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Hormone study gives scientists a sense of how animals bond — 25 Feb 16:20
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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
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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
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Singin' the mathematical equation blues — 26 May 13:15
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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,...

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Black hole hunters set new distance record
Last updated: Thursday, 25 February 2010 16:20 GMT

Light, wind and fire

— 25 February | Astronomy

NGC 346 is the brightest star-forming region in the neighbouring Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy, some 210,000 light-years away from Earth. The light, wind and heat given off by massive stars have dispersed the glowing gas within and around this star cluster, forming a surrounding wispy nebular structure that looks like a cobweb. NGC 346 is located in the constellation Tucana (the Toucan) and spans approximately 200 light-years. This particular image was obtained using the Wide Field Imager instrument at the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Images like this help astronomers chronicle star birth and evolution, while offering glimpses of how stellar development influences the appearance of the cosmic environment over time. This is an enhanced colour image based on three different broadband filters (B, V, R), as well as a narrowband filter (H-alpha, shown in blue). The field of view is about 30 arcminutes wide, (c) ESONGC 346 spans approximately 200 light-years, a region of space about fifty times the distance between the Sun and its nearest stellar neighbours. Astronomers classify NGC 346 as an open cluster of stars, indicating that this stellar brood all originated from the same collapsed cloud of matter. The associated nebula containing this clutch of bright stars is known as an emission nebula, meaning that gas within it has been heated up by stars until the gas emits its own light, just like the neon gas used in electric store signs... full story


Minuscule
— Wireless speed freaks set to leave Wi-Fi standing — Wi-Fi as we know it is reaching the limits of its usefulness. It just can't keep up with our appetite for services, such...
— Ten days to save hearing after deafening sound — Dying ear cells have been revived with a shot of gene therapy. Ear cells have a hair-like structure that enables them to...
— Drug laws are painful for cancer patients — Overzealous regulation of opioids is having a painful knock-on effect on eastern Europeans with cancer....
— Mouse grows human liver — Mice with a 'human' liver could be used to study malaria, hepatitis and cirrhosis....
Minuscule on 25 February 2010 —
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Dramatic plumes, both large and small, spray water ice out from many locations along the famed 'tiger stripes' near the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The tiger stripes are fissures that spray icy particles, water vapour and organic compounds, (c) NASA/JPL/Space Science InstituteCassini finds plethora of plumes, hotspots at Enceladus

— 24 Feb | Astronomy

Newly released images from last November's swoop over Saturn's icy moon Enceladus by NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveal a forest of new jets spraying from prominent fractures crossing... — full story

A digital terrain model generated from a stereo pair of images provides this synthesised, oblique view of a portion of the wall terraces of Mojave Crater in the Xanthe Terra region of Mars, (c) NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of ArizonaEnhanced 3D model of Mars crater edge shows ups and downs

— 22 Feb | Astronomy

A dramatic 3D Mars view based on terrain modelling from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter data shows 'highs and lows' of Mojave Crater. The vertical dimension is exaggerated three-fold... — full story

The immense Andromeda galaxy, also known as Messier 31 or simply M31, is captured in full in this new image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, (c) NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLANASA's WISE mission releases medley of first images

— 22 Feb | Astronomy

A diverse cast of cosmic characters is showcased in the first survey images NASA released Wednesday from its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Since WISE began its scan... — full story

Cassini captured this image of Mimas' giant Herschel Crater, which measures about 140 kilometres (88 miles) wide, during its 13 February 2010 flyby of the Death Star-like Saturnian moon, (c) NASA/JPL/Space Science InstituteCassini shoots new close-ups of death star-like moon

— 17 Feb | Astronomy

Blazing through its closest pass of the Saturnian moon Mimas on Feb. 13, Cassini sent back striking close-ups of the moon likened to the Death Star from 'Star Wars' and the enormous... — 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
The toxicity of antimicrobial silver in products can be reduced — 25 Feb 16:17
Neutrons poised to play big role in future scientific advances — 25 Feb 13:43
Physics
Brown physicist discovers odd, fluctuating magnetic waves — 24 Feb 13:32
Researchers move closer to understanding chaotic motion of a solid body in a fluid — 24 Feb 12:38
Biology
Hormone study gives scientists a sense of how animals bond — 25 Feb 16:20
Study shows natural antioxidants give top barn swallows a leg on competitors — 25 Feb 13:55
Geology and palaeontology
Tides, Earth's rotation among sources of giant underwater waves — 25 Feb 15:33
New dinosaur discovered head first, for a change — 24 Feb 12:14
Astronomy
Light, wind and fire — 25 Feb 13:25
Team of asteroid astronomers awarded unprecedented amount of telescope time — 25 Feb 13:19
Environment
Researchers issue outlook for a significant New England 'red tide' in 2010 — 25 Feb 14:36
More frequent fires could aid ecosystems — 25 Feb 14:04
Technology
Deluge of scientific data needs to be curated for long-term use — 25 Feb 15:39
Study quantifies the electron transport effects of placing metal contacts onto graphene — 25 Feb 14:30
Health
Thicker brains fend off pain — 25 Feb 15:36
UTHealth research shows modified adult stem cells may be helpful in spinal cord injury — 25 Feb 15:30

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
“A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.”
—

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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

Pluto
Photo: (c) NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team
Pluto — Pluto is the second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-largest body observed directly orbiting the Sun. From the time of its discovery in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh...

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