A life form was recently discovered on a planet that has been studied for centuries. No, not Mars or Venus. The discovery was made here on Earth.

A small shrimp-like creature, a marine life called amphipod, was seen when scientists lowered a camera into an 8-inch hole in an Antarctic ice shelf. The scientists were studying the depletion of glacial ice, but they discovered a glint of color in the video feed. It turned out that the small creature was swimming in the freezing waters that filled the hole.

Glaciologists have seen sea life under the cold waters before, but this life form was new to them. If the shrimp-like creature can survive in -2 to 1 C temp waters on Earth, who is to say that life (as we know it) could not exist in the frigid fluids of the outer worlds?

See it for yourself: video of the 3-inch-long creature.

The big news about Earth’s axial shift, caused by the Chilean earthquake, sounded amazing. The quake not only shifted the axis, but it also shifted the length of a day on Earth. But the “normal” shifts are so much greater.

Since Earth is not a perfect sphere, it has axial shifts all of the time to try to find spherical equilibrium. How do the big earthquakes affect things? “The Chilean quake shifted enough material to change the mass balance of our entire planet,” said Richard Gross, JPL. The shift in material caused the wobble in Earth’s axis to increase by about three inches. The wobble changes as Earth’s mass progresses toward being a perfect sphere. A normal axial shift is about 10 centimeters per year, but the 8.8 magnitude quake hurried it along this year.
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The current solar cycle has proved to be different from what was predicted. We have not seen the many sunspots and other activity we hoped to see, but new discoveries have been made to help in find out what is going on.

It seems that the Sun’s “conveyor belt”, the activity that moves plasma from the lower areas to the visible surface and back around, has been speeding up. The “conveyor belt” not only moves material around, but it seems that it also disrupts forming features like sunspots.

The motion moves solar plasma from the equatorial region to the polar region, and the speeding up of the motion may be what is causing a solar cycle that is much quieter than expected. Research is continuing to find out more information to help put the pieces of the puzzle together.

In case you missed it, here is a short video of Astronaut Mike Massimino’s appearance (July 16, 2009) on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Although only ten minutes in duration,  he quickly describes his personal experience during his space journeys.

Mike was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in May 1996. He traveled on STS-109 (March 1-12, 2002) and STS-125 (May 2009) and has logged over 571 hours in space with 30 hours 4 minutes of that on four spacewalks. He has served as CAPCOM  (spacecraft communicator) in Mission Control and as the Astronaut Office Technical Liaison to the Johnson Space Center EVA Program Office.
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Vernal Equinox occurs Saturday, 20 March 2010, 17:32 UT. Springtime! (For the Northern Hemisphere and Autumn for the Southern Hemisphere.)

“Equinox” comes from the Latin “equal night”. An equinox occurs when Sun crosses the celestial equator, making the length of time of daylight equal to (or nearly equal to) the length of time of night. Days are longer than nights the farther from the equator you observe daylight on an equinox. It all has to do with sun angles and paths across the sky. I found a good explanation at the Date and Time web site.

Daylight Saving Time begins again on Sunday (14 March 2010). “Spring forward” is the phrase being shared all across the parts of the world where DST is practiced.

Seventy countries practice DST, which originated with Benjamin Franklin in 1784. The idea was that people who rose before sunrise used more electricity in the morning than they would if they rose an hour later in the summer. So, the hour hand on the clocks are shifted forward an hour in the spring and shifted back an hour in the fall.
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The second human to set foot on the Moon is going to appear on Dancing with the Stars, a (somewhat) popular “reality” television show in the USA. Buzz Aldrin, 80 years old, is going to be a contestant on the show.

I had a hard time believing it when I heard it, thinking that ”it must be a different Buzz Aldrin!” I had to search online to confirm what I had heard.

One question comes to my mind …”why?” A comment he made during an interview with Zap2it, according to Smithsonian.com, might help to answer that question: “Living on Air Force retirement and Social Security, I’m forced to go out and sing for my supper quite a bit.”

It is regrettable that a national hero feels the pinch to the extent that he participates in a show that he might not otherwise have considered.

Whether you are a classroom instructor or have a passing interest, a great resource for Moon studies is now available. You can see information on Moon missions, lunar landing sites, cultural stories, physical characteristic, and much more. You can also see a map that includes an atlas that allows you to click on a section and see it up close.

Many organizations have contributed to the educational site. It is free and available for use online through the ASP (Astronomical Society of the Pacific).