the-science-llama:

If Earth Had Rings

First off, they would be really pretty to look at. They would also dominate the sky in both night and day at exactly the same place as they would never rise nor set. And at night you would see the Earth’s shadow swing across the rings, like in the 4th photo here.

However, life would be very different on Earth if this were the case. Nocturnal animals would have a hard time being nocturnal, as the light reflecting from the rings would illuminate the night.

Because we are closer to the Sun than Saturn is, the rings would be more rocky than ice, making them less bright but still pretty bright. In fact, you would see far less stars at night (living anywhere other than the equator or the arctic circle) because of the light pollution and not to mention ruin most meteor showers because of that.

During the day the rings would block sunlight in certain regions of the planet creating wild weather cycles and effecting plant life as well. So basically, they would be definitely pretty to look at but they would also make a whole lot of things screwy.

Illustrations by Ron Miller // io9
— Click the photos for captions

(via plankt0n)

Source: the-science-llama

Q:hi! i know you just answered someone else's question about the st ignatius institute, and i read your other posts on it, but i'm still wondering: is it an extremely spiritual/religious student group? as an atheist, i don't really want to join a group that's very highly focused on the religious aspect of the school, but i'm interested in joining for the 'great books' curriculum. thanks!

Anonymous

Hello! In the past, SII was very much a religiously-focused group.

However, in recent years, this has changed dramatically. A number of SII members do not subscribe to the Catholic faith (or any other denominational faith group, for that matter), and still actively participate within the community. While SII offers a weekly casual mass on Tuesdays, this is completely optional. The activity after the mass is not religious/spiritual, and is open to anyone. Students that are not interested in the mass portion of SII Nights simply arrive when the mass is over. 

In addition, the classes are also up to you, and as long as the class title doesn’t focus on Christianity (we have one or two optional classes covering the Theology/Ethics Cores that hone in on Catholicism), then the SII course is not going to be any more religiously focused than any other course at USF. 

You’ll find that much of the population here at USF is not highly focused on religion. 

I hope this helps!

Ask me anything about USF.  

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