Although NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is about to break the record for science data returned from the Red Planet, it’s got a couple of problems that could be getting worse.
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Distant Quasars Surrounded by Dark Matter Halos
Astronomers have taken 4,000 of the brightest quasars and figured out just how much dark matter surrounds them. As we’re starting to learn, wherever there’s matter, there’s 10x as much dark matter. These quasars back that theory up.
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Book Review: Many Worlds in One
Does math lead physics or physics lead math? If observing is the source of your information, then physics leads. But, no one’s seen the universe age. Yet, as Alex Vilenkin writes in his book Many Worlds in One – The Search for Other Universes, there’s lots of both physics and math that tickles our imaginations when we observe the realm in which we live.
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What’s Up this Week: February 12 – February 18, 2007
Monday, February 12 – Celestial scenery alert! As the Moon moves along the ecliptic, it has now neared Jupiter and you’ll find the pair less than half a fistwidth apart in the morning skies.
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Great Story on the Many Worlds Space Observatory
Here’s a link to a great story on USA Today about the Many Worlds observatory, proposed by Webster Cash. I’ve covered this story a few times in the past, so I’ll just link you over to it.
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Here’s a Way to Look for Extra Dimensions
One of the great outstanding questions in science is known as the “theory of everything”. What underlying laws of physics explain the forces we see in nature? Are gravity and electromagnetism the same force? One popular theory is known as string theory, and proposes that everything in the Universe is made up of tiny, vibrating strings.
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Distant Cluster of Galaxies Viewed by Hubble
This beautiful picture is of a distant collection of galaxies called the Abell S0740 galaxy cluster, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s located more than 450 million light years away in the constellation Centaurus.
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Blackened Sea Launch Heads for Home
After last week’s rocket explosion, the Sea Launch facility is making its way back to the home port in Long Beach, California. The latest photographs show how the Odyssey Launch Platform is blackened by the explosion from the Zenit-3SL rocket that was supposed to carry the NSS-8 satellite into orbit.
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NASA Astronaut Charged With Attempted Murder
As you’ve probably heard by now, NASA astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak was arrested this week, and charged with attempted kidnapping. Nowak, who flew on board the space shuttle Atlantis just last July, was captured by police when she attempted to confront rival Colleen Shipman over the affections of a third astronaut: Bill Oefelein. Nowak was found with a variety of weapons on her and in her car.
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Sunita Williams Sets Women’s Spacewalking Record
Astronauts Mike Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams spent another day in space on Sunday, continuing the process of switching over the International Space Station’s power and cooling systems. Spacewalks are pretty important in themselves, but during the journey outside, Williams broke the record for the most time spent spacewalking by a woman.
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