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Frog Meets Rocket Launch

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LADEEFrog

Photographer Chris Perry has captured an amazing photo of the launch of NASA’s LADEE spaceship, but it was photobombed by a highflying frog making this image likely to be remembered for some time. Unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely that the frog survived it’s flight through the air as it was probably directly below the launch area.

The LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) spacecraft successfully launched from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on September 6th and it’s 100-day mission is to orbit around the Moon’s equator and study the lunar exosphere and surrounding dust.

If you would like to follow up on the mission status of the LADEE spacecraft you can head over to NASA’s mission page.

Why Pluto Lost its Planet Title

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A Hubble Space Telescope image of Pluto and its moons. Charon is the largest moon close to Pluto. The other four bright dots are smaller moons discovered in 2005, 2011 and 2012.
A Hubble Space Telescope image of Pluto and its moons. Charon is the largest moon close to Pluto. The other four bright dots are smaller moons discovered in 2005, 2011 and 2012. ( Source: NASA)

 

Have you ever wondered what Pluto could have possibly done to lose it’s position as the ninth planet from the Sun? Well, it’s all about gaining a better understanding of our solar system.

Pluto, once dubbed Planet X, was originally discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh and was then later officially classified as the ninth planet from the Sun. As time went on Pluto continued to be considered to be the largest object past Neptune, which justified it’s planetary title, but as technology improved we began to find more and more objects in the outer solar system.

These objects in the outer solar system all orbit the Sun and are collectively known as the Kuiper Belt, which was officially discovered in 1992. The objects in the Kuiper Belt are numerous and made up of mostly of rock, metal, and ice. With more and more objects being discovered, it was likely that we would soon find a Kuiper Belt object that was larger than Pluto, which was eventually found in 2005. The object found was discovered by Mike Brown and his team and was later named Eris, which is 2,600 km across compared to Pluto’s 2,400 km. However, this information may be inaccurate as recent measurements have shown Eris to be much smaller than initially stated, in some cases it may actually be smaller than Pluto.

With all of these new discoveries it was becoming harder and harder to justify Pluto being our ninth planet. What really helped put an end to Pluto’s planet-hood was when we compared Pluto to the IAU’s (International Astronomical Union) definition of a planet which states that in order for an object to be considered a planet, it must meet the following requirements:

  1. is in orbit around the Sun,
  2. has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium (a nearly round shape), and
  3. has “cleared the neighborhood” around its orbit. ( This means it must be the largest and most gravitationally dominant object in it’s orbital path)

Pluto runs into a big problem with the third requirement as the would-be planet is less than 1% of the mass of any other object in it’s orbit. This officially makes Pluto a Dwarf Planet and thus no longer the ninth planet in our solar system. Regardless of Pluto’s new title, we will always have a place in our hearts for the tiny cold rock. In fact, we will be visiting Pluto in 2015 as NASA’s Horizons spacecraft will be reaching the Dwarf Planet after a 3 billion mile, 10 year journey to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.

Also, it’s important to note that many disagree with these recent changes to Pluto’s classification and are advocating the overturning of the IAU definition of a planet that caused this debate and downgrade of Pluto. You can read more information about this effort on LaurelsPlutoBlog.

 

Microsoft Offers $200 for your iPad

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Microsoft Surface Pro

Microsoft is trying to get you to part with your iPad in hopes that you will buy a Surface RT/Pro instead. You can bring in a used iPad 2, 3, or 4 and get a minimum of $200 on a gift card for use at the Microsoft store. Of course the offer can be used towards other Microsoft products as well, like Xbox or anything else that you fancy in the Microsoft store.

Microsoft has been ramping up it’s campaign against Apple as of late as it tries to gain some ground in the mobile device market. The Surface opened up to some pretty weak sales and unfortunately this trend has continued throughout the life of the product. Microsoft’s tablet has already seen a price cut, which is now permanent, and currently the RT version is selling for $349 while the Pro version is selling for $799.

Despite weaker sales numbers Microsoft does see a strong future for mobile versions of Windows and will soon be revealing Surface 2 to the world on September 23rd which will ship with Windows 8.1.

Apple’s Sept.10th Announcements with iPhone5C & iPhone5S

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The Apple Sept. 10th event has announced a lot of new exciting updates.

iOS 7 will be available, for free, starting on September 18th. This will be for the iPhone4 and up, and also iPad2 and up. If you’d like a quick run-down on some of the features head here.

Onto the iPhone5C and iPhone5S. Apple has stated that once they release the 2 new phones, the iPhone5 will no longer be sold.

iphone5c

iPhone5C:

“The iPhone 5C is made with all the incredible technology that customers have loved with the iPhone 5, but there’s more, too. It has an incredible new design. One that’s more fun, and more colorful than anything we’ve made before.”

Colors will be what we expected, green, grey, light blue, peach, and yellow.

Features:

Steel Enforced with a multi band antenna.

Hard coated polycarbonate back, with a glass front.

4 inch Retina display

Integrated touch

Full sRGB Standard

Widescreen Video

New FaceTime HD camera

A6 Chip

Console level graphics

New camera app with live photo filters. 3x video zoom.

Bluetooth

16GB priced at $99, 32GB for $199 with a 2-year contract.

iphone5s

iPhone5S :

Yes Apple is sticking with the half upgrades as they announced the iPhone5S as we all expected.

Available colors will be Silver, gold, and “a new space gray.”

Features:

A7 chip, 64 bit. The world’s first 64 bit mobile phone

It’s made of a high-grade aluminum, with diamond-cut, chamfered edges. (Same as iPhone5)

It runs OpenGP ES 3.0. “This means that graphics-intense applications can bring their console- and desktop-level performance to the iPhone 5S.”

They announced a whole new chip, the M7 which will continuously measure motion data, accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass. This chip enables a new generation of health and fitness apps.

There’s a new, 5-element, Apple-designed lens with f/2.2 aperture. A 15 percent larger sensor.

“When you do take a picture, unbeknownst to you it actually takes multiple pictures.” This phone will automatically choose the best one for you.

All new TrueTone flash. “Whatever color your flash is it’s going to clash with the color of the room and give you a color that doesn’t look right. The flash is a dual-element, cool and amber. It offers 1,000 possible color temperatures!”

120fps slow-motion camera

 

Security:

Touch ID, fingerprint. built right into the home button. It’s still a physical button, that you need to push down, but there’s a metal ring that senses your finger.

How it works:

Touch ID capable sensor

170 microns thin

500 ppi resolution

Scans sub-epidermal skin layer

360 degree readability

They go on to say its a “very high level of security.There’s a secure area as portion of the A7 accessible only by the Touch ID, it’s never stored online or backed up to the iCloud.”

This feature can also be used for iTunes purchases.

Touch ID

 

You can pre-order the 5C on September 13th and purchase the 5C and 5S on the 20th.

To watch the full event head over to Apple.com.

 

WSJ Confirms iPhone Fingerprint Scanner

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According to the Wall Street Journal, the next generation iPhone, which is to be unveiled tomorrow, is confirmed to indeed feature a fingerprint scanner.scanning fingerprint

Rumors of a fingerprint scanner being added to the new smartphone have been circling for months but no one was sure if Apple would actually implement it. One of the first hints that Apple would be tinkering with fingerprints came about when Macrumors mentioned that Apple had purchased AuthenTec in July of 2012.

This will no doubt be one of the most secure ways to lock down your smartphone but how will people respond? With the recent growing concerns over consumer privacy, it could prove to be a rather controversial addition to the iPhone. Although finger-scanning technology has been around for many years and has been incorporated into many electronic devices, it has not been introduced into the world with such a mainstream product.

Coverage of Apples Cupertino press event will begin tomorrow at 10:00 AM Pacific.

-Thanks, Macrumors–