Thursday, May 14, 2015

Voyager 1 and 2

Humans have always gone to the frontiers and explored making the last true frontier outer space.  Humans have always been fascinated by space and have always to the stars for directions or a familiar pattern. Recently humans have been sending things to outer space and now the Voyager 1 and 2 have crossed the heliosphere.  The heliosphere is the immense magnetic bubble containing our solar system and it extends beyond Pluto and Voyagers 1 and 2 are now there first and only ships humans have created to leave the heliosphere and enter interstellar space.  Voyager 1 was launched September 5, 1977 but is traveling 38,000 mph and while Voyager 2 was launched August 20, 1977 and has been traveling 35,000 mph. This means that even though Voyager 2 was launched first Voyager 1 was able to pass Voyager 2 because Voyager 1 is traveling faster.  Both are still operational and continue to provide data about interstellar space. 


Monday, May 4, 2015

                                          The Pyramid of Cholula

 
The Pyramid looks like hill from the distance


The tallest pyramid in the world is the pyramid of Giza in Egypt. However the largest pyramid in terms of volume is the pyramid of Cholula in Puebla, Mexico. Cholula is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Mexico being inhabited since 2 Century BC.  It is 180 feet tall but is 1300 by 1300 feet wide making it the largest pyramid (in volume) in the world. After the city was conquered the Spanish built lots of churches in the city and one of the churches was built above the pyramid. Now from far  it looks like a hill with a church on top of it and there are parts that have been restored for the public. 


A restored Section of the Pyramid

Friday, April 24, 2015

                                                     Hyperion

Hyperion Towers above other surrounding Trees 

The tallest thing to ever live on earth is not an brontosaurus or argentinosaurus, but a living tree in Northern California called Hyperion. Hyperion is a coast redwood and at 379.3 ft tall makes it the tallest tree and living thing on earth. Hyperion was discovered on August 25, 2006, by Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor in a remote spot of Redwood National and State Parks and its exact locations is secret because of the fear that the humans visiting would harm or damage the ecosystem. Although the tallest tree it is not the largest by volume because that record belongs to a tree called General Sherman located in California's Sequoia National Park.  It’s believed to be about 700–800 years old.


    The Cave of the Crystals




The Cave of the Crystals is a cave 980 ft below the surface in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico. It is a cave with some of the largest natural crystals ever found. The cave is relatively unexplored because of its extreme conditions with air temperatures of 136 °F with 90 to 99 percent humidity. The cave is on a fault above a magma chamber which heated the groundwater over long periods of time turned the sulfide ions in the water into the crystals. Although scientists believe there may be more rooms to the chamber they are planning of sealing it and allowing the water to rise(a mining company drained the water to explore the cave) because the crystals deteriorate in air  and  further exploration would require demolishing some of the crystals. 

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Boston Marathon



This year was the 119th Boston Marathon and took place April 20th 2015. The race is 26.2 miles and was on a light and rainy day. This year was the second anniversary of the Boston Bombings (2013) and security measures were in place like previous races. The men's race was won by Lelisa Desisa from Ethiopia with a time of 2:09:17 and Caroline Rotich of Kenya won the women's race with a time of 2:24:55. Although no records were broken both finished with great times. 
The route of the Marathon