Best wishes for a great summer!
The final week's question of this school year is listed under Answer #1 below.

Science Question of the week brought to you by Jim Foster of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center



(click on underlined text to call up the answers)

1. The Space Shuttle "Discovery" (STS-96) lifted off from Cape Canaveral May 27, 1999 6:49 am. The Discovery crew will become the first to visit this. What does "this" refer to? The crew will also deploy a student experiment known as STARSHINE, which has nothing to do with stars. Any idea what it's for?
   
2. One hundred ten years ago this month, arguably the worst natural disaster to strike the U.S. occurred. What was it? 
   
3. May is the most popular month for climbing Mt. Everest. Why?
   
4. Oklahoma was devastated by several powerful F5 tornadoes earlier this week. These occur rarely, but when they do, they're often killers. Waterspouts and gustnadoes are more common but less deadly storms. How are they different than their stronger cousins?
   
5. Let's get back to our own solar system. Both Venus and Mars are brilliant in the night sky now and will be for the next few weeks. Why? The reasons are different for each planet.
   
6. A number of possible solar systems have been identified in our galaxy, which have been observed to have a planet revolving the central star. Yet another possible solar system was discovered last week. What is different about this one?
   
7. Last week, the Landsat 7 satellite was successfully launched. Why are the Landsat series of satellites so well suited to observe the Earth's resources?
   
8. Earlier this week, the temperature was 110 degrees F in Hyderbad, India and -41 degrees F in Omyakon, Russia on the same day! Which of the following contributes to these wild temperature contrasts;
   • differences in elevations,
   • strong winds versus light winds,
   • one city in near the coast and the other is near the geographic center of Asia,
   • one city is located very near the equator and other very near the North Pole,
   • air mass and atmospheric pressure differences?
9. Some of you may be enjoying a portion of your spring break, if you get one, at the beach somewhere. What do sand dunes have to do with beaches and shorelines?
   
10. Passover begins this year at sunset on March 31, Easter is celebrated on April 4 and the Islamic New Year begins at sunset on April 16. How are these dates determined?
    
11. It appears that a Swiss/English hot-air balloon team is poised to make the first around-the-world, non-stop, balloon flight. If they make it, why did they succeed while all of the other attempts failed?
    
12. They're starting their northern migration just about now, I'm not talking about birds, but rather these invertebrates. What are they, and what aids them as they move north during the spring?
    
13. The Pacific Northwest always gets its share of wet weather, but this winter the precipitation has been excessive. Is the wet weather a result of persistent fog and constant drizzle, a lot of fast moving storms, or a few big, slow moving storms?
    
14. Over the next two weeks, take a few minutes to look in the the western sky just after sunset (make sure to look on Tuesday the 23rd). What's so interesting? By the way, I'll answer this question on March 4. I'd like to tell you that I'll be enjoying tropical weather somewhere next week, but actually, I'll be in North Dakota. Maybe it'll be warm there.
    
15. Big snowfalls in the Alps, Cascades and Rocky Mountains have led to a number of fatal avalanches this past week. What's the difference between slab, loose snow and powder avalanches, and which is generally more deadly?
    
16. Some astronomers believe Pluto is not really a planet. What, if anything, distinguishes a planet from an asteroid or a moon? (Pluto website)
17. Parts of Colombia were devastated by an earthquake earlier this week. Since we have a good idea where earthquakes occur, why can't we predict when they'll occur?
    
18. Is the "January Thaw" a perceived weather event or a true warming feature that can be expected to occur nearly every January in the mid latitudes of the U.S.?
    
19. The Great Lakes area has been besieged by bitter cold and near-record snow amounts over the past couple of weeks. Name two factor that have played roles in the cold weather and the big snowfalls?
    
20. Which of the following was voted the top science story of 1998?  The identification of timekeeping genes in fruit flies; The scientific proof that demonstrates time equals money ; The conclusion that the universe will expand forever; The conclusion that the universe will collapse eventually; The conclusion that the universe is neither expanding or contracting;The proof that neutrinos have weight
    
21. Because the Earth has slowed down ever so slightly enough over the years, we're going to get a leap second added on December 31. What can cause the Earth's rotational velocity to change?
    
22. During the late fall and winter, millions of people in the Northern Hemisphere suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). What seems to cause SAD?
    
23. While much of the U.S. has been basking in unusually warm late autumn weather, it has been pretty nippy in Europe lately. What is the source area of the cold air that has been affecting Europe?
    
24. This time of year, ponds and lakes are often murky even though there may not have been any rain or storms for weeks. Why is this so?
    
25. Tomorrow, the first step in building the joint U.S./Russian space station will get underway when a Russian Proton rocket blasts off from Kazakhstan. Why are the Russian rockets launched from the middle of Eurasia while U.S. rockets are launched from coastal locations. I'll answer this the week after Thanksgiving.
    
26. A huge chunk of ice has recently broken off of the Antarctica. Why haven't ice blocks of similar size split from the Greenland Ice Sheet?
    
27. The much anticipated Leonids meteor shower, and perhaps meteor storm, will occur late on November 17 and into the early hours of November 18. Since at least A.D. 902, the return of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, having a return period of about every 33 years, has sometimes produced a fantastic mid-November meteor storm with very bright meteors. Why are these meteors often very bright?
    
28. It's a scary, howling monster! Hurricane Mitch, now rocking Central America, is a witches brew of lashing rains, fierce winds, and surging tides. It formed last week in the Caribbean Sea and is one of the strongest to ever form in the Atlantic basin (the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico). Do more hurricanes form in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean or the eastern Pacific Ocean?
    
29. Last week, in a homing pigeon race from New Market, VA to Allentown, PA, of 1800 pigeons released, only 300 made it to their final destination. There were 1500 hundred no shows. What happened to them? Were they affected by; thunderstorms, migrating hawks, electromagnetic disturbances, El Nino (please don't let this be the answer), or other unexplained reasons.
    
30. The ozone hole over Antarctica this year is one of the biggest ever observed. If there has been a ban on chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), why is the ozone hole continuing to get larger, or is it?
    
31. What is a meteor storm and what causes it?
    
32. The SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) Spacecraft has been recently repaired by scientists and engineers who work for NASA and the European Space Agency. It can can now look at the Sun again. One of the goals of the SOHO mission is to observe and monitor the solar wind. What is the solar wind, and why do we care about gusts or shocks that occur in it?
    
33. In the eastern U.S. is it more likely to rain on a Saturday or a Tuesday, or are the chances of precipitation exactly the same for each day of the week?
    
34. This summer in China, upwards of 5000 people have died in floods. It's the worst flooding there in over forty years. In years past, dikes have been built to control flooding along the Yangtze River, but what strategy is being used now to save large cities on the Yangtze from the devastating floods?
    
35. Do all Major League Baseball teams play the same number of games in a season, and how did the weather play a role in Roger Maris' bid to break Babe Ruth's home run record?
    

Previous Years Questions:
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Last Revised:  07 June 1999