Using acoustic waves to catch sunspots in the early stage of development can give as much as two days warning of disruptions to communication systems, air travel, power grids and satellites and prevent astronauts from getting fried in space. Sunspots develop in active solar regions of concentrated magnetic fields. The magnetic flux gives rise to [...]
A New Telescope Called Alma Produces Its First Superior Images
A new telescope is starting to look at the universe. ALMA is the most powerful millimetre/submillimetre wavelength telescope in the world. These are longer wavelengths roughly about 1000 times longer than visible light wavelengths. Using these wavelengths ALMA allows astronomers to study really cold objects in the universe such as dense clouds of cosmic dust [...]
Higgs Bosun or God Particle May Explain the Size of the Universe
This particle could explain a lot of things but could it explain the size of the universe? This particle mainly explains why most particles possess mass. This and the verification of the data by the Planck satellite would clear up a few questions about the universe’s past and future. The universe wasn’t born correctly. Because [...]
Extreme Weather on an Alien World Found
The hurricanes that we experience on Earth are nothing compared to other alien worlds. Astronomers have observed extreme changes in brightness on a brown dwarf not that far away. These changes may indicate a storm that is bigger than seen on any planet so far. Brown dwarfs and giant planets have similar atmospheres and therefore [...]
Carnival of Space 213
Vegaoo posts about the relation between the entropy from the Sun and the life on the Earth [In Spanish] This post by the Lounge of the Lab Lemming estimates the probability of finding a solar system like ours based on the Kepler planetary candidate database. Nuclear fission reactors in space? Think less “building sized” and more “suitcase [...]
The Plan for the Search for Life on Mars
Scientists have been meeting to talk about the prospects of finding life on Mars. Questions still linger positively or negatively about whether life exists on Mars because the right instruments haven’t been available. The instruments needed are being developed now and are being refined for future missions. The main challenge is to get them on [...]
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Chinese Experimental Satellite Fails to Reach Orbit
A Chinese experimental satellite failed to reach its orbit after it’s rocket malfunctioned. Orbiter SJ-11-04 was propelled by a long March II-C rocket on Thursday. It has been speculated thatChinawas about to use the satellite as part of an operational early warning defence system but this cannot be confirmed. This is believed to be the [...]
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A New NASA project started to See if microbial life Could Exist on Mars
A new large million-dollar NASA project started by theUniversityofMichiganaims to find out if microbial life could exist on Mars. Recently flowing water has been seen on Mars as reported in this weirdwarp post. Beads of water were first photographed on the Mars Phoenix lander’s legs about three years ago. Water could mean life, not little [...]
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Opportunity Rover Pictures From the Edge of the Endeavour Crater on Mars
The Opportunity rover has reached the crater Endeavour and is now sitting near its edge, looking across at the bowl and hills around its rim. Images from the Rover are shown below. (Don’t forget to click on them to make them bigger).
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Best Evidence yet for Flowing Water on Mars
Where there is water there should be life. NASA has been looking for water for a long time in its long quest searching for life in the solar system. It looks as though now the Mars reconnaissance orbiter has found flowing water during the warmest months on Mars. Dark, finger-like features appear and extend down [...]
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An Experimental Chinese Satellite Launch Later This Week
China is getting to the forefront of space technology as theUSAbacks down. An experimental orbiter that is to launch on Thursday is another step forward for the Chinese. The orbiter, SJ-11-02 , will be carried into space byChina’s Long March II-C rocket. At the moment the satellite and rocket are waiting for the right conditions [...]
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A Different Volcanic Area Found on the Far Side of the Moon
A hot spot on the far side of the Moon has turned out to be a small volcanic area created by the upwelling of magma. Because of the volcanic areas location and the composition of the lava being different to normal it gives clues to the moon’s thermal history. The hotspot is actually a concentration [...]
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Largest Amount of Water Found in a Quasar
The farthest and largest Amount of water has been found in a quasar in the form of vapour. The quasar is one of the most powerful objects in the universe with energy output of 1000 trillion suns. The power of the quasar comes from matter that spirals into the centre where there is a supermassive [...]
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Hubble Celebrates One Complete Orbit of Neptune around the Sun
Neptune was discovered 165 years ago. In that time it has made one complete orbit of the Sun and is now in exactly the same place as when it was discovered all those years ago. The Hubble space telescope has taken anniversary pictures to celebrate this event. Neptune, as you probably know if you paid [...]
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The Best Evidence yet Is Found for Enceladus to Contain a Salt Water Ocean
For the first time it has been shown that the Cassini-Huygens probe’s sampling of icy spray shooting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus contains large salt rich grains. The spray was sampled by Cassini in 2005. The plumes were coming from the so-called “tiger stripe” surface fractures at the moon’s south pole. These tiger stripes are thought [...]
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A New View of the Galaxy Centaurus A by Hubble
Hubble has used its wide field camera 3 to give the most detailed view of this Galaxy ever. The image shows detail that has never been seen before in the dusty portion of the Galaxy. Centaurus A is also known as NGC 5128 and is a relatively nearby galaxy in astronomical terms. It is close [...]
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5 New Projects to Look for Alien Life
Five new projects have been announced by the NASA astrobiology science and technology for exploring planets program (ASTEP). ASTEP promotes the search for life on other planets and supports research and exploration of the Earth’s most remote places. New technology is used by ASTEP to seek, identify and characterise life that exists or did exist [...]
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New Rocky Type Planet Found by Kepler
The Kepler telescope, which has been looking for planets outside our solar system, has found a new rocky planet a bit like a scorched molten Earth. It orbits around a sun like star called Kepler-10 in only 45 days. It is so close to its parent star it is not expected to have any liquid [...]
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Carnival of Space 199
Here’s this weeks carnival of space with spaceplanes, dark energy, cosmology and a lot more. Next Big Future posts about how the Skylon space plane got a thumbs up with a 52 page review from the UK space agency, James Woodward talks about the scientific history of science, gravity and the Mach Effect and a post [...]
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Science Fiction Becomes Fact As 10 New Jupiter Sized Planets Found in Deep Space
10 new Jupiter sized planets have been found floating alone in space, and I mean alone, well away from any star. They are sometimes called orphan planets and have been the subject of science fiction and science theory for a long time but now there is evidence that they exist. The survey shows that for [...]
