More videos — InMotion
In pictures —
Latest headlines
Marker of Ewing sarcoma: Potential new drug target? — 9 Feb 15:22
Antiretroviral therapy associated with increase in pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa — 9 Feb 15:12
Metabolite common among cancers — 9 Feb 15:09
Drug shows promise for Huntington's disease — 9 Feb 15:06
Patients 'unafraid' to gamble highlight role of amygdala in decision-making — 9 Feb 15:03
Latino and white children might receive different pain treatment — 9 Feb 15:00
Enveloped in comfort and care — 9 Feb 14:57
Simple, quick test can send patient safely home from ER after chest pain — 9 Feb 14:54
Depressed people feel more grey than blue — 9 Feb 14:22
Brown biologist solves mystery of tropical grasses' origin — 9 Feb 14:19
Hand-grip strength associated with poor survival — 9 Feb 14:16
The private sale of drugs in public hospitals — 9 Feb 14:13
Method of the future uses single-cell imaging to identify gene interactions — 9 Feb 14:10
Glaucoma medications may be associated with reduced risk of death over 4-year period — 9 Feb 14:07
Hypertension may predict dementia in older adults with certain cognitive deficits — 9 Feb 14:04
Study examines course and treatment of unexplained chest pain — 9 Feb 14:01
Enhancing arrest of cell growth to treat cancer in mice — 9 Feb 13:58
Lower detection of prostate cancer with PSA screening in US than in a European randomised trial — 9 Feb 13:55
Nicotine replacement therapy is over-promoted since most ex-smokers quit unassisted — 9 Feb 13:52
UC Davis study confirms link between advanced maternal age and autism — 9 Feb 13:49
Travel — News | Photos
Afghanistan declares its first national park
Caistor skeleton mystifies archaeologists — 16 Sep 14:24
A rare discovery: An engraved gemstone carrying a portrait of Alexander the Great — 15 Sep 14:14
Figurines of Aphrodite from the era of the Roman Empire discovered in Hippos — 14 Sep 17:24
Afghanistan declares its first national park — 22 Apr 11:10
More Travel articles...
Art & style — Art | Photography | Style
How do we perceive art?
The National Museum of Natural History, Sofia will participate in the 'Researchers' Night' — 15 Sep 15:26
How do we perceive art? — 15 Sep 14:06
'Dance 4 Health' program teaches local teens ballroom dancing — 16 Jun 00:01
Singin' the mathematical equation blues — 26 May 13:15
More Art & style articles...
Editorials

— The Nobel Prize in chemistry is going to Ramakrishnan, Steitz, Yonath — [7 Oct] The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, has decided to award the Nobel...

— The Nobel Prize in physics is going to Kao, Boyle and Smith — [6 Oct] The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, has decided to award the Nobel...

— The Nobel in medicine is going to Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak — [5 Oct] The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, has decided to award the...

— Tyrannosaur design evolved at 'punk size' — [17 Sep] A new dinosaur shows that tyrannosaur design evolved at 'punk size.' The creature,...

RSS feeds, widget, more...
— RSS feeds

— For the current content of Science Centric — free Dashboard Widget for Mac OS X 10.4 (10.5 Leopard compatible) — Download [77 K]

— Science Centric on Twitter
Astronomers find super-Earth
Last updated: Tuesday, 9 February 2010 15:22 GMT

Pluto's white, dark-orange, and charcoal-black terrain captured by Hubble

— 7 February | Astronomy

Pluto - 90 deg longitude, (c) NASA, ESA, and M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute)NASA has released the most detailed and dramatic images ever taken of the distant dwarf planet Pluto. The images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show an icy, mottled, dark molasses-coloured world undergoing seasonal surface colour and brightness changes... full story


Minuscule
— Milky Way's dark matter 'turned on its side' — The cloud of dark matter that is thought to surround the Milky Way may be shaped like a squashed beach ball....
— Spider attacks owner with 'mist of hair' — Tarantula lovers be warned: if you are going to get up close and personal with your hairy eight-legged friend, do it from...
— Sex and shopping - it's a guy thing — People have radically diverse responses to the very idea of conspicuous consumption....
— The earlier to bed, the healthier the head — Teenagers should go to bed before 10 PM to stop them developing depression, new research claims....
More Minuscule...

More stories

NGC 3603 is a starburst region: a cosmic factory where stars form frantically from the nebula's extended clouds of gas and dust. Located 22,000 light-years away from the sun, it is the closest region of this kind known in our galaxy, providing astronomers with a local test bed for studying the intense star formation processes, very common in other galaxies, but hard to observe in detail because of their large distance. The newly released image, obtained with the FORS instrument attached to one of the four 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescopes at Cerro Paranal, Chile, is a three-color combination of exposures acquired through visible and near-infrared (V, R, I) filters. This image portrays a wider field around the stellar cluster and reveals the rich texture of the surrounding clouds of gas and dust. The field of view is 7 arcminutes wide, (c) ESOThe stars behind the curtain

— 4 Feb | Astronomy

NGC 3603 is a starburst region: a cosmic factory where stars form frantically from the nebula's extended clouds of gas and dust. Located 22 000 light-years away from the Sun, it is... — full story

Leaves whisper their properties through ultrasound, (c) Pranav YaddanapudiLeaves whisper their properties through ultrasound

— 4 Feb | Biology

The water content of leaves, their thickness, their density and other properties can now be determined without even having to touch them. A team of researchers from the CSIC Institute... — full story

Part of the Sirenum Fossae region in the Southern Highlands of Mars. The image shows the region centred at about 28 S / 185 E. It extends some 230 km by 127 km and covers 29 450 sq km, roughly the size of Belgium. The image was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft during orbit 6547. The image resolution is about 29 m per pixel, (c) ESA, DLR, FU Berlin (G. Neukum)Craters young and old in Sirenum Fossae

— 4 Feb | Astronomy

The Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera has imaged craters both young and old in this view of the Southern Highlands of Mars. Part of the Sirenum Fossae region in the Southern... — full story

Apple introduced iPad, a revolutionary device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books and much more, (c) Apple Inc.Apple launches iPad

— 28 Jan | Technology

Apple introduced iPad, a revolutionary device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books and... — full story


Popular

This artist's impression depicts the newly discovered stellar-mass black hole in the spiral galaxy NGC 300. The black hole has a mass of about twenty times the mass of the Sun and is associated with a Wolf - Rayet star; a star that will become a black hole itself. Thanks to the observations performed with the FORS2 instrument mounted on ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have confirmed an earlier hunch that the black hole and the Wolf - Rayet star dance around each other in a diabolic waltz, with a period of about 32 hours. The astronomers also found that the black hole is stripping matter away from the star as they orbit each other. How such a tightly bound system has survived the tumultuous phases that preceded the formation of the black hole is still a mystery, (c) ESO/L. CalcadaBlack hole hunters set new distance record

— 28 Jan | Astronomy

The stellar-mass black holes found in the Milky Way weigh up to ten times the mass of the Sun and are certainly not be taken lightly, but, outside our own galaxy, they may just be minor-league... — full story

This artist's conception shows the newly discovered super-Earth GJ 1214b, which orbits a red dwarf star 40 light-years from our Earth. It was discovered by the MEarth project - a small fleet of ground-based telescopes no larger than those many amateur astronomers have in their backyards, (c) David A. Aguilar, CfAAstronomers find super-Earth

— 17 Dec | Astronomy

Astronomers announced today that they have discovered a 'super-Earth' orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth. They found the distant planet with a small fleet of ground-based... — full story

The new dinosaur, Raptorex, from NE China had evolved all the hallmark anatomical features of Tyrannosaurus rex at least 125 million years ago, (c) Todd MarshallTyrannosaur design evolved at 'punk size'

— 17 Sep | Geology and palaeontology

A new dinosaur shows that tyrannosaur design evolved at 'punk size.' The creature, Raptorex, from NE China had evolved all the hallmark anatomical features of Tyrannosaurus rex at least... — full story

This natural colour view of Saturn and Titan was created by combining images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on 29 January 2008, at a distance of approximately 1.4 million miles, or 2.2 million kilometres, from Titan and 630,000 miles, or 1,013,887 kilometres, from Saturn, (c) NASA, JPL, Space Science InstituteUnravelling the chemistry of Titan's hazy atmosphere

— 16 Sep | Astronomy

An international team of scientists has announced the confirmation of a key chemical reaction that forms the molecule triacetylene in the ultra-cold atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.... — full story


Topics
Chemistry
Alternative chemicals ease safety concerns about nonstick, repellent coatings — 4 Feb 11:11
Imaging method for eye disease used to eye art forgeries — 4 Feb 11:08
Physics
Tying light in knots — 19 Jan 09:55
Iowa State physicists beginning to see data from the Large Hadron Collider — 7 Jan 03:57
Biology
Brown biologist solves mystery of tropical grasses' origin — 9 Feb 14:19
Migrating insects fly in the fast lane — 7 Feb 16:56
Geology and palaeontology
Seismology highlights from BSSA February issue — 7 Feb 15:56
Yale scientists complete colour palette of a dinosaur for the first time — 7 Feb 13:43
Astronomy
Pluto's white, dark-orange, and charcoal-black terrain captured by Hubble — 7 Feb 16:56
Where did today's spiral galaxies come from? — 7 Feb 16:44
Environment
Better weather forecasts with a map showing atmospheric vapour — 9 Feb 13:46
Improved conditions for peasants fuelled agricultural revolution — 8 Feb 12:04
Technology
New material absorbs, conserves oil — 7 Feb 16:50
MWC 2010: FlashFind - lightning-fast search on mobile devices — 7 Feb 16:41
Health
Marker of Ewing sarcoma: Potential new drug target? — 9 Feb 15:22
Antiretroviral therapy associated with increase in pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa — 9 Feb 15:12

Entertainment — News | Films | Humour | Quotations

Physicists discuss the science of 'Angels and Demons'Physicists discuss the science of 'Angels and Demons'

— 9 Jun 08:42

Soeren Prell admits to being amused by some of the high energy physics portrayed in 'Angels and Demons,' the summer thriller starring science, religion and Tom Hanks. Take, for example,... — full story


Films
The Abyss
The Core
“Sleep is a poor substitute for caffeine.”
—

More Entertainment stories...

Compendium — Biology | Astronomy and space

Astronomy and space

47 Tucanae

— The core of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, as imaged by the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera (FOC) onboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Space Telescope's high spatial resolution and ultraviolet sensitivity make it a powerful tool for probing... — full article

Biology

Seitz, Adalbert (1860-1938)

— Adalbert Seitz (24 February 1860, Mainz - 5 March 1938, Darmstadt) was a German lepidopterist. He was the editor of Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde (The Macrolepidoptera of the World). This is a sixteen volume work with four supplements. The first four... — full article

Retina Nebula
Photo: (c) NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); acknowledgment: C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University)
Retina Nebula [IC 4406] — A dying star, IC 4406, dubbed the 'Retina Nebula' is revealed in this month's Hubble Heritage image. Like many other so-called planetary nebulae, IC 4406 exhibits a high degree of symmetry...

More Compendium articles...