This is a full-resolution version of the NASA Curiosity rover descent to Mars, taken by the MARDI descent imager. As of August 20, all but a dozen 1600x1200 frames have been uploaded from the rover, and those missing were interpolated using thumbnail data. The result was applied a heavy noise reduction, color balance, and sharpening for best visibility.

The video plays at 15fps, or 3x realtime. The heat shield impacts in the lower left frame at 0:21, and is shown enlarged at the end of the video. Image source: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s=0&camera=MARDI

Fun fact: The first mission to Mars, Mariner 4 in 1965, returned a total of 634 kb of data, including 22 photos.

Back Blogging after a Whole Year!

You may have been wondering why I haven't posted in the last year...well, last year I had no physics classes- but this year I will be teaching 5th Year Physics so I'm back!!!!... 


Now that I've spent the last 4 months using EDMODO with my junior science classes and Biology classes, I am going to set up an Edmodo account with my physics class also. Its a great way of communicating with students and feeding forward and backward information on Physics to promote a greater understanding of topics covered on the leaving cert syllabus.

Arklow Community College students attend Chemistry Camp in York University

 

This Summer while most Junior Cert students will have their heads out of the schoolbooks, two students from Arklow Community College will be busy brushing up on their Chemistry at an academic camp in England.

(Niamh Cloran-Doyle and Rebecca Lyons)

 

Niamh Cloran-Doyle and Rebecca Lyons have both won school scholarships to a 3 day residential Salters Chemistry Camp, held in the University of York from 13^th- 15^th August. The girls are really looking forward to spending three days and two nights at the University of York, staying in the University Halls of Residence, and using the laboratories. 

They will carry out new, exciting experiments, and have the chance to delve into areas of chemistry that are perhaps not covered at school. In the evenings, practical work in the labs is put on the back burner, and students will enjoy a variety of social activities like a fun quiz or tenpin bowling.

This is not the first time Arklow Community College students have taken part in Chemistry Camps. Previous scholarship winners for Chemistry Camps in Swansea University and the University of Manchester include Gary Long, Kyle Connolly-Carey and Brian Ormonde- Murphy.