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Leaps and Bounds

Leap years are years with 366 days, instead of the usual 365. Leap years are necessary because the actual length of a year is 365.242 days, not 365 days, as commonly stated. Basically, leap years occur every 4 years, and years that are evenly divisible by 4 (2004, for example) have 366 days. This extra day is added to the calendar on February 29th. ...

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LeapsandBounds
Astronomy

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation is the radiant heat left over from the Big Bang. It was first observed in 1965 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in ... Continue reading

WilkinsonMicrowaveAnisotropyProbe
Biology

Where is God in the Brain?

A British study reported that epileptics had 'profoundly spiritual experiences' in a specific region of the brain. In other studies, there was also a region of the brain that became extremely active ... Continue reading

BrainGod
Mathematics

Prime Numbers

A prime number is a number that is divisible only by one and by itself. Factors are numbers that can be divided into a number with no remainder. The factors of 18 are the numbers 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, and ... Continue reading

PrimeNumbers
Biology

Gestation Periods of Mammals

Gestation period is the time from fertilization to the actual birth in animals. In humans this period is 266 days or approximately 9 months. ... Continue reading

GestationPeriodsofMammals

It's Gonna Hit Us... Or Is It?

MeteorHitRecently, some astronomers were concerned that a newly discovered asteroid might hit Earth in 2017. This was big news because even the impact of a modest-sized asteroid could have a devastating effect. In fact, a large impact 65 million years ago is thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs. So scientists take seriously any potential asteroid impact with the Earth. A few days after the discovery, scientists changed their minds and said there was no need to panic. This particular asteroid was not going to come even close.

If you go back over the last few years, you'll see this same thing repeatedly: first, a possible collision; next, a retraction. So what gives? Were the calculations all wrong? Actually not. In most cases it had to do with recalculations based on pre-discovery images of the asteroid. In effect, scientists looked backwards in time to make a better prediction about the future.

Astronomers use computers to take multiple pictures of the same part of the night sky over time. These pictures are compared. If a point of light appears to have changed position, we know that it is moving very fast. The background stars, since they are so much farther away, don't appear to move over a short period of time. But these initial pictures don't tell scientists too much. Instead, now that they know what they've found and where they've found it, they can go back to historical images of the same section of sky, taken all over the world. With careful examination, they can find the same asteroid in earlier pictures. This helps them come up with a much more accurate prediction of the asteroid's path. So far, no one has predicted an asteroid impact with Earth. And we are very thankful for that.