing convection granules the size of Texas, and tiny magnetic features – the roots of fields that extend far into space. via sciencealert.com

This is Officially the Hottest Place on Earth

The past ten years were the hottest in recorded history, and it has seen record-breaking average yearly temperatures and single-day temperatures in places across the globe. This is largely due to global climate change, and it’s a dangerous trend.

However…

According to the World Meteorological Organization, the hottest temperature ever recorded was a sweltering 134 degrees Fahrenheit at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California, way back in July 10, 1913.

Up until 2012, the record on file – 136.4 degrees Fahrenheit – occurred in El Azizia, Libya, and was recorded in 1922. But it was disqualified 90 years later because, according to the Guiness Book of World Records, the temperature could have been off by up to seven degrees due to the type of surface on which the measurement was taken.

Dallol, Ethiopia, is considered the hottest regularly inhabited place.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Back to Death Valley. Air temperatures there typically reach 120 degrees due to its geographic location and boiling desert environment. The area receives less than three inches of average annual rainfall, and the sun beats down on the ground – 190 feet below sea level and enclosed by mountains.

So, in Death Valley, hot air rises and gets trapped by the surrounding mountain ranges. Then it cools and falls back into the valley. As it falls, where it’s heated again by then sun and the high air pressure down on the valley floor. That’s how the area holds the record for highest recorded air temperature.

Death Valley, though, is not the only hot spot around.

Photo Credit: Billy Hathorn

In Yellowstone National Park, the geothermal pools often reach 250 degrees Fahrenheit and above. According to National Geographic, vents on the ocean floor release liquids at 750 degrees Fahrenheit and higher. The Earth’s core is estimated to have a temperature of a super scorching 11,000-degrees. In our solar system, scientists say the hottest place is the sun’s core which is about 15 million Kelvin, or roughly 26 million degrees Fahrenheit.

If you’re looking for the hottest location in the universe, that seems to be, surprisingly, just outside of Geneva, Switzerland. At the Large Hadron Collider, scientists and engineers smash atoms in their experiments.

Photo Credit: Flickr

According to Inside Science News Service, the temperature inside the equipment reaches an incredible 7.2 trillion degrees Fahrenheit (if just for short bursts).

That’s a valid excuse for sweating.

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Look at These Awe-Inspiring Photos of the Final Solar Eclipse of the Decade

On December 26, people from Saudi Arabia to Guam scrambled to take pictures of the final solar eclipse to grace the Earth this decade.

Unlike in some eclipses, you’ll notice that the moon didn’t totally black out the sun. Instead, it covered the majority of the sun, leaving a visible “ring.” This type of event is called a “ring of fire,” or annular, eclipse.

The NOAA provided more information about the moon’s path on the 26th.

Images of the eclipse are stunning, especially against the backdrop of beautiful landscapes such as these sand dunes.

A photographer in Guam was able to capture the moon’s movements against the ocean tide.

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Solar Eclipse 2019 in Guam. I still can’t believe I got to witness this eclipse. Before anything, I want to thank @natgeotraveler_korea for believing in my crazy idea. @Saerom.h will be writing a story about our experience for the magazine and can’t wait to share it with you all. It’s been a long 6 months to prep, but it was all worth it. Two years ago, I missed the solar eclipse that was passing by the US, but I finally got my opportunity, and the day couldn’t have gone any better… And a big thank you to Guam and it’s people for making my time here even more memorable. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Eclipse Solar 2019 en Guam. Todavía no puedo creer que haya presenciado este eclipse. Antes que nada, quiero agradecer a @natgeotraveler_korea por creer en mi loca idea. @Saerom.h escribirá una historia sobre nuestra experiencia para la revista y no puedo esperar para compartirla con todos ustedes. Han sido largos 6 meses para preparar, pero valió la pena. Hace dos años, perdí la oportunidad de ver el eclipse solar que pasaba por los Estados Unidos, pero finalmente tuve mi oportunidad y el día no pudo haber sido mejor… Y también, muchas gracias a Guam y gente por haber hecho mi estadía mucho más memorable.

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This picture gives us a different point of view from India.

Some lucky travelers were able to fly right past the eclipse as well!

Residents of India, Pakistan, parts of Africa, and China will get to see the first solar eclipse of the new decade, which will pass by them in June 2020.

These images are out of this world!

Did you catch the eclipse? Share your thoughts with us below.

The post Look at These Awe-Inspiring Photos of the Final Solar Eclipse of the Decade appeared first on UberFacts.

Why Is the Sun Hot If Space Is so Cold?

The solar system is pretty extreme as far as temperatures go. At its core, our sun registers at around 27-million degrees Fahrenheit, but its surface is no slouch temperature-wise either: it’s clocks in at about 10,000 degrees.

So is it kind of weird that in outer space, away from the sun and the mild atmosphere of Earth, the temperature measures -455 degrees?

What’s really going on out there?

Let’s go over some basic physics. Heat is actually energy, radiating as an infrared wave (like light, but below the spectrum of what’s visible to human eyes) that moves from its source (ie, the sun) to…everything else. As infrared radiation comes into contact with molecules, it imparts some of its energy, causing them to become excited and heat up. But only the matter in the path of the radiation will heat up –any matter outside of the path will remain cold. Any void the energy travels through will also remain cold because there’s nothing in it to get warmer.

Consider the planet Mercury. As the planet turns and night falls, the newly dark surface plunges in temperature to 1000 degrees colder than the radiation-exposed day side.

Photo Credit: NASA

Earth, in contrast, feels warm even if you’re standing in the shade. Summer nights stay warm too. Even night during the wintertime in Canada is warmer than most other places in our solar system at night (withe some exceptions, notably Venus). This is due to the sun’s radiation causing convection and conduction.

When radiation hits molecules, the molecules pass that energy to others next to them, which then pass their extra energy on to their neighbors. This chain reaction is conduction. Areas outside of the path of radiation are warmed this way – so night stays warm (relatively speaking).

But in empty space there are fewer molecules that are too far apart to transfer energy if they are heated. Conduction, under these circumstances, can’t happen. This is the void issue we touched on earlier.

Convection, the process by which heat moves via a fluid (ie air or water), also can’t happen in low-gravity, molecule-scarce space.

Engineers at NASA takes all this in consideration when they are designing spacecraft for exploration. Out in space, probes and other equipment are exposed to temperatures either boiling hot or icy cold, depending on where they’re traveling in relation to the path of the sun’s radiation.

The closest any spacecraft has gotten to the sun was the Parker Solar Probe, which came within 15 million miles. This was only possible because of the specially designed heat shield that kept the rest of the probe cool.

Photo Credit: NASA

The ability to adjust to the rising and dropping in temperatures to the tune of hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit is a necessity for surviving the extremes of space.

Luckily, our balmy little home planet manages it for us surprisingly well.

The post Why Is the Sun Hot If Space Is so Cold? appeared first on UberFacts.

In an unbelievable coincidence, the moon…

In an unbelievable coincidence, the moon is exactly four hundred times smaller than the Sun but four hundred times closer to the Earth, so that both the Sun and the Moon appear to be precisely the same size in the sky – which gives us the phenomenon we call a total eclipse.

Rjukan sun

There’s a town in Norway (Rjukan) that’s in shadow for three full months of the year. As a result, townspeople have built giant mirrors on the mountainside to reflect natural light on their homes. 00

Even though the sun won’t die…

Even though the sun won’t die for another 5 billion years, humans only have about 1 billion years left on Earth because the sun will change and become hot enough to boil and evaporate our oceans. 00