Home  »  Headline News

On:

When astronomers discovered planet GJ 1214b circling a star more than 47 light-years from Earth in 2009, their data presented two possibilities. Either it was a mini-Neptune shrouded in a thick atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, or it was a water world nearly three times the size of Earth.

Astronomer Jacob Bean used a new method called multi-object spectroscopy to analyze the planet’s atmosphere from large, ground-based telescopes. He says, "We’re trying to distinguish whether it’s like the gas giants we know about, or something fundamentally different from what we’ve seen in our solar system–an atmosphere predominantly composed of water."
read more

On:

Whether or not you’re glad that Obama won re-election, Here’s something you should know (and it applies to BOTH sides of the political spectrum): Ten of the nation’s 44 presidents likely suffered strokes during their presidencies or after leaving office. Seven of them–John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford–suffered strokes after leaving office.
read more

On:

A reflecting nebula in the constellation Orion NGC 1999 shows a black cloud near its center. SETI’s chief scientist, Seth Shostak, thinks suggests these should be studied in the search for extraterrestrial life.

This is called a "Bok globule," named after late astronomer Bart Bok. It’s a cold cloud of gas, molecules and cosmic dust, so dense it blocks all of the light behind it.
read more

On:

NASA has warned that a huge solar flare now developing could cause
a dangerous solar storm that could disrupt electrical grids on Earth.
At present NASA is estimating a 15% chance that sunspot region
AR 1678 may generate an X-class solar flare as it rotates toward
Earth over the next 48 hours.

At present, the sunspot region is at least six times the size of Earth,
and is growing rapidly. It has developed what is known as a delta class
magnetic field, which is a type that can generate strong solar storms.
read more