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The upper atmosphere of the Sun is dominated by plasma filled magnetic loops (coronal loops) whose temperature and pressure vary over a wide range. The appearance of coronal loops follows the emergence of magnetic flux, which is generated by dynamo processes inside the Sun. Emerging flux regions (EFRs) appear when magnetic flux bundles emerge from the solar interior through the photosphere and into the upper atmosphere (chromosphere and the corona). The characteristic feature of EFR is the Ω-shaped loops (created by the magnetic buoyancy/Parker instability), they appear as developing bipolar sunspots in magnetograms, and as arch filament systems in Hα. EFRs interact with pre-existing magnetic fields in the corona and produce small flares (plasma heating) and collimated plasma jets. The GIFs above show multiple energetic jets in three different wavelengths. The light has been colorized in red, green and blue, corresponding to three coronal temperature regimes ranging from ~0.8Mk to 2MK. 

Image Credit: SDO/U. Aberystwyth

THE TRAPPIST-1 DISCOVERY

NASA’s announcement today was awe-inspiring. We’ve compiled the essential info you want to know about this incredible discovery.

OVERVIEW: 7 PLANETS, 3 HABITABLE

Astronomers have found at least seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the same star 40 light-years away, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The seven exoplanets were all found in tight formation around an ultracool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. Estimates of their mass also indicate that they are rocky planets, rather than being gaseous like Jupiter. Three planets are in the habitable zone of the star, known as TRAPPIST-1e, f and g, and may even have oceans on the surface.

“I think we’ve made a crucial step towards finding if there is life out there,” said Amaury Triaud, one of the study authors and an astronomer at the University of Cambridge. “I don’t think any time before we had the right planets to discover and find out if there was (life). Here, if life managed to thrive and releases gases similar to what we have on Earth, we will know.”

ONLY 40 LIGHT YEARS AWAY

The system is just 40 light-years away. On a cosmic scale, that’s right next door. Of course, practically speaking, it would still take us hundreds of millions of years to get there with today’s technology – but again, it is notable in that the find speaks volumes about the potential for life-as-we-know-it beyond Earth.

The Hubble Space Telescope is already being used to search for atmospheres around the planets, and Emmanuël Jehin, a scientist who also worked on the research, asserts that future telescopes could allow us to truly see into the heart of this system: “With the upcoming generation of telescopes, such as ESO’s European Extremely Large Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, we will soon be able to search for water and perhaps even evidence of life on these worlds.”

ALIEN SKIES

In contrast to our sun, the TRAPPIST-1 star – classified as an ultra-cool dwarf – is so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our solar system. All seven of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our sun. The planets also are very close to each other. If a person was standing on one of the planet’s surface, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighboring worlds, which would sometimes appear larger than the moon in Earth’s sky.

The planets may also be tidally locked to their star, which means the same side of the planet is always facing the star, therefore each side is either perpetual day or night. This could mean they have weather patterns totally unlike those on Earth, such as strong winds blowing from the day side to the night side, and extreme temperature changes.

Would It Be A Bad Thing to Wipe Out A Species … If It’s A Mosquito?

Mosquitoes have a nasty reputation.

The species Aedes aegypti, for example, is currently responsible for spreading the Zika virus through the Americas and also infects humans with dengue fever, chikungunya and yellow fever.

This raises the question: Should there be an effort to get rid of Aedes aegypti for good?

“There’s been lots of debate in the last 10 years whether we should eradicate mosquitoes, or at least the 100 species or so that serve as disease vectors for humans,” says David Magnus, director of Stanford University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics. “If you look at the science, the majority [of scientists] think we could probably eliminate mosquitoes without too much harm on the environment.”

Read the full story here.

Illustration: Matthew Twombly

Hmm. Things. — view on Instagram http://bit.ly/2TnZRqx

Oculus Superum, Red Nebula

Infographic about Planet 9, the required planet to explain the trajectory of six of the most distand known Kuiper Belt Objects.

Source: http://imgur.com/S5faizX

Making your own personalised guides is quite different from your normal note-taking. Study guides are more exam-oriented, instead of merely summarising and organising information. It is a tool to help you to study for your exams, and to guide you through answering exam questions. This how-to guide is a summary of my learning experiences in both high school and college, so I hope this can help everyone here.

Goals for the study guides

It has to include everything on the syllabus for the examination

Omit things that are not going to be useful/helpful in exams

There are things that may be very informative, but if they have no relevance to the exam, it’s better to take them out of the study guide

Basically, the goal of making this study guide is to have one booklet/notebook that contain things you have learnt in that course, and most importantly, everything you need for the exam.

That means you (supposedly) wouldn’t have to refer to any other materials unless specified in the study guide 

Making this booklet will help you to summarise and analyse information - a great way to study

Materials that you need

If you are in college, lecture notes are usually the most important material you should refer to when studying for exams. If you are in high school, textbooks are more likely to prevail. It depends on your course structure and the way your teacher/lecturer teaches.

Past papers / practice papers are great guidance for you when making study guides, because they help you to understand what will be on the exam paper, and most importantly, how you could answer the question.

Important tip: while making your own summary of the knowledge is useful, write down the model answer from the past paper in your study guide instead. That’s the way you should answer the question related to that topic in the exam, so you shouldn’t waste time putting in and memorising information that is not helpful.

For college students: tutorial questions usually offer great guidance as to what is going to appear in the exam. Putting those in the study guides is usually very helpful.

Organising the study guides

Here are a few tips when organising your notes:

Put a red star next to topics that you think are going to come up in the examination

Circle topics that you don’t understand / fail to grasp when making the study guides

Definitely use bullet points if possible

Highlight key words with definition in one specific colour, or anything that requires direct recitation

Because this is what you will study for the exam, also put down tips that are going to help you with the exams. (You can either draw a box to alert yourself or use a post-it note for these).

Answering structure / attack plan for common exam questions

Some common mistakes previous students made in the exam (which is usually brought up by the teacher / lecturer)

Important concept / clarification of misunderstandings

Remember to leave a page for each chapter and write a summary of it during revision

This will help you to understand the flow of the chapter and it is a great way to recall the information you have just organised

If you want to know more about how to take notes, here are some of my other posts:

A summary on how to take good lecture notes - #13

Type or write?

Type or write? updated + my approach

Should I take notes right now?

How to take outline notes?

Consolidating lecture notes and textbook notes

How to get better handwriting?

How to incorporate colours into note-taking and studying?

Skull of a woman with monocephalus diprosopus. This is a form of conjoined twinning characterized by a single head and two faces. From the Museum of Anatomy in Montpellier, France.

Hi all! Grace here.

I am not yet studying Anatomy and probably won’t until next year, but I decided to look up sources relating to Anatomy and gather them here for future reference! I will be adding more to it as I find more. If you are currently studying Anatomy or already have, please let me know if there were sources you are using/did use that were/are helpful so I can add them! :)

Nurse Journal

Human Body Images

Gross Anatomy

E-Skeleton

Human Anatomy

Introduction to the Human Body

Digestive System: The Inside Story

Body Parts Game

The Immune System

Human Anatomy Learning Modules

The Respiratory System

Anatomy of the Eye

Digestive Disorders and Anatomy

Anatomy Flashcards

Human Anatomy and Physiology

Blood Type Lesson Plan

Introduction to Human Genetics

Anatomy of the Human Brain

Heart Anatomy

Anatomy of the Lungs

NYU Virtual Microscope

Muscle Quizzes

Parts of the Brain

Dermatology Glossary

Interactive Body Games

Anatomical Images

The Bone Box

Muscles of the Body

Anatomy and Physiology Course 

Human Body Maps

The Digestive System

Interactive Case Studies

Online Biology Book

Radiographic Anatomy 

Body Guide: Skin

Immunity Guide

Anatomy Self-Test

I hope this is helpful! x

Gliese 832c: is a Potentially Habitable Super-Earth Discovered only 16 Light-Years from Earth

A team of astronomers led by Dr Robert Wittenmyer of the University of New South Wales have discovered the super-Earth. The newly discovered exoplanet, labeled Gliese 832c, has an orbital period of 35.68 days, a mass 5.4 times that of Earth’s and receives about the same average energy as Earth does from the Sun. Gliese 832c might have Earth-like temperatures, giving it a similar terrestrial atmosphere. If the planet has a similar atmosphere to Earth it may be possible for life to survive, although seasonal shifts would be extrem.

Gliese 832c was discovered from its gravitational pull on its star, which causes the star to wobble slightly.