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Marvel Moon
What does the Moon mean to you? Does it call up stories of werewolves or memories of moonlit walks? Have you imagined friendly shapes, like the "Man in the Moon," a rabbit, or a tree in its bright, full face? Cultures throughout the centuries have created stories about the night's brightest visitor and occasional companion of the daytime Sun. Poets have extolled their personal connection to the romantic Moon. It inspires songwriters ("Fly Me to the Moon") and plays a key role in children's stories ("Hey Diddle Diddle" and Goodnight Moon). Ancient and contemporary astronomers made scientific breakthroughs by studying its motions and appearance. The Moon marked a major landmark in exploration with the Apollo landings when humans first stepped on another world in 1969. Scientists now study the Moon because it records the history of our early solar system — and Earth — and it will play a pivotal role in our future exploration of the solar system.
Turbulent Beginnings
The tranquil, friendly Moon in our sky today that inspires cultural stories, urban legends, and romance was forged through a 4.5-billion-year history of turmoil.
The current scientific hypothesis holds that our Moon was born of a calamitous giant impact. Shortly after the planets in our solar system formed, 4.5 billion years ago, Earth did not have a Moon. The moonless Earth was a very different place. The surface was hot, and nothing lived there. Earth's distinctive oceans and continents had not yet formed. Instead of a blue-green planet, Earth was glowing red with rivers and seas of lava.
|The debris of formation still littered the solar system. For millions of years, Earth and another small planetary body orbited the Sun in the same region of our solar system. The small planetary body's orbit brought it across Earth's path and they collided. It smashed into Earth at twenty-five thousand miles an hour and plunged toward Earth's core. The collision occurred within the space of about ten minutes, and left both Earth and the impactor changed forever. The impactor shattered, and its remains were blown into space or incorporated into the Earth. The core of the colliding object combined with the Earth and its own dense core. Earth's upper layers were melted. The small planetary body didn't hit the center of Earth, like a bulls-eye, but off to the side, pushing Earth into a faster spin. It may also have knocked Earth so that it tipped over a little, helping to give Earth the 23.5° tilt of its axis that it has today.
|Credits: Lunar and Planetary Institute.
The Giant Impact Story Is an Unfolding Tale
The story of the Moon's birth continues to intrigue scientists. Some pages of this story are missing.
The Moon's characteristics provide clues of its origins, which are best explained by the current leading scientific model of the Moon's origin — the Giant Impact hypothesis. The motions and orientation of the Earth and Moon record the physics that must have led to their particular configuration. The Earth-Moon pair has an unusually large amount of rotational energy, which is combined in both the Moon's orbit around the Earth and Earth's spin. The Moon's orbit and Earth's spin are consistent with the Giant Impact hypothesis — the impact added rotational energy to the Earth-Moon system. The Moon has a much smaller core than our Earth. This, too, is consistent with the model; the glancing blow of the impact stripped part of the outer layers of the impacting object and Earth to form the Moon. The core of the colliding object combined with the Earth and its own dense core. The Moon was formed with much less iron and other heavy elements to form its core. Lunar rock samples and meteorites contain the chemistry of the Moon and support the Giant Impact hypothesis. The searing heat of the impact drove away most of the gases and liquids, leaving a relatively dry world. Moon rocks have very little of the water and gases found in Earth's rocks.
The Giant Impact hypothesis is the leading framework for explaining the current scientific evidence, but there are many unanswered details. To untangle the complex physics behind the Giant Impact hypothesis, the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) Center for Lunar Origin and Evolution (CLOE) team is using powerful computer models and information about the chemistry of early Earth and Moon rocks from other NLSI teams. With their models, the CLOE team will help determine how — or even if it is possible — the disk evolved into the Moon we see today. Future planetary scientists — the children of today — may continue to refine this story or even propose new models as new data are collected!
The Moon's Childhood of Turmoil
Infancy: Differentiation — The slamming together of debris to form the Moon might have created enough heat to melt the outer surface of the Moon, or perhaps the entire Moon! Like all terrestrial planetary bodies, the Moon underwent a process of differentiation early in its history. Its bulk, brought together by the process of accretion, settled into layers. The heavier iron separated from the less-dense rock in the mantle and sank, forming a small core. The Moon's oldest rocks record the slower processes that shaped its mantle and crust. These oldest rocks could only have formed if the infant Moon had been covered by an ocean of liquid rock — a magma ocean.
Differentiation within the magma ocean produced the features we still see on the Moon today. The uppermost part of the Moon's crust is mainly the rock anorthosite, which is primarily made of a single mineral: low-density, aluminum-rich, plagioclase feldspar. This mineral floated to the top of the magma ocean and crystallized to form a light-colored rock, anorthosite. This slow crystallization from magma is the only known way to produce the single-mineral crustal igneous rock, anorthosite. This rock forms the "lunar highlands," the brighter, light-colored, heavily cratered regions we see on the Moon. Deeper parts of the Moon's crust and mantle include larger amounts of other minerals, such as pyroxene and olivine. These denser materials sank out of the magma ocean, and were the source, in part, for the basalt lavas that later erupted from lunar volcanos and filled in low-lying areas to form the darker-colored plains.
|Apollo Rock Sample 76535
Age: 4.2-4.3 billion years
|Apollo Rock Sample 60025
Age: 4.44-4.51 billion years
|When the Moon formed, it was enveloped by a deep ocean of molten rock.
Credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute.
Young Moon: Big Impacts Form Big Basins — The Moon was born into a solar system still in the throes of formation. Debris orbited the Sun alongside the nascent planets and our Moon. For the first 600 million years of its existence, large asteroids and comets continued to strike the Moon and the planets in our solar system — including Earth. These impacts are recorded as the largest gouges on the Moon, including the large circles that have since been filled in with darker rock to form the familiar "Man in the Moon." By about 3.8 billion years ago, much of the debris in the solar system had been swept up into the planets and their moons, corralled into the asteroid belt, or relegated to the outer reaches of our solar system, and impact strikes were smaller and less frequent.
Imbrium Rim
Orientale Basin
The details of this rain of planetary debris are a mystery. Lunar scientists at the Center for Lunar Origin and Evolution are investigating whether this intense bombardment occurred in several waves, one massive storm, or spread out over a long period of time.
The answers to this puzzle from ancient solar system history lie on the Moon. Impacts threw out — ejected — the rocks far from the crater, where they were collected by Apollo astronauts and brought back to Earth. Scientists continue to study the many pieces contained in each rock. Breccias provide scientists with the timing of basin formation, ranging from 3.8 to 4.0 billion years ago, and help indicate whether the impacts were caused by asteroids and comets. Computer models trace the motions of asteroids and comets in the early solar system to determine how they might have moved — and when — to strike the Moon and other planets.
Apollo Rock Sample 14306, viewed
Credit: NASA
The answers will also lead to other questions. The first evidence of life on our planet appears in the geologic record at the very end of the heavy impacts. What effect did this downpour of asteroids have on our own planet? Did it prevent life from taking hold earlier? Did impacts play a role in the evolution of life itself by delivering trace elements that gave a boost to primitive life?
Teenage Angst: Lunar Volcanism – While cool on the outside, portions of the Moon's interior were still hot, heated by radioactive decay of unstable isotopes of elements, such as uranium and thorium, and the processes of accretion and differentiation. Isolated pockets of hot mantle material slowly rose to the surface, melting at lower pressures. Molten rock flowed onto the lunar surface through cracks in the lunar surface — fissures — many of which were created by the earlier impacts. The magma flooded across the lowest regions on the lunar surface to fill the impact basins. It crystallized quickly, forming basalt, a dark, fine-grained, volcanic rock. The composition of the basalt varies because the magma formed in different places in the lunar interior. Some basalts have more titanium; others are more enriched in other elements such as potassium and aluminum.
Imagine standing on the Moon at this time. Hot basalt lava flowed from long fissures, filling regions of low elevation. Fountains of lava sporadically erupted along the fissures, spewing molten rock high above the lunar surface. Chilled magma droplets fell back as beads of colored volcanic glass, later sampled by Apollo astronauts. Flowing lava cut channels into the landscape. In a few locations, small volcanic domes built up on the surface. Gradually, as the Moon's interior cooled, volcanism ceased. Lunar volcanism decreased significantly by 3 billion years ago and ceased completely by about 1 billion years ago as the interior cooled.
The large, smooth, dark regions we see on the Moon are the basaltic "lunar maria." "Maria" is Latin for "seas," as these areas looked like seas to early astronomers. They are smooth because they are less cratered than the lunar highlands. The smaller number of craters in the maria suggests that these regions have not been impacted as much and therefore are younger. Mare basalts have been radiometrically dated to be between 3.0 and 3.8 billion years old.
Pronunciation Guide
Mare (pronounced mahr-ay) is the singular term for one of these features. Maria (pronounced mahr-ee-uh) is the plural form.
|Mare Imbrium
|Southwestern Mare Imbrium
Adulthood: Ongoing Impacts and Human Exploration — For the last one billion years, our Moon has been geologically inactive except for small meteoroids pummeling its surface, breaking the rocks and gradually adding to the layer of fine lunar dust — regolith — that covers the surface. In some places, the regolith may be thicker than 50 feet (15 meters). The Moon has no atmosphere, flowing water, or life to erode or disturb its surface features. Other than impactors, only a few spacecraft, and the footsteps of 12 humans, have reshaped its landscape. Even the most ancient craters are preserved — although they may be covered by other craters and the debris from impacts!
Scientists determine the relative ages of cratered surfaces, such as those on the Moon, by counting craters! The more craters a surface has, the older it is — just like the more candles you have on your birthday cake, the older you are. Scientists also use the same observations the children did — superposition and crosscutting of features — to determine which crater happened first, second, third, and so on.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is currently orbiting the Moon, is sending back high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface. Scientists use these images, and images from other lunar orbiters, to understand which areas of the Moon formed as part of its original crust and the relative ages of younger surfaces.
While craters allow scientists to determine the relative ages of surfaces on the Moon, the Apollo astronauts brought back rock samples that scientists radiometrically dated to determine the absolute ages. These samples come from only six places on the Moon's surface; lunar researchers now know the absolute ages of the basins in these places. With these specific sample ages, the scientists can extrapolate across the lunar surface. In this way they can determine the ages of other features and they can calibrate the ages of surfaces they dated by crater counting.
The data returned by orbiting spacecraft and the Apollo program reveal much about the formation and evolution of our Moon and, in turn, of our own Earth. Resurfacing processes active on Earth have obscured our planet's early history of formation, differentiation, and asteroid bombardment. Because the Moon is relatively quiescent, it holds the best-preserved record of our solar system's early history and the processes of formation, differentiation, and bombardment which shaped all terrestrial planets. New missions are helping scientists piece together details of the history and evolution of the Moon (and Earth) and will help us better understand lunar processes and the distribution of resources.
Earth's Companion
Credit: NASA.
Throughout this long history, the Moon has been Earth's companion in space. They shaped each other's destinies — and perhaps created an environment suitable for burgeoning life — through the invisible — but powerful — connection of their gravitational pull on each other. The Moon's gravitational pull is relatively weak compared to Earth's. (Apollo astronauts were able to leap across the lunar surface because of this weaker pull.) Yet, the Moon's gravitational pull is responsible for Earth's current length of day, stable seasons, and tides.
Length of Day – Earth and the Moon are gravitationally linked in an eternal dance. These partners have a lot of mass, spin, and orbital motion — angular momentum — compared to other planets and moons. Tracing the Moon's motion back over the eons brings it closer to the Earth. Imagining the Moon "rewind" to its infancy is like watching a dancer pull in her arms: The Earth and Moon spin faster in their dance.
During the Moon's infancy, the Earth was spinning at a much faster rate. Computer models can trace the Moon's and Earth's motions backward in time. According to these models, the infant Earth had a six-hour day 4.5 billion years ago! Since then, with the help of our Moon, Earth has been slowing down and our days have been getting longer. Scientists count growth rings in fossil corals and shells and ancient photosynthetic bacteria layers, called stromatolites, like tree rings. Stromatolites living 850 million years ago record a day length that was about 21 hours long. Fossil corals from 400 million years were living on an Earth with 22-hour days.
Over time, the Moon's gravitational pull on the Earth "stole" some of Earth's spin energy, launching the Moon slowly into higher and higher orbits. (The Apollo laser experiments confirmed that the Moon is moving away at the rate of two inches (five centimeters) per year.) The distance between Earth and Moon increased and the spins of both decreased. Today, Earth spins around once in a relatively sedate 24 hours.
The more distant Moon of today takes over 27 days to complete one full orbit around Earth. Just like Earth, our Moon rotates on its own axis and experiences daylight and dark cycles. Our Moon's day and night cycles are longer than Earth's — the Moon spins on its axis once every 27.3 days. The Moon takes the same amount of time to spin around once as it does to orbit completely around Earth. This means that Earth observers always see the same side of the Moon (called the "nearside"). The side we do not see from Earth, called the "farside," has been mapped during lunar missions.
Credit: NASA.
Nearside view of Earth's Moon as seen
Farside view of Earth's Moon as seen
Stable Seasons – The giant impact was a catastrophic event for Earth. The collision changed Earth's orbit around the Sun — contributing to its present-day position — and altered its orientation in space. The impact may have tipped the Earth a little and contributed to the 23.5° tilt of our North Pole away from "straight up." This tilt gives us our seasons — and the very presence of the Moon helps to keep Earth's climate relatively stable.
As Earth orbits the Sun, its axis points to the same fixed location in space. By a convenient coincidence, Earth's northern axis points almost directly toward Polaris, the North Star.
The "fixed" tilt means that, during our orbit around our Sun each year, different parts of Earth receive sunlight for different lengths of time. It also means that the angle at which sunlight strikes different parts of Earth's surface changes through the year. Sunlight striking the surface at an angle is "spread" across a wider area compared to sunlight striking perpendicular to Earth's surface. Areas that receive sunlight that is more scattered receive less energy from our Sun. All of these factors combine to give Earth its annual cycle of seasons!
For part of our orbit, the northern half of Earth is pointed toward the Sun. This is summer in the northern hemisphere; there are longer periods of daylight, the Sun is higher in the sky, and the Sun's rays strike the surface more directly, giving us warmer temperatures. The north pole is in constant daylight!
When the northern half of Earth is pointed toward the Sun, the southern hemisphere is tilted away. People in the southern hemisphere experience the shorter day lengths and colder temperatures of winter.
During winter in the northern hemisphere, our northern axis continues to point to the North Star, but, because we have moved in our orbit around the Sun, our northern hemisphere now points away from our Sun. The north pole is completely dark and other places in the northern hemisphere experience the shorter day lengths and colder temperatures of winter as the Sun traces a lower arc across the southern sky and the Sun's rays strike the surface at a lower angle. When it is winter in the northern half of Earth, the southern hemisphere, tilted toward our Sun, has summer.
During fall and spring, some locations on Earth experience similar, milder, conditions. Earth has moved to a position in its orbit where its axis is more or less perpendicular to the incoming rays of the Sun. The durations of daylight and darkness are more equally distributed across all latitudes of the globe.
The seasons are not caused by how far Earth is from our Sun. Earth's orbit around our Sun has a slightly elliptical path (very slight!), and the Sun is not exactly in the center of the ellipse. This means that, during the year, Earth is sometimes farther from our Sun, and sometimes closer — but the difference is small (not so for some other planets!). Earth is closest to our Sun in January (perihelion) and the farthest away in July (Earth is 147.5 million kilometers from the Sun when it reaches aphelion). If distance were the most important factor, the entire Earth would have summer in January when we are closest to our Sun and winter in July when we are farthest away!
The Moon's gravitational pull acts like training wheels for Earth on its journey around the Sun. It keeps Earth's axis pointed roughly in a consistent direction — although it does drift slightly over a period of about 26,000 years. Without the Moon, the Earth's stately progression through spring, summer, fall, and winter would have fluctuated widely over time. Some eons would have enjoyed the relatively stability of our current seasonal pattern, while others would have experienced the heat and ice of one pole facing continually toward the Sun and the other left in icy darkness.
Tides – The Moon's gravitational pull tugs on Earth — especially the portion that is nearest to it as it travels in orbit around Earth. Earth's crust rises slightly (several centimeters) due to this force. Ponds and lakes — such as the Great Lakes — experience small tides, as well. Earth's oceans, however, are free to lift many feet in response this tug. As the Moon orbits the Earth, it drags along behind it a "bulge" in the oceans.
If you've ever tried to push a stalled car in neutral from a dead stop, you've experienced the same force that counteracts the Moon's gravitational pull: inertia. On the side of Earth opposite the Moon, the universal tendency for objects to resist a change in its movement wins out over the gravitational pull. The ocean here can keep going in its original direction. Near the Moon, the oceans are pulled upward and along. Opposite the Moon, the oceans are "left behind."
The Moon's contribution to Earth's tides is significant because it is so close. The Sun, of course, also exerts a gravitational pull on Earth — that's what keeps Earth in a steady orbit. Earth's oceans are pulled toward the Sun, but the Sun's gravitational pull contributes only about a third of the tides' height.
Early in Earth's history, the Moon was even closer to Earth. Billions of years ago, the Moon was 10 times closer and tides were 1000 times higher. Scientists believe that these extreme tides occurred once every three hours because the Earth was spinning more rapidly. The tides eroded the coastal areas, adding minerals to the oceans. These minerals may have been essential for life to evolve as quickly as it did.
Human InspirationHumans have long had a personal, cultural, and scientific connection to the Moon. Stories were told about its changes in apparent shape over time as it cycled through its lunar phases. Many words in our language contain references to the Moon: moonbeam, moonwalk, loony and lunatic, Monday and month. Our calendars are divided into months that reflect the length of the lunar cycle, and some calendars continue to be based on the lunar cycle rather than on our yearly orbit around the Sun. The Moon inspired myths and urban legends. Its surface features and motions were a relatively nearby opportunity for scientific scrutiny.
Shining Light – Aside from the gravitational influences described above, the Moon's only other influence on Earth is moonlight. Just like the planets, our Moon does not produce its own light. It "shines" because it reflects the Sun's light. Careful statistical studies have shown no correlation between the full Moon and any number of affects highlighted in urban legends, such as the birth rates of babies or the menstrual cycle, or human behaviors, including homicide rates and traffic accidents. The full Moon's light does make it easier for humans and other animals to see — and be seen. Studies have documented changes in the success rates of predators and foraging patterns of prey animals due to this added nighttime illumination. Corals time their mating events by the light of the Moon. Most other animal behaviors relating to the Moon are because the tides change the coastal environment, alternately exposing and covering it.
Despite the exaggerated size of the Moon in movies, books, and art, the Moon's apparent size is relatively small — and constant — in the sky. Nearly everyone has experienced the illusion that the Moon's appearance is magnified on the horizon. However, it takes up about the same number of degrees in the sky when it is near the horizon and straight overhead! Psychologists don't yet have a precise explanation for the "Moon illusion," but it may relate to our perception of the sky as an inverted bowl rather than a hemisphere. The dome of the sky directly overhead seems closer than the edge of the bowl, near the horizon. In reality, the sky is not a shallow bowl but a hemisphere. As the night progresses, the Moon rises to the top of the hemisphere, rather than along the bowl we perceive. The brain may perceive the Moon overhead as smaller than it was on the horizon.
Changing Shape – The changing appearance of the Moon has inspired stories, songs, poems and words (e.g. "month"). It is used to keep time (e.g. lunar calendar), especially historically, when nighttime activities like farming and hunting were illuminated only by natural lighting. The repeating pattern inspired astronomers to think scientifically to explain the phenomenon and challenged incorrect theories.
Our Moon's shape doesn't really change — it only appears that way! The "amount" of Moon that we see as we look from Earth changes in a cycle that repeats about once a month (29.5 days). The relative positions of our Sun, Earth, and Moon, cause these changes.
As our Moon orbits around Earth, the side facing the Sun is always illuminated, just as Earth's daylight side is illuminated by the Sun. What we see from Earth, however, is a different story. Starting with the dark new Moon, we see the light part of the Moon "grow" from a sliver to a half to a full Moon — and then the illuminated part decreases, becoming thinner until there is no visible Moon in the sky and we are at the new Moon part of the cycle again.
Credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute
We have a "new Moon" when our Moon's orbit around Earth moves it between Earth and the Sun. From Earth, the Moon's surface looks dark because the illuminated side is facing away from Earth. As our Moon continues its orbit counterclockwise around Earth (viewed from above the North Pole), more and more of the illuminated part of the Moon becomes visible to us, until it reaches the "full Moon" stage. A full Moon occurs when the Moon has moved in its orbit so that Earth is "between" the Moon and the Sun.
Between the new and full Moon, the amount of Moon we see grows — or waxes from its right side toward its left side. As it passes the full Moon stage, the amount of illumination decreases — or wanes — from right to left. Finally, the Moon returns to its position between the Earth and the Sun, and on Earth, we observe the new Moon again.In the southern hemisphere, illumination of the Moon increases from the left to the right side in the waxing phase and the dark part increases in coverage from left to right in the waning phase, which is opposite of the northern hemisphere. No matter where on Earth an observer is, however, the phases of the Moon occur at the same time.
Nearby Stepping Stone to the Cosmos – The Moon has sparked revolutions in scientific thought throughout history. Before Galileo and his contemporaries turned their telescopic sights on the Moon, they expected to find a smooth sphere that fit in with the established view of the heavens as the realm of perfection. The reality of its rough surface helped change that long-held hypothesis. Astronauts left Earth's cradle, bridged the intervening 238,500 miles to land on its surface, and safely returned with the aid of revolutionary new technologies. The Apollo Moon rocks unlocked the origin of craters — not only on the Moon, but on Mercury, Venus, and Mars — from impacts rather than volcanos. They also overturned existing hypotheses of the Moon's formation and led to the Giant Impact hypothesis as the predominant explanation of its beginnings.
Scientists continue to look to the Moon to understand Earth. Its ancient rocks provide scientists with new views of early Earth, how the Earth-Moon system and the solar system formed and evolved, and the role of asteroid impacts in influencing Earth's history — and possibly future! The Moon is the only place in our inner solar system that is relatively unaltered since its formation; the surfaces of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars have all been altered by weathering or volcanic and tectonic activity. The Moon's surface preserves evidence that has been lost on these planets, including a record of the Late Heavy Bombardment from 4.0 to 3.8 billion years ago. Lunar scientists hope to answer questions about that solar-system wide rain of asteroids or comets by studying the Moon. The Moon also offers a relatively near-by opportunity to study the processes of planetary differentiation, volcanism, and ongoing impacts. A more thorough collection of samples from its surface may find rocks that were blown off of Earth during impacts and landed on the Moon. Earth's distant past — including, perhaps, a fossil record of early life — may be stored on the Moon in these ejected Earth rocks.
The Moon presents numerous exciting engineering challenges. It is an excellent place to test technologies, flight capabilities, life support systems, and exploration techniques to reduce the risks and increase the productivity of future missions. It offers a nearby base for future colonies, where humans can experience the challenges of living and working on another world and test advanced materials and equipment in the temperature and radiation extremes of space. Establishing an outpost on the Moon would be like camping in the backyard before venturing out on a major expedition. Using the Moon as a test bed would enable Earth's adventurers to extend exploration and settlement to planets and moons beyond Earth.
Many astronomers, geologists, planetary scientists, engineers, and astronauts owe their productive careers to childhood memories of the Moon. What other great personal, cultural, and scientific achievements will the Moon inspire next?
Thanks to the Moon
What if the giant impact had not occurred? How would Earth — and life itself — be different without the Moon?
On Companion Earth
On Moonless Earth
Length of day
24 hours
8 hours
Life has altered patterns of waking, sleeping, mating, and hunger
Earth's large Moon stabilizes the variation of its tilt so that it "wobbles" only about 3° over a cycle of about 41,000 years
Gravitational pull of the giant planets causes Earth's tilt to vary wildly over the eons between 0 and 80°
Only the hardiest bacteria or other simple life forms can endure the drastic climate changes
Governed by Moon's gravitational pull
Caused only by the Sun and rise only about 1/3 current height
Life takes longer to evolve without the benefit of minerals mixed into the global ocean by tides
The Moon changes its appearance in the sky through a predictable pattern
Venus and Mercury undergo phases, but these are not discovered before the invention of a telescope
Science advances more slowly without the repeating pattern of lunar phases to inspire astronomers to explain the phenomenon scientifically
Sunlight reflects off of the lunar surface, making the Moon visible in the sky
The Sun, other stars, and planets are the only celestial objects in the sky
Some unique animals behaviors (e.g. coral spawning events, moon wrasse foraging, salmon biological changes) do not occur or are tied to some other external stimulus
Astronauts walk on the Moon during the Apollo missions, 1969-72
There are no objects within the technological reach of current rockets and radiation shielding that are appropriate for manned explorations
Humans are not able to visit another world so early in their technological lifetime and may not be inspired to do so without a nearby goal
May 9, 2011


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New research produced by Southern Methodist University's (SMU) Geothermal Laboratory suggests the temperature of the earth beneath West Virginia is significantly higher than
November 2010: Tool Trends
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Saint Louis had the shiny record, the veteran players back from last season's outstanding team and respect around the country as a squad you don't want to play because of a devotion to clean, fundamental basketball.
But the resume was, shall we say, a bit lacking in terms of quality wins. The Billikens' only two losses on the year were to still-undefeated Wichita State and a Wisconsin team that was ranked No. 10 in the country at the time. But their best nonconference win during that 13-2 start was either at home against Indiana State or at Vanderbilt, and neither would do much to impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee.
Field of 68: SN projects the NCAA Tournament field
There was plenty to prove, but apparently, that wasn't a problem. Saint Louis' 64-62 win against VCU on Saturday afternoon set a school-record winning streak at 17 games, moving the Billikens to 23-2 overall and 10-0 in the A-10. Among those 10 wins include road victories at bubble teams Dayton and Saint Joseph's, a road win against a solid La Salle squad and home wins against VCU (a near at-large lock) and Richmond (a bubble team).
So now, with a three-game lead in the loss column, those questions have dissipated. There are challenges ahead, with games at VCU and Massachusetts on the slate, along with home contests against George Washington and Dayton. But now the question is, what seed is Saint Louis capable of earning in the NCAA Tournament?
A No. 1 seed is out of the question. There just aren't any "elite" victories on the resume. That makes a No. 2 seed very unlikely, too. But a No. 3 is possible, and a four or five seed seems likely should the Billikens maintain down the stretch.
MORE: Where the Mock Selection committee put the Billikens


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ST. PETERSBURG — Asked to introduce themselves at a recent forum on the arts, candidates for mayor and City Council trotted out stories about their children's theatrical performances and the art they've collected.
When it came to City Council member Jim Kennedy, he skipped the pandering.
"I, like the mayor, suffer from understanding color," he told the room. "But I'm not afraid of where that 10 to 15 percent of more creative people want to take us."
That is the Kennedy that City Hall watchers and members of the city's political class have come to know: a straight-forward, no-nonsense politician who is slightly deaf — or maybe blind — to what's politically expedient, and prefers it that way.
"I think generally people like my style — laid-back, analytical," he said recently. "And I think that's what people want to see on City Council, they don't want to see bickering."
In the six years he's been in office, Kennedy's colleagues have provided plenty of discord. He has been the mild-mannered lawyer, known for working on budget issues and scrutinizing city contracts. And perhaps because they share the same legal background, he's also known for his willingness to support many of Mayor Bill Foster's proposals, both the popular and the less-so.
Appointed to the council in 2007 after council member John Bryan committed suicide, Kennedy had never held office before. He was elected two years later by the thinnest margin of any council candidate that year.
In 2010, when St. Petersburg's bar scene shut down before Tampa's, Kennedy proposed pushing closing time from 2 to 3 a.m., a move he said was driven by economics. That decision is now widely credited with helping revive the city's downtown.
Later that year, spurred by Foster, he proposed that the city install red-light cameras to cut down on collisions. It's a project he still supports today. The cameras have done their job, he said, noting that T-bone crashes have fallen, though popular opinion has turned against the cameras and the hefty fines that follow.
Depending on who replaces the two term-limited City Council members in the Nov. 5 election, red-light cameras could lose their support from the city, a prospect Kennedy does not relish.
"I would hope that the two people who fill the open seats would realize that their education process is going to be so extensive," he said. "Their opinions on those issues may evolve."
More recently, Kennedy has taken the mayor's side in this summer's debate over the city's Lens design for the Pier, a proposal that ultimately died at voters' hands in the primary. His support for the Lens is what propelled his opponent, Lorraine Margeson, to run against him.
"He was just tone deaf," Margeson said. "It was basically: Here's how it's going down, we've made the decision and I know better."
Kennedy says he and the rest of the council did listen to the public, or at least those that got involved in the debate.
Financially, the Lens made sense to him. And as for the architectural design, he would leave that to the architects. His own idea was to run a Busch Gardens-style gondola ride up to the top of the Pier, a suggestion that, when he gave it more thought, confirmed to him the importance of relying on professionals.
"I don't make my decisions based on which way the popular opinion may be flowing that particular day," he said. "There's a reason for representative government and I take very seriously preparation, reading the pros and cons, and being advised of things."
These days, Kennedy is forced to explain his support for the Lens at almost every forum. He'd rather talk about the city's need for mass transit improvements, but it's the Pier that keeps resurfacing. His closeness to Foster has been overplayed, he said. He's not endorsing either mayoral candidate though both have endorsed him.
"We both have a mutual respect for one another," he said of Foster. "That's been interpreted as much more of a political alliance than it really is."
In his district, which stretches from Sawgrass Lake to Weedon Island, Kennedy has focused on opening public parks. The latest is slated to break ground next month and was met, early on, with opposition from local residents worried about noise.
Kennedy and city planners agreed not to light the tennis and basketball courts at night, a sign to Paula Timoney, president of the Renaissance Homeowners Association, that they were listening.
Asked if she plans to vote for him in November, Timoney said yes. "I have no reason not to vote for him," she added.
Contact Anna M. Phillips at email@example.com or (727) 893-8779.


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Kids Fight Over Silly Bandz
6:33 minutes Kids Fight Over Silly Bandz
Jason was in a store over the weekend and saw two young kids fighting over the newest sensation "Silly Bandz"...
| More
Submitted by jessica gonzales (not verified) on September 25, 2010 - 7:18pm.
i think these bands are kinda silly but my my brother loves them. i dont know why there so popurlor. lol
Submitted by julia (not verified) on October 17, 2010 - 10:07am.
omg we wear these at school and we wear so many that they go up to our elbows and eventually our principle said we could not wear them anymore


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Madden NFL 2005
A novel if underwhelming handheld football experience.
If you've grown to love items like the hit stick and playmaker controls that EA brought to the title in the last two installments, you may be disappointed to know that they're not in the DS version. So no, you're not going to be able to "Michael Vick" your way to a guaranteed victory, or lay down a bone-crushing hit with a well-timed analog stick flick. You will have to adapt to this Madden. This is definitely its own football game, with parts that mirror classic Madden controls; meanwhile, the luxury of playmaker tools has been replaced with a new touchpad system that makes use of the Nintendo DS's lower screen.
The controls are surprisingly solid. Once you adapt to the small venue, the mechanics flow pretty well. Passes will zip and catch as succinctly as they do on the big console versions. The touchpad makes play selection all the more natural as you simply press on the play that you want to run. Another cool advantage of the DS is seeing your audible options on the secondary screen. Just thumb the appropriate play to change strategy and you're ready to make your move. The mere act of selecting plays is made interesting with the Nintendo DS.
Once you execute a play, the movements of the players are carried out by Xs and Os on the secondary screen's top-down view. Honestly, this isn't much help -- you'll be too busy watching what's actually going happening on the main screen. But it does come in handy at kick-off when you're receiving because you get a birds-eye view of how your opponents are coming at you.
Along with play selection, kicking the ball benefits from the touch screen apparatus. All you have to do is tap that secondary screen twice. One is to measure the accuracy, which is now determined by a sliding ball that must be stopped in the middle of the screen as it moves from side to side -- just try to grab it in the middle with your thumb as it passes by, and you'll get it. The other tap is to measure the power (which, as in other Maddens, is a swooshing node the must be stopped at the end of a curved bar). Timing something like this is easier now since the nature of the tapping puts you directly in contact with the meters. It kind of makes you wish you had DS-like controller for PS2 or Xbox to play Madden with.
All the appropriate player names and numbers are here, as you would expect from EA Sports. They've even managed to get the player pictures in that pop-up on the screen after key plays. The sounds of the crowd, as well as the commentary, are all true to form. The music also comes across well considering it's playing off of such a small device.
Also cool is that you can play multiplayer wirelessly with another DS. Even smaller Madden goodies are included, such as the two-minute drills. Nevertheless, the distortion in the characters is aggravating. They look blocky and disproportionate as they trudge and run around the field.
Will a DS Madden meet your needs for football action on a long road trip? Most certainly. Will it exceed your expectations for a football video game? Probably not. Although the DS Madden performs well enough, there are times when you feel it's not as clean and snug-fitting visually as the console versions you're familiar with. If you're hardcore about the Madden games and you've played on the traditional consoles, you may be bit disappointed -- it's not going to knock your socks off. But if you're willing to open your mind a bit and accept it for what it is, you'll find a well put together handheld game here.
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- Everyone
- Release Date:
- 11/21/2004
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1UP Editor Score: B
Average Community Score: C+
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HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Huntsville police responded to a bomb threat to a business in the 600 block of James Record Road at 11 a.m. Tuesday, according to an incident report.
The business manager told police employees were evacuated and the building was searched after someone called in a bomb threat.
Police said employees were allowed to return to their stations after no suspicious device was found.
No one has been arrested and the investigation is ongoing.


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Conquer Insecticide with Estenvalerqate Conquer insect control is a multi purpose insecticide that eliminates all kinds of pests from your home or business. It is an ideal multi pest control product.
Conquer Insect Control & Bug Extermination
For use in food and non food areas for homes, schools, kennels, warehouses, apartment buildings, food service establishments, food manufacturing and food processing.
May be used inside and outside. Residual is 4 weeks and is odorless. Mix what you need. A gallon usually completely covers a 2,000 to 2,500 sq. foot home. This one pint bottle will make the following finished gallons: 8-16 gallons (for residual spraying on building surfaces) Yields 240 gallons for lawn use. Will treat up to 40,000 sq.ft .outside. This professional extermination product is ideal for eliminating insects in and around your home.
Conquer insect control is also labeled to kill Fleas and Ticks Harboring in lawns and backyards: For best results, lawn should be mowed a day or two before spraying. Spray using a pump sprayer in a slow, even sweeping motion, being sure to cover the entire lawn surface where the pests will normally frequent. Spray under ornamentals and trees, but avoid soaking young or flowering plants. If needed, repeat flea and tick extermination treatments in 7-14 day intervals.
For best result with fleas use an IGR along with Conquer. Mix your Conquer then mix in one ounce of an IGR like Archer IGR, Gentrol IGR, NyGuard IGR or Nylar IGR, all available here on Pest Products Online.
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text: sponsored What's This?'Tis the Season to Sell: How to Stage Your Home By LXTV UP NEXT X'Tis the Season to Sell: How to Stage Your HomeLinkEmbedEmailCopyCloseLink to this videohttp://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/open-house/OHNY-1211-C-Coldwell-Banker-Season-to-Sell-web_New-York.htmlCopyClose Embed this video Replay More videos (1 of 9)«»George stages a home for a couple homeowners by upgrading the kitchen with some new cabinets. Published at 4:37 PM GMT on Sep 30, 2013 Copyright LXTV NEWSLETTERS Receive the latest open-house updates in your inboxPrivacy policy | More Newsletters


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Top Definition
When a man gets with a woman who is way out of his league.
Ann is so much hotter than bill, i dont know how he got with her, he completely marko jaric'd her.
от ballz69 01 април 2009
Trending Now
Can you define these popular missing words?
someone who gets a girl way out of his league.
Vuk totally marko jaric'd his girlfriend. she is way out of his league
от johnnyhman 01 април 2009


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Because life is about living
No 88 Tianfu 3rd Street , ICON Genesis Plaza Tower 5, Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, Chengdu, China
Citadines South Chengdu is located in the central CBD area of Tianfu New Area and adjacent to Tianfu Software Park, one of the largest software parks in China. A short walk away from shopping malls, restaurants and entertainment venues, such as the Chengdu International Exhibition & Convention Center, Magic Cube Performance Center, and the New Century Global Centre, to cater for residents' leisure and recreational needs.
From Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport:
Nearest public transport from Citadines South Chengdu
Subway station: 3rd Tianfu Street Station (2 minutes' walk)
Railway stations: Chengdu South (15 minutes' drive), Chengdu North (40' minutes drive), Chengdu East (40 minutes drive)


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The Rt. Rev. Mark Joseph Lawrence
14th Bishop of The Diocese of South Carolina
On January 26, 2008 at a festive service in the Cathedral of Saint Luke and Saint Paul in Charleston, Mark Joseph Lawrence was consecrated the 14th Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina.
Bishop Lawrence was born in Bakersfield, California, on March 19, 1950. A fifth generation Californian he was educated at California State University, Bakersfield (BA, 1976) and Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry (M. Div. 1980). He has also received honorary degrees from Nashotah House (D.D. 2008) and Sewanee (D.D. 2009). He has ministered in a wide variety of parish settings from suburban church plant, rural mission, inner city church, to downtown parish in California and Pennsylvania. These include Holy Family, Fresno, CA; Saint Mark's, Shafter, California (1981-1984); Saint Stephen's, McKeesport, Pennsylvania (1984-1997) where he also established on Mon Valley Tri-Church Ministry taking two smaller congregations under a multi-staff network; and Saint Paul's, Bakersfield, California (1997-2007). Known for being a dedicated pastor-teacher, Mark also served, among many other capacities, Commission on Ministry, the Standing Committee, and the Board of Examining Chaplains, and Rural Dean. He also served as a deputy to the General Conventions of 2003 and 2006. He has published articles on devotional and ecclesial concerns in various periodicals.
Mark has been married to Allison Kathleen Taylor since 1973. They have five children: Chadwick, an Anglican priest and headmaster in Beaufort, SC, married to Wendy; they have four children; eldest daughter Adelia, married to Stephen Matson who is planting an Anglican congregation in Southern California and parents of three children; middle daughter, Emily, married to Jacob Jefferis, parents of three children; Joseph, ordained transitional deacon, serving at Trinity Anglican Church, Bakersfield, CA, married to Joette, they have three children; and Chelsea, married to Jason Hamshaw, a youth minister at Prince George Episcopal Parish in Georgetown, SC. They have three boys.
Mark enjoys reading on various subjects, particularly literature, biography, and history; out-of- door activities such as hiking, backpacking, canoeing, fishing, and jogging.
(revised 9-29-14)
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Star Tracks: Monday, May 16, 2016 42 years, 2,191 covers and 55,436 stories from PEOPLE magazine's history for you to enjoy
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PEOPLE Top 5 are the most-viewed stories on the site over the past three days, updated every 60 minutes
- January 18, 1982
- Vol. 17
- No. 2
King of Clothes
Nothing but $750 Million a Year Comes Between American Women and Calvin, Making Him the Best-Known Name in U.S. Fashion
As a result, Calvin Klein now measures his business the way Orson Welles measures his waistline: The numbers are huge. Independent retailers and Klein's own boutiques in London, Tokyo and Milan will sell $750 million worth of his products in 1982. That total will include menswear (he launched his first line in 1978), women's garments, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings (sheets and comforters) and colognes. With the help of his friend and sweet-16 pitch girl, Brooke Shields, his firm has been selling up to an incredible 400,000 pairs of jeans a week. While much of the country struggled through economic doldrums in 1981, Calvin Klein had a personal income of some $8.5 million.
Klein's status as a fashion colossus comes by design, of course—the clean and supple look he has made his trademark. Last year, after 72 models had quick-changed their way through a showing of his fall and winter collection (fees for the models alone came to $250,000), Women's Wear Daily, the often snippy bible of clothes retailers, dubbed the fashions "America's best." His creations have "become the American fashion signature all over the world," proclaims Geraldine Stutz, owner of New York's posh Henri Bendel store. "In the most marvelous way they say 'U.S.A.' and owe nothing to European design." Klein is already a three-time winner of fashion's Oscar, the Coty.
He is also a celebrity. Autograph hunters dog him in public, and once when he showed up at Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to introduce a new line of products, 4,000 people elbowed onto the main floor for a glimpse. Klein wears such renown as uneasily as he wears his own fashions. At work he prefers tan bucks, Brooks Brothers button-down shirts and corduroys—only the pants are by Calvin. He protests: "I can't go around wearing only my own labels." When TV's Barbara Walters praised him for designing "classics," Klein demurred by insisting that "it's too soon to know. Only if you can wear them 20 years from now are they classics."
In his personal life, Calvin's ride to the top has not been smooth. In 1974 his 10-year marriage to childhood sweetheart Jayne Centre ended in divorce, and four years later Klein suffered through the dramatic nine-hour kidnapping of his only daughter, Marci. Police arrested the culprits soon after Klein paid a $100,000 ransom, but the episode "was worse than death," says the still-shaken father.
Now 14, Marci lives with her mother across town from Calvin's apartment and visits him frequently. When not acting the dutiful father, Klein leans toward Manhattan discos, trendy restaurants (among his latest favorites is the Odeon) and a circle of cronies that includes designer Giorgio Sant' Angelo, former Studio 54 owner Steve Rubell and Paramount chairman Barry Diller. "Calvin is a force among his friends," notes fellow designer Chester Weinberg. "When Calvin's sad, we're sad; when he's up, we're up." Klein often takes model Lisa Taylor with him on his evening rounds, but friends say the relationship will go no further. "They're both so beautiful," gushes one acquaintance. "It would be like marrying themselves." (Calvin displayed Brooke Shields on his arm at the reopening of Studio 54; she admires his "quiet intellect.")
Klein's boyish good looks today belie the strains of his career. Several years ago the 6'1" designer weighed only 140 pounds. Seventeen years of off-and-on analysis have helped rein in his anxieties, and 90-minute workouts every evening in the private gym adjoining his Seventh Avenue office have put on 20 pounds. Although he insists "I go crazy when I have too much time off," he has begun curtailing his work routine by relaxing on weekends.
His reputation as a perfectionist endures just the same. "He insists everything be the best, from the stitching to the trucks that deliver his clothes," notes one admiring fashion editor. Still, Klein's least expensive off-the-rack ensembles sell for a relatively modest $500, compared to the $4,000 and up charged by some couturiers. His most expensive item, a suede dress and belt, retails for $1,250. Klein scorns polyester in favor of natural fibers, designs all his own fabrics and refuses to cater his creativity to movies, TV, the theater or individuals. When Ali MacGraw wanted some of Calvin's dresses for a film, she joined the rest of his monied clientele by choosing from his ready-made collection.
Klein's own sense of fashion developed in the Bronx, where his father was a grocer and "my mother was a clothes freak. I got much of my feeling for clothes from her." While his school chums were spending their spare time on the sandlot, Calvin was following the latest styles. After New York's Fashion Institute of Technology and a brief stint as a copy boy at Women's Wear, he went to work as a $75-a-week apprentice to a coat maker.
When childhood pal Barry Schwartz came to Klein in 1967 with an offer to go into a grocery business, the would-be designer was tempted. "He told me that one day we'd be another A&P," says Calvin, who went to his parents for advice. Both urged him to "stick it out for a while longer" in the clothing business, and one year later Klein and Schwartz set up a small designer workshop with $10,000 that Schwartz had inherited. Calvin's first "collection"—six coats and three dresses—was enough to get an appointment with the president of Bonwit Teller in 1968, a meeting Klein still regards as "the equivalent of going to the White House." Klein himself rolled his rack of originals the 23 blocks from Seventh Avenue to the midtown department store. "One of the wheels broke en route," he now recalls with a laugh. "The trip was a disaster." The meeting was not. Bonwit president Mildred Custin increased Klein's asking price by $20 per garment and gave him his first order.
The Klein-Schwartz partnership has stayed intact, with Calvin supplying the inspiration and Barry the business brains behind their privately owned company. "There are many good designers," allows Calvin, "but the difference is that I have Barry."
It was Schwartz who in 1978 engineered the dandiest deal in U.S. fashion history by convincing Puritan Fashions to market Calvin jeans and pay Klein a $1 royalty on every pair. Calvin and Barry's next move raised eyebrows throughout the industry. They bought $5 million in TV time and hired photographer Richard Avedon to direct nymphet actress Shields in a half dozen soft-sell but decidedly sultry commercials. Brooke was given a half million (and reportedly an $80,000 horse) to pose in skin-tight jeans and purr: "You know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing."
The spot caused a furor, and stations from New York to San Francisco banned it from the airwaves. Shields was confused by the uproar and now refuses to discuss it. Klein himself was so flabbergasted that he hired Jimmy Carter's pollster, Pat Caddell, to find out why people seemed so upset. "It was mostly an older group who objected," Klein reports. "It was someone who couldn't even relate to why anyone wears jeans, which is a very sensual thing to begin with. It just went over the heads of many people."
At about this time Calvin and Barry locked horns with the reigning king of the jeans business, Murjani (maker of Gloria Vanderbilts), by hiring away the firm's president, Warren Hirsch. Two months later, however, Hirsch left after he was said to have questioned the propriety of Klein's TV campaign. Calvin's denims now outsell Murjani by at least two to one. Brooke's bottom has survived the hot seat to star in 10 subsequent Klein commercials, and several more are planned this year.
With royalties rolling in, Calvin and Barry have invested in oil, gas fields and a string of hotels. Calvin owns two co-ops in Manhattan (one, recently refurbished, has a greenhouse and a gym), a third home in Salisbury, Conn., a beach house on Fire Island and another in Key West. Several years back he bought himself a Rolls-Royce but sold it shortly afterward. Calvin was so immersed in work he kept leaving the car in no-parking zones and "it was forever being towed away."
Until recently such perks have always made Klein uneasy. "Coping with success is very difficult. You start thinking maybe you don't deserve it," he reflects. "Then you come to realize how hard you've worked." Which just may mean that Calvin has more in common with his 16th-century namesake than anyone ever suspected.
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BP Price Quality Fuel telephone number is (301) 478-2727.
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Search entire category for Service Stations
Service Stations, in Little Orleans, are gas or fueling stations where motorists and vehicle drivers stop for fuel, oil change and minor mechanical work for their vehicles. These stations are often found on city highways and expressways, and sometimes have motels and convenience stores operating on their premises as additional facilities to travelers.
Governor Cuomo Announces First Solar Schools Project At The New York Institute For Special Education In The Bronx
Governor Cuomo's K-Solar Program Increases Use of Renewable Energy in Schools (New York, NY) Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the New York Institute for Special Education in the Bronx will be the site of the state's first solar schools project and will have solar panel arrays installed thanks to a power purchase agreement with SolarCity. This public-private partnership..