Anonymous ID: 41b641 June 18, 2023, 7:07 a.m. No.19026919   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6922 >>6932 >>7232 >>7295 >>7362

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

June 18, 2023

 

Saturn's Northern Hexagon

 

Why would clouds form a hexagon on Saturn? Nobody is sure. Originally discovered during the Voyager flybys of Saturn in the 1980s, nobody has ever seen anything like it anywhere else in the Solar System. Acquiring its first sunlit views of far northern Saturn in late 2012, the Cassini spacecraft's wide-angle camera recorded this stunning, false-color image of the ringed planet's north pole. The composite of near-infrared image data results in red hues for low clouds and green for high ones, giving the Saturnian cloudscape a vivid appearance. This and similar images show the stability of the hexagon even 20+ years after Voyager. Movies of Saturn's North Pole show the cloud structure maintaining its hexagonal structure while rotating. Unlike individual clouds appearing like a hexagon on Earth, the Saturn cloud pattern appears to have six well defined sides of nearly equal length. Four Earths could fit inside the hexagon. Beyond the cloud tops at the upper right, arcs of the planet's eye-catching rings are tinted bright blue.

 

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?

Anonymous ID: 41b641 June 18, 2023, 7:15 a.m. No.19026951   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6967 >>6989 >>7010 >>7015 >>7016 >>7079 >>7232 >>7295 >>7362

Turkish man knocked down basement wall to find 2,000-year-old underground city - after chasing his chickens through a hole

June 15, 2023

 

A Turkish homeowner chasing his chickens through a hole in his basement during renovations came across an abandoned underground Turkish city that once housed 20,000 people.

 

In an effort to recapture his escaping poultry, the unidentified man knocked down the wall in the 1960s to reveal a dark tunnel leading to the ancient city of Elengubu, known today as Derinkuyu.

 

Derinkuyu, burrowed more than 280 feet beneath the Central Anatolian region of Cappadocia, is the largest excavated underground city in the world and is believed to connect to more than 200 smaller, separate underground cities that were discovered in recent decades, Turkish guides told the BBC.

 

Inside the subterranean city — whose entrances connect to more than 600 private homes in the modern, surface-level region of Cappadocia — researchers found 18 levels of tunnels containing dwellings, dry food storage, cattle stables, schools, wineries, and even a chapel.

 

The city was also equipped with a ventilation system that supplied its residents with fresh air and water.

 

“Life underground was probably very difficult,” the guide, identified as Suleman, told the outlet.

 

“The residents relieved themselves in sealed clay jars, lived by torchlight, and disposed of dead bodies in [designated] areas.”

 

The exact date the impressive city was built remains contested, but ancient writings dating back to 370 BC indicate Derinkuyu was in existence.

 

The city was likely originally used to store goods but was then used as a bunker to escape from foreign invaders — the dimly lit hallways were intentionally built narrow and low so intruders would be forced to stoop and enter in single file.

 

The doors connecting each level were blocked by half-ton boulders only moveable from the inside that contained a small hole that allowed residents to spear the confined trespassers.

 

Though it remains a mystery who the architects were, researchers believe the Hittites — a Bronze Age Anatolian people — “may have excavated the first few levels in the rock when they came under attack from the Phrygians around 1200 BCE,” A. Bertini, an expert in Mediterranean cave dwellings, wrote in his 2010 essay on regional cave architecture.

 

The Phrygian invaders, an Indo-European-speaking empire that ruled Anatolia for 600 years, are credited with building the bulk of the city in the centuries before Derinkuyu changed hands several more times, including between the Persians, Christians and Cappadocian Greeks.

 

The city likely reached its peak population of 20,000 during the 7th-century Islamic raids on the Christian Byzantine Empire, the BBC reported.

 

After 2,000 years of use, Derinkuyu was finally abandoned in 1923 by the Cappadocian Greeks, who faced defeat in the Greco-Turkish war and escaped to Greece.

 

https://nypost.com/2023/06/15/ancient-turkish-city-discovered-after-man-knocked-down-basement-wall/

Anonymous ID: 41b641 June 18, 2023, 7:48 a.m. No.19027095   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>7113 >>7232 >>7295 >>7362

20 injured, 1 killed at massive Illinois Juneteenth celebration

June 18, 2023

 

At least one person was killed and 20 were injured after gunfire broke out Sunday morning during a massive Juneteenth celebration held in the Chicago suburb of Willowbrook.

 

At least 200 teens and young adults were gathered in a parking lot for a Juneteenth celebration when dozens of gunshots rang around 12:30 a.m., according to WSL-TV.

 

When the gun smoke cleared, 20 people had been shot, one of them fatally, DuPage County Sheriff’s Office officials told the outlet.

 

Two others were in critical condition, fire officials told WBBM-TV.

 

Most of those who were shot suffered from what authorities called “graze wounds,” authorities reportedly said.

 

The shooting took place around 12:30 a.m. in a parking lot on Route 83 near Honey Suckle Lane, Battalion Chief Joe Ostrander with the Tri-State Fire Protection District told the local outlets.

 

“It was supposed to be like a Juneteenth celebration; we just started hearing shooting, so we dropped down until they stopped. They just kept going. After that, we literally scattered away,” witness Markeshia Avery said, according to the ABC affiliate.

 

A massive police presence remained on the scene into the early morning hours. Debris and trash were left at the scene following the massive party that turned violent.

 

“We were all just out, and, next thing you know shots just kept going off; everybody ran, and it was chaos,” witness Craig Lotcie said.

 

It was unclear what led to the shooting and local authorities did not immediately respond to a Post inquiry.

 

Their investigation is ongoing.

 

https://nypost.com/2023/06/18/20-injured-1-killed-at-massive-illinois-juneteenth-celebration/