Astronomy
Weather on Brown Dwarf Stars
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| Image credit: NASA |
A team of astronomers from UCLA have found cloudy, stormy atmospheres on brown dwarfs - objects larger than gas giants like Jupiter, but not large enough to ignite into full stars. They believe the discovery of these storms could provide insights into some strange observations of brown dwarfs. Instead of steadily cooling, the objects have been seen to get brighter for brief periods, so this could be accounted for by breaks in the cloudy atmosphere.
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May 24, 2002, 4:13pm
Astronomy
Europa Could be Very Thick Skinned
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| Image credit: NASA |
The evidence is mounting that Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, has an ocean of water covered by a sheet of ice. Scientists are now speculating about how thick that ice is by measuring the size and depth of 65 impact craters on the moon's surface - from what they can tell, it's 19 km. The thickness of Europa's ice will have an impact on the possibility of finding life there: too thick and sunlight will have trouble reaching photosynthetic organisms.
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May 24, 2002, 4:03pm
Science
Potential Discovery of Water Ice on Mars?
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| Image credit: NASA |
Space agency watchdog Keith Cowing is reporting that NASA is due to announce the discovery of large amounts of water ice on the surface of Mars. The speculation is that data from one or several instruments on board the Mars Odyssey spacecraft have confirmed the presence of underground ice, and that NASA will announce the findings at a press conference on Thursday, May 30. If true, the discovery of this much water ice will have tremendous implications on the search for life on the Red Planet. It's all very preliminary right now, so stay tuned for some actual confirmation by NASA.
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May 23, 2002, 6:50pm
Astronomy
Microwave View of the Universe's Oldest Light
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| Image credit: NSF |
Astronomers from the National Science Foundation and Caltech have created the most detailed images ever made of the oldest light emitted by the Universe. The team used the Cosmic Background Imager, an array of sensitive microwave detectors in the Chilean desert, to gather light that had traveled 14 billion years to reach the Earth; it shows us the Universe at only 300,000 years old, just as seeds of matter had started to form, eventually becoming galaxies, stars, planets, and us.
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May 23, 2002, 5:10pm
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