LCROSS Impact Data Indicates Water on Moon

LCROSS Impact Finds Water on the Moon

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 13, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (31) | comments 15

(PhysOrg.com) -- The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water. Secrets the moon has been holding, for perhaps billions of years, are now being revealed to the delight of scientists ...


First black holes may have incubated in giant, starlike cocoons, says CU-Boulder study

First black holes may have incubated in giant, starlike cocoons

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created 1hour ago | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first large black holes in the universe likely formed and grew deep inside gigantic, starlike cocoons that smothered their powerful x-ray radiation and prevented surrounding gases from ...


New computer-developed map shows more extensive valley network on Mars

New computer-developed map shows more extensive valley network on Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created 23 hours ago | popularity 4.5 / 5 (8) | comments 1

New research adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting the Red Planet once had an ocean.


Supervolcano eruption -- in Sumatra -- deforested India 73,000 years ago

Supervolcano eruption -- in Sumatra -- deforested India 73,000 years ago

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 23, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (15) | comments 2

A new study provides "incontrovertible evidence" that the volcanic super-eruption of Toba on the island of Sumatra about 73,000 years ago deforested much of central India, some 3,000 miles from the epicenter, ...


Cassini's Big Sky: The View from the Center of Our Solar System

Cassini's Big Sky: The View from the Center of Our Solar System

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 20, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (15) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- When NASA's Cassini spacecraft began orbiting Saturn five years ago, a dozen highly-tuned science instruments set to work surveying, sniffing, analyzing and scrutinizing the Saturnian system.


Mystery of the Solar Tsunami -- Solved

Mystery of the Solar Tsunami -- Solved (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (26) | comments 9

(PhysOrg.com) -- Sometimes you really can believe your eyes. That's what NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) is telling researchers about a controversial phenomenon on the sun known as ...


After mastodons and mammoths, a transformed landscape

After mastodons and mammoths, a transformed landscape

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (12) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Roughly 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, North America's vast assemblage of large animals -- including such iconic creatures as mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, ground ...


Mysteriously warm times in Antarctica

Mysteriously warm times in Antarctica

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (22) | comments 31

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study of Antarctica's past climate reveals that temperatures during the warm periods between ice ages (interglacials) may have been higher than previously thought. The latest analysis ...


Baffling boxy bulge

NGC 4710 galaxy: Baffling boxy bulge (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (13) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Just as many people are surprised to find themselves packing on unexplained weight around the middle, astronomers find the evolution of bulges in the centres of spiral galaxies puzzling. A ...


Ticking stellar time bomb identified

Ticking stellar time bomb identified (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- "One of the major problems in modern astrophysics is the fact that we still do not know exactly what kinds of stellar system explode as a Type Ia supernova," says Patrick Woudt, from the University ...


Close-up movie shows hidden details in the birth of super-suns

Close-up movie shows hidden details in the birth of super-suns (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (10) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- The constellation of Orion is a hotbed of massive star formation, most prominently in the Great Nebula that sits in Orion's sword. The glowing gas of the Nebula is powered by a group of young ...


MIT scientists pinpoint origin of dissolved arsenic in Bangladesh drinking water

Scientists pinpoint origin of dissolved arsenic in Bangladesh drinking water

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 15, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (20) | comments 0

Researchers in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering believe they have pinpointed a pathway by which arsenic may be contaminating the drinking water in Bangladesh, a phenomenon that has puzzled ...


Rosetta

Rosetta bound for outer Solar System after final Earth swingby (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 13, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- This morning, mission controllers confirmed that ESA’s comet chaser Rosetta had swung by Earth at 8:45 CET as planned, skimming past our planet to pick up a gravitational boost for an epic ...


2 Earth-sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres found -- but they're stars not planets

Two Earth-sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres found -- but they're stars not planets

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (20) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astrophysicists at the University of Warwick and Kiel University have discovered two earth sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres - however there is a bit of a disappointing snag for anyone ...


A faraway planet intrigues: Exoplanet with extremely tilted orbit raises new interest in stellar astronomy

A faraway planet intrigues: Exoplanet with extremely tilted orbit raises new interest in stellar astronomy

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (12) | comments 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two teams of astronomers have found a planet outside the solar system that might be orbiting backwards compared to its star's rotation, a discovery that could shed light on how unique the ...