Voyagers

I have yet to see a comet in my life. Before my life is over, I hope to see one. I don'twant to see one by myself... I would like to see one with someone I love...oh boy, am I sentimental today.

Early humans believed that comets were portents that presaged historic events. As outlaws of the sky that do not follow the familiar patterns of the stars and planets, comets and their long, wispy tails have long been of special interest to astronomers. At one time they were believed to resemble aggregates of ice pebbles akin to flying shoals of gravel. US astronomer Fred Whipple proposed that they were conglomerates of ice and dust in the mid 20th century and flybys of Halleys comet and Comet Borelly confirmed that those comets did indeed look like dirty snowballs, but data from Borelly showed that it has a hot, dry surface, so scientist are unsure on the amount of ice within a comet.

A comet's signature tail is created by the same force that shapes auroras: the solar wind excites the ice and dust in a comet and creates a tail that always points away from the sun.

Who knows if and when I will get to see a comet...

Visions in the Sky

In my last blog, I mentioned auroras...I mention them again, because, mark my words, I will one day see auroras.....



Anyone fortunate enough to have witnessed a full on display of the aurora borealis is likely to tell you that the northern lights are among nature's most breathtaking wonders, as are their southern counterparts, the aurora australis. Generally only visible in regions closest to the North and South poles, the two polar auroras at their best are staggeringly beautiful, rainbows on steroids. Yet in addition to their eerie, irridescent splendor, the auroras are among the largest and grandest of Earth's wonders visible to the naked eye. These natural light shows illuminate the sheer scale of the planet, beaming across hundreds of thousands of miles of the thermosphere to bring this vast, normally invisible highest region of the atmosphere into sudden, bewitching focus.

Most often shimmering like curtains, but at other times beaming like the rays from a giant flashlight, the auroras have transfixed viewers since the dawn of history. The folktales of many northern dwelling people associate the auroras with various mythological entities. Finns bleieved their light was generated by fiery foxes; other scandinavians thought they were reflections of vast schools of herring; Algonquin Indians saw them as departed ancestors dancing around a fire; ancient Scots called the lights "merry dancers".

Only since the beginning of the 20th century have scientists begun to understand auroras. Solar wind is emitted in all directions on the sun. When this "wind" flows into the magnetosphere, the charged particles become excited and emit energy in the form of colored light....So I guess an aurora is a sort of huge orgasms in the sexual flirtations of the sun and the earth. The earth likes to be touched at its poles.....he he he

Star Power

The Sun makes life on Earth possible,yet the relationship between our planet and the star we revolve aroundis both so intricate and so all-pervasive that some of its aspects can easily be overlooked. Night and day,the seasons, the climate, the atmosphere, the tides: all these elemental facets of life on Earth reflect our dependance on the sun.

I am not saying that I want to get any closer to the sun that I have been in the past or even currently. Everyone knows that the sun likes me too much and leaves me a nasty burnt mess...I would like to experience/see solar flares. I will try to refrain from staring into the sun,but it is so tempting!

A solar flare amounts to a gigantic eruption of the ionized gases, or plasma, that make up the surface of the sun, where the daily forcast typically calls for 10,000 degrees F. Some solar flares are hundreds of thousands of miles long, so vast as to straddle the distance between the Earth and moon. Flares are only the most spectacular display of a process that is constantly taking place in the sun: the emission of charged, or ionized, particles from the star in the form of solar wind. When these particles reach Earth, they can light up polar skies in the form of auroras.

Solar flares, like the magnetic storms we call sunspots andall the other activity on the sun, peak in an 11 yr cycle,for reasons that arent known (yet). At such times, the sun's charged particles can play havoc with mankind's more advanced systems. In 1989, a massive solar flare disrupted Canada's power grid,shutting down some areas and putting all sorts of radio equip on the fritz. Homeowners in Toronto watched their garage doors opening and closing over and over again for no visible reason.... The utility company was not to blame...Old Sol was.

The nearest star may make life on earth possible, but as the Bible reminds us, the sun also fries us.

The Blue Cocoon

Atmosphere: Greek for vapor ball
a gaseous mass enveloping a heavenly body; the world of air

Of all of nature's wonders,perhaps the most wonderful is something that is invisible and almost always taken for granted: the atmosphere, the cocoon of gases that envelops the planet and makes life possible.

The atmosphere serves as a kind of celestial moat,a protective barrier that shields Earth (and my poor, tender skin) from the damaging ultraviolet rays of the sun and also from the impact of some 1.4 million asteroids that burn up and vaporize as they come in contact with it each day. Without the atmosphere, we would already be in the same plight as the dinosaurs...because of it, we only need to worry about a biggin hitting the earth.

I know the atmosphere isn't really a destination point and I see it everyday,but I would like to continue breathing in its wonderous air and would like to see some of the wonders that occur within our earth's shell....

Travel outside of the box

Someone asked me today if I had a list of places I want to visit before I die...I realized that I dont have a list of places I want to visit, but rather a list of wonders I want to see...


The earth is so incredible and I want to explore and experience all of its wonders. I want to experience the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the pedosphere (definately my fav as most of you know), the cryosphere, and the geosphere.

Everyone might be bored, but I think for a while I may blog about the wonders of nature that I am yearning to see and where to see them.

I would try to keep up the rhyming thing, but I am sorry Allanna...I think it isnt going to work out.

Crazy Socks!

So, I have been out of town and havent had internet access. Attention all! Even though I am not back in town, I am back online.

I was in much need of a sabaatical, but I think this last one just confused me. Oh boy was it fun thoug or should I say oh was that boy fun!

and I am wearing crazy socks today (love you Allanna!)

Paris Rocks!

Ok, this was really funny. Paris, I never knew you had it in ya!

Aquarius Cocks

Astrology is so interesting to me. While I know it is all a bunch of hogwash, sometimes it seems so accurate.

Take a friend of mine and I...we will call him super sexy ninja assassin or SSNA. We are both the most ridiculous attention whores on the planet. A lot of our mannerisms and ways to deal with other earthlings are disturbingly similar.

Then we find out that we are both Aquariuses and were both born in the year of the cock (he is quite a few years younger than I am).

It is so crazy that we have so many similar personality traits and that we are both Aquarius Cocks.... We can't help being super awesome, perverse, overly intellectual, emotionally detached, loud, and the best lay ever...Blame it on the stars.