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Crab pulsar dazzles astronomers with its gamma-ray beams
The same object that dazzled skygazers in 1054 C.E. continues to dazzle astronomers today by pumping out radiation at higher energies than anyone expected. [...more]
Tag Archive | "astrophysics"
Center for Astrophysics project gets first look through new ALMA telescope
Humanity's most complex ground-based astronomy observatory, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), has officially opened for astronomers at its 16,500-foot high desert plateau in northern Chile. [...more]
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From Star Wars to science fact: Tatooine-like planet discovered
Although cold and gaseous rather than a desert world, the newfound planet Kepler-16b is still the closest astronomers have come to discovering Luke Skywalker's home world of Tatooine. [...more]
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Invisible world “spotted” tugging on visible planet by Kepler spacecraft
NASA's Kepler spacecraft has spotted a planet that alternately runs late and early in its orbit because a second, "invisible" world is tugging on it. This is the first definite detection of a previously unknown planet using this method. [...more]
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Smithsonian’s Dibner Library acquires astronomy volume published in 1570
The Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, the oldest rare book collection of the Smithsonian Libraries, recently enriched its collection with an intriguing 16th century work in astronomy titled, Christop Clavius’s In sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosco commentarius. Romae, 1570. Apud Victorium Helianum. [...more]
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Our galaxy might hold thousands of ticking “time bombs”
New research shows that some old stars might be held up by their rapid spins, and when they slow down, they explode as supernovae. Thousands of these "time bombs" could be scattered throughout our Galaxy. [...more]
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Swift satellite alerts astronomers to cosmic accident in constellation Draco
Two studies appearing in the Aug. 25 issue of the journal Nature provide new insights into a cosmic accident that has been streaming X-rays toward Earth since late March. NASA's Swift satellite first alerted astronomers to intense and unusual high-energy flares from the new source in the constellation Draco. [...more]
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“Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut’s Journey to the Moon” by Al Worden with Francis French
As command module pilot for the Apollo 15 mission to the moon in 1971, Al Worden spent six days orbiting the moon, including three days completely alone, the most isolated human in existence. In Falling to Earth, Worden tells for the first time the full story around the dramatic events that shook NASA and ended his spaceflight career. [...more]
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Science Spotlight
This fossil represents a new genus and species of extinct aneuretopsychid, Jeholopsyche liaoningensis, recently described in a paper in the journal ZooKeys by Conrad Labandeira of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and Dong Ren and ChungKun Shih of the College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing. The aneuretopsychidae are a family of long-proboscid insects that lived in Asia from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. The paper documents the first formal record of fossil Aneuretopsychidae in China. The new fossils reveal previously unknown and detailed structure of the mouthparts, antennae, head, thorax, legs and abdomen of this distinctive insect lineage.
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