Beautiful hoola hoops around saturn !!

Saturn Rings:

    There are namely 23 rings namely: D , C, Colombo Gap, Maxwell Gap, Bond Gap, B, Cassini Division, Huygens gap, Herschel Gap, Russell Gap, Jeffreys Gap, Kuiper Gap, Leplace Gap, Bessel Gap, A, Encke Gap, Keeler Gap, Roche Division, F, G, E


There are billions of ring particles in the entire ring system. The ring particle sizes range from tiny, dust-sized icy grains to a few particles as large as mountains. Two tiny moons orbit in gaps (Encke and Keeler gaps) in the rings and keep the gaps open. Other particles (10s to 100s of meters) are too tiny to see, but create propeller-shaped objects in the rings that let us know they are there. The rings are believed to be pieces of comets, asteroids or shattered moons that broke up before they reached the planet. Each ring orbits at a different speed around the planet. Information from NASA's Cassini mission will help reveal how they formed, how they maintain their orbit and, above all, why they are there in the first place.
While the other three gas planets in the solar system -- Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune -- have rings orbiting around them, Saturn's are by far the largest and most spectacular. With a thickness of about one kilometer (3,200 feet) or less, they span up to 282,000 km (175,000 miles), about three quarters of the distance between the Earth and its Moon.
Named alphabetically in the order they were discovered, the rings are relatively close to each other, with the exception of the Cassini Division, a gap measuring 4,700 km (2,920 miles). The main rings are, working outward from the planet, known as C, B and A. The Cassini Division is the largest gap in the rings and separates Rings B and A. In addition a number of fainter rings have been discovered more recently. The D Ring is exceedingly faint and closest to the planet. The F Ring is a narrow feature just outside the A Ring. Beyond that are two far fainter rings named G and E. The rings show a tremendous amount of structure on all scales; some of this structure is related to gravitational perturbations by Saturn's many moons, but much of it remains unexplained.
To enter Saturn's orbit, Cassini flew through the gap between the F and G rings, which is farther from the planet than the Cassini Division. As a safety measure, during the crossing of the ring plane, instruments and cameras onboard the spacecraft were shut off temporarily.

The noise of fingers...

How is sound caused by cracking of knuckles?

     Sound is caused by cracking of knuckles when a bubble  which has formed in lubricating fluid (synovial fluid) which surrounds the two bones burst. The fluid prevents the bones from grating against each other and contains tiny bubbles that cannot be seen by nacked eye. So when the knuckle bones remain together the fluid is under pressure and bubbles remain tiny.But when one clenches their fist,the bones are pulled apart which cause the tiny bubbles form a larger bubble. These get burst when clenched and produce cracking noise. Docters are not sure whether cracking knuckles is harmful or not.

Imagine life without sun..

If The Sun Went Out, How Long Could Life On Earth Survive?

 

 

       If you put a steamy cup of coffee in the refrigerator, it wouldn’t immediately turn cold. Likewise, if the sun simply “turned off” (which is actually physically impossible), the Earth would stay warm—at least compared with the space surrounding it—for a few million years. But we surface dwellers would feel the chill much sooner than that.
Within a week, the average global surface temperature would drop below 0°F. In a year, it would dip to –100°. The top layers of the oceans would freeze over, but in an apocalyptic irony, that ice would insulate the deep water below and prevent the oceans from freezing solid for hundreds of thousands of years. Millions of years after that, our planet would reach a stable –400°, the temperature at which the heat radiating from the planet’s core would equal the heat that the Earth radiates into space, explains David Stevenson, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology.
Although some microorganisms living in the Earth’s crust would survive, the majority of life would enjoy only a brief post-sun existence. Photosynthesis would halt immediately, and most plants would die in a few weeks. Large trees, however, could survive for several decades, thanks to slow metabolism and substantial sugar stores. With the food chain’s bottom tier knocked out, most animals would die off quickly, but scavengers picking over the dead remains could last until the cold killed them.
Humans could live in submarines in the deepest and warmest parts of the ocean, but a more attractive option might be nuclear- or geothermal-powered habitats. One good place to camp out: Iceland. The island nation already heats 87 percent of its homes using geothermal energy, and, says astronomy professor Eric Blackman of the University of Rochester, people could continue harnessing volcanic heat for hundreds of years.
Of course, the sun doesn’t merely heat the Earth; it also keeps the planet in orbit. If its mass suddenly disappeared (this is equally impossible, by the way), the planet would fly off, like a ball swung on a string and suddenly let go.

Find nearest kidney transplant centre... share this...

Need a Kidney? There's an App for That

 

You probably shop, pay bills and order pizza online, but you probably never thought of opening up your laptop to find a kidney. As strange a concept as that sounds, OrganJet's new Web service provides exactly that; A way to secure an affordable and fast transplant option from the comfort of your couch.
OrganJet Corporation announced in a press release today that users can now take advantage of an online tool to find kidney transplant centers that are close to home and have the lowest wait times. In the statement, OrganJet CEO Sridhar Tayur noted that the service is meant to bridge the gap between areas with an excess of usable kidneys and those in dire need of them. The company claims that anywhere from 500 to 2,500 kidneys are wasted per year, and that more than 5,000 patients die annually waiting for one.
"There is significant disparity in wait times... ranging from more than 5 years in such areas as NJ, MA, Washington D.C. and CA, while it is half that in such regions as Pittsburgh, PA, Portland, OR, and Madison, Wisconsin," said Tayur. 

MORE: Best Apps 2013
OrganJet's new online app can be found on the "Services" tab of the company's official website. The app shows a world map, and allows users to find kidney transplant centers with low wait times by entering a zip code. That prompts a list of transplant centers organized by location, wait lists and children's centers. From there, users can access the official website of the best possible kidney centers near them.
With online software constantly evolving, it's nice to see companies such as OrganJet use their tools to help those in need. There's always an app for that, even when it comes to saving the lives of hund

 

Speaking gene takes birth for 2 n 1/2 million years

Gene which sparked human brain leap identified

       By duplicating itself two and a half million years ago the gene could have given early human brains the power of speech and invention, leaving cousins such as chimpanzees behind.

The gene, known as SRGAP2, helps control the development of the neocortex – the part of the brain responsible for higher functions like language and conscious thought.

Having an extra copies slowed down the development of the brain, allowing it to forge more connections between nerve cells and in doing so grow bigger and more complex, researchers said.

In a study published in the Cell journal, the scientists reported that the gene duplicated about 3.5 million years ago to create a "daughter" gene, and again a million years later creating a "granddaughter" copy.

Although humans and chimpanzees separated six million years ago, we still share 96 per cent of our genome and the gene is one of only about 30 which have copied themselves since that time.
The first duplication was relatively inactive but the second occurred at about the time when primitive Homo separated from its brother Australopithecus species and began developing more sophisticated tools and behaviours.