Giant Planet Set for a Cataclysmic Show
Dec 16, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (16) |
4
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Chinese astronomers have discovered a giant planet close to the exotic binary star system QS Virginis. Although dormant now, in the future the two stars will one day erupt in a violent ...
Inside the dark heart of the Eagle
Dec 16, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (8) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- Herschel has peered inside an unseen stellar nursery and revealed surprising amounts of activity. Some 700 newly-forming stars are estimated to be crowded into filaments of dust stretching ...
Icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter may have conditions needed for life
Dec 15, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (16) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists once thought that life could originate only within a solar system's "habitable zone," where a planet would be neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on its surface. ...
Spirit Mars Rover: Unexpected Wheel-Test Results
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 15, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (7) |
2
(PhysOrg.com) -- Diagnostic tests were run on Spirit's right-rear wheel and right-front wheel on Sol 2013 (Dec. 12, 2009).
MESSENGER team releases first global map of mercury
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 15, 2009 |
5 / 5 (7) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's MESSENGER mission team and cartographic experts from the U. S. Geological Survey have created a critical tool for planning the first orbital observations of the planet Mercury - a global ...
Pollution alters isolated thunderstorms
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2009 |
3.2 / 5 (5) |
10
New climate research reveals how wind shear -- the same atmospheric conditions that cause bumpy airplane rides -- affects how pollution contributes to isolated thunderstorm clouds. Under strong wind shear ...
First Direct Imaging of a Young Binary System
Dec 15, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (17) |
2
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers from The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and other universities have captured the first direct image of a young ...
Tremors between slip events: More evidence of great quake danger to Seattle
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (8) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- For most of a decade, scientists have documented unfelt and slow-moving seismic events, called episodic tremor and slip, showing up in regular cycles under the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state and Vancouver ...
From greenhouse to icehouse -- reconstructing the environment of the Voring Plateau
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (8) |
1
The analysis of microfossils found in ocean sediment cores is illuminating the environmental conditions that prevailed at high latitudes during a critical period of Earth history.
Hypoxia increases as climate warms
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (6) |
2
A new study of Pacific Ocean sediments off the coast of Chile has found that offshore waters experienced systematic oxygen depletion during the rapid warming of the Antarctic following the last "glacial maximum" period 20,000 ...
Going vertical: Fleeing tsunamis by moving up, not out
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 14, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In the minutes after a strong earthquake struck offshore of the Indonesian city of Padang on Sept. 30, fears of a tsunami prompted hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate the coastal ...
Born in beauty: Proplyds in the Orion Nebula (w/ Video)
Dec 14, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (9) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- A collection of 30 never-before-released images of embryonic planetary systems in the Orion Nebula are the highlight of the longest single Hubble Space Telescope project ever dedicated to ...
Ethanol results in higher ozone concentrations than gasoline, researchers say
Dec 14, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (8) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Ethanol, often promoted as a clean-burning, renewable fuel that could help wean the nation from oil, would likely worsen health problems caused by ozone, compared with gasoline, especially ...
WISE satellite blasts off on space-map mission
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 14, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (6) |
4
NASA launched Monday a new breed of satellite called WISE on a mission to orbit Earth and map the skies to find elusive cosmic objects, including potentially dangerous asteroids.
'Monster' iceberg shedding hundreds of offshoots
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 14, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (9) |
2
An island-sized iceberg is breaking up as it drifts closer to Australia, producing hundreds of smaller slabs spread over a massive area of ocean, experts said Monday.
