Have you been looking for a good piece of land to invest in? Perhaps something a little bit out of town, undeveloped... even untouched wilderness?
Boy oh boy, have I got the place for you!
Move a few rocks out of the way and there's no reason this can't be transformed into paradise. Or at least a home away from home.
There's a great variety of scenic terrain, from steep rocky cliffs...
... to smooth plains.
Where could this priceless gem be located?
Death Valley?
Iran?
North Africa?
Okay I'll stop the charade -- due to my decision not to Photoshop the color of the atmosphere in these photos, you may have guessed that these pictures were taken on MARS. Yep, Mars. As in, the one that's 43,000,000 miles away from Earth. Isn't it amazing that we can receive these detailed photographs from so far away?
For anyone who doesn't know, since
January 2004 there have been two "rovers" traversing the surface of Mars. They are named
Spirit and
Opportunity. They were designed to last
3 months, and have solar panels to recharge their batteries, but they have far surpassed NASA's expectations and are still going after
3 1/2 years! The folks at NASA control them from Earth like very fancy & expensive remote control cars. They are equipped with not only cameras and solar panels, but several highly specialized instruments used for digging around in the sand and rocks, analyzing samples, detecting temperatures, etc. Right now there are severe dust storms on Mars, which is a threat to both rovers because since there is so much dust in the atmosphere, not much sunlight can get through to charge their batteries. So, right now NASA is limiting the rovers' movement in order to conserve energy.
Go ahead, call me a nerd. But I think this stuff is interesting! A few facts I've learned recently about our solar system, by regularly visiting this link:
Mars has ice at its poles.
One of Saturn's moons, Titan, has lakes and seas of liquid methane.
The tallest known cliff in the solar system is called Verona Rupes and is located on Miranda, a moon of Uranus. The cliff is 10 times higher than the deepest part of the Grand Canyon, and based on Miranda's low gravity, it would take someone 12 minutes to hit the ground if they jumped off the top of Verona Rupes.
There is a planet orbiting our Sun called Eris. It's twice as far away as Pluto but it is bigger (has more mass) and it has a moon orbiting it called Dysnomia.
Or did you know that there's a spacecraft on its way to study Pluto, and it recently passed by Jupiter? Or that there's one called Cassini that's been orbiting Saturn for the past couple of years, studying its rings and moons and sending back some amazing images? Or how about the fact that there are several PEOPLE living at the International Space Station RIGHT NOW??
I know I know, you've been waiting nearly a week for a new post and all you get are some nerdy space facts? I for one think it's pretty amazing, all the things our scientists have been able to determine about our solar system, our galaxy, and neighboring galaxies.
Face it. It's amazing.
3 comments:
That is pretty amazing. And educational. I didn't know about 95% of the stuff on your post. So thanks for making me a little smarter today.
I have been following the little Mars rovers as well. I, too, am amazed by how detailed the pics are, and how much Mars looks like Vegas.
If you like space stuff, I highly recommend watching the entire 12-episode HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon." It's been several years since I've seen it, so I can't vouch for the language factor or what kind of an MPAA rating it would merit if it were rated. But it's just a fascinating retelling of the story of how Kennedy committed the country to fly to the moon before the end of the decade when, at the time, it seemed just as likely that he would learn how to fly there with his own arms, and yet they pulled it off.
I too, feel a little bit smarter today! Thanks for the info! And Mars DOES look like Vegas!
Em
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