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LIVING WITH A STAR:
What if you woke up one morning and found
your whole planet had been swallowed by the atmosphere of a star?
Don't laugh, it could happen to you, and NASA has a special program
to deal with it: full
story.
SUNSET PLANETS: This
week, two bright lights are beaming through the sunset. "Venus
and Mercury looked great together this evening," reports Becky
Ramotowski, who sends this twilight photo from Tijeras, New Mexico:
Tonight, August 20th, the two planets are at closest
approach--only 1o apart. To see them, look low and due
west immediately after sunset. Venus pops out of the twilight first,
followed by Mercury a short while later. The view through binoculars
is dynamite.
THERE'S A MOON IN
MY WATER! Last night in Esfahan, Iran, photographer
Pouyan Shahidi glanced into his cup of water and found ... the Moon:
It's practically a non sequitur. Except for relatively small amounts
of ice that might
exist near the lunar poles, the Moon is bone dry. Floating in
water is the last place you'd expect to find it.
"Water has always been precious in Iran," notes Shahidi.
"Ancient Persians invented
the underground aqueduct called Kariz or Qanat. By building aqueducts
underground, they could convey subterranean water from the heart
of mountains to dry lands where great cities, vast farms and famous
'Persian gardens' were cultivated. The cloth in this photo is made
in Varzaneh, a village near one of deserts of Iran where people
really appreciate the value of H2O. A reflection of the
dry, lifeless Moon in a Persian clay cup full of water reminds us
how important water is to the green lands of Earth."
Aug.
16th Lunar Eclipse Gallery
[Interactive
Eclipse Map]
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