Earth Sciences

Some stars ARE moving towards us. The Andromeda Galaxy will collide with us in millions of years. The universe is expanding because of the "Big Bang", so almost everything is moving away from us.

Low mass and high mass stars take different paths at the end of their life because high mass stars becaome so dense that they have to do something different then the low mass stars. For example the high mass stars sometimes form into black holes and the low mass stars form into white dwarfs.

The destiny of Mars is to continue orbiting the sun as the fourth planet in our solar system. In terms of human exploration, there are plans for crewed missions to Mars in the future, with the ultimate goal of establishing a human presence on the planet.

Frost action; a form of mechanical weathering of rock.

The eccentricity of the Earth's orbit is approximately 0.0167. This value represents the deviation of the Earth's orbit from a perfect circle. The eccentricity affects the Earth's distance from the Sun, with the closest point being perihelion and the farthest point being aphelion.

Subduction and rifting are the sinking and rising, respectively, of land masses at plate boudaries. These slow motions are caused by the convective motion of the underlying material driving the crust material above because it just floats on the lower layers.

The sun appears smaller in the sky due to the Earth's atmosphere scattering sunlight. This scattering causes the sun's rays to spread out, making the sun's size seem smaller than it actually is. Additionally, when the sun is higher in the sky, it appears smaller compared to when it is near the horizon due to an optical illusion.

Do you mean tidal waves? The tides are caused by the gravity of the moon pulling and "releasing" the ocean's water, tidal waves are the shockwaves from underground seismic activity which are driven upwards as they get closer to the coast by the increasingly shallow water.

Basically a big earth quake, but under water.

The earth is constantly moving eastward, so the stars appear to move westward. This is an optical illusion that is supported by Newton's 3rd Law (every action has an equal and opposite reaction).

One of the major geologic events during the Pliocene Epoch was the joining of the North American and South American tectonic plates. This joining formed the Isthmus of Panama separating the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This affected both land animals and marine life.

The average distance from Earth to the Sun is about 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers.

Seems like you're looking for definition 1.b. pla·ce·bo(pl-sb) n. pl. pla·ce·bos or pla·ce·boes1.a. A substance containing no medication and prescribed or given to reinforce a patient's expectation to get well.b. An inactive substance or preparation used as a control in an experiment or test to determine the effectiveness of a medicinal drug.2. Something of no intrinsic remedial value that is used to appease or reassure another. source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/placebo

Raccoons are omnivorous and will eat a wide variety of foods, including fruits, nuts, insects, small mammals, and even human food like garbage. However, they typically do not eat large prey like deer or livestock.

It is not the most outer layer of the moon, It is an optical phenomena which occurs as light reflected by the moon is then diffracted through water droplets (clouds) in our atmosphere. forming a halo.

The Starbucks coffee chain is named after the first mate, Starbuck, in Herman Melville's clsiasc novel, 'Moby Dick.'The very first fast food chain to introduce a drive up service window was Jack In the Box in 1951.On average, Americans consume 350 slices of pizza per second.The Hundred Years War lasted 116 years.Panama Hats are made in Ecuador.Catgut comes from sheep and horses.Russians celebrate the October Revolution in November.A camel's hair brush is made of squirrel fur.The Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean are named after dogs.A purple finch is actually crimson.Georgia is the only U.S. state named after a king - England's King George II. Georgia's nickname, The Peach State,' may be a misnomer. Both California (#1) and South Carolina (#2) each produce more peaches annually than Georgia (#3).The state of Wyoming is named after the Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania.The anglicized name 'Wyoming' is derived from the Lenni Lenape (later called the Delaware by English settlers) Indian language and their words 'maughwau,' meaning large,' and 'wama,' meaning plains.' Wyoming is also the least populous state in the U.S. ranking #50 The MOST densely populated state in the U.S. is New Jersey with an average of 1,143.9 people per square mile.The LEAST densely populated state in the U.S. is Alaska with an average of 1.1 people per square mile.Alaska has 33,904 miles of coastline.Kaskaskia, Illinois, Illinois' first state capital, is WEST of the Mississippi River. The rest of Illinois lies EAST of the Mississippi River.The Cincinnati, Ohio airport is in Kentucky.Approximately 37% or almost 4 out of 10 people in the U.S. live within 100 miles of the coast.******************************************************************50% of the U.S. population who file income taxes report annual income of less than $ 30,000 which leads us to the next fact…..50% of those people who pay income taxes contribute only a little over 3% of the overall revenues collected by the IRS ..5% (1/2 of 1 percent) of the U.S. population has adjusted gross incomes over $ 500,000.The richest 1% of the people in the U.S. earn 21.2% of the total overall income of all wage earners.Los Alamos, NM has the highest percentage of millionaires in the U.S. (9.7% of its residents are millionaires)On an average daily basis in America alone:88,163 Apple iPods are purchased35,079,448 12-ounce bottles / cans of Bud Light beer are purchased8,179,726 20-ounce bottles of Aquafina bottled water are purchased50,051,507 12-ounce cans of Pepsi are purchased2,400,000 Burger King Whoppers are consumed.58,863,993 eggs are purchased443,650 servings of Burger King large fries are consumed93,000 jars of Ragu Old World Style spaghetti sauce are purchased210,720 30-ounce jars of Hellmann's Real mayonnaise are purchased1,852,516 bars of Dove Soap are purchased87,431 Slim-Fast multi-pack Shakes are purchased628 Toyota Camry 4 cylinder LEs are sold300,000 packages of Pampers are purchased20,826 Dell notebook computers are purchased536,000 Domino's pepperoni pizzas are purchased500,000 Hostess Twinkies are purchased1,900,000 Krispy Cre8me original glazed donuts are purchased125,000 Barbie Dolls are purchased160,968 bottles of ABSOLUT vodka are purchased978,030 bags of Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Popping Corn are purchased568,765 Titleist golf balls are purchased110 Head Radical tennis racquets are purchasedFed Ex delivers 6,000,000, (6 million) packages a day The United States is the third most populous country but its 300,000,000+ residents represent slightly less than 5% of the world's 6.35 billion people.Americans spend an average 38 hours a year sitting in traffic that wastes an estimated 26 gallons of gasoline per person - Los Angeles metropolitan drivers waste the most gas sitting in traffic for 78 hours per year.Americans, on average, spend 18% of their income on transportation as compared to only 13% spent on food.The wife is the sole wage earner in 4% of those married couples with children. ******************************************************************SOURCE for the above section that is bracketed in asterisks: Time magazine's 'America by the Numbers' issueSeven Lego sets are sold every second by retailers worldwide.80% of all the wine consumed in the U.S. is consumed by 11% of those people who drink alcoholic beverages.Bourbon is the official spirit of the United States by Act of Congress. In 1964, a congressional resolution protected the term 'bourbon' and only since then has the product been defined. There are two general sub types of bourbon: 'ryed' and 'wheated.' Ryed bourbons are bold and spicy. Wheated bourbons are smooth, mellow and easy to drink.Chicago, Illinois has the most bars per capita of any major city.Every 105 minutes, on average, there is an accident with a motor vehicle and a train at a grade crossing somewhere in the world. (Driver impatience and inattention are the most frequent causes of these crashes. And, almost needless to say, you are 40 times more likely to die in an accident with a train than you are in an accident with another motor vehicle.)According to a study by the nation's largest auto insurer, most accidents occur between 3 PM and 6 PM on Fridays. According to a Paul Harvey broadcast and various web sources, a study of 40 groups/occupations showed that the WORST drivers are students (#1), followed by medical doctors (#2), then lawyers (#3), architects (#4) and real estate agents (#5). The BEST drivers in this study were homemakers (#5), politicians (#4), pilots (#3), firemen (#2) and the best drivers…………….FARMERS (#1). (I agree. I can't recall the last time I saw a head on collision that involved two tractors :)) Walmart is the second largest employer is the U.S. (The U.S. Government is #1).Annually, more steel in the U.S. is used to make bottle caps than is used in the manufacture of automobiles. (SOURCE: History Channel - Modern Marvels - STEEL)The very first televised football game, pro or college, took place in Triboro Stadium at Randall's Island, New York on September 30, 1939 when the Fordham University Rams of New York defeated the Waynesburg College (now University) Yellow Jackets of Pennsylvania by a score of 34-7. The 153-pound Bobby Brooks of Waynesburg made TV sports history that day when he ran 63 yards for the very first televised touchdown.The average length of a player's career in the NFL is 3 bd years.The official language of Brazil is Portuguese 80% of all the lead used in the USA is contained in car batteriesChinese gooseberries are from New Zealand.James A. Garfield, one of four U.S. Presidents who was assassinated (in 1881), often entertained his houseguests with his parlor trick of SIMULTANEOUSLY writing clsiasc Greek with his right hand and writing in clsiasc Latin with his left hand. (Don't try this in your home.)The 'black boxes' in commercial airplanes are orange.21% of all American households own FIVE pets or more (60% of households own at least one pet.)American women, on average, spend 55 minutes a day getting showered, dressed, and groomed.Diners Club issued the very first credit card in 1950 but it was not plastic. It was printed on heavy cardstock. BankAmerica issued the first bank credit card, BankAmericard (now VISA), in 1958.The average American has 9 credit cards (bank, store, gas, etc.)Out of every $ 100 the average American spends, $ 40 is charged to credit cards.1 in every 100 American ADULTS is now in jail or prison (91% are male and 9% female)Although this last one is lengthy, it relates to something that most of us have one or more of in our homes or apartments and something that you have given little thought to…….The BICYCLEae Rider Back playing cards we have all played with have been the best selling playing card brand in the world for more than 100 years. You probably have NEVER wondered why the brand name of these cards is 'Bicycle' and why they have pictures of bicycles with riders on the card backs. The reason for this dates to their introduction in 1885. Much like hula-hoops were the fad and rage that had spread across the country in the 1950s, the fad and rage that was spreading across the country in the 1880s and what most everyone was doing, was riding bicycles for fun and pleasure, both the standard size as well as 'high wheelers,' the bikes that had the HUGE front wheels and small rear wheels. The U.S. Playing Card Company, then known as Russell and Morgan Factories, simply played off the popularity of bicycle riding during this time and chose the word 'Bicycle' as the brand name for the playing cards and used pictures of bicycles with riders on the card backs and some jokers. This Bicycle Rider Back design has remained unchanged since the very first deck of Rider Back cards was printed in 1885.

When in space and looking out, the observer will see a lot of black. Light will come from stars and galaxies, and will be reflected from planets or other bodies around, but the rest of the "sky" will be black. Light will arrive at the observers position without being scattered by atmosphere. Dust and some gas can appear to glow when looked at through a telescope, but to the naked eye, it's really black out there.

Yes, the speed at which the Earth rotates on its axis is relatively constant, at about 1670 km/h at the equator. However, factors such as gravitational interactions with other celestial bodies can cause slight variations in its rotational speed over long periods of time.

Full details on the characteristics of our planet are available on Wikipedia. See the related link - look in the blue panel to the right of the article, and scroll to 'Physical characteristics'.

All of them.

I don't mean to be flip about this, but think about it. If there were any conditions on Earth that weren't conducive to life, we wouldn't be here, would we? So just about any condition you can think of--temperature, pressure, chemistry, you name it--allows us to survive.

One thing is that now the correct age of the earth could be calculated. Before radioactivity was discovered the earth was though to have cooled enough to be only about 25 million years old by calculation. The discovery of radioactivity changed all that by increasing the heat the earth could radiate and so increasing the age of the earth dramatically.

A nebula is a large gaseous cloud found in space. Nebulas are made up of gas, dust, and plasma, and can be remnants of exploded stars or regions of new star formation. They are often exceptionally beautiful and serve as the birthplace of stars.

The sun appears red or orange at sunrise and sunset because of the dust particles in the air and the angle which the sun is striking Earth at the given time. This causes the reds and oranges (who are of longer wavelength) spread out and "appear" red.

No

Rainbows are caused by sunlight glinting off tiny water particles in the sky, bouncing the light back towards the observer. In other words, any time you see a rainbow directly in front of you, the Sun is directly behind you, and your shadow points at the center of the circle the rainbow is describing.

The world is falling already. It is falling around the sun. An orbit can be thought of as a free fall where the bottom keeps moving away from you so you never hit it. Gravity exists everywhere in the universe. Some people think there is no gravity in space because they have seen astronauts floating around when they are in orbit. They float because the force of gravity on their bodies has been balanced by their centrifugal force generated by the speed of their orbit around the earth. If they were to stay still in one spot in their orbit, they would surely feel the force of gravity as they fell back to Earth.