Even though the idea would be wonderful: this is not about trees that grow on the Moon, but about trees on Earth that grew from seeds, which orbited the Moon exactly 34 times, in a small canister, during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. For this joint project by NASA and USFS (US Forest Service), the astronaut Stuart Rosa took hundreds of tree seeds with him on this journey. Seeds of five different species of tree had been chosen: loblolly pine, sycamore, sweetgum, redwood and douglas fir. The seeds survived the weightlessness and also when the canister that contained the seeds, got destroyed in the vacuum of the decontamination chamber. The seeds had to be picked up individually after this incident.
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We have compared the amount of visitors from our full moon pages with the curve of an electrocardiogram (ECG) and came across an astonishing similarity. It almost appears as if the attention that we humans give to full moon would have its own heartbeat …
It is obvious that the interest in full moon can be linked to its rhythm. The average duration of a moon month is approx. 29.5 days, so a little bit more than four weeks and a little bit less than one calendar month. One can safely say, a lot of people are paying attention to the moon at full moon and clearly a lot less so during the other moon phases.
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It was about 100 years ago when a special kind of postcard was fashionable in Europe: the moonshine card. This is a kind of postcard with motifs of cities or landscapes that was to convey the effect of a nightly moonshine scenery. It was supposed to be romantic and this obviously appealed to people in those days. There were printed cards as well as photo-postcards that were »dipped into moonlight« in this way.
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It belongs to one of the more strenuous ideals of our times, wanting to be slim and beautiful and fit. A multi-million industry is connected to this image and people like us, can decide as to how much we want to participate in this game. Most of us have already more of it on their minds as they may actually like to. And since the ideal of the slim and slender body doesn’t happen naturally, people have invented the diet. However, this word derives from the Greek díaita and relates to the correct organization and way of life in general. So losing weight is not actually the focus after all, but rather a life in balance.
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Who doesn’t know them, the fearless Gauls Asterix and Obelix, who have been making the hearts of comic fans leap for joy since decades and who impress again and again through witty texts and masterful drawings. The stories originate from the pen of the French illustrator Albert Uderzo (1927–2020), who created, together with his fellow countryman René Goscinny (1926–1977), the first comic in the year 1959, and with that, brought the adventures of the brave Gaul to life.
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This animation of 2013 is the most successful movie by the Disney Animation Studios yet, and supersedes the previous hit “The Lion King“. Not only in the US and Japan, but this production also received many awards in Germany (amongst other things the Oscar 2014 for ›Best Animated Feature‹ and ›Best Original Song‹) and was a box office hit.
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After USA and the Soviet Union, China will be the third nation in the world travelling to the Moon with their space program, and they will probably land there with the astronauts as well in the long term. At the moment, an unmanned spaceship »Chang’e-3« (moon fairy) is on its way to the Moon since 1st December 2013, planning to land in the Mare Ibrium on 14th December and supposed to transport a rover for research purposes of the Moon’s surface. The vehicle is called »Yutu« (jade rabbit).
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As is generally known, the moonlight is actually sunlight reflecting from the surface of the Moon and reaching us here on Earth. You ask yourself the question, whether the moonlight may have a different colour than the sunlight, especially since a nightly scenery usually appears to be bluish. Also movie scenes, are portrayed in blue and so are many pictures and photographs. We would like to forestall the answer: the moonlight is nearly white. The night appears blue due to other reasons.
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It is time again to write about a song on the theme of the Moon: »Moondance« by Van Morrison. Released in February of 1970, on the album with the same title, by the musician from Northern Ireland, belongs to the classics amongst the moon songs. It hovers stylistically between rhythm & blues and country rock, but also jazz influences can be recognized. »Moondance« was placed in the English and American Charts. It was never a smash hit, but still today belongs to the concert repertoire of ›Van the Man‹ and can be heard time and again on the radio.
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Have you ever wondered, after you took a photograph of the full moon that the Moon looks much smaller on the picture than as it appears to you in real? This effect occurs particularly when the Moon is above the horizon. This is a so-called Moon illusion, which is an optical illusion, meaning it can only be seen this way through our perception and is therefore not depicted on the photograph.
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