Lunar Dust Levitation

  Nov 30, 2012 Static electric charge might help to explain the glowing haze sometimes seen rising 100 kilometers above the Moon’s horizon. Between May 1966 and January 1968, NASA launched the Surveyor missions to the Moon. Each Surveyor spacecraft weighed approximately 450 kilograms and was designed to soft-land on…

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Number Three

Albedo and elevation images for Oppia crater on Vesta

  Nov 26, 2012 New images of the third largest asteroid reveal etched chasms and deep holes. The Dawn mission continues in orbit around Vesta. Vesta is ranked high among minor planets, with Pallas (531 kilometers) and Ceres (952 kilometers) as its larger cousins. Ceres is also part of the…

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Black Hunger

Supposed black hole

  Nov 15, 2012 Problematic black hole physics is in the news again. In a recent press release from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawaii, astronomers announced “direct evidence” for the existence of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in another galaxy. The high frequency ultraviolet spectrum, as well…

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