VIDEO: Why Do Planets Orbit The Sun On The Same Plane?

Ever wonder why all the planets orbit the sun on the same plane? Why is the solar system flat when it has all that “space” it could be using? Or maybe you didn’t even realize it is flat. Well, the solar system isn’t completely flat, as the planets do orbit the sun at slightly different angles, but given the overall 3D space the planets could be occupying, our solar system is remarkably flat. This video explains.

• • •

VIDEO: The Pale Blue Dot (The Sagan Series)

Carl Sagan — Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar”, every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

• • •

Curiosity: NASA Mars rover lands successfully, proves government can still work

On November 26, 2011, NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), a robotic probe, on an 8 month trip to the planet Mars. Early Monday, August 6, 2012 the Mars rover Curiosity successfully landed in the Gale Crater on the Martian surface.  Major private contractors on the project include Boeing and Lockheed Martin, but make no mistake, NASA is still a government agency, and the successful launch and landing of Curiosity (which is the size of a car) on Mars is proof that government can still accomplish big things.

• • •