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Improved measurements of different elements and their isotopes have changed the official atomic weights of 19 elements

The changes are relatively small, and they're part of a regular effort to update atomic weights

Every atom of an element

do not occur in nature and must be produced through experiments involving nuclear reactors or particle accelerators

via processes of nuclear fusion or neutron absorption

Elements 93 to 103 were discovered by the Americans, elements 104 to 106 by the Russians and the Americans, elements 107 to 112 by the Germans, and the two most recently named elements, 114 and 116, by cooperative work of the Russians and Americans.

Japanese researchers claim they’ve seen conclusive evidence of the long-sought element 113, a super-heavy, super-unstable element near the bottom of the periodic table

not yet verified by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

if the IUPAC grants its blessing, the researchers could be the first team from Asia to name one of nature’s fundamental atoms.

scheduled to be launched to orbit in second half of 2013

Student Satellite is an educational project that university and high school students can participate in

The CubeSat standard for nanosatellites was followed during the engineering of ESTCube-1, resulting in a 10x10x11.35 cm cube, with a volume of 1 liter and a mass of 1.048 kg.

A group of European astronomers has discovered an ancient planetary system that is likely to be a survivor from one of the earliest cosmic eras, 13 billion years ago. The system consists of the star HIP 11952 and two planets, which have orbital periods of 290 and 7 days, respectively. Whereas planets usually form within clouds that include heavier chemical elements, the star HIP 11952 contains very little other than hydrogen and helium. The system promises to shed light on planet formation in the early universe – under conditions quite different from those of later planetary systems, such as our own

widely accepted that planets are formed in disks of gas and dust that swirl around young stars

many open questions remain

The discovery of "significant amounts" of water in moon rock samples collected by NASA's Apollo astronauts is challenging a longstanding theory about how the moon formed

Since the Apollo era, scientists have thought the moon came to be after a Mars-size object smashed into Earth early in the planet's history, generating a ring of debris that slowly coalesced over millions of years

That process, scientists have said, should have flung away the water-forming element hydrogen into space

astrophysicists have pinpointed four white dwarf stars surrounded by dust from shattered planetary bodies which once bore striking similarities to the composition of the Earth

White dwarfs are the final stage of life of stars like our Sun, the residual cores of material left behind after their available fuel for nuclear reactions has been exhausted

researchers found that the most frequently occurring elements in the dust around these four white dwarfs were oxygen, magnesium, iron and silicon – the four elements that make up roughly 93 per cent of the Earth.

While normal red supergiants derive their energy from nuclear fusion in their cores, TŻOs are powered by the unusual activity of the absorbed neutron stars in their cores

Thorne-Żytkow objects (TŻOs) are hybrids of red supergiant and neutron stars that superficially resemble normal red supergiants,

They differ, however, in their distinct chemical signatures

Astronomers have identified

a star that was almost certainly born from the same cloud of gas and dust as our star.

The newly developed methods for locating the Sun's 'siblings' will help other astronomers find other "solar siblings," work that could lead to an understanding of how and where our Sun formed, and how our solar system became hospitable for life

The giant asteroid Vesta appears to have

hydrogen

Dawn spacecraft reveals hydrated minerals in a wide area around Vesta’s equator

A UK-Canadian team of scientists has discovered ancient pockets of water, which have been isolated deep underground for billions of years and contain abundant chemicals known to support life

This water could be some of the oldest on the planet and may even contain life

the similarity between the rocks that trapped it and those on Mars raises the hope that comparable life-sustaining water could lie buried beneath the red planet's surface

resolution is five times better than 20/20 human vision over a 120 degree horizontal field.

capture up to 50 gigapixels of data, which is 50,000 megapixels

most consumer cameras

Astronomers announced

that they have discovered a new type of planet - a rocky world weighing 17 times as much as Earth

Theorists believed such a world couldn't form because anything so hefty would grab hydrogen gas as it grew and become a Jupiter-like gas giant

The first Martian rock NASA's Curiosity rover has reached out to touch presents a more varied composition than expected from previous missions

On Earth, rocks with composition like the Jake rock typically come from processes in the planet's mantle beneath the crust, from crystallization of relatively water-rich magma at elevated pressure.

elements

drove for the first time after spending several weeks in soil-scooping activities at one location

On Friday, Nov. 16, the rover drove 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) to get within arm's reach of a rock called "Rocknest 3."

touched that rock with the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) on its arm, and took two 10-minute APXS readings of data about the chemical elements in the rock

Russian scientists believe they have found a wholly new type of bacteria in the mysterious subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica

The samples obtained from the underground lake in May 2012 contained a bacteria which bore no resemblance to existing type

"After putting aside all possible elements of contamination, DNA was found that did not coincide with any of the well-known types in the global database,"