Dark Day in May

From NASA’s EO (Earth Observatory) Web site recently:

EO News: Mystery of Infamous ‘New England Dark Day” Solved by Tree Rings - June 6, 2008

“At noon, it was black as night. It was May 19, 1780 and some people in New England thought judgment day was at hand. Accounts of that day, which became known as ‘New England’s Dark Day,’ include mentions of midday meals by candlelight, night birds coming out to sing, flowers folding their petals, and strange behavior from animals. The mystery of this day has been solved by researchers at the University of Missouri who say evidence from tree rings reveals massive wildfires as the likely cause, one of several theories proposed after the event, but dismissed as ‘simple and absurd.’…”

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Now playing: Sir Adrian Boult; London Symphony Orchestra - Nimrod, “Enigma” Variations, Op. 36
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JPL Is in Fine Form!!

From the nytimes.com early tomorrow morning:

Mars Lander Starts Moving Its Robotic Arm

“The spacecraft also completed a 360-degree panorama, showing what Peter H. Smith of the University of Arizona, the principal investigator, described as a ‘hummocky terrain’ — mostly flat with slight bumps and troughs caused by the expansion and contraction of under-surface ice.

“The few rocks were small — generally about five inches in diameter, with some as wide as eight inches — and most were flat, Dr. Smith said. Curiously, the rocks appeared brighter than the soil.

“The science team has started naming the rocks, drawing from fairy tales and folk legends. One Humpty-Dumpty-inspired rock was named “King’s Men,” and another “King’s Horses.” One otrough was named “Sleepy Hollow,” so two nearby rocks are now “Ichabod” after Ichabod Crane, the main character of the story, and “Headless,” the headless horseman who pursues Ichabod.…”

Ya gotta love it!

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Now playing: Carl Palmer - ..Mount Teidi
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Ever Wonder Where…

…Montréal got its name?

“The largest city in the Canadian province of Québec and the largest inland port in the world, Montréal takes its name from a distinctive landscape feature at the center of the city. Mont-Royal (“royal mountain” in French) rises to an elevation of 233 meters (about 764 feet) at Colline de la Croix peak. The mountain is sometimes identified in guidebooks as an extinct volcano, but the types of igneous rock found at Mont-Royal suggest the mountain is more likely to be the remnants of magma chambers that once fed surface volcanoes than a surface volcano itself.…”

Fire Alarms from Orbit

NASA’s doing some pretty interesting things with their satellites these days; caught this in the Earth Observatory e-mail today:

““There’s a fire season somewhere in South Africa all the time,” says researcher Philip Frost of the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). During the dry summer, fires sweep over the landscape on the southwest coast, and the warm, dry winters in the northeast spur grass fires that consume the savanna. South Africa also has a subculture that views fire as a tool for everything from hunting and land management to encouraging rain. Fire is a daily problem in South Africa.…”