New photos of several Apollo moon landing sites were released today (Sept. 6), showing extraordinary new details about three areas on the lunar surface that were visited by humans. The images include the sharpest views yet of tracks left by the astronauts and their lunar rovers.
The paths left by astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell on both Apollo 14 moon walks are visible in this LRO image. (At the end of the second moon walk, Shepard famously hit two golf balls.) The descent stage of the lunar module Antares is also visible. CREDIT: NASA/Goddard/ASU
“The images look very spectacular, as you can see for yourself,” Mark Robinson, an Arizona State University, Tempe scientist, who is the principal investigator of LRO‘s camera, said in a news briefing today…
Revisiting the Apollo missions
The new batch of images released today represent three different lunar landing sites: Apollo 12, Apollo 14 and Apollo 17. Scientists and historians alike are hoping they will help paint a clearer and moredetailed picture of the Apollo missions.
In particular, being able to clearly see tracks and equipment on the moon – and their relative brightness or darkness on the moon’s surface – can reveal important clues about the lunar environment.
“From a science standpoint, [the images] are important for two reasons,” Robinson said. “They tell us something about the photometric properties of the moon – why are they darker? Scientists are working to investigate that question. In a more practical sense, it allows us to find the exact spot where samples were collected.”
All the buzz about the Moon began on February 15th when Fox television aired a program calledConspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? Guests on the show argued that NASA technology in the 1960’s wasn’t up to the task of a real Moon landing. Instead, anxious to win the Space Race any way it could, NASA acted out the Apollo program in movie studios. Neil Armstrong‘s historic first steps on another world, the rollicking Moon Buggy rides, even Al Shepard‘s arcing golf shot over Fra Mauro– it was all a fake!
Landing on Moon.
Here’s another one: Pictures of Apollo astronauts erecting a US flag on the Moon show the flag bending and rippling. How can that be? After all, there’s no breeze on the Moon.
Not every waving flag needs a breeze — at least not in space. When astronauts were planting the flagpole they rotated it back and forth to better penetrate the lunar soil (anyone who’s set a blunt tent-post will know how this works). So of course the flag waved! Unfurling a piece of rolled-up cloth with stored angular momentum will naturally result in waves and ripples — no breeze required!
“The saga began on Monday when Huili’s website published a picture showing, according to the accompanying story, three local officials inspecting a newly completed road construction project this month,” the Guardian‘s Peter Walker reports.
Calls soon began flooding the county’s offices, which quickly issued an apology and removed the image.
Maya civilization is one of the oldest along with Indian and Chinese,followed by Sumerian and Egypt. Common features are Sun Worship,Building of Temples,Belief in Rebirth and elaborate rituals for the departed.
For additional details read “Deivathin Kural’ of Kanchi Periyavar( Vanathi Publication.)
Archaeologists say new images of an 1,500-year-old Maya tomb will shed new light on the early years of the once-great city-state of Palenque in southern Mexico.
Pictures captured by a remote-controlled camera lowered into the tomb revealed an apparently intact funeral chamber, with offerings sitting on the floor. Wall murals depicted a series of nine figures, painted in black on a blood-red background.
This is not the first time that Fox is doctoring visuals.
So much for Reality Shows.
All the Channels do this.
Fox is unfortunate to be caught.
Story:
Fox’sMasterChef cooked up a hilarious blunder by doctoring a scene that shows hordes of people trying out for the show.
In the opening sequence of Gordon Ramsay’s latest cooking competition, there’s an American Idol-style shot of an excited crowd waiting to audition. The voiceover claims “thousands upon thousands lined up” to try out for the show’s second season.
Except if you look closely, producers replicated portions of the crowd to make the group appear larger than it really was. Here’s a screen shot and an exclusive response from the producers, below. Notice the circled areas show the same clusters of people used twice (including a very obvious woman in a bright orange hoodie):
In a comment to Entertainment Weekly, Fox admitted the photo was changed and says they won’t use that shot anymore. It doesn’t really affect anything (thousands probably did audition) but it’s a fun gotcha for a show that takes itself so very seriously. .
“We have reviewed the footage and it’s clear that the scene was enhanced in post-production. We sincerely apologize to our viewers and hope that they still enjoyed the show.”
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