HT Space.comGrail-A and Grail-B won't be ready to start their science campaign immediately upon arriving at the moon. Rather, they'll spend another two months circling lower and lower, eventually settling into orbits just 34 miles (55 kilometers) above the lunar surface, researchers said.
The twin probes will begin taking measurements in March. They'll chase each other around the moon for 82 days, staying 75 to 225 miles (121 to 362 km) apart.
For those of us in the north, the days may begin to grow longer, but the coldest days are still to come. This is because ocean temperatures drive much of the weather on the continents, and they continue to cool in the relative lack of sunlight this time of year.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/12/22/why-winter-solstice-arrives-this-week/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fscitech+%28Internal+-+SciTech+-+Mixed%29#ixzz1hGrgBda5
Wednesday
21 December 2011 Pacific Standard Time
SUN
Begin civil twilight 6:25 a.m.
Sunrise 6:53 a.m.
Sun transit 11:50 a.m.
Sunset 4:47 p.m.
End civil twilight 5:15 p.m.
MOON
Moonset 1:20 p.m. on preceding day
Moonrise 3:34 a.m.
Moon transit 8:53 a.m.
Moonset 2:08 p.m.
Moonrise 4:43 a.m. on following day
Phase of the Moon on 21 December: waning crescent with 11% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated. A Visit From St. Neelix (with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)
'Twas the night before Christmas when all near the wormhole
Not a creature was stirring, not even a Cardassian Vole;
The gravity boots were hung by the replicator with care,
In hopes that St. Neelix soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their biobeds,
While visions of moba fruit danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long aphelion orbit's nap,
89) It is a myth that CO2 is a pollutant, because nitrogen forms 80% of our atmosphere and human beings could not live in 100% nitrogen either: CO2 is no more a pollutant than nitrogen is and CO2 is essential to life.
