Kenneth A. Larson - General Site
Science

This general site is just for fun. Kenneth A. Larson has a quarter century of experience in design and construction of scenery for the Entertainment Industry and Theme Parks using Computer Aided and Traditional approaches to Design. Also experience in other areas of Design.

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Space Trash

Reprint of an excelent article on trash in space.

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One Hundred Planets and Counting

About 100 planets have been discovered beyond our Solar System.

One planet is 13 billion years old, over three times the age of the Earth.

One of them orbits Epsilon Eridani, making it the closest extrasolar planet yet at 10.5 light-years. Epsilon Eridani is the closest single sunlike star (besides our own sun) and is less than a billion years old (our sun is about 4.5 billion years old). The planet is about the size of Jupiter and a little closer, 3.4 AU. (Astronomy Magazine, 11-00)

First total solar eclipse of the new millennium. 6-21-2001; nearly 5 minutes. Begins just off the east coast of South America and continues east to Africa, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. Then off to Madagascar, ending in the Indian Ocean. The next total solar eclipse will be in the same area, but weather conditions won't be as good. (Astronomy Magazine, 8-00)

In about 3 billion years, our Milky Way galaxy might collide with the Andromeda galaxy. Because galaxies are mostly empty space, there will likely be little damage. No effect is anticipated on the stock market.

Blue Moon. We’ve all heard the expression “Blue Moon.” You may wonder if there is such a thing. Yes. A lunar month, the time it take the moon to orbit the earth is about 28 days. A calendar month is 28 to 31 days, depending on the month. So it takes a little less than a month for a full lunar cycle of New Moon to Full Moon and back to New Moon. So about once, sometimes twice, a year, there are two full moons in a month. The second full moon in a month is a “Blue Moon.” Sometimes the moon actually looks blue. This doesn’t happen often and is the result of atmospheric conditions, such as volcanic eruptions.

Japanese whaling ship caches 88 whales for scientific reasons. The science is that by recording the number of whales killed, they can estimate the previous population. Now, if the US Census Bureau can adopt this philosophy, we can start to get the over population problem under control.