Slip and Slide

A giant crater on Iapetus. Credit: NASA

  Feb 14, 2012 Is it gravity and heat that cause landslides on Iapetus? Recently, the science journal Nature Geoscience described giant, icy landslides that are supposedly taking place on the Saturnian moon Iapetus. According to the report, it is frictional heating that overcomes resistance, causing the moon’s crust to give way…

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Touching Ground

Global distribution of cultures with traditions of a ‘low sky’. Additional examples continue to be registered. © Marinus Anthony van der Sluijs

  Feb 13, 2013 Most researchers address ‘known’ questions, such as ‘what causes ice ages?’, ‘how far is the moon?’ or ‘where did the ancestors of the human species live?’. Comparative mythologists face the double challenge of seeking answers to problems which most people are unfamiliar with in the first…

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My Friend Flicker

Orion Nebula

  Feb 12, 2013 What causes the rapid changes observed in Orion Nebula “protostars”? Using a combination of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the ESA Herschel Space Observatory, astronomers found that so-called “young stars” are changing in brightness much faster than they thought possible. Instead of taking several years for…

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Protostar Expostulation

Planck image showing carbon monoxide distribution in the galactic plane

  Feb 11, 2013 Astronomers continue to cling to outmoded theories of star formation The European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Planck telescope platform on May 19, 2009 into an orbit around Lagrange point L2. Planck is designed to analyze the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) with greater precision than its predecessors. Foreground…

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Iapetus

Iapetus

  Feb 04, 2013 The Cassini space probe’s flyby of Iapetus confirms its electrical attributes. The closest images of Iapetus ever taken came from the Cassini spacecraft as it flew to within 5000 kilometers of its target, resolving features as small as ten meters. In a previous Picture of the…

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