NASA Reveals a Massive ExoPlanet Discovery
Space, it’s considered by many to be the last untraveled
frontier in our exploration of life. Our Planet earth is only a small part of a
vast Solar System and even then, our system is nothing compared to the ever
spiraling Milky Way Galaxy and what lies beyond it. For as long as mankind has
existed we’ve imagined and hypothesized the starry wonders beyond our
atmosphere. Over the centuries and even more so recently Humanity has made some
incredible discoveries regarding the galaxy. Last Wednesday marked another
amazing discovery by one of NASA’s Telescopes. So space and science are
definitely topics I’ve never talked about on here before but hey it interests
me and a lot of you as well so why not? As a long time fan of the great beyond
I might as well introduce space as a topic on here. You could say I have a lot
of SPACE on here for it. Okay I’m not going to say that one again, forgive me.
Credit to NASA/JPL-Caltech
Anyway on Wednesday 22nd, 2017 NASA announced via
a livestream that through their Spitzer Space Telescope they have discovered
the first known planetary system (This system being dubbed the TRAPPIST-1
System) to have SEVEN Earth-size exoplanets (Planets that orbit a star not
classed as a Sun.) orbiting around it’s sole star, at least three of these
planets (possibly all of them.) are confirmed to be in the habitable-zone. The
TRAPPIST-1 System itself is not a new discovery, being discovered by
Astronomers in 2015 by the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope
(Hence the name TRAPPIST.) located at the La Silla Observatory in the Coquimbo
Region of Chile. They had only discovered the Star and three of its planets
before last Wednesday so it’s still a massive discovery.
What is the Habitable-Zone you ask? This zone means their
orbit around the star (The power and size of the star as well as the size of
the planet also factor in here.) are in the perfect locations for being
habitable. Now if these Exoplanets have a sufficient atmospheric pressure they
could support liquid water and in turn, life. That’s pretty awesome, right?
This marks a brand new record for the amount of habitable-zone exoplanets found
in a star system. Even cooler is the possibility that all seven of these
planets are habitable and sustain water. Still in regards to the habitable ness
of these planets, TRAPPIST-1 (The name of the star.) is actually an Ultra-Cool
Dwarf Star. This meaning it’s much smaller in size and produces a lower
temperature of heat compared to our Sun, TRAPPIST-1 putting off a temperature
2550 K (Kelvin, which is pretty hot all things considered.) compared to 5,778 K from our Sun. So
these planets would have to be a lot closer to the star in order to feel the
same temperatures that Earth does. TRAPPIST-1 is also approximately 500 million
years old compared to our Sun which is about 4.6 billion years old. So
TRAPPIST-1 is still quite a young system and due to it’s low luminosity this
star could live for up to 4-5 trillion years.
Another strange but very likely possibility regarding these
planets are that they might actually be tidally locked to their star. Basically
one side of these planets will always be facing the star as it orbits around,
which is completely identical to how our Moon works. If this is true then
Weather on these planets could be drastically different from our own. NASA’s
Hubble Telescope and Hubble Team are currently assessing and scanning the
Planets and will do so over the upcoming months to confirm that these planets
are Rocky in nature and not gaseous planets like Neptune and Jupiter.
Imagine if these planets all end up being able to support
life, wouldn’t that be crazy? Who knows maybe these planets already contain
life. Maybe they’re all under the control of the Klingon Emperor and we’re
about to meet Michael Dorn’s Klingon counterpart. (That might be a bit
farfetched.) Either way right now is a very exciting time in space research.
The past two years have seem to of become a new space age, with discoveries of
Pluto, Space X and it’s awesome self landing Rocket, Astronaut Scott Kelly’s 1
year on the International Space Station, as well as many other awesome space
events.
As you can see I got a little excited about all this space
stuff so let’s add that to our topics shall we? I actually really loved writing
that, you can read more about what’s being discovered at NASA.gov and for more
about TRAPPIST-1 as well as some amazing concept art artists drew of the
planets go to https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around.
Distinguishing a Yarn Ball form a Yarn Skein (And Hank?)
As a follow up to Wednesday’s blog, which for the most part
was a blog related to me learning more about knitting through this Vogue
Knitting Ultimate Knitting Book, I’ve been learning even more about knitting
lately in the form of Yarn Ball types. Thanks to Lisa Shroyer from
Interweave.com
for writing this article I’ve learned a lot about different yarn
ball types and how to handle and knit from them. (Even the unraveled type.)
It’s called “Lisa’s List: 12 Yarn Ball types and How to Knit with Them.”
This is a very informative and well written (As well as humorous) article. Her information comes from yarn experts (You know, the ones who make the yarn.) and knitting experts so give it a read! I now know what to call yarn barfs… Hankensteins. I actually had no idea the word Hank even existed within the knitting vocabulary and was under the impression myself that twisted unballed yarn, or any unballed yarn for that matter was called a skein. Learn something new every day, eh? Thanks, Lisa! http://www.interweave.com/article/knitting/lisas-list-yarn-ball-types/
Credits to Lisa Shroyer and Interweave
This is a very informative and well written (As well as humorous) article. Her information comes from yarn experts (You know, the ones who make the yarn.) and knitting experts so give it a read! I now know what to call yarn barfs… Hankensteins. I actually had no idea the word Hank even existed within the knitting vocabulary and was under the impression myself that twisted unballed yarn, or any unballed yarn for that matter was called a skein. Learn something new every day, eh? Thanks, Lisa! http://www.interweave.com/article/knitting/lisas-list-yarn-ball-types/
Speaking of creativity! I’ve been working on something *TOP
SECRET* graphic related for ZAK Entertainment in Paint Shop Pro while
refreshing and teaching myself some techniques. Since starting up the blog I’ve
been using this program 10xs more to edit my photographs and make graphics for
the blog such as the banner. Can’t tell you what I’m working on yet but it’s
going to be used in an upcoming, possibly weekly segment on the blog. As you’ve
noticed I’ve been playing around with some new segments, putting sub headings
within my blog. I’m not sure if it’s making my transitions too jumpy or making
them just right but I’m enjoying how this site’s running so far. I really enjoy
what I’ve been writing for you all, it’s been about some really great topics
and I got a huge upcoming blog that’ll be released on Monday, it’s Pokemon
related and also related to #PokemonDay so keep an eye out.
Trying out the XP-Pen Star05 Wireless Art Tablet & Pen
Remember that XP Star05 Tablet & Pen I show to you guys?
I found this pen while trying to find Mum a new tablet for her brand new laptop
she recently obtained.
Well we’ve been doing computer upgrades all around (Not me,
yet. I’m still good for now.) and my Sis also obtained a new laptop with
Windows 10. This XP-Pen Mum order ended up going to my little sister with Mum ordering a
new one for herself. Reason for this being her old Wacom Intous 5 Tablet would
not operate on her new Windows 10 laptop. I guess old being the primary reason
behind this; it actually caused the computer itself issues instead of just not
working. So Ann retired the ol boy and took over the brand new XP Star 05.
Awesome part about this Tablet is the fact it’s WIRELESS! Of course you do have
to charge it (Which takes about 2 hours.) but once it’s charged via USB you
unplug it and it operates completely wirelessly. It’s supposed to last about 14
hours but we’ve not tested that fully quite yet, stay tuned, I’ll let you all
know. Setting it up had a few hiccups, don’t use the drivers off the disc they’re
actually out of date for Windows 10 It seems, though no biggie just go onto
their website to download the newest drivers. You probably should do this with
all products with drivers lately; the discs always seem to be out of date
compared to the ones you get off the website. After setting it up you can easily
change it for Left Handed uses, which my sis is a lefty herself (You’re okay
with me saying you’re a lefty, right sis?) so I know it does well for left
handed artists.
Actual photo of my Sis using the pen.
With the tablet’s 2048 pressure levels this tablet can
do everything the Wacom can and more, while being way cheaper then any
comparable Wacom product. Sis has tested the pen out on all her art programs,
which are pretty much the norm in art lately, such as Krita, Paint Tool Sai,
even Photoshop. So yeah it’s doing her great and I think she loves it, as well
as her new and pretty powerful laptop computer. You heard it here first this
Tablet is a success so far and is still only $69.99 on Amazon so I recommend it
if you’re considering getting a new tablet & pen but you're also looking for a cheaper solution to Wacom (Which isn't wireless.) while still getting a professional art tablet. Luckily I noticed this but the
Tablet won’t actually be back in stock until March the 1st. You can
still order it but your order won’t be shipped until March 1st,
which is not that far away because February is that odd month where we only get
28 days.
For more of my sister's awesome artwork and photography check out her blog at ladyannavintage.blogspot.com
I’m not an artist in the same sense as my sister but I have use
for Krita, Krita can actually do Pixel Art which I’ve always been a fan of. It
also does vectors and I’ve learned while I can’t draw amazing drawings like my
sis I’m not so bad when it comes to using a mouse with vectors. (Maybe I’ve
been suppressing this inner ability, who knows.) So I’ve been playing around
with Krita learning how everything works. Also decided to do a vector drawing
of a character I’ve been developing from a story that’s been floating around in
my head for over 6 years now. She’s taking quite a few different turns over the
years but I want to introduce this character and the story itself to you guys
in some shape soon. I’m thinking of making it a novel so I’m not exactly sure
how to go about getting the story out on ZAK Entertainment without taking away
the feeling from reading the novel I want to write. I’ll figure that out I
guess, maybe I’ll do some short stories related to it, short stories seem to
work well on blogs.
Before I wrap just want to mention I’m working on a new
video! Got some super lucky shots of some wild life and I’m going to be making
a compilation of it all to shoot it up online for you guys to watch. I’m also
trying to work out this gaming channel idea so that’s something to look forward
to.
That’s a wrap folks!
See You Space Cowboy…
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