WeeklyWONDER


 * __WeeklyWONDER__**

Story of the Week:
=THE T-REX WAS A SLOWPOKE?=
 * //T. rex was no slacker. But the popular image of a nimble predator turning on a dime and chasing down prey with lightning speed is fiction, new computer models show. The terrifying tyrannosaur was actually a slowpoke.//**
 * //Previous studies have looked at the movements of birds, the direct descendents of dinosaurs, and fossilized footprints to judge how Tyrannosaurus rex would have moved.//**
 * //To get a better estimate of the giant’s movement, the new study modeled a typical complete T. rex skeleton, which probably weighed between about 13,000 and 17,000 pounds, and estimated its center of mass and the inertia, or resistance to movement, that it would have had when the animal turned or pivoted.//**
 * //The center of mass is important to consider because two animals with similar weights may move in different ways depending on how their mass is distributed. For example, an elephant’s four tree trunk-like legs keep its center of mass over its feet, while T. rex would have had to balance its mass differently over its two small legs, bending them to keep from toppling over...//**

//--// [|livescience.com/]


 * FAVE Picture of the week:**

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ONE OF HUBBLE'S LATEST IMAGES!!



 * //In one of the most detailed astronomical images ever produced, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured an unprecedented look at the Orion Nebula. This turbulent star formation region is one of astronomy's most dramatic and photogenic celestial objects. More than 3,000 stars of various sizes aper in this image.//** **//Some of them have never been seen in visible light. These stars reside in a dramatic dust-and-gas landscape of plateaus, mountains, and valleys that are reminiscent of the Grand Canyon. The Orion Nebula is a picture book of star formation, from the massive, young stars that are shaping the nebula to the pillars of dense gas that may be the homes of budding stars.//**

//--// [|space.com/]

//**__August__ National Catfish Month

August 2 - National Ice Cream Sandwich Day August 4 - National Chocolate Chip Day August 5 - Kids Day August 7 - National LIghthouse Day August 13 - National Left-Handers Day August 16 - Roller Coaster Day August 21 - Hawaii Statehood Day. Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959 August 26 - National Dog Day August 30 - Toasted Marshmallow Day**//