Friday, October 28, 2011

Three New Planets and a Mystery Object Discovered Outside Our Solar System

 Three planets -- each orbiting its own giant, dying star -- have been discovered by an international research team led by a Penn State University astronomer.
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

NASA Telescopes Help Solve Ancient Supernova Mystery

 A mystery that began nearly 2,000 years ago, when Chinese astronomers witnessed what would turn out to be an exploding star in the sky, has been solved. New infrared observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, reveal how the first supernova ever recorded occurred and how its shattered remains ultimately spread out to great distances.
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Sunday, October 9, 2011

Astronomers Find Elusive Planets in Decade-Old Hubble Data

 In a painstaking re-analysis of Hubble Space Telescope images from 1998, astronomers have found visual evidence for two extrasolar planets that went undetected back then.
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Sunday, September 25, 2011

NASA's UARS Re-Enters Earth's Atmosphere

NASA’s decommissioned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) fell back to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 23 and 1:09 a.m. Sept. 24, 20 years and nine days after its launch on a 14-year mission that produced some of the first long-term records of chemicals in the atmosphere.

The precise re-entry time and location of debris impacts have not been determined. During the re-entry period, the satellite passed from the east coast of Africa over the Indian Ocean, then the Pacific Ocean, then across northern Canada, then across the northern Atlantic Ocean, to a point over West Africa. The vast majority of the orbital transit was over water, with some flight over northern Canada and West Africa.

Six years after the end of its productive scientific life, UARS broke into pieces during re-entry, and most of it up burned in the atmosphere. Data indicates the satellite likely broke apart and landed in the Pacific Ocean far off the U.S. coast. Twenty-six satellite components, weighing a total of about 1,200 pounds, could have survived the fiery re-entry and reach the surface of Earth. However, NASA is not aware of any reports of injury or property damage.
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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Gold Comes From Meteorites

 Ultra high precision analyses of some of the oldest rock samples on Earth by researchers at the University of Bristol provides clear evidence that the planet's accessible reserves of precious metals are the result of a bombardment of meteorites more than 200 million years after Earth was formed.
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Saturday, August 13, 2011

Don't rebuild communities in landslide-stricken areas

This advice comes from Dr. Beatriz Cuevas-Jadina of the Visayas State University (VSU) in Baybay City, Leyte, who has been studying high-risk landslide areas in Leyte.
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