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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Fossilized Rivers suggest Warm, Wet Ancient Mars

    August 24, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Fossilized rivers suggest warm, wet ancient Mars

    Perspective view of Aram Dorsum, an inverted channel on Mars and candidate landing site for the ExoMars rover. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS

    Extensive systems of fossilised riverbeds have been discovered on an ancient region of the Martian surface, supporting the idea that the now cold and dry Red Planet had a warm and wet climate about 4 billion years ago, according to UCL-led research. The study identified over 17,000km of former river channels on a northern plain called Arabia Terra, providing further evidence of water once flowing on Mars.

    “Climate models of early Mars predict rain in Arabia Terra and until now there was little geological evidence on the surface to support this theory...

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    China unveils 2020 Mars Rover Concept: report

    August 24, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A concept image of the probe, including the solar panels that will help power it (China Daily)

    A concept image of the probe, including the solar panels that will help power it (China Daily)

    China has unveiled illustrations of a Mars probe and rover it aims to send to the Red Planet at the end of the decade in a mission that faces “unprecedented” challenges, state media said on Wednesday. China, which is pouring billions into its space programme and working to catch up with the US and Europe, announced in April it aims to send a spacecraft “around 2020” to orbit Mars, land and deploy the rover. Zhang Rongqiao, chief architect of the project, said Tuesday they were targeting July or August of that year for the launch, the Xinhua news agency reported.

    A Long March-5 carrier rocket will be dispatched from the Wenchang space launch centre in the southern island province of Hainan, Xinhua...

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    Astronomers discover a Large Cavity around the Tycho’s Supernova

    August 23, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers discover a large cavity around the Tycho's supernova

    The large-field WISE [12–4.6] µm infrared image around the Tycho’s supernova remnant (SNR). The red circle shows the position and size of the shell-like structure in the Tycho’s SNR, while the yellow dashed ellipse shows the cavity found in the MWISP CO images. The three white dashed lines are shown to guide the eye for the stream-like structures seen in the CO images. The white arrows mark the positions of the pillar-like structures found in the WISE image. Credit: Chen et al., 2016.

    Chinese astronomers have detected a large cavity existing around Tycho’s supernova, SN 1572, exhibiting stream-like structures. The findings show that the environments of the supernovae may be much more complicated than previously thought...

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    Mystery of ‘Eclipse wind’ solved after 300 years

    August 23, 2016, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    Mystery of ‘eclipse wind’ solved after 300 years

    Mystery of ‘Eclipse wind’ solved after 300 years

    Edmund Halley – of Halley’s Comet fame – noted the ‘Chill and Damp which attended the Darkness’ of an eclipse in 1715, causing ‘some sense of Horror’ among the spectators. Now we know why. The eerie eclipse weather experienced by Halley – and during last year’s partial solar eclipse across the UK – was more than just a trick of the mind, scientists have confirmed. The ‘eclipse wind’ is a change in wind direction as the moon temporarily blocks out the sun, but up until now scientists have been baffled as to what causes it...

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