Dwarf Planet Ceres to Bare All For Dawn - http://clapway.com/2015/08/09/dwarf-planet-ceres-to-bare-all-for-dawn-101/

At this very moment, NASA’S Dawn Spacecraft is closing in on the dwarf planet Ceres, which meeks out its lonely existence out in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, that ring slowly spinning beyond the inner planets’ orbits, separating us from the gas giants, the oort cloud, and that vast emptiness beyond. However, Dawn’s approach of Ceres has already been so Chock Full of odd surprises that astronomers are unsure what to make of the dwarf planet.

DWARF PLANET, GIANT MYSTERIES

For starters, NASA aired a video last Thursday limning a bizarre and vibrant glowing and shining series of streaks flying across the slant of a massive pyramid-shaped mountain.

This big mountain is so gigantic that, measuring in at 20,000 feet, it easily overshadows Alaska’s Mount McKinley. Marc Rayman, director of the Dawn Mission, commented that an amalgam of scientists are still attempting to explain what these glowing streaks are, in addition to two more similarly glowing spots that are also inside the giant crater.

But astronomers hope that as Ceres grows larger in Dawn’s eyes we will get a feed of enhanced imagery of the bizarre glowing dwarf world. So far, NASA has collected the most recent images of Ceres’ surface into a Youtube video from the lowest altitudes yet achieved.

CERES’ HISTORY

The dwarf planet Ceres predates most other phenomena in the solar system, estimated to have ceased all significant changes over 4 billion years ago. The dwarf planet is also the largest known object between Jupiter and Mars, and could potentially answer many questions about how the solar system formed.

WHY DOES THIS DWARF PLANET GLOW?

Many scientists have leveled to the media that the spectacular glowing visible on the dwarf planet’s surface is caused by ice. But Ceres’ albedo, which is the fraction of light a planet’s surface reflects back into space, is known to be a bit stochastic and unreliable. Whatever is really going on down there will have to wait until Dawn gets close enough to the dwarf planet to find out, which is slated for this Fall.

Chris Russell, the principal investigator at the University of California in LA, says that his team will work hard to gather the data needed to legitimize their theories concerning the dwarf planet’s mysterious glowing. Russell explained that their plan is to snap newer, high resolution images throughout the mission’s following orbital phase, in order to compare these glowing spots’ reflective salt properties.

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HAVE KIDS WHO YEARN FOR SPACE?

Dwarf Planet Ceres to Bare All For Dawn

How can this be that there are still #Americans so #disconnected? - http://clapway.com/2015/07/30/unplugged-why-are-15-of-americans-still-offline-355/

Have you ever thought what would life be like without the internet? These days it’s hard to imagine the ‘unthinkable’ of society going offline. For many Americans, the Web has become an integral part of any standard means of communication. It might seem inconceivable that in 2015 there could still be Americans who don’t use the Internet — but they are out there. Today 15% of U.S. adults do not use the internet, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of survey data.

The size of this “anti-trend group” has changed little over the past three years, despite recent government and social service programs to encourage internet adoption. These remaining offline survivors are likely to be the hardest to reach. Here’s why.

Who are these people?

In 2000 slightly below half of all Americans were offline. Today, mostly poorer, older rural and undereducated Americans, or about 37 million people, don’t use the Web. They have never done a Google search, and will probably never read this story.

The latest Pew Research analysis shows that internet non-adoption depends on various demographic variables.

Class-related gaps persist. Those living in households with an annual income under $30,000 a year are less likely to report internet usage. Around 20 percent of African Americans and 18 percent of Hispanics said they don’t use the Internet, compared with 14 percent of whites and 5 percent of English-speaking Asian Americans, Pew said. Among those who’ve never finished high school, a third never use the Web, as well as a quarter of adults living in rural areas.

“How the internet has woven itself into American life”

The Internet has become the Archimedean point in our daily life. Almost nothing gets done without it nowadays and the US is an increasingly digital society.

Previous data from the Pew Research Internet Project illustrated America’s embrace of – and increasing reliance on – the internet since the 1990s. More than half of Americans admitted they would find the internet “very hard” to give up.

Life with no Internet

According to a 2013 Pew Research survey, American non-internet users said they did not go online mostly because they did not think the internet was relevant to their lives and they found it too difficult to use. Cost was also a barrier– 19% cited the expense of internet service or owning a computer. Since 2000, Pew has conducted 98 surveys on the topic.

Although the offline population has been shrinking for some groups – such as adults 65 and older and among those without a high school diploma – real structural challenges such as poverty and inequality are keeping part of the population unplugged.

Are you concerned about 15% of Americans still being offline? Share your views in the comments section below.

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Unplugged: Why Are 15% of Americans Still Offline?