Skip to main content

Home/ SciByte/ Group items tagged largest

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Mars Base

New dinosaur found in Portugal, largest terrestrial predator from Europe -- ScienceDaily - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...140305191427.htm

scibyte123 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 06 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • new dinosaur species found in Portugal may be the largest land predator discovered in Europe, as well as one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs from the Jurassic
  • Scientists discovered bones belonging to this dinosaur north of Lisbon
  • They were originally believed to be
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • a dinosaur species from North America
  • Closer comparison of the shin bone, upper jawbone, teeth, and partial tail vertebrae suggest
  • a new species name
  • had blade-shaped teeth up to 10 cm long, which indicates it may have been at the top of the food chain in the Iberian Peninsula roughly 150 million years ago
  • scientists estimate that the dinosaur could reach 10 meters long and weigh around 4 to 5 tons
  • The number of teeth, as well as size and shape of the mouth, may differentiate the European and the American
  • the mouth bones have a different shape and structure
  • is not the largest predatory dinosaur we know
  • With a skull of 115 cm, Torvosaurus gurneyi was however one of the largest terrestrial carnivores at this epoch
  • an active predator that hunted other large dinosaurs, as evidenced by blade shape teeth up to 10 cm
  • evidences of closely related dinosaurs suggest that this large predator may have already been covered with proto-feathers
Mars Base

Astronomers Identify the Largest Yellow "Hypergiant" Star Known - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...t-yellow-hypergiant-star-known

scibyte124 star

shared by Mars Base on 13 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • A recent analysis of a star in the south hemisphere constellation of Centaurus has highlighted the role that amateurs play in assisting with professional discoveries in astronomy.
  • The stats for
  • the binary system weighs in at a combined 39 solar masses, has a radius of over 1,300 times that of our Sun, and is a million times as luminous
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • Located 3,600 parsecs or over 11,700 light years distant, the star is 50% larger than the famous red giant Betelgeuse
  • down into the center of our own solar system, and it would extend out over 6 astronomical units (A.U.s) past the orbit of Jupiter
  • also has a relatively small companion star orbiting across our line of sight once every 1300 days
  • The companion star
  • is also a large star in its own right at around six solar masses and 400 solar radii in size.
  • the surface-to-surface distance for the A and B components of the system are “only” about 2.8 A.U.s apart
  • This all means that these two massive stars are in physical contact, with the expanded outer atmosphere of the bloated primary contacting the secondary, giving the pair a distorted peanut shape.
  • yellow hypergiants are some of the brightest stars known
  • That’s just 16x times fainter than the apparent visual magnitude of a Full Moon but over 100 times brighter than Venus
  • if you placed a star like HR 5171 A 32 light years from the Earth, it would easily cast a shadow.
  • the discovery of a companion around such a bright star was a big surprise since any ‘normal’ star should at least be 10,000 times fainter than the hypergiant
  • the hypergiant was much bigger than expected
  • What we see is not the companion itself, but the regions gravitationally controlled and filled by the wind from the hypergiant
  • These latest measurements place HR 5171 A firmly in the “Top 10” for largest stars in terms of size known, as well as the largest yellow hypergiant star known
  • Only eight yellow hypergiants have been identified in our Milky Way galaxy
Mars Base

World Largest Heat Shield Attached to NASA's Orion Crew Capsule for Crucial Fall 2014 T... - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-crucial-fall-2014-test-flight

scibyte133 orion

shared by Mars Base on 01 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • technicians at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida have attached the world’s largest heat shield to a pathfinding version of NASA’s Orion crew capsule
  • test flight later this Fall on a crucial mission dubbed Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1)
  • One of the primary goals of NASA’s eagerly anticipated Orion EFT-1 uncrewed test flight is to test the efficacy of the heat shield in protecting the vehicle – and future human astronauts
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • A trio of parachutes will then unfurl to slow it down for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean
  • Orion is NASA’s next generation human rated vehicle now under development to replace the now retired space shuttle
  • “The Orion heat shield is the largest of its kind ever built. Its wider than the Apollo and Mars Science Lab heat shields,” Todd Sullivan
  • heat shield senior manager
  • The heat shield measures 16.5 feet in diameter
  • It is constructed from a single seamless piece of Avcoat ablator
  • The ablative material will wear away as it heats up during the capsules atmospheric re-entry thereby preventing the 4000 degree F heat from being transferred to the rest of the capsule
  • The Delta IV Heavy is the only rocket with sufficient thrust to launch the Orion EFT-1 capsule and its attached upper stage to its intended orbit of 3600 miles altitude above Earth
  • 15 times higher than the International Space Station (ISS) and farther than any human spacecraft has journeyed in 40 years
  • At the conclusion of the two-orbit, four- hour EFT-1 flight, the detached Orion capsule plunges back and re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere at 20,000 MPH (32,000 kilometers per hour).
  • “That’s about 80% of the reentry speed experienced by the Apollo capsule after returning from the Apollo moon landing missions,” Scott Wilson, NASA’s Orion Manager of Production Operations
  • The big reason to get to those high speeds during EFT-1 is to be able to test out the thermal protection system
  • Numerous sensors and instrumentation have been specially installed on the EFT-1 heat shield and the back shell tiles to collect measurements of things like temperatures, pressures and stresses during the extreme conditions of atmospheric reentry
  • data gathered during the
  • flight will aid in confirming. or refuting, design decisions and computer models as the program moves forward to the first flight
  • in late 2017 on the EM-1 mission and more human crewed missions thereafter
Mars Base

Curiosity Captures First Ever Asteroid Images from Mars Surface - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...eroid-images-from-mars-surface

scibyte128 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 25 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • surface of the Red Planet during night sky imaging.
  • The Curiosity rover has captured the first images of asteroids even taken by a Human probe from the
  • two asteroids caught in the same night time pointing on the Red Planet. Namely, asteroids Ceres and Vesta.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • snapped by Curiosity’s high resolution Mastcam camera earlier this week on Sunday, April 20, 2014
  • whilst she was scanning about during daylight for her next drilling target at “The Kimberley” waypoint she pulled into at the start of this month.
  • Ceres and Vesta appear as streaks since the Mastcam image was taken as a 12 second time exposure.
  • “This imaging was part of an experiment checking the opacity of the atmosphere at night in Curiosity’s location on Mars, where water-ice clouds and hazes develop during this season,” said camera team member Mark Lemmon
  • “The two Martian moons were the main targets that night, but we chose a time when one of the moons was near Ceres and Vesta in the sky.”
  • Ceres, the largest asteroid, is about 590 miles (950 kilometers) in diameter. Vesta is the third-largest object in the main belt and measures about 350 miles (563 kilometers) wide.
  • the tinier of Mars’ moons, Deimos, was also caught in that same image.
  • Mars largest moon Phobos as well as massive planets Jupiter and Saturn were also visible that same Martian evening, albeit in a different pointing.
  • The two asteroids and three stars would be visible to someone of normal eyesight standing on Mars.
Mars Base

Russia May Land Probe on Jupiter's Moon Ganymede with Europe's JUICE Mission | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/sia-europe-jupiter-probes.html

scibyte99

shared by Mars Base on 20 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • A Russian probe being designed to land on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, could launch toward the gas giant with a European spacecraft being developed to explore Jupiter's icy ocean-covered satellites, according to European space officials.
  • more Earthly concerns, such as government finances and the realities of technical developments, could thwart the proposal
  • JUICE is scheduled to launch in 2022 and arrive at Jupiter in 2030, entering orbit around the huge planet and making repeated flybys of three of its largest moons — Ganymede, Callisto and Europa
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • In September 2032, the European spacecraft will arrive at Ganymede, becoming the first probe to enter orbit around the moon of another planet
  • Equipped with radar, a mapping camera and other instruments, JUICE will measure the thickness of global ice sheets covering Jupiter's moons and produce terrain and mineral maps of Ganymede
  • Russia's plan is to implement a Ganymede Lander
  • Russian mission planners initially proposed the lander to target Europa, another of Jupiter's moons with a frozen crust thinner than the ice cap covering Ganymede
  • After a NASA mission to orbit Europa never materialized, Russia retooled the project to focus on Ganymede, falling in line with the goals of Europe's Jupiter mission
  • advantages of landing on Ganymede as opposed to Europa
  • The radiation environment at Ganymede is less severe than at Europa, which lies closer to Jupiter
  • this is one of the reasons ESA picked Ganymede as the destination for JUICE
  • Russian scientists say mapping and reconnaissance of Ganymede are required before any attempted landing
  • If Russia becomes a full partner in Europe's JUICE mission, the development of the lander will need to be accelerated to launch in 2022, if managers want the Russian craft to ride to Jupiter as a piggyback payload.
Mars Base

Lake on Saturn's Largest Moon May Have Waves - Scientific American - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/...-s-largest-moon-may-have-waves

scibyte134 titan

shared by Mars Base on 05 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • meras on NASA's spacecraft Cassini recently saw what appear to be waves on one of Titan's largest methane lakes
  • a signal scientists have long searched for but never found
  • If confirmed, the discovery would mark the first time waves have been seen outside Earth.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • team found patterns in the sunlight reflecting off a northern lake called Punga Mare that they interpret as two-centimeter-high waves
  • There
  • may be a mudflat instead of a deep lake, and a shallow film of liquid on top may be the cause of the unique light signature
  • If life on Titan exists,
  • the best place to look
  • is in large bodies of liquid—the kind that form waves
  • Waves on Titan
  • would confirm that the lakes actually are deep reservoirs of methane and ethane,
  • True liquid bodies would also make a robotic spacecraft mission to explore Titan's habitability more feasible
  • By 2017 scientists should know for certain whether what they are seeing is indeed caused by waves
  • Cassini has been observing the moon during its northern winter, when weak winds are at work
  • As spring
  • over the next few years, bringing stronger winds to kick up seas, the probe should capture more definitive evidence of waves if they exist
Mars Base

Sumatra quake was part of crustal plate breakup: Study shows huge jolt measured 8.7, ri... - 0 views

phys.org/...ake-crustal-plate-breakup.html

scibyte65 TectonicPlate

shared by Mars Base on 27 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Seismologists have known for years that the Indo-Australian plate of Earth's crust is slowly breaking apart
  • quake was caused by at least four undersea fault ruptures
  • within a 2-minute, 40-second period
  • ...27 more annotations...
  • This is part of the messy business of breaking up a plate. … This is a geologic process
  • will take millions of years to form a new plate boundary
  • likely, it will take thousands of similar large quakes for that to happen."
  • All four faults
  • were strike-slip faults, meaning ground on one side of the fault moves horizontally past ground on the other side
  • great quake of last April 11 "is possibly the largest strike-slip earthquake ever seismically recorded
  • although a similar size quake in Tibet in 1950 was of an unknown type
  • 2012 quakes likely were triggered, at least in part, by changes in crustal stresses caused by the magnitude-9.1 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of Dec. 26, 2004
  • the 8.7 and 8.2 quakes were generated by horizontal movements
  • not by vertical motion
  • explains why they didn't generate major tsunamis
  • 8.7 quake caused small tsunamis, the largest of which measured about 12 inches in height at Meulaboh, Indonesia
  • Indo-Australian plate is breaking into two or perhaps three pieces
  • happening because it is colliding with Asia in the northwest, which slows down the western part of the plate, while the eastern part of the plate continues moving more easily by diving or "subducting" under the island of Sumatra to the northeast
  • subduction zone off Sumatra caused the catastrophic 2004 magnitude-9.1 quake and tsunami
  • ruptured along a roughly 90-mile length
  • seafloor on one side of the fault slipped about 100 feet past the seafloor on the fault's other side
  • second fault, which slipped about 25 feet, began to rupture 40 seconds after
  • extended an estimated 60 miles to 120 miles north-northeast to south-southwest – perpendicular to the first fault and crossing it.
  • third fault was parallel to the first fault and about 90 to the miles southwest
  • started breaking 70 seconds after the quake began
  • along a length of about 90 miles
  • slipped about 70 feet
  • The fourth fault paralleled the first and third faults
  • began to rupture 145 seconds after the quake began
  • fault rupture was roughly 30 miles to 60 miles long.
  • fault slipped about 20 feet past ground on the other side
Mars Base

Astronomers discover the largest structure in the universe - 0 views

phys.org/...ronomers-largest-universe.html

scibyte77 LQG

shared by Mars Base on 13 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • The large quasar group (LQG) is so large that it would take a vehicle travelling at the speed of light some 4 billion years to cross it.
  • Quasars are the nuclei of galaxies from the early days of the universe that undergo brief periods of extremely high brightness that make them visible across huge distances.
  • 'brief' in astrophysics terms but actually last 10-100 million years.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Since 1982 it has been known that quasars tend to group together in clumps or 'structures' of surprisingly large sizes, forming large quasar groups or LQGs.
  • the LQG which is so significant in size it also challenges the Cosmological Principle: the assumption that the universe, when viewed at a sufficiently large scale, looks the same no matter where you are observing it from.
  • The modern theory of cosmology is based on the work of Albert Einstein, and depends on the assumption of the Cosmological Principle
  • he Principle is assumed but has never been demonstrated observationally 'beyond reasonable doubt'.
  • the Milky Way, is separated from its nearest neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy, by about 0.75 Megaparsecs (Mpc) or 2.5 million light-years.
  • Whole clusters of galaxies can be 2-3 Mpc
  • LQGs can be 200 Mpc or more across.
  • Based on the Cosmological Principle and the modern theory of cosmology, calculations suggest that astrophysicists should not be able to find a structure larger than 370 Mpc.
  • newly discovered LQG however has a typical dimension of 500 Mpc.
  • it is elongated, its longest dimension is 1200 Mpc (or 4 billion light years)
  • some 1600 times larger than the distance from the Milky Way to Andromed
Mars Base

LEGO Figures Flying On NASA Jupiter Probe | NASA Juno Spacecraft & LEGOs In Space | Spa... - 0 views

www.space.com/s-jupiter-juno-spacecraft.html

scibyte38 lego Jupiter

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • three more "very special" LEGO figurines are set to fly to the planet Jupiter with NASA's Juno spacecraft
  • specially-constructed LEGO Minifigures are of the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno, and "father of science" Galileo Galilei.
  • part of the Bricks in Space project
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • joint outreach and educational program developed as part of the collaboration between NASA and the LEGO Group to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
  • NASA has a long-standing partnership with the LEGO company
  • Juno and the minifigures are scheduled to arrive in July 2016 and orbit Jupiter for a year (33 revolutions) before intentionally crashing into the giant gas planet
  • 04 August 2011
  • The trio resemble the typical small toys that LEGO sells, but are made out of metal.
  • Jupiter (who was the equivalent of "Zeus" to the Greeks) drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief
  • Juno was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature
  • Juno spacecraft will also look beneath the clouds to help NASA understand the planet's structure and history.
  • Juno holds a magnifying glass "to signify her search for the truth,"
  • husband holds a lightning bolt
  • third LEGO crew member, Galileo Galilei, made several important discoveries about Jupiter
  • first to point a telescope at the sky to make astronomical observations and discovered the four largest satellites of Jupiter — named the Galilean moons in his honor.
  • minifigure Galileo has his telescope with him for the journey to Jupiter.
  • basically the size of the normal LEGO figures
  • made out of aluminum, very special aluminum and they have been prepared in a very special way
  • space-grade aluminum
  • testing to make sure that they fit on our spacecraft in a way that is like our other science instruments."
  • mini-metal statues are joined on the spacecraft by another "special passenger," one
  • 2.8-inch by 2-inch (71 mm by 51 mm) plaque also made of flight-grade aluminum is bonded to Juno's propulsion bay with a spacecraft-grade epoxy. The graphic on the plaque shows a self-portrait of Galileo. The plaque also includes — in Galileo's own hand — a passage he made in 1610 of observations of Jupite
  • Galileo's text included on the plaque reads as follows: "On the 11th it was in this formation -- and the star closest to Jupiter was half the size than the other and very close to the other so that during the previous nights all of the three observed stars looked of the same dimension and among them equally afar; so that it is evident that around Jupiter there are three moving stars invisible till this time to everyone."
Mars Base

Comets Disintegrate Faster on Deeper Dives Into Sun | Sun-Diving Comets | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/iving-comets-solar-system.html

scibyte41

shared by Mars Base on 02 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Comets skimming past the sun may seem like ill-fated cosmic snowballs, and a team of scientists is trying to figure out what makes some fizzle and others explode as they make their solar death dives
  • may yield clues
  • origins of the solar system
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • shed light on the potential risks the comet deaths on the sun could pose for us on Earth
  • In recent decades, astronomers have witnessed even dramatic interactions between comets and the sun
  • researchers are analyzing how these so-called sun-diving comets lose their mass and energy depending on how close they get to the star.
  • Such data can show us for the first time what is inside a comet
  • All other data to date, apart from Jupiter impacts like Shoemaker-Levy 9, are only from the surface layers."
  • the sun's lower atmosphere. This lies about 4,350 miles (7,000 kilometers) above the top of the photosphere, the sun's brightest visible layer.
  • sunskimmer" comets — ones that dive toward the sun but not into its lower atmosphere — can slowly get vaporized by sunlight in deaths that last hundreds to thousands of seconds, depending on their mass
  • scientists calculated that the comets should emit weak but detectable extreme ultraviolet radiation.
  • sunplunger" comets that get even closer to the sun will meet their demise in only a few seconds, as they collide with the dense layers of the sun's lower atmosphere
  • most massive comets smashed into the sun, they would produce dramatic explosions just above the photosphere
  • To create their model, the scientists looked at the first direct observations of sunskimmer comets, captured last year by NASA's sun-watching Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
  • comet, C/2011 N3, was completely destroyed after passing about 62,000 miles (100,000 km) above the photosphere
  • comet, Lovejoy (C/2011 W3), survived a close approach to a similar distance of 87,000 miles (140,000 km), although it lost a significant fraction of its mass in the process
  • Both events were in line with the predictions of the researchers' new model.
  • corona is hot, but its density is so small that the heat Lovejoy experienced "would be quite safe even on our skin
  • Comet Lovejoy did pass through the sun's million-degree corona
  • Comets might help serve as probes of the sun's atmosphere and magnetic field, helping to uncover its secrets
  • cometary flares that the very largest comets might release if they slammed into the sun can be 100 times more energetic than the largest solar flares ever observed
  • Such comets are, however, very, very rare today, though they may have been commoner in the early system
Mars Base

Triton: A subsurface ocean? - 0 views

phys.org/...9-triton-subsurface-ocean.html

sibyte62 Tritan

shared by Mars Base on 06 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Neptune's largest moon Triton is most likely a captured Kuiper Belt Object. The capture of icy Triton and the subsequent taming of its orbit likely led to the formation of a subsurface ocean through tidal heating. New research suggests that this ocean could still exist today.
  • much about Neptune's largest moon still remains a mystery
  • Voyager 2 flyby in 1989 offered a quick peak at the satellite, and revealed a surface composition comprised mainly of water ice
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • also had nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide
  • density is quite high, it is suspected that it has a large core of silicate rock
  • possible that a liquid ocean could have formed between the rocky core and icy surface shell
  • Triton has a unique property among large solar system moons; it has a retrograde orbit
  • planets and their moons must also orbit in this same direction
  • Planets form from a circumstellar disc of dust and gas
  • These orbits are known as prograde
  • retrograde orbit of Triton means that it most likely did not form around Neptune.
  • Triton likely originated in the Kuiper Belt, beyond the orbit of Neptune, and was sent hurtling inwards until it was captured by Neptune's gravity
  • Directly after capture, the moon would have been in a highly elliptical, eccentric orbit
  • This type of orbit would have raised large tides on the moon, and the friction of these tides would have caused energy to be lost
  • energy loss is converted into heat
  • melt some of the icy interior and form an ocean beneath the ice shell
  • energy loss from tides is also responsible for gradually changing Triton's orbit from an ellipse to a circle
  • there
  • also radiogenic heating. This is heat that is caused by the decay of radioactive isotopes within a moon or planet, and this process can create heat for billions of years
  • Radiogenic heating contributes several times more heat to Triton's interior than tidal heating
  • this heat alone is not sufficient to keep the subsurface ocean in a liquid state over 4.5 billion years
  • One model of Triton’s interior. 70 to 80 percent rock (1), with the remainder being water ice (2) and an outer layer of methane and nitrogen ice (3). This is also believed to be the general interior configuration for the ice dwarf Pluto. Credit: Wikipedia
  • The exact point in time when Triton was captured by Neptune, along with the length of the time it took the orbit to become circularized are unknown
  • orbit is currently almost exactly circular
  • the exact size of Triton's rocky core is unknown
Mars Base

Largest Sunspot in Years Observed on Sun | Solar Storms, Flares & Sunspots | Space Weat... - 0 views

www.space.com/unspot-years-observed-sun.html

scibyte20 sun storms

shared by Mars Base on 04 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • The massive sunspot, called AR1339, is about 50,000 miles (80,000 km) long, and 25,000 miles (40,000 km) wide
  • Earth itself is only 8,000 miles (12,800 km) wide
  • The sunspot behemoth isn't yet facing our planet, but was spotted today (Nov. 3) by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The sunspot is actually a group of nearby darkened spots on the sun, some of which are individually wider than planet Earth
  • a huge sunspot like AR1339 comes with a large potential for solar flares
  • the spot has already produced one class M4 solar flare on Nov. 2 that was observed by SDO. A large coronal mass ejection from this flare was observed, but it was not directed toward Earth. However, as the sunspot turns toward our planet in the coming days, we may be in for a greater chance of these ejections.
Mars Base

Telescope spies water plumes on dwarf planet Ceres - 0 views

phys.org/...spies-plumes-dwarf-planet.html

scibyte117 Asteroid Ceres

shared by Mars Base on 23 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Scientists
  • have made the first definitive detection of water vapor on the largest and roundest object in the asteroid belt, Ceres.
  • Plumes of water vapor are thought to shoot up periodically from Ceres when portions of its icy surface warm slightly
  • ...26 more annotations...
  • Ceres is classified as a dwarf planet, a solar system body bigger than an asteroid and smaller than a planet.
  • "This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an icy surface and an atmosphere,"
  • Michael Küppers of ESA in Spain
  • NASA's Dawn mission, which is on its way to Ceres now after spending more than a year orbiting the large asteroid Vesta
  • Dawn is scheduled to arrive at Ceres in the spring of 2015, where it will take the closest look ever at its surface.
  • will map the geology and chemistry of the surface in high resolution
  • International Astronomical Union, the governing organization responsible for naming planetary objects
  • Ceres was known as the largest asteroid in our solar system
  • reclassified Ceres as a dwarf planet because of its large size. It is roughly 590 miles (950 kilometers) in diameter
  • When it first was spotted in 1801, astronomers thought it was a planet orbiting between Mars and Jupiter
  • Scientists believe Ceres contains rock in its interior with a thick mantle of ice that, if melted, would amount to more fresh water than is present on all of Earth
  • The materials making up Ceres likely date from the first few million years of our solar system's existence and accumulated before the planets formed.
  • Until now, ice had been theorized to exist on Ceres but had not been detected conclusively
  • far-infrared vision to see, finally, a clear spectral signature of the water vapor. But
  • did not see water vapor every time it looked
  • spied water vapor four different times, on one occasion there was no signature.
  • what scientists think is happening
  • when Ceres swings through the part of its orbit that is closer to the sun, a portion of its icy surface becomes warm enough to cause water vapor to escape in plumes
  • a rate of about 6 kilograms (13 pounds) per second
  • When Ceres is in the colder part of its orbit, no water escapes
  • The strength of the signal also varied over hours, weeks and months
  • water vapor plumes rotating in and out of Herschel's views as the object spun on its axis
  • This enabled the scientists to localize the source of water to two darker spots on the surface of Ceres
  • previously seen by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes. The dark spots might be more likely to outgas because dark material warms faster than light material.
  • "The lines are becoming more and more blurred between comets and asteroids," said Seungwon Lee of JPL
  • Paul von Allmen, also of JPL. "We knew before about main belt asteroids that show comet-like activity, but this is the first detection of water vapor in an asteroid-like object."
Mars Base

News in Brief: World's largest volcano lurks beneath Pacific Ocean | Earth | Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...no_lurks_beneath_Pacific_Ocean

scibyte101 volcano

shared by Mars Base on 07 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • The most massive volcano in the world, with a footprint the size of New Mexico, crouches in the dark depths of the western Pacific Ocean
  • hollowed peak lying beneath 2 kilometers of water
  • a basaltic mound, may rival the largest known volcano in the solar system: Mars’ Olympus Mons
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • A team led by oceanographer
  • bounced sound waves off the deep-sea mountain to measure its size
  • Tamu Massif forms a broad, rounded dome rising 4 kilometers from the seafloor and stretching 450 by 650 kilometers across
  • Core samples that the researchers extracted from the volcano’s slopes showed that, during its prime 145 million years ago, the ancient mound spewed lava sheets 23 meters thick.
Mars Base

Asteroids as Seen From Mars; A Curiosity Rover First - Mars Science Laboratory - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte128 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 28 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • the largest and third-largest bodies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter
Mars Base

'Orphan' Alien Planet Found Nearby Without Parent Star | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ue-alien-planet-discovery.html

scibyte72 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 14 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • The free-floating object
  • is likely a gas giant planet four to seven times more massive than Jupiter,
  • Astronomers have discovered a potential "rogue" alien planet wandering alone just 100 light-years from Earth
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • And if the discovery team is right about CFBDSIR2149's age, the body is likely a planet, with an average temperature of 806 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius), researchers said
  • There's still a slight chance that CFBDSIR2149 is a brown dwarf 
  • Additional observations should help decide the matter.
  • With a good distance measurement and a more accurate proper motion, we will be able to increase (or decrease) the probability that it is indeed a planet
  • One 2011 study, for example, estimated that rogue worlds outnumber "normal" planets with obvious host stars by at least 50 percent throughout the Milky Way
  • The discovery of a starless alien planet would not be shocking
  • In the last year or so, astronomers have spotted a number of such orphan worlds
1 - 20 of 57 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page