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    Category Astronomy/Space

    NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has begun an up-close investigation of Dark sand dunes

    December 13, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    NASA Mars Rover Curiosity reaches sand dunes

    The rippled surface of the first Martian sand dune ever studied up close fills this view of “High Dune” from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Curiosity rover. This site is part of the “Bagnold Dunes” field along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. The dunes are active, migrating up to about one yard or meter per year. The component images of this mosaic view were taken on Nov. 27, 2015, during the 1,176th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s work on Mars. The scene is presented with a color adjustment that approximates white balancing, to resemble how the sand would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. The annotated version includes superimposed scale bars of 30 centimeters (1 foot) in the foreground and 100 centimeters (3.3 feet) in the middle distance...

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    Report of Discovery of Large Object in Far Outer Edges of Solar System incites Skeptical Reactions

    December 13, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    ALMA

    ALMA prototype-antennas at the ALMA test facility. Credit: ESO

    2 separate teams of researchers (one from Mexico, the other Sweden), have incited skepticism among the astronomy community by posting papers on the preprint server arXiv each describing a different large object they observed in the outer edges of the solar system. Both teams made their observations after reviewing data from ALMA—a cluster of radio dishes in the Chilean mountains.

    Could There Be Massive Planets in the Far Reaches of Our Solar System?

    The two ALMA detections on March 20 and April 14, 2014. (Credit: V. H. T. Vlemmings et al., 2015)

    One of the objects was found to be near W Aquilae in the night sky—the other adjacent to Alpha Centauri ...

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    Rotation of Earth’s Core holds Clue to Understanding Global Sea-level Rise

    December 12, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology

    The days are getting longer

    Mathieu Dumberry from the University of Alberta is one of only a few people in the world investigating changes in Earth rotation. Credit: John Ulan for the University of Alberta

    Scientists are studying past sea-level changes to make accurate future predictions of this consequence of climate change, and they’re looking down to Earth’s core to do so. “In order to fully understand the sea-level change that has occurred in the past century, we need to understand the dynamics of the flow in Earth’s core” says Mathieu Dumberry, a professor in physics at the University of Alberta.

    The connection is through the change in the speed of Earth’s rotation. Melt water from glaciers not only causes sea-level rise, but also shifts mass from the pole to the equator, which slows down the rotation...

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    NASA Telescopes detect Jupiter-like Storm on Small Star

    December 12, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This illustration shows a cool star, called W1906+40, marked by a raging storm near one of its poles. The storm is thought to be similar to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. Scientists discovered it using NASA's Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    This illustration shows a cool star, called W1906+40, marked by a raging storm near one of its poles. The storm is thought to be similar to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. Scientists discovered it using NASA’s Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    Astronomers have discovered what appears to be a tiny star with a giant, cloudy storm, using data from NASA’s Spitzer and Kepler space telescopes. The dark storm is akin to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot: a persistent, raging storm larger than Earth. “The star is the size of Jupiter, and its storm is the size of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot,” said John Gizis of the University of Delaware, Newark. “We know this newfound storm has lasted at least 2 years, and probably longer.”

    While planets have been known to have cloudy storms, this i...

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