Look to the stars but treasure the Earth

19 year old astrophysics major just trying her best.

[nasa]

The Opportunity to Rove on Mars! 🔴

Today, we’re expressing gratitude for the opportunity to rove on Mars (#ThanksOppy) as we mark the completion of a successful mission that exceeded our expectations.  

Our Opportunity Rover’s last communication with Earth was received on June 10, 2018, as a planet-wide dust storm blanketed the solar-powered rover’s location on the western rim of Perseverance Valley, eventually blocking out so much sunlight that the rover could no longer charge its batteries. Although the skies over Perseverance cleared, the rover did not respond to a final communication attempt on Feb. 12, 2019.

As the rover’s mission comes to an end, here are a few things to know about its opportunity to explore the Red Planet.

90 days turned into 15 years!

Opportunity launched on July 7, 2003 and landed on Mars on Jan. 24, 2004 for a planned mission of 90 Martian days, which is equivalent to 92.4 Earth days. While we did not expect the golf-cart-sized rover to survive through a Martian winter, Opportunity defied all odds as a 90-day mission turned into 15 years!

The Opportunity caught its own silhouette in this late-afternoon image taken in March 2014 by the rover’s rear hazard avoidance camera. This camera is mounted low on the rover and has a wide-angle lens.

Opportunity Set  Out-Of-This-World Records

Opportunity’s achievements, including confirmation water once flowed on Mars. Opportunity was, by far, the longest-lasting lander on Mars. Besides endurance, the six-wheeled rover set a roaming record of 28 miles.

This chart illustrates comparisons among the distances driven by various wheeled vehicles on the surface of Earth’s moon and Mars. Opportunity holds the off-Earth roving distance record after accruing 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers) of driving on Mars.

It’s Just Like Having a Geologist on Mars

Opportunity was created to be the mechanical equivalent of a geologist walking from place to place on the Red Planet. Its mast-mounted cameras are 5 feet high and provided 360-degree two-eyed, human-like views of the terrain. The robotic arm moved like a human arm with an elbow and wrist, and can place instruments directly up against rock and soil targets of interest. The mechanical “hand” of the arm holds a microscopic camera that served the same purpose as a geologist’s handheld magnifying lens.

There’s Lots to See on Mars

After an airbag-protected landing craft settled onto the Red Planet’s surface and opened, Opportunity rolled out to take panoramic images. These images gave scientists the information they need to select promising geological targets that tell part of the story of water in Mars’ past. Since landing in 2004, Opportunity has captured more than 200,000 images. Take a look in this photo gallery.

From its perch high on a ridge, the Opportunity rover recorded this image on March 31, 2016 of a Martian dust devil twisting through the valley below. The view looks back at the rover’s tracks leading up the north-facing slope of “Knudsen Ridge,” which forms part of the southern edge of “Marathon Valley

There Was Once Water on Mars?!

Among the mission’s scientific goals was to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils for clues to past water activity on Mars. In its time on the Red Planet, Opportunity discovered small spheres of the mineral hematite, which typically forms in water. In addition to these spheres that a scientist nicknamed “blueberries,” the rover also found signs of liquid water flowing across the surface in the past: brightly colored veins of the mineral gypsum in rocks, for instance, which indicated water flowing through underground fractures.

The small spheres on the Martian surface in this close-up image are near Fram Crater, visited by the Opportunity rover in April 2004.

For more about Opportunity’s adventures and discoveries, see: https://go.nasa.gov/ThanksOppy.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

[streamacademe]

Week 69, Day 677.

I have decided this week to dedicate a post to lessons I learned during my first year as a PhD student, and how I cope with the stress of a PhD now that I’m in my second year. I hope you find them useful. 

10 lessons I learned from my 1st year as a PhD student:

Go to as many seminars/workshops/conferences as you can - Even if you think they might not be 100% for you, still go. PhD’s are very slow to take off, which means that you will rarely have much to show for it at the end of the year. By attending events that are not directly linked to your PhD will ensure that you have a safety net to fall back on when asked “Well, what did you do for a year then?”, on top of gaining some valuable, and often unexpected knowledge. 

Network -  Now, I’m far from an extrovert and can therefore completely sympathise that talking to strangers can be difficult. However, I am regularly described as ‘bubbly’, ‘outgoing’, and ‘sociable’. This is because, whether you like it or not, networking is crucial for future contacts, friends, and opportunities, and is a great way to make your project known. So, put on your social brave face, get out of your comfort zone, and go talk to people. You can have a glass of wine or two at home with your cat, and a good book at any time. 

Build a relationship with your supervisor/s - Absolute top priority this. Learn what they are like, find common ground, and don’t be afraid to have a professional friendship with them. Your supervisor is there to help carry you through the tough phases, make sure they like you. 

Make every effort to come into the office rather than working from home - Separate your work from your home life. Coming into the office is less distracting, and for me also more motivating. Moreover, a PhD can be a very lonely time in your life, by coming into work you inevitably start building friendships, and therefore support systems for when the going gets rough. I sit across from my supervisor, whom I get on with very well, meaning that I also have a bottomless knowledge bank right in front of me.

Look after your well-being - I cannot stress this enough; you NEED your health to be able to do this. So eat well, sleep plenty, and take time off when you need it. Trust me, nothing bad will happen. 

Allow yourself to be vulnerable in order to learn - Don’t be afraid to ask for help, admit your weaknesses, be exposed to questions, and feel stupid from time to time. Here’s a brilliant paper on the importance of stupidity in science: http://jcs.biologists.org/content/121/11/1771

Self-management is key - If you’re not good at this, learn to be good at this. I have covered time management in some detail in this post: https://streamacademe.tumblr.com/post/170769747296/week-21-day-140.

Know your audience - This mainly applies for those who work with industry and academia. Before any email, meeting, presentation, ask yourself “What am I trying to achieve here?”, and do your research into who you’re dealing with to get the most out of your efforts.

Don’t lose love for your project - I know waaaaayyy too many second years who “hate” their project or their supervisors and are miserable all the time. Personally, I didn’t see myself going from being a tropical ecologist, working with nature in places like Borneo, Canada, and Costa Rica to a civil and structural engineer working with concrete storage tanks. But it’s amazing what you end up being passionate about if you know it’s good for you, and when it is your life. So, if you are struggling, find ways around it, but don’t wallow in self-pity; you are so damn lucky to be where you are, and I’m sure you worked your butt off to be here, so find what makes the going easier and get on with it. 

Don’t forget to live - Doing a PhD is great and all, but life is still happening around it, so don’t forget to live it.

How I cope with the stress of a PhD:

Mornings - Mornings have become my favourite time of day. I make sure I get up at least 3 hours before I need to leave for the office, because I love taking time to watch the world wake up with a strong cup of tea and a good book, and take time to ease myself into the day. It’s done me wonders.

Routine - Something that is hard for me with the type of PhD I do and the long distance relationship but making sure I try my best to stick to a routine makes me feel calm and prepared for what’s ahead. It also means that when it comes to taking rest days, I can take full use of them.

Minimalism - Decluttering my life makes me feel lighter and takes some of the load of my shoulders from how busy my life can be.

Exercise - I do intensive exercise on average 6 hours a week, which includes cycling, running, and swimming. It’s not a chore for me, but a fun hobby, releasing endorphins and helping me reconnect with myself.

Being outdoors - It is very easy to get caught up in the world of technology, social media, and concrete walls. It makes me desperate to get away from it all, so I do my best to spend as much time reconnecting with nature and getting out of the house. I’d rather spend £100 on new waterproof hiking trousers (which I did, they’re brilliant), that a pair of heels.

Communication - I am probably one of the bluntest and brutally honest people out there, but this means that there is no confusion in my relationship with people and we understand each other more. I never understood why people PG the truth. I also take criticism with a pinch of salt and learn from it.

Wine and chocolate - Need I say more?

This was a very open and honest post for me, so I do hope it brings some benefit to you. The point of this blog is to share my experiences throughout this PhD in the hope that I reach out to some of you out there, and mainly so I understand myself better.

Have a wonderful week, and take some of these lessons further,

Photo: A beautiful 5.30 am morning in Brunei with my trusty cup of tea; it takes me back to a place of such happiness, I love looking back at it. Source: Me, obviously.

[hashtagloveloses]

POUR ONE OUT FOR COMRADE OPPORTUNITY 

and send a thank you postcard to the Opportunity team for all their hard work!

[brookietf]

:’( Good night, little lady. You will be immortalized in science museums forever. And maybe even outlast us.

[bio-brainiac]

I’m looking for grad school blogs to follow!

I’m thinking about applying for grad school this fall and I’m looking for people posting GRE and application tips. It’d also just be nice to get involved in the grad school section of studyblr!

I’m mostly looking for biological science grad students, but I’ll follow everyone who likes or reblogs this post, as long as they mostly post studyblr stuff!

[the-real-numbers-deactivated202]

Hey guys,

@fiveminutesintimeout showed me another cool thing!

Google calendar has a “goals” feature that automatically tries to fit time to do a thing into your schedule and then reminds you to do it when you can! This is like a godsend for me, scheduling and time management is hard and this just… Automates it? Very neat.

Follow her for more studyblr stuff, she is very wise 😊

[proudnb]

[gonebynow]

I have this planner with these absolutely ridiculous pages with like “motivational” quotes on them that are just these bullshit things like “Let your heart sing” and “Always believe in your dreams”

and like that’s always struck me as such meaningless bullshit, I’ve always hated those. They’ve never had that element that truly motivates me.

So, I took matters into my own hands and I made my own artsy motivational wallpapers. Enjoy.

[mias-back-from-the-dead]

have i seriously lived long enough to experience the resurgence of demotivational posters’s natural evolution into shitposting motivationals

[c-aesarion]

A Brief List of Resources for Classical Studies:

TOSC-IN:

A database enabling you to search for keywords in article titles from c.160 Classics related journals. Provides a link to an abstract or full text version if one exists online.

Classical and Medieval History:

Annotated list of Reference Websites

Diotima: Women and Gender in the Ancient World

Online database and resources for studying Women and Gender in the ancient world.

Encyclopedia of the Hellenic World:

“Original electronic project aiming at collecting, recording, documenting, presenting and promoting the historical data that testify to the presence of Hellenic culture throughout time and space.”

Perseus Digital Library:

A showcase of digital and print resources for Classical studies. 

World Archaeology:

Books, Magazines, Blogs, Travel. All Archaeology related.

House of Ptolomy:

Portal website on the Ptolomatic (holla!) Empire. 

Star Myths and Constellation Lore:

Information website about the above. 

Virgil.com:

Basically a portal site and resource for information on all things Virgil. 

Homerica:

Portal and Resource. Link is in French, but you can have the website translated to any language. 

Exploring Ancient World Culture:

“On-line course supplement for students and teachers of the ancient and medieval worlds.”

Subject Centre for History, Classics, and Archaeology:

“The Subject Centre for History, Classics and Archaeology is part of the Higher Education Academy.”

The Iris Project:

“an educational charity introducing the languages and culture of the ancient world to UK state schools in order to enrich the curriculum.”

Roman Law Resources

“ information on Roman law sources and literature, the teaching of Roman law, and the persons who study Roman law.”

Egyptology Resources

“World Wide Web resource for Egyptological information.”

ABZU:

“guide to networked open access data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East and the Ancient Mediterranean world”.

Stoa:

A consortium for electronic publication in the Humanities, including most notably: Suda-On-Line  English translation of the Suda, a 10th century Byzantine historical encyclopedia. Demos: Classical Athenian Democracy; a practical description of how the various institutions of Athenian democracy actually worked. Metis Bruce Hartzler’s collection of interactive QTVR panoramas for ancient Greek archaeological sites. And Medicina Antiqua A resource for the study of medicine in the Greek and Roman world.

Hellenic History:

From the Stone Age through the Modern Period from The Foundation of the Hellenic World (FHW), a non-profit cultural institution based in Athens, Greece.  

Hellenic Culture: 

Website of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture with sites on the museums, monuments, and archaeological sites of Greece.

Athenian Agora Excavations:

Website of the American School of Classical Studies at Althens’ excavations of the Athenian Agora.

Digital Classicist:

Concise information on projects applying computing technologies to Classical/Ancient Historical research. 

VROMA:

Online scholarly community of teachers and students who share an interest in the ancient Roman world; images, texts, history and many other resources. 

GNOMON Online:  

Recent journal articles and book in the Classics. Type general search term under “Alle Felder” (All Fields) or specific “Autor” (Author) and hit “Suche Starten” (Start search).“

Ancient World Mapping Center:

University of North Carolina. Cartographic resources, including a collection of free digital maps for educational use. 

Ancient Scripts: 

A website by “enthusiasts” rather than scholars but very interesting!

The Beazley Archive Classical Art Research Center:

Databases and study tools.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review: 

Timely open-access, peer-reviewed reviews of current scholarly work in the field of classical studies (including archaeology). This site is the authoritative archive of BMCR’s publication, from 1990 to the present. 

Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama

It investigates the performance of ancient texts in any medium and any period, from Greek tragedy to Roman epic, from stage to screen, from antiquity to the present day. 

The British Library Digitized Manuscripts

Contains digitised versions of a quarter fo the British Museum’s Greek manuscripts. 

The Ancient World Online:

A blog which, much like this, presents a variety of online resources for the Ancient world. 

Electronic Archive of Greek and Latin Epigraphy:

A website which seeks to store virtual Greek and Latin epigraphy of the ancient world, through a federation of multiple archive banks. 

Projekt Dyabola: 

Litterature and Object databases. 

The Digital Sculpture Project:

A website devoted to studying ways in which 3D digital technologies can be applied to the capture, representation and interpretation of sculpture from all periods and cultures. Up to now, 3D technologies have been used in fruitful ways to represent geometrically simple artifacts such as pottery or larger-scale structures such as buildings and entire cities. With some notable exceptions, sculpture has been neglected by digital humanists. 

Animus:

The open access Canadian Journal of Philosophy and Humanities. 

American Philological Association’s Society for Classical Studies:

A “ principal learned society in North America for the study of ancient Greek and Roman languages, literatures, and civilizations.”

The Classical Association of Canada:

Access to a wide variety of resources about Classics in Canada including graduate programs, and the monthly bulletin. 

Corpus Thomisticum:

The works of St. Thomas Aquinas in Latin. 

J. O’Donnell’s commentary on Augustine’s Confessions:

An on-line reprint of Augustine: Confessions, with commentary by James J. O'Donnell. 

LANGUAGE RESOURCES:

UC Berkeley Ancient Greek Resources:

Pronunciation Guide; Accentuation Drills; Vocabulary Drills; and much more.

Akropolis World News:

The news of the world in Ancient Greek- a great way to learn and practice the language.

Logeion:

Quick look-up of Greek and Latin words across all of the Perseus lexica.

Dictionaries [VIA Perseus Project]: LATIN || GREEK

NUMISMATICS [COINAGE]:

American Numismatic Societ’s MANTIS:

Database on more than 600,000 objects. 

 CHRR Online: 

Coin hoards of the Roman Republic Online archive.

Online Coins of the Roman Empire:

Similar to CHRR but coins of the Empire. 

Roman Provincial Coinage Online:

A standard typology of the provincial coinage of the Roman Empire. 

British Museum’s Roman Coinage:

A series of resources on Roman coinage. 

Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum:

The Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum is a British AcademyResearch Project, the purpose of which is to publish illustrated catalogues of Greek coins in public and private collections in the British Isles. 

MANUSCRIPTS:

Digitalized Greek Manuscripts:

Princeton’s Modern language translations of Byzantine sources, digitized Greek manuscripts. 

Pinakes:

Pinakes s'ouvre à de nouvelles collaborations institutionnelles et accueille maintenant des projets de recherches sur les manuscrits de divers domaines. On trouvera l'ensemble des partenaires et des financements passés ou actuels sur la page Colophon. 

Greek Codicology/Paleography:

A detailed biliography on Greek codicology. 

Resource Lists by School: All links are to Classics, or Antiquities portals for more resource lists. 

Oxford Libraries

Cambridge Libraries

University of Toronto

Berkeley Classics Department

Library of Congress: Classics and Medieval History

Virginia Tech: Electronic Antiquity

Brock University: Classics Research Guide

Cambridge Ancient History Series

Williams.

University of Texas

Princeton University

Text Databases [Via Oxford]:

Antiquity

American Journal of Archaeology

Archaeology Magazine

Arion

Cambridge Archaeological Journal

Classical Philology

Classical Quarterly

Classical Review

Eranos

Greece & Rome

Journal of Near Eastern Studies

Journal of Field Archaeology

Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies

Journal of Roman Archaeology

Kernos

Phoenix

Pomoerium

Syllecta Classica

Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphie

Gateways:

Argos - search-engine for all major classical resources

Classics Section of the Intute gateway.

Voice of the Shuttle Classics Page from University of California, Santa Barbara

Classical and Biblical Literary Research Tools compiled by Jack Lynch at Penn

Reading Classics Gateway

Kirke Katalog der Internetressourcen für die Klassische Philologie

NOTE: So I compiled a list of some of my favorite classics sites to use. I also put in links to other school’s departments and libraries. Almost all Universities which have Classics departments have resources lists. If you want to add to the list, please do!

All of the schools above have much more extensive lists for you to use! I made this list in little over half an hour, so there is much room to be expanded on. 

NEW ADDITIONS: 

Latin Library at Packard Humanities Institute - http://latin.packhum.org/ (PHI numbers standard way to refer to Latin texts, look at the ones Perseus uses - it’s PHI).

Brepolis - http://www.brepolis.net/ - may need to access this via your institution or its ezproxy (includes the Library of Latin Texts A and B LLT-A and LLT-B and many other interesting resources).

L’Annee Philologique - http://www.annee-philologique.com - another one in which you’ll have to use via your institution’s ezproxy or other online database (we use ebscohost). Many journals you submit articles to expect references to other journals use the abbreviations in APh.

For databases of journals, first start at JSTOR - http://www.jstor.org - again, institutional access is required.

((Via: monumentum))

The Latin Library - A collection of Classical and Medieval texts in Latin, organized by author. 

The Internet Ancient History Sourcebook - A collection of mostly primary source texts translated into English.  Not comprehensive, but covers a broad range of topics.

((Via: hodie-scolastica))

[theclassicsreader]

I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (via theclassicsreader)

[exceli]

- Leonardo da Vinci

[maybe-you-need-this]

[culturenlifestyle]

Photographer Endangers His Life To Capture Lava, Meteor, Milky Way And Moon In One Shot

[wordsnquotes]

culturenlifestyle:

American adventure photographer Mike Mezeul II has captured what is arguably one of the most stunning images of Mother Nature at work.

Keep reading

[damespock]

“mike what the fuck oh my go–” “just wait this is gonna look cool lmao”

[nymphomanik]

what the fuck

[ayellowbirds]

The colors, my gods.

[kittykat8311]

holy macaroni

[mindblowingscience]

Scientists wanted to understand how baobab trees live for thousands of years. Then the ancient trees started dying.

The oldest African baobabs (between 1,100 and 2,500 years old) are dying abruptly, according to a new survey of the species published Monday.

Baobabs are an iconic part of the sun-Saharan landscape in Africa. Wielding gnarled branches that can spiral up to nearly 100 feet into the air, and with bloated trunks that boast an average of 65 feet in diameter, the baobab is a vital part of the region’s ecology and a celebrated staple Africa’s culture. And like most celebrated parts of the natural world, the baobab suddenly finds itself threatened in modern times.

The oldest African baobabs (between 1,100 and 2,500 years old) are dying abruptly, according to a new survey of the species published Monday in Nature Plants. The numbers are grim: 8 of the 13 oldest and 5 of the 6 largest trees on record have died or experienced deterioration over the past 12 years.

Continue Reading.

[alimastudies]

“Don’t study because you need to. Study because knowledge is power. Study because they can never take it away from you. Study because you want to know more. Study because it enhances you. Study because it grows you.”

— unknown

[funniestpicever]

novelty-gift-ideas:Galton Board More funny meme pictures - http://funniestpicever.tumblr.com/

[exceli]

Notes aesthetics 

So, there’s this thing in the studyblr community (which we all are painfully aware of) about making your notes ~pretty~ . It’s not a bad thing on its own, having an organised, easy-to-read notes is definitely beneficial. However, more often than not, people forget that the main purpose of notes is to help you with your studies and making them look good shouldn’t become the main focus. 

Hours are spent on making notes look nice, so that a picture of them could be posted here. Sadly, nothing is learnt during that time, because all the focus is set on picking up the right “colour-scheme”, “layout”, or rewriting notes altogether, when mistakes are made, not really focusing on what is being written (i.e., making notes mindlessly). 

So, I thought, I’ll post some pictures of the notes of some famous scientists, so you can see that most of the “great minds” didn’t care about their notes looking pretty. There are tons of smudges, crossed-out sections, sloppy handwriting, etc… Yet, things were still learnt, new theories and discoveries were still made. 

(In order from the top to the bottom, notes of: Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Roger Penrose, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Richard Feynman)

[nasa]

Where in the World is Our Flying Telescope? New Zealand!

Our flying observatory SOFIA carries a telescope inside this Boeing 747SP aircraft. Scientists use SOFIA to study the universe — including stars, planets and black holes — while flying as high as 45,000 feet.

SOFIA is typically based at our Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California, but recently arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand, to study celestial objects that are best observed from the Southern Hemisphere.

So what will we study from the land down under?

Eta Carinae

Eta Carinae, in the southern constellation Carina, is the most luminous stellar system within 10,000 light-years of Earth. It’s made of two massive stars that are shrouded in dust and gas from its previous eruptions and may one day explode as a supernova. We will analyze the dust and gas around it to learn how this violent system evolves.

Celestial Magnetic Fields

We can study magnetic fields in the center of our Milky Way galaxy from New Zealand because there the galaxy is high in the sky — where we can observe it for long periods of time. We know that this area has strong magnetic fields that affect the material spiraling into the black hole here and forming new stars. But we want to learn about their shape and strength to understand how magnetic fields affect the processes in our galactic center.

Saturn’s Moon Titan

Titan is Saturn’s largest moon and is the only moon in our solar system to have a thick atmosphere — it’s filled with a smog-like haze. It also has seasons, each lasting about seven Earth years. We want to learn if its atmosphere changes seasonally.

Titan will pass in front of a star in an eclipse-like event called an occultation. We’ll chase down the shadow it casts on Earth’s surface, and fly our airborne telescope directly in its center. 

From there, we can determine the temperature, pressure and density of Titan’s atmosphere. Now that our Cassini Spacecraft has ended its mission, the only way we can continue to monitor its atmosphere is by studying these occultation events.

Nearby Galaxies

The Large Magellanic Cloud is a galaxy near our own, but it’s only visible from the Southern Hemisphere! Inside of it are areas filled with newly forming stars and the leftovers from a supernova explosion.

The Tarantula Nebula

The Tarantula Nebula, also called 30 Doradus, is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud and shown here in this image from Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer. It holds a cluster of thousands of stars forming simultaneously. Once the stars are born, their light and winds push out the material leftover from their parent clouds — potentially leaving nothing behind to create more new stars. We want to know if the material is still expanding and forming new stars, or if the star-formation process has stopped. So our team on SOFIA will make a map showing the speed and direction of the gas in the nebula to determine what’s happening inside it.

Supernova 1987A

Also in the Large Magellanic Cloud is Supernova 1987A, the closest supernova explosion witnessed in almost 400 years. We will continue studying this supernova to better understand the material expanding out from it, which may become the building blocks of future stars and planets. Many of our telescopes have studied Supernova 1987A, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, but our instruments on SOFIA are the only tools we can use to study the debris around it with infrared light, which let us better understand characteristics of the dust that cannot be measured using other wavelengths of light.

For live updates about our New Zealand observations follow SOFIA on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.