Like a God in Paradise

[photo NASA]

63.8 S, 155.22 E: 'Hello, Happy New Year on the antarctic ice !'

That's where the MV Akademik Shokalskiy is trapped, few miles north of Antarctica:

Three icebreakers were successively unable to rescue the russian ship, itself built in Finland in 1982 and "fully ice-strengthened " for arctic and antarctic seas.
After the failed attempts of a chinese and a french middle-class icebreaker to reach the Shokalskiy, a stronger and powerful australian ship, the Aurora Australis, was called from Casey, where it was anchored for the usual summer supply, to help release the russian / australian team and crew:

But no ship is prepared for zero visibility. A dense blizzard stopped the Aurora Australis even before it reached the frozen seas, just 10 miles of the Shokalskiy. No rescue could be done in such conditions.

Ah, technology. But yes, there are other means - helicopters can at least rescue the scientific team and some tourists aboard, leaving the crew to maneuver as the ice recedes.

Good luck and be safe, guys. Have a nice New Year's Eve, meanwhile !

'Gravity': junk film in junk space

"I hate space", she says, among debris, semi-destroyed space ships and malfunctioning equipment.

No wonder. Then back on Earth, by miracle, she whispers to sand in her hands: "Thank you ! "

You ? Who do you mean ? no, no, please not God !

I just hate this film. Those who created it hate the human Space Adventure.

I've seen the Hexagon Vortex on Saturn's North Pole

This is the most recent composite image of Saturn based on Cassini probe photos. On top of the planet, a blue-tone hexagon is visible. What we're seeing is the center of a huge polar vortex that spins on the north pole of Saturn.

Beautiful Saturn hides violent and tumultuous structures.

First observed by Voyager 1 and 2 probes in the early 80, this complex structure extends for nearly 25 thousand kilometres and forms a hexagonal pattern easily recognizable in images taken in infrared wavelengths.

As far as it is known, this form results of a standing hexagonal wave of cyclonic clouds, each side about 14 000 miles long (Earth diameter - 12 700 miles).

No one knows its origin, although it is probably related to the magnetic field resonance, of dodecahedric form. Similar patterns in swirling fluids have already been created in laboratory .

Reiner Gamma

A magnetic whirlpool on the Moon ? Seems like old-fashioned fiction... but it's true: there are several formations on the moon surface with magnetic origin, resembling to the dipolar formation created by iron filings on a surface with a bar magnet on the underside.

Reiner Gamma's magnetic field is one of the strongest localized magnetic anomalies on the Moon. The surface field strength of this feature is sufficient to form a mini-magnetosphere that spans 360 km at the surface, forming a 300 km thick region of enhanced plasma where the solar wind flows around the field.

As the particles in the solar wind are known to darken the lunar surface, the magnetic field at this site may account for the survival of this albedo feature - apppearing to be a bright spot on the moon surface.