Internet Hate Machine
NASA’s HiRISE spacecraft has sent back images of lava coils left on the surface of Mars. These features form when lava flows of different speeds move past one another; they’re essentially Kelvin-Helmholtz waves—like the ones often seen in clouds—in the lava flow that have solidified into solid rock! On Earth these coils appear about a foot wide; the Martian versions are 100 feet across. (via Wired; submitted by Brian L)
Car-Sized Turtle Found in Colombian Coal Mine
Remains of an enormous turtle, which was the size of a Smart car, have been unearthed in a Colombian coal mine.
The shell alone of the 60-million-year-old turtle, Carbonemys cofrinii aka “coal turtle,” is large enough to be a small swimming pool. Its skull is roughly the size of a regulation NFL football.
A ‘Giant Leap’ for Commercial Space
The first of two companies hired by NASA to fly cargo to the International Space Station is preparing for a test flight on Saturday, a harbinger of a new type of public-private partnership.
“It is, by all accounts, an important step, bordering on a giant leap, for commercial space,” said Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former astronaut who now heads the Commercial Spaceflight Federation trade organization.
“We are at a brink of a milestone moment in our space history,” added NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver.
