Mercury Facts

               Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and due to its proximity it is not easily seen except during twilight. For every two orbits of the Sun Mercury completes three rotations about its axis and up until 1965 it was thought that the same side of Mercury constantly faced the Sun. Thirteen times a century Mercury can be observed from Earth passing across the face of the Sun in an event called a transit, the next will occur on the 9th May 2016.

Planet Profile

Mass: 330,104,000,000,000 billion kg (0.055 x Earth)
Equatorial Diameter: 4,879
Polar Diameter: 4,879
Equatorial Circumference: 15,329 km
Known Satellites: none
Notable Satellites: none
Orbit Distance: 57,909,227 km (0.39 AU)
Orbit Period: 87.97 Earth days
Surface Temperature: -173 to 427°C
First Record: 14^th century BC
Recorded By: Assyrian astronomers

Size of Mercury Compared to the Earth

Facts about Mercury

A year in Mercury is just 88 days long:
One day on Mercury lasts the equivalent of 176 Earth days. Mercury is nearly tidally locked to the Sun and over time this has slowed the rotation of the planet to almost match its orbit around the Sun. Mercury also has the highest orbital eccentricity of all the planets with its distance from the Sun ranging from 46 to 70 million km
Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System:
One of five planets visible with the naked eye a, Mercury is just 4,879 Kilometres across its equator, compared with 12,742 Kilometres for the Earth.
Mercury is the second densest planet:
Even though the planet is small, Mercury is very dense. Each cubic centimetre has a density of 5.4 grams, with only the Earth having a higher density. This is largely due to Mercury being composed mainly of heavy metals and rock.
Mercury has wrinkles:
As the iron core of the planet cooled and contracted, the surface of the planet became wrinkled. Scientist have named these wrinkles, Lobate Scarps. These Scarps can be up to a mile high and hundreds of miles long.
Mercury has a molten core: 
In recent years scientists from NASA have come to believe the solid iron core of Mercury could in fact be molten. Normally the core of smaller planets cools rapidly, but after extensive research, the results were not in line with those expected from a solid core. Scientists now believe the core to contain a lighter element such as sulphur, which would lower the melting temperature of the core material. It is estimated Mercury’s core makes up 42% of its volume, while the Earth’s core makes up 17%.
Mercury is only the second hottest planets:
Despite being further from the Sun Venus experiences higher temperatures. The surface of Mercury which faces the Sun sees temperatures of up to 427°C, whilst on the alternate side this can be as low as -173°C. This is due to the planet having no atmosphere to help regulate the temperature.
Mercury is the most cratered planet in the Solar System:
Unlike many other planets which “self-heal” through natural geological processes, the surface of Mercury is covered in craters. These are caused by numerous encounters with asteroids and comets. Most Mercurian craters are named after famous writers and artists. Any crater larger than 250 kilometres in diameter is referred to as a Basin. The Caloris Basin is the largest impact crater on Mercury covering approximately 1,550 km in diameter and was discovered in 1974 by the Mariner 10 probe.
Only two spacecraft have ever visited Mercury:
Owing to its proximity to the Sun, Mercury is a difficult planet to visit. During 1974 and 1975 Mariner 10 flew by Mercury three times, during this time they mapped just under half of the planet’s surface. On August 3rd 2004, the Messenger probe was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, this was the first spacecraft to visit since the mid 1970′s.
Mercury is named for the Roman messenger to the gods:
The exact date of Mercury’s discovery is unknown as it pre-dates its first historical mention, one of the first mentions being by the Sumerians around in 3,000 BC.
Mercury has an atmosphere (sort of):
Mercury has just 38 percent the gravity of Earth this is too little to hold on to what atmosphere it has which is blown away by solar winds. However while gases escape into space they are constantly being replenished at the same time by the same solar minds, radioactive decay and dust caused by micrometeorites

   Sun Facts 

             

        The Sun or Sol, is the star at the centre of our solar system and is responsible for the Earth’s climate and weather. The Sun is an almost perfect sphere with a difference of just 10km in diameter between the poles and the equator. The average radius of the Sun is 695,508 km (109.2 x that of the Earth) of which 20–25% is the core.

Star Profile

Age: 4.6 Billion Years
Type: Yellow Dwarf (G2V)
Diameter: 1,392,684 km
Circumference at Equator: 4,370,005.6 km
Mass: 1,989,100,000,000,000,000,000 billion kg (333,060 x Earth)
Surface Temperature: 5500 °C

Size of the Sun

Facts about the Sun

One million Earths could fit inside the Sun:
If a hollow Sun was filled up with spherical Earths then around 960,000 would fit inside. On the other hand if these Earths were squished inside with no wasted space then around 1,300,000 would fit inside. The Suns surface area is 11,990 times that of the Earth’s.
Eventually, the Sun will consume the Earth:
When all the Hydrogen has been burned, the Sun will continue for about 130 million more years, burning Helium, during which time it will expand to the point that it will engulf Mercury and Venus and the Earth. At this stage it will have become a red giant
The Sun will one day be about the size of Earth:
After its red giant phase, the Sun will collapse, retaining its enormous mass, but containing the approximate volume of our planet. When this happens, it will be called a white dwarf.
The Sun contains 99.86% of the mass in the Solar System:
The mass of the Sun is approximately 330,000 times greater than that of Earth. It is almost three quarters Hydrogen, whilst most of the remaining mass is Helium.
The Sun is an almost perfect sphere:
There is only a 10 kilometre difference in its polar diameter compared to its equatorial diameter. Considering the vast expanse of the Sun, this means it is the closest thing to a perfect sphere that has been observed in nature.
Light from the Sun takes eight minutes to reach Earth:
With a mean average distance of 150 million kilometres from Earth and with light travelling at 300,000 kilometres per second, dividing one by the other gives us an approximate time of 500 seconds, or eight minutes and 20 seconds. Although this energy reaches Earth in a few minutes, it will already have taken millions of years to travel from the Sun’s core to its surface.
The Sun travels at 220 kilometres per second:
The Sun is 24,000-26,000 light years from the galactic centre and it takes the Sun 225-250 million years to complete an orbit of the centre of the Milky Way.
The distance from the Sun to Earth changes throughout the year:
Because the Earth travels on an elliptical orbit around the Sun, the distance between the two bodies varies from 147 to 152 million kilometres. The distance between the Earth and the Sun is called an Astronomical Unit (AU).
The Sun is middle-aged:
At around 4.5 billion years old, the Sun has already burned off about half of its store of Hydrogen. It has enough left to continue to burn Hydrogen for approximately another 5 billion years. The Sun is currently a type of star known as a Yellow Dwarf
The Sun has a very strong magnetic field:
Solar flares occur when magnetic energy is released by the Sun during magnetic storms, which we see as sunspots. In sunspots, the magnetic lines are twisted and they spin, much like a tornado would on Earth.
The temperature inside the Sun can reach 15 million degrees Celsius:
At the Sun’s core, energy is generated by nuclear fusion, as Hydrogen converts to Helium. Because hot objects generally expand, the Sun would explode like a giant bomb if it weren’t for its enormous gravitational force.
The Sun generates solar wind:
This is a stream of charged particles, which travels through the Solar System at approximately 450 kilometres per second. Solar wind occurs where the magnetic field of the Sun extends into space instead of following its surface.

Satellites

Name		Distance from Sun		Type
Mercury		57,909,227 km (0.39 AU)		Planet
Venus		108,209,475 km (0.73 AU)	Planet
Earth		149,598,262 km (1 AU)		Planet
Mars		227,943,824 km (1.38 AU)	Planet
Ceres		413,700,000 km (2.77 AU)	Dwarf Planet
Jupiter		778,340,821 km (5.20 AU)	Planet
Saturn		1,426,666,422 km (9.58 AU)	Planet
Uranus		2,870,658,186 km (19.22 AU)	Planet
Neptune		4,498,396,441 km (30.10 AU)	Planet
Pluto		5,874,000,000 km (39.26 AU)	Dwarf Planet
Haumea		6,452,000,000 km (43.13 AU)	Dwarf Planet
Makemake	6,850,000,000 km (45.79 AU)	Dwarf Planet
Eris		10,120,000,000 km (68.01 AU)	Dwarf Planet

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MAYANS

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MAYANS

 

Mayan City

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mayan Alphabet

 

 

 

Mayan Temple pic 

Interesting Facts

The Mayans were full of interesting facts from their ways of speech to their cropping skills. Much was lost when there was the collapse of the Mayan civilization in AD 822. Here are some of the facts still known today through our technology and recent studies on the Mayan civilization.

Family: Mayan families all lived together- the parents, children, grandparents, and even great grandparents. When they were on their farms with the family, the men and older boys did most of the farm work including cropping, hunting, and fishing. The women and older girls did most of the "inside" work such as making clothes, preparing food, raising the children, getting firewood, and water.

Food: A lot of what they ate was corn; in fact, they even had a God that was the "God of Corn". The corn was prepared in a variety of ways. They also raised chiefly beans, corn, squash, avocado, chili peppers, sweet potatoes, turkey, and honeybees for food. When the men went out to hunt they hunted deer, rabbits, pig-like animals called "peccaries", and other wild animals.

Clothing: Men wore a loincloth-a strip of cloth around their hips and through their legs-daily. Women wore loose dresses that went down to their ankles, perfect for the hot weather. These clothing were hand woven from cotton and other fibers similar to cotton. If the family were wealthy then they would wear more extravagant clothing with ornaments and embroidery on their clothes, beautiful headdresses, and wore much jewelry carved out of green jade and colorful shells. In addition, it was considered beautiful to have a flat forehead and have their eyes close together.

Games: One major game that they played was a ball game where they were rewarded with fine jewelry including a necklace made out of jade beads. Though if you lost they would tie them up and sent to the main castle, be decapitated by the high priest, and then rolled down the long steps to the plazas floor below. This is how you played the game:
o Players took their places on the opposite ends of the court
o The ball was made of pure tree sap
o They couldn’t use their hands or feet/ only shoulders
o To win they had to hit the ball through the ring on the side wall vertically

Mayan Natural Resources

Many of the natural resources were the crops that the Mayans grew. Maize was the most important crop, alongside with beans, squash, tomatoes, chili peppers, cacao (chocolate), and avocados. For tools, they used bone, and many rocks like obsidian and basalt. Wood was another useful resource, and they used it for bows, handles, and levers. For jewelry, they used jade, other dark green stones, and also bone. For temples and other structures they used limestone. Later on they used copper for fishing hooks.

Mayan Religion

Religion was very important for the Mayans. The Mayans had many religious festivals honoring many gods, and sometimes heroes of Mayan Culture. Their gods symbolize everything from weather, harvest, birth, death, and war. The temples were large stone paramids, stacked like giant steps. The temples were dedicated to either one or a few gods. The Mayans also had pilgrimage spots much like Middle Ages Europe. Some spots were Izamel and Cozumel. A common thing in Mayan religion is that priests would take on the name of a god in honor of that diety. Some famous heroes who took on names of gods are Itzamn and Kukulcan. One important thing about Mayan religion is the relative mildness of the religion. The sacrifices were rare untill the end of the classical age. In fact, after the classical age the civilization slowly fell.

Gods and Goddesses:

Itzamn- The ruler god. No gods were really considered the ruler god, but Itzamn was sometimes thought as a ruler god.

Quetzalcoatl- God of peace. Took shape as a feathered serpent, but appeared to man as a white bearded man.

Chac- God of rain.

Kukulcan- Wind God. A priest once took the same name, and became a hero.

Kinich Ahau- God of the Sun.

Yaxche- the tree of the Heavens.

Xibalba- The Underworld.

Yum Cimil- God of Death, and Ruler of the Underworld.

Mayan Geography

The Mayans had three areas in which they lived. The Southern area, or highlands, was rocky and dry with a mountain range that had active volcanoes along it. Other areas had long rainy seasons and deep fertile soils which made that area good for farming. The Northern and Central areas had dense tropical forests, dry grass, and cacti therefore it was not used for farming.

Mayan Language

In the Mayan culture, there are about 30 known different languages still spoke today by some. The top two languages are Yucatecan and Cholan. No city has the same language as another. The Yucatecan language has a few main branches:Yucatec, Itza, Mopan, and Lacadon. The Cholan has Chol, Chontal, Chorti, Cholti. Another language with some importance is the Tzetalan language. The Mayans mostly wrote in heiroglyphs, which historians believe they were written in Cholan rather than Yucatecan. We can not prove it for none of these languages are spoken or written today.

Mayan Daily Life

The Mayans mainly focused on farming, and mostly men did it. They farmed beans, squash, tomatoes, chili peppers, carao (chocolate), avacado, and last but certainly not least, Maize (corn). Maize was the Mayans most important crop. Mayans also used plants, herbs and such, for healing people from illnesses.
There were many materials used in the time of the Mayans. They used chert and obsidian to create tools. They used bone to create needles and fishing hooks. Wood was also used for many things. They used it for making handles for things, levers, and bows for hunting and warriors. Later on in the 1200's they used copper for tweezers and fishing hooks. Besides chert and obsidian, basalt was used for scrapers, chisels, axes, and grinding stones.

For decoration, beads and dresses, they used bone, jade, oystershells, and any other dark green stone they can find. Usually the girls would make the clothing and jewels, along with other chores such as bringing in wood and water. They would make sculptures and necklaces out of these rescources. They also wove baskets and clothing. They would use natural dye from indigo plants (which produced blue) and the chochineal (a bug) which would make red.

Top 5 Trends in Nanotechnology

                For many, nanotechnology is viewed as merely a way to make stronger and lighter tennis rackets, baseball bats, hockey sticks, racing bikes, and other athletic equipment. But nanotechnology promises to do so much more. A more realistic view is that it will leave virtually no aspect of life untouched and is expected to be in widespread use by 2020. Mass applications are likely to have great impact particularly in industry, medicine, new computing systems, and sustainability. Here are some underlying trends to look for, many interconnected, and all expected to continue to accelerate.

1. Stronger Materials/Higher Strength Composites

The next generation of graphene and carbon nanotube-based devices will lead to even lighter but stronger structures than has been made possible by carbon fiber and will become increasingly obvious in cars, bicycles, and sporting equipment, says Clint Landrock, chief technology officer of NanoTech Security.
Dr. Samuel Brauer, founder Nanotech Plus, an alliance of consultants offering analysis and operational assistance about the business of nanotechnology, cites as one area of advancement the development of carbon nanotube pre-impregnated materials which offer better conduction, overcoming one of the major challenges of conventional carbon fiber/epoxy composites. He notes that carbon nanotube meshes have already flown on some space missions, for example, the Juno probe to Jupiter.

2. Scalability of Production

One big challenge is how to produce nanomaterials that makes them affordable. According to Dr. Timothy Fisher, Purdue University professor of mechanical engineering, technologies that can impact grand challenge problems such as food, water, energy, and environment must be scalable.
"The main reason that these problems are so grand is that they are ubiquitous and therefore the related commercial markets have become commoditized. Very often, a technology that exploits a unique attribute of a nanomaterial can offer improvements in functional or engineering performance, but almost as often, these technologies require scarce materials (and therefore expensive) or slow or complicated manufacturing processes (and also expensive)."
That limited scalability often hinders application despite outstanding functional performance in the laboratory or prototype stage, he explains.

3. More Commercialization

Over the next several years, significant advances are expected in carbon nanotube manufacturing technology, specifically in controlling the purity and structure, and in reducing costs due to economies of scale, according to David J. Arthur, CEO, SouthWest NanoTechnologies, a producer of carbon nanotubes.
"Advances will make the use of carbon nanotube materials even more compelling for mechanical engineers," he says. In addition to transforming the automotive, aerospace, and sporting goods fields, nanotechnology is facilitating so many diverse improvements: thinner, affordable, and more durable flat panel displays; improved armor materials to protect soldiers; sensors for medical testing; more humane and effective treatments for cancer patients; enhanced cathode materials for safer and longer life Li-ion batteries; and the list goes on.

4. Sustainability

One main goal of the National Nanotechnology Initiative, a U.S. government program coordinating communication and collaboration for nanotechnology activities, is to find nanotechnology solutions to sustainability. Mike Nelson, chief technology officer, NanoInk Inc., says nanomaterials and nanostructured surfaces are increasingly employed in many advanced energy storage and conversion projects, and nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing contribute to products that are more energy efficient in both production and use.
Dr. Eric Majzoub, associate director, Center for Nanoscience, University of Missouri - St. Louis, says this is done by controlling thermodynamics of solid-solid reactions through nanoscale size reduction and it can improve energy-storage materials including batteries, supercapacitors and hydrogen storage.
Nelson sees the greatest near-term impact in sustainability coming in the areas of transportation (more efficient and lighter materials for autos and aircraft, requiring less fuel) and in three other related areas: lighting, photovoltaics, and energy storage. "The types of nano technologies being employed in all three of these are similar in terms of using nanostructured surfaces or materials to improve efficiencies from an electronic performance perspective whether it's batteries or solar cells or LED lighting," he adds.

5. Nanomedicine

Nowhere is the application of nanotechnology more exciting than in the biomedical field, where advances are being made in both diagnostics and treatment areas. Houston-based Nanospectra Biosciences has been developing a new therapy using a combination of gold nanoshells and lasers to destroy cancer tumors with heat. Based on work done by Rice University professors, Dr. Naomi Halas and Dr. Jennifer West, the technology promises to destroy tumors with minimal damage to adjacent healthy tissue.
John Stroh, Nanospectra CEO, says he is hoping for European approval in the second or third quarter of this year and FDA approval early next year after 10 years of ongoing development and testing.
In the diagnostics area, nanosensors that can detect, identify, and quantify biological substances in body fluids are leading to early disease detection and earlier treatments as well as the ability to detect environmental contaminants in the body.