Use It Wisely

We might think our efforts to preserve God’s world aren’t valuable. But we can all work together to do our part. Buying and consuming less, repairing instead of replacing it, recycling, reusing, and simplifying are all the best stewardship practices.

One way we can testify of our love for God and to express our gratitude for what He has done is by tending and keeping the earth and all that it offers. Until God returns, let’s use our world wisely.

Word of God

When we give the Word of God space to live in our heart, the Spirit of God will use it to take root, penetrating the earliest recesses of our lives. - Ken Gire

Source: 365 Days of Brighteners

Rain or shine, Atlantis to attempt landing Sunday (2)

Good morning friends. Rain or shine, the crew of the US space shuttle Atlantis will have to attempt to land Sunday after bad weather forced delays in their return to Earth for two consecutive days.

NASA officials, however, may have to land the orbiter in California, on the other side of the country than initially planned.

On Saturday, heavy cloud cover and crosswinds forced the US space agency to put off the space shuttle Atlantis' return to Earth for at least another day, extending an otherwise successful mission to repair the Hubble telescope.

NASA had hoped to land the shuttle at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, but the weather did not cooperate, waving off landing for a second straight day. The crew has enough fuel to fly until Monday at the latest.

"The forecast for tomorrow is slightly better," Allard Beutel, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, told AFP. The US space agency has prepared Edwards Air Force Base in California as a back-up landing point in case conditions do not clear up in Florida.

"There's a chance for a landing at Kennedy tomorrow, and we're going to keep that option open," said Greg Johnson, another NASA spokesman. "Edwards remains good for tomorrow and Monday, if needed."

The first chance to land at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday is at 10:11 am (1411 GMT), he said. A second window of opportunity will appear nearly an hour and a half later -- at 11:40 am (15:40 GMT) in California -- and a third just nine minutes later: at 11:49 am (1549 GMT) in Florida.

NASA would prefer to land the shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center as it would cost the agency some two million dollars (1.4 million euros) extra to get the craft back home from Edwards Air Force Base.

Atlantis blasted off on May 11 with a crew of seven astronauts on what was scheduled to be an 11-day mission to repair the Hubble space telescope and extend its range and life for another five years. "They have enough supplies to stay on board until Monday. But we don't like to wait until the last moment," Beutel said. –The Times of India

Comets: Source of life on Earth?

Good morning friends. Comets: Source of life on Earth? Do you think that it can be really a source of life on earth? How?

Comets have always fascinated people. Now, scientists have added a new twist to that fascination -- comets might have provided the elements for the emergence of life on Earth.

A team at Tel Aviv University, led by Professor Akiva Bar-Nun, has carried out a study and found that comets were the source of missing ingredients needed for life in Earth's ancient primordial soup, the 'Icarus' journal reported. And, according to the scientists, it's the chemical composition of comets that allowed them to kickstart life.

"When comets slammed into Earth through the atmosphere about four billion years ago, they delivered a payload of organic materials to the young Earth, adding materials that combined with Earth's own large reservoir of organics and led to the emergence of life," Prof Bar-Nun said.

Using a one-of-a-kind machine built at Tel Aviv University, the scientists were able to simulate comet ice, and found that comets contain ingredients necessary for providing the basic nutrients of life.

Specifically, they looked at the noble gases Argon, Krypton and Xenon, because they do not interact with any other elements and are not destroyed by Earth's oxygen. The elements have maintained stable proportions in the Earth's atmosphere throughout the lifetime of the planet, the scientists said. -The Times of India

ESA spacecraft sees 'eerie glow' in night-time atmosphere of Venus (2)

On the night-side, where atoms are transported by a vigorous diurnal circulation, the glow can be seen with appropriate instruments, such as VIRTIS.

A nitric oxide nightglow in the infrared has never been observed in the atmospheres of Mars or Earth, although it is known that the necessary nitric oxide molecules are present because they have been observed in ultraviolet.

The nightglow on Venus has been seen at infrared wavelengths before, betraying oxygen molecules and the hydroxyl radical, but this is the first detection of nitric oxide at those wavelengths.

It offers data about the atmosphere of Venus that lies above the cloud tops at around 70 km. The oxygen and hydroxyl emissions come from 90-100 km, whereas the nitric oxide comes from 110-120 km altitude. Yet, even VIRTIS cannot see the nitric oxide nightglow all the time because it is often just too faint.

"Luckily for us, Venus has a temperamental atmosphere. Packets of oxygen and nitrogen atoms are blown around."

Sometimes, these become dense enough to boost the brightness of the nightglow, making it visible to VIRTIS.The VIRTIS team plans to continue monitoring the planet, building up a database of this fascinating phenomenon. (ANI)

Reference: yahoo news

Preparing for X-mas in the advent season - 1

Good morning friends. The whole world is will be celebrating Christmas day. Maybe some were not celebrating it in a very special way. Maybe some are only praying, some celebrated in their most gorgeous way. But the importance is the spirit of it.

Ashankur or Seed of Hope, a women's empowerment centre at Bhokar, a village in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra was home for me for the past two months. The experience prepared me to embrace the spirit of Christmas.

I woke up every morning to the pungent yet soothing smell of fresh earth, with a view from my room of shimmering green fields. Mynahs flew in and out of the room. I could see the Seven Sisters, parakeets and kingfishers twittering in the branches of trees, koels calling out to each other in song and wasps grubbing on insects, while squirrels darted from tree to tree. All these sights and sounds of nature were like balm, soothing and healing the wounds of hurt.

Nature at Ashankur was at its beautiful best with lilies, roses, gerberas and other flowers, with Gulmohur trees arching over. Cool breeze accompanied by sudden cloud burst and rain would sometimes cover the village in darkness. Living close to nature, and away from the noise and bustle of the city, i could not but take a second look at my life. The question before me this Christmas was: How to commit myself to the reconstruction and recreation of my own life and that of the earth?

Having come to the village in inner turmoil, i kept hearing a voice within that said: "Be still and know that I am God". The hushed silence at Ashankur helped me come into the presence of God on tip-toe, to experience a deep peace that is a divine gift. I stood free of everything that had enveloped me in personal darkness, and found myself in the presence of an all-pervading light, which could only be a sign from God.

ref: thetimesofindia