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Space Technology To Soothe Roadster Ride
Space missions are highly complex operations, not only because the satellites or space probes are unique pieces of top-notch intricate high-tech, but also because it is so challenging to get them to their assigned position in space without damage. The technology used is now being transferred to the car industry to increase comfort.
[Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:00:00 EST]
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Speediest Sand Dunes Clocked From Space
Monitoring the speeds of migrating dunes and the volumes of sand transported over time is important to understanding how arid landscapes respond to wind-driven changes.
[Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:00:00 EST]
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Hubble Views Galactic Core In Unprecedented New Detail
A new color infrared image of the center of our Milky Way galaxy reveals a new population of massive stars and new details in complex structures in the hot ionized gas swirling around the central 300 light-years. This sweeping panorama is the sharpest infrared picture ever made of the Galactic core. It offers a nearby laboratory for how massive stars form and influence their environment in the often violent nuclear regions of other galaxies.
[Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:00:00 EST]
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Stars Forming Just Beyond Black Hole's Grasp At Galactic Center
The center of the Milky Way presents astronomers with a paradox: It holds young stars, but no one is sure how those stars got there. The galactic center is wracked with powerful gravitational tides stirred by a 4 million solar-mass black hole. Those tides should rip apart molecular clouds that act as stellar nurseries, preventing stars from forming in place. Yet the alternative -- stars falling inward after forming elsewhere -- should be a rare occurrence.
[Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:00:00 EST]
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Possible Abnormality In Fundamental Building Block Of Einstein's Theory Of Relativity
Physicists have developed a promising new way to identify a possible abnormality in a fundamental building block of Einstein's theory of relativity known as "Lorentz invariance." If confirmed, the abnormality would disprove the basic tenet that the laws of physics remain the same for any two objects traveling at a constant speed or rotated relative to one another.
[Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST]
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Black Holes Lead Galaxy Growth
Peering deep into the early universe, astronomers may have solved a longstanding cosmic chicken-and-egg problem -- which forms first -- galaxies or the black holes at their cores?
[Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST]
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Astronomers Use Gamma-ray Burst To Probe Star Formation In The Early Universe
The brilliant afterglow of a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) has enabled astronomers to probe the star-forming environment of a distant galaxy, resulting in the first detection of molecular gas in a GRB host galaxy. By analyzing the spectrum of light emitted in the GRB afterglow, the researchers are gleaning insights into an active stellar nursery in a galaxy so far away it appears as it was 10 billion years ago.
[Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST]
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Lunar Rock-Like Material May Someday House Moon Colonies
Dwellings in colonies on the moon one day may be built with new, highly durable bricks developed by students from the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech.
[Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST]
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Brown Dwarfs Don't Hang Out With Stars
Brown dwarfs, objects that are less massive than stars but larger than planets, just got more elusive, based on a study of 233 nearby multiple-star systems by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble found only two brown dwarfs as companions to normal stars. This means the so-called "brown dwarf desert" (the absence of brown dwarfs around solar-type stars) extends to the smallest stars in the universe.
[Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST]
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Cassiopeia A Comes Alive Across Time And Space
Two new efforts have taken a famous supernova remnant from the static to the dynamic. A new movie of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows changes in time never seen before in this type of object. A separate team has produced a dramatic 3-D visualization of the same remnant.
[Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST]
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Astronomers To Gaze Back In Time And Map History Of Universe
Astronomers are set to expand our knowledge of the history of our universe with a new project to map the inception and formation of galaxies.
[Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:00:00 EST]
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Baby Jupiters Must Gain Weight Fast
The planet Jupiter gained weight in a hurry during its infancy. It had to, since the material from which it formed probably disappeared in just a few million years, according to a new study of planet formation around young stars.
[Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST]
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Milky Way A Swifter Spinner, More Massive, New Measurements Show
Our home galaxy is rotating about 100,000 miles per hour faster than previously thought, meaning its mass is 50 percent greater. This makes it even with the Andromeda Galaxy, and no longer the "little sister" in our local group of galaxies.
[Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST]
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Jupiter-like Planets Could Form Around Twin Suns
Life on a planet ruled by two suns might be a little complicated. Two sunrises, two sunsets. Twice the radiation field. Astronomers suggest that planets may easily form around certain types of twin star systems. A disk of molecules discovered orbiting a pair of twin young suns in the constellation Sagittarius strongly suggests that many such binary systems also host planets.
[Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST]
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Astrophysicists Map Milky Way's Four Spiral Arms
A research team has developed the first complete map of the Milky Way galaxy's spiral arms. The map shows two prominent, symmetric spiral arms in the inner part of the galaxy. The arms extend into the outer galaxy where they branch into four spiral arms.
[Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST]
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Next NASA Moon Mission Completes Major Milestone
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has successfully completed thermal vacuum testing, which simulates the extreme hot, cold and airless conditions of space LRO will experience after launch. This milestone concludes the orbiter's environmental test program at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
[Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST]
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New Visualization Techniques Yield Star Formation Insights: Gravity Plays Larger Role Than Thought
New computer visualization technology developed by the Harvard Initiative in Innovative Computing has helped astrophysicists understand that gravity plays a larger role than previously thought in deep space's vast, star-forming molecular clouds.
[Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:00:00 EST]
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Odd-looking Martian Craters Indicate Hidden Ice
Surface features common in the northern and southern midlatitudes of Mars and known as lobate debris aprons and lineated valley fill are believed to have formed either as debris flows mobilized by pore ice or as debris-covered glaciers.
[Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST]
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Mars Rovers Near Five Years Of Science And Discovery
NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity may still have big achievements ahead as they approach the fifth anniversaries of their memorable landings on Mars.
[Thu, 01 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST]
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Quadrantid Meteor Shower Expected 2nd-3rd January, 2009
This year the Quadrantid meteor shower reaches its sharp peak of activity around midday on 3rd January in the UK (early morning in the US) . From the UK the best time to see them is in the last part of the night, before dawn on the morning of the 3rd, when perhaps a few tens of meteors will be visible each hour.
[Thu, 01 Jan 2009 08:00:00 EST]
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3-D Moon Imaging Inaugurated With NASA Instrument Aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 Spacecraft
Different wavelengths of light provide new information about the Orientale Basin region of the moon in a new composite image taken by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a guest instrument aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.
[Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST]
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What Can Swiss Cheese Teach Us About Dark Energy?
About 10 years ago, scientists reached the astonishing conclusion that our universe is accelerating apart at ever-increasing speeds, stretching space and time itself like melted cheese. The force that's pushing the universe apart is still a mystery, which is precisely why it was dubbed "dark energy." But is dark energy really real? Is our universe really accelerating?
[Sun, 28 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST]
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Sparkling Spray Of Stars Seen
NGC 2264 lies about 2600 light-years from Earth in the obscure constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn, not far from the more familiar figure of Orion, the Hunter. The image shows a region of space about 30 light-years across.
[Thu, 25 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST]
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Spain’s Biggest Meteorite Strike Remembered 150 Years On
Early on Christmas Eve, 1858 “people who in the streets, on pathways and in the fields saw a magnificent ball of fire appear, which shone with a brilliant, blinding light and all the colors of the rainbow, obscured the light of the moon and descended majestically from the sky”. This comes from a report commissioned by the person whose farm was struck by the largest meteorite recovered to date in Spain. In 1863, Queen Isabel II accepted it as a donation to the National Museum of Natural Sciences, where it has been conserved and exhibited ever since.
[Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:00:00 EST]
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Passage Graves From An Astronomical Perspective
Passage graves are mysterious barrows from the Stone Age. New research indicates that the Stone Age graves' orientation in the landscape could have an astronomical explanation. The Danish passage graves are most likely oriented according to the path of the full moon, perhaps even according to the full moon immediately before a lunar eclipse.
[Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:00:00 EST]
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Ocean Acidification From Carbon Dioxide Emissions Will Cause Physiological Impairment To Jumbo Squid
The elevated carbon dioxide levels expected to be found in the world's oceans by 2100 will likely lead to physiological impairments of jumbo squid.
[Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST]
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Satellites Used To Measure Inland Floods
Satellites that were designed to measure sea level over the world's oceans can serve a valuable purpose over land, a new study has found. Researchers used satellite to measure the height and extent of flooding in North America, South America, and Asia.
[Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:00:00 EST]
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Young Active Star Resembles The Sun When It Was Young
Astronomers recently observed a star analogous to the young Sun at an age of approximately 500 million years, named CoRoTExo-2a. This star is accompanied by a giant planet orbiting around it in only 1.7 days.
[Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST]
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Earth Not Center Of The Universe, Surrounded By 'Dark Energy'
Earth's location in the universe is utterly unremarkable, despite recent theories that propose toppling a foundation of modern cosmology, according to a team of University of British Columbia researchers.
[Tue, 23 Dec 2008 05:00:00 EST]
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Drama In The Heart Of The Tarantula Nebula
A new Chandra X-ray Observatory image of the Tarantula Nebula gives scientists a close-up view of the drama of star formation and evolution. The Tarantula, also known as 30 Doradus, is in one of the most active star-forming regions in a galaxy close to the Milky Way. Massive stars in 30 Doradus are producing intense radiation and searing winds of multimillion-degree gas that carve out gigantic super-bubbles in the surrounding gas.
[Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST]
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Saturn's Dynamic Moon Enceladus Shows More Signs Of Activity
The closer scientists look at Saturn's small moon Enceladus, the more they find evidence of an active world. The most recent flybys of Enceladus made by NASA's Cassini spacecraft have provided new signs of ongoing changes on and around the moon. The latest high-resolution images of Enceladus show signs that the south polar surface changes over time.
[Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:00:00 EST]
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Hubble Catches Jupiter's Largest Moon Going To The 'Dark Side'
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has caught Jupiter's moon Ganymede playing a game of "peek-a-boo." In this crisp Hubble image, Ganymede is shown just before it ducks behind the giant planet.
[Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST]
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The Medium Is The Message: Manipulating Salmonella In Spaceflight Curtails Infectiousness
Scientists have explored the novel environment of space to investigate the cellular and molecular machinery of virulence. Some of the latest findings are derived from experiments aboard NASA space shuttle mission STS-123, launched in March, 2008. In addition to confirming the effects of microgravity observed in the STS-115 experiments, the new study homed in on the importance of the microbial growth medium to gene expression and virulence during spaceflight.
[Sun, 21 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST]
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New Model Explains Movements Of The Moon
Scientists are developing a mathematical formula to study the rotation of the moon, taking into account its structure, which comprises a solid external layer and a fluid internal core. Their work is part of an international study, which has come up with an improved theoretical model about the orbital and rotational dynamics of the Earth and its satellite, and which the scientific community will be able to use to obtain more precise measurements in order to aid future NASA missions to the moon.
[Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST]
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Breathing Cycles In Earth's Upper Atmosphere Tied To Solar Wind Disturbances
A new study shows the periodic "breathing" of Earth's upper atmosphere that has long puzzled scientists is due in part to cyclic solar wind disturbances, a finding that should help engineers track satellites more accurately and improve forecasts for electronic communication disruptions.
[Sat, 20 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST]
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Life On Mars? Elusive Mineral Bolsters Chances, Researchers Say
A research team led by Brown University has found evidence of a long-sought mineral that shows Mars was home to a variety of watery environments, including regional pockets of neutral or alkaline water. The finding, detailed in the Dec. 19 edition of Science, bolsters the chances that primitive life sprang up in those benign spots.
[Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST]
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'Wet' Early Universe: Water Vapor Detected At Record Distance
Scientists have used the 100 m Effelsberg radio telescope to detect water at the greatest distance from Earth so far. The water vapor was discovered in a quasar which corresponds to a light travel time of 11.1 billion years, a time when the Universe was only a fifth of the age it is today. The water vapor is thought to exist in clouds of dust and gas that feed the supermassive black hole at the center of the distant quasar. The detection was later confirmed by high-resolution interferometric observations with the Expanded Very Large Array.
[Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST]
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Where Did Venus's Water Go?
Venus Express has made the first detection of an atmospheric loss process on Venus's day-side. Last year, the spacecraft revealed that most of the lost atmosphere escapes from the night-side. Together, these discoveries bring planetary scientists closer to understanding what happened to the water on Venus, which is suspected to have once been as abundant as on Earth.
[Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST]
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Moon’s Polar Craters Could Be The Place To Find Lunar Ice, Scientists Report
Scientists have discovered where they believe would be the best place to find ice on the moon.
[Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:00:00 EST]
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What Came Before The Big Bang? Interpreting Asymmetry In Early Universe
The Big Bang is widely considered to have obliterated any trace of what came before. Now, astrophysicists think that their new theoretical interpretation of an imprint from the earliest stages of the universe may also shed light on what came before.
[Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST]
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New Explanation For Migration Of Volcanic Activity On Mars
A new study indicates a moving, shell-like plate encapsulating Mars may explain explains the volcanic activity in the Tharsis Rise region of the 'red planet.'
[Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST]
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Cosmic Rays Do Not Explain Global Warming, Study Finds
A new study supports earlier findings by stating that changes in cosmic rays most likely do not contribute to climate change.
[Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:00:00 EST]
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Astronomers Use Ultra-sensitive Camera To Measure Size Of Planet Orbiting Star
A team of astronomers has used a new technique to measure the precise size of a planet around a distant star. They used a camera so sensitive that it could detect the passage of a moth in front of a lit window from a distance of 1,000 miles.
[Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:00:00 EST]
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Mars Orbiter Completes First Phase Of Science Mission
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has completed its primary, two-year science phase. The spacecraft has found signs of a complex Martian history of climate change that produced a diversity of past watery environments.
[Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:00:00 EST]
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Seeing The Shape Of Material Around Black Holes For First Time
After culling the literature for observed black holes, astronomers looked at 245 active galactic nuclei to characterize the shape of material swirling around them. The result: active galactic nuclei look like donuts, funneling from a dark center. This observation should constrain theories about how the material around black holes is produced and eventually allow scientists to study black holes themselves.
[Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:00:00 EST]
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Phoenix Site On Mars May Be In Dry Climate Cycle Phase
The Martian arctic soil that NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander dug into this year is very cold and very dry. However, when long-term climate cycles make the site warmer, the soil may get moist enough to modify the chemistry, producing effects that persist through the colder times.
[Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:00:00 EST]
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Biggest Breach Of Earth's Solar Storm Shield Discovered
Earth's magnetic field, which shields our planet from particles streaming outward from the Sun, often develops two holes that allow the largest leaks, according to researchers sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation.
[Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST]
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Dark Energy Found Stifling Growth In Universe
For the first time, astronomers have clearly seen the effects of 'dark energy' on the most massive collapsed objects in the Universe. By tracking how dark energy has stifled the growth of galaxy clusters and combining this with previous studies, scientists have obtained the best clues ever about what dark energy is and what the destiny of the universe could be.
[Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST]
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