Xaturn

X-ray image of Saturn

  Oct 11, 2012 Both Saturn’s body and its rings are so electrically active that they shine in X-ray light. “Saturn is more like the Sun than the Earth.” — Wal Thornhill Almost everyone knows that one should not look directly into the flame of an arc welder, since the…

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Pits and Chains

 Oct 10, 2012 Rather than volcanic vents, pits in craters could be a sign of electrical activity. On August 3, 2004, NASA launched the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) experiment from the Cape Canaveral facility on a 7-year mission to study the Solar System’s innermost planet. The…

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Tiwanaku

Ruins of Tiwanaku in Bolivia

  Oct 08, 2012 Did this ancient site experience a catastrophic end? Tiwanaku, or Tiahuanaco in Spanish, is a ruined citadel occupying almost 10 square kilometers in the Bolivian Andes at an altitude greater than 3800 meters. Carbon-14 dating methods suggest that the site is no more than 3700 years…

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Two for One

  Oct 04, 2012 The Sombrero galaxy appears to be a giant elliptical galaxy with an embedded disk. One of the most significant contributions to plasma cosmology comes from Dr. Anthony L. Peratt, a plasma physicist and protégé of the Nobel laureate Hannes Alfvén. Peratt studied plasma formations in the…

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Focusing on Fusion

Oct 03, 2012 Thermonuclear fusion reactions from deep in the core are said to drive the Sun. Hypothetically, how does the Sun produce heat and light enough to sustain life on Earth at a mean distance of 149,476,000 kilometers? According to spectrographic analysis, the Sun is composed primarily of hydrogen…

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Cosmic Ions

Part of the IceCube neutrino observatory in Antarctica

  Oct 02, 2012 New studies suggest that the origin of the strongest cosmic rays is still mysterious. Cosmic rays are energetic ions from space that arrive in the Sun’s local neighborhood traveling at extremely high velocities. About 90% of all cosmic rays are single protons, or hydrogen nuclei, followed…

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A New Comet

Orbital diagram of comet 2012 S1

Oct 01, 2012 Are comets “dirty snowballs”? Comet 2012 S1, an object approximately three kilometers in diameter, is presently inside the orbit of Jupiter. It is “remarkably bright” according to astronomers, although it is still millions of kilometers from the Sun. Since it is so bright already, it has been…

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