Mars in the Laboratory

  Jan 28, 2013 Plasma discharge experiments replicate Martian features. On Mars, craters, canyons, dunes and many other features do not readily correspond to contemporary theories about their evolution. Dunes that do not align with the direction of the prevailing winds and they do not show any movement after years…

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Phobos

The north pole of Phobos. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

  Jan 21, 2013 Did meteor bombardment scar Phobos? Phobos is the largest of the two moons of Mars. Deimos is so small that studying its surface has been problematic for astronomers because it cannot be readily observed from Earth. Only the Viking 2 orbiter, and more recently, the HiRise…

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Cluster Conundrum

  Jan 18, 2013 A distant galaxy cluster is said to exhibit evidence for an unknown force. Not a single reference is made to the most powerful known force in the Universe: electricity. The European Space Agency’s XMM Newton X-ray Telescope research team has found a grouping of galaxies containing…

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Dusty Plasma

The Eagle Nebula (M16). Credit: T.A.Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOAO/AURA/NSF) and B.A.Wolpa (NOAO/AURA/NSF)

  Jan 17, 2013 Spiraling filaments suggest electric currents in space. Dust at a temperature near absolute zero shows up in the image above as a blue fog deep in the heart of the Eagle nebula. The Eagle nebula, located in the constellation Serpens approximately 7000 light-years away, is supposedly…

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Pulsar Wind Nebulae

The Vela supernova remnant

  Jan 15, 2013 Some so-called “neutron star pulsars” are said to create nebulae as they spin. The standard model of stellar evolution proposes that pulsars are neutron stars rotating at incredible speed. For example, PSR J1748-2446ad, in the globular cluster Terzan 5, is reported to be spinning at almost 43,000…

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Electromagnetic Nebulae

Jan 11, 2013 The Universe behaves according to the laws of plasma dynamics. In every science journal discussing the behavior of planetary nebulae, the prevailing opinion usually involves gases and dust “blowing” through them, as well as “winds” created by “shock waves” from exploding stars. In many cases, the nebula…

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