Something on Venus is Colder Than Expected

That's not a phrase often used when talking about the second planet from the Sun. "Colder Than Expected". This is Venus we're talking about, the planet where the rain is sulfuric acid, and the surface temperature sits at a rather toasty 900 degrees Fahrenheit. But that's the news we've gotten from the no-longer-with-us Venus Express, whose mission officially ended in December 2014. Hey, it takes a while to get through all the data.

In 2014, the probe ran out of fuel, and as it slowly fell towards Venus, its orbits actually took it through the upper portion of the upper Venusian atmosphere, specifically at the poles. While the probe was down there, the people in charge decided to do some science. The probe found that the upper atmosphere was sitting around -250 degrees Fahrenheit, significantly colder than what was expected. They also found that at heights of 130 and 140 kilometers, atmospheric pressure was 22% and 40% less than expected.

So why is this occurring? Scientists believe it has something to do with the presence of Venus' strong polar vortices, along with strong atmospheric gravity waves.

The scientists also note that the Venus Express trip through the Venusian atmosphere will be useful for the ExoMars probe, which will be undergoing aerobraking when it arrives at Mars.

All About Louis Oosthuizen's Insane Ace

The last round of the 2016 Masters was not the most pleasant thing to watch. Danny Willett was a deserving winner, but Jordan Spieth's quadruple bogey on the 12th hole is going to be remembered for a long time. But if you like hole-in-one's, then Sunday at Augusta this year was the place to be. There were 3 of them at 16, including Louis Oosthuizen's even-more-improbable-than-normal ace, which bounced off of J.B Holmes' ball and into the hole. Now, I've made two aces, and I can assure you that while some skill is obviously involved, actually getting that hole-in-one is mostly luck.

If you want to analyze this particular shot using math, here's a fun little article on the physics of this hole-in-one, and just how improbable it was. Spoiler: it's pretty unlikely.

Saturn's Moons May Be Younger Then They Look

Here's a story to file under "Unlikely but interesting to think about". Research has been published showing that many of the moons of Saturn are not actually 4 billion years old, but only about 100 million years old. The study suggests that the tidal forces governing the Saturnian moon system and gravitational interactions between moons should very quickly force out inner moons into longer orbits. Models were run to predict how far out the inner moons should have moved out, and were compared to where the moons actually are. Of course, they don't match up. According to the model, the inner moons such as Tethys, Dione, and Rhea are much closer than they should be to Saturn if they are in fact 4 billion years old, and actually haven't moved much at all.

To get a more exact date, the researchers looked at Enceladus. Assuming that the amount of tidal flexing and thus the level of geothermal activity was constant, the scientists were able to estimate just how strong the tidal forces around Saturn are. Using this information and computer models, they estimated that Enceladus had moved from its original orbit to its current one in only 100 million years, making the moon very, very young. The researchers guess that something drastic happened 100 million years ago, reshaping the moons that were present into what we see today while also creating Saturn's dramatic ring system. Now, if Enceladus really is that young, that's bad news for finding any life there. 100 million years, while long on a human scale, is really not enough time for life to develop. But I'm just a bit doubtful about this particular theory. It's interesting, yes, but I think there are too many holes for it to be correct.