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    Category Astronomy/Space

    New findings from New Horizons shape Understanding of Pluto and its Moons

    December 19, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    New Findings from New Horizons Shape Understanding of Pluto and its Moons

    Zigzagging across Pluto: This high-resolution swath of Pluto (right) sweeps over the cratered plains at the west of the New Horizons’ encounter hemisphere and across numerous prominent faults, skimming the eastern margin of the dark, forbidding region informally known as Cthulhu Regio, and finally passing over the mysterious, possibly cryovolcanic edifice Wright Mons, before reaching the terminator or day-night line. Among the many notable details shown are the overlapping and infilling relationships between units of the relatively smooth, bright volatile ices from Sputnik Planum (at the edge of the mosaic) and the dark edge or “shore” of Cthulhu...

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    Ancient Egyptians described Algol’s Eclipses

    December 19, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Inside the superimposed rectangle is the hieratic writing for the word 'Horus'. Credit: Lauri Jetsu

    Inside the superimposed rectangle is the hieratic writing for the word ‘Horus’. Credit: Lauri Jetsu

    The Ancient Egyptian papyrus Cairo 86637 calendar is the oldest preserved historical document of naked eye observations of a variable star, the eclipsing binary Algol – a manifestation of Horus, a god and a king. This calendar contains lucky or unlucky prognoses for each day of one year. Researchers have performed a statistical analysis of the Cairo Calendar mythological texts. Analysis revealed the periods of Algol (2.85 days) and the Moon (29.6 days) strongly regulate actions of deities in this calendar.

    “Until now, there were only conjectures that many of the mythological texts of the Cairo Calendar describe astronomical phenomena...

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    Black Holes could grow as large as 50 Billion Suns before their food crumbles into Stars, research shows

    December 18, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This artist's concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    This artist’s concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    In a study titled ‘How Big Can a Black Hole Grow?’, Professor Andrew King from the University of Leicester’s Department of Physics and Astronomy explores supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies, around which are regions of space where gas settles into an orbiting disc.This gas can lose energy and fall inwards, feeding the black hole. But these discs are known to be unstable and prone to crumbling into stars.

    Professor King calculated how big a black hole would have to be for its outer edge to keep a disc from forming, coming up with the figure of 50 billion solar masses...

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    Creation of Jupiter Interior, a step towards Room Temperature Superconductivity

    December 18, 2015, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    Laser-heated diamond anvil cell (LHDAC)?A? and a pair of diamonds (for jewels)?B?. ?A, B?can generate high-temperature and high-pressure condition such as earth interior within the laboratory by placing the sample between the diamonds for laser-heating at high pressures. Credit: Image courtesy of Osaka University

    Laser-heat diamond-anvil cell (A), and anvil in the cell (B) We can create the pressure-temperature condition of the earth core by laser-heating the compressed sample in the cell. Credit: Image courtesy of Osaka University

    In recent years, hydrogen’s behavior at high temperature and high pressure has been in the realm of interest not only for planetary science, but also for materials science to achieve a hydrogen energy society. Since hydrogen is both a highly diffusive and highly reactive element, it is difficult to maintain its stability in high-temperature, high-pressure equipment for use in experimentation, which has greatly impeded research on high temperature, high pressure hydrogen...

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