Worms From Hell

'Worms from Hell' Found Two Miles Deep in Earth

(EndPlay Staff Reports) - Researchers in a gold mine known for discoveries other than gold have found the " worms from hell."

The Washington Post reported that scientists found complex, multi-celled worms living about a mile below the planet's surface. The nematodes or roundworms, nicknamed "worms from hell," were found in gold mines in South Africa where scientists had previously found subterranean single-cell life. ( Read more... )

Worms from Hell Might Mean Worms from Mars

You know how sometimes a piece of awesome news turns sour because it opens the door for something terrible? That's what's happening in South Africa, where the discovery of "worms from Hell" means subterranean life on Mars is a lot more likely. Thing is, that "life" would probably be worms from Hell from Mars. ( Read more... )

Worms From Hell Unearthed

Scientists have recently discovered a new species of nematodes (roundworms) living nearly a mile below the earth’s surface, a distance that was previously believed to be uninhabitable by any animal.

Aptly named worms from hell, the creatures were discovered in the Beatrix gold mine in South Africa by lead researchers Gaetan Borgonie of the University of Ghent in Belgium and Tullis Onstott of Princeton University. ( Read more... )

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Rogue Planets: Billions of Jupiters on the Loose in the Milky Way

The bitterly fought Pluto wars of a few years back showed that even the experts disagree on what is and what isn't a planet. One thing there's no quarrel about, of course: a planet is, by definition, something that orbits a star.

Except, it turns out, when it isn't. Writing in the latest issue of Nature, a team of astronomers is reporting the discovery of ten objects roughly the size of Jupiter that seem to be on the loose, roaming the galaxy untethered to any star. And while ten seems like an insignificant number in a galaxy packed with 200 billion or more stars, the search was an extremely limited one. Unless the observers happened to be absurdly lucky, there could actually be a lot more of these rogue Jupiters — perhaps twice as many stars as there are in the Milky Way.
See the top 50 space moments since Sputnik.

"The implications of this discovery," writes Joachim Wambsganss, of the Center for Astronomy at the University of Heidelberg in an accompanying Nature commentary, "are profound."

They aren't, however, completely unexpected. As the known number of more conventional exoplanets — that is, those that actually do orbit stars — has grown to more than 500 in recent years, astronomers have begun to realize that our own well-behaved Solar System isn't necessarily typical. The eight planets orbit the Sun in nearly circular orbits, all moving in the same direction as the Sun rotates. But plenty of alien worlds orbit their stars in eccentric, somewhat egg-shaped orbits and surprising numbers move around their stars in highly tilted orbits as well. (Non-planet Pluto inscribes just such an inclined and elliptical path.) Some planets even orbit backwards.
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That suggests that sometime in the past, close gravitational encounters with other planets flung them out of their previously conventional orbits. Theorists have predicted for years that such close encounters might also fling planets out into interstellar space.

"There's nothing physically mysterious about this," says David Stevenson, a Caltech astronomer who has been working on rogue-planet scenarios for more than a decade. "It's a perfectly natural outcome."
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Still, he says, it's exciting to see something that had been purely theoretical backed up by hard evidence. It's also notable that these planets were discovered with a technique that sounds like something out of Star Trek. As Einstein explained nearly a century ago, the gravity of a massive object such as a star or a planet warps the spacetime that surrounds it. If a ray of light passes close by, the light will be diverted, just as though it were passing through a giant lens. In the 1930's, Einstein realized that if one star passed in front of another, the closer star could act as a "gravitational lens," focusing the light of the more distant star and making it look brighter. We'd never actually see such an effect, conceded Einstein. All stars orbit the center of the galaxy at slightly different speeds, meaning that they are in constant motion relative to one another; still, the exact lineup needed to make true lensing occur would happen only very rarely, Einstein believed.

For once, though, the great man was wrong. The first gravitational lens was spotted in 1979 and they've become a mainstay of astronomical research ever since. This has aided in the search for exoplanets, as astronomers scan the skies for double flashes — one caused by a foreground star moving in front of a background star, and one following soon after, caused by the orbiting planet.

(See TIME's space shuttle covers.)

It's not the most efficient way to discover planets, since you never know when just the right line-up will occur, but about dozen star-planet pairs have been found with this technique. The ten free-floating planets revealed themselves the same way, but what distinguished them, says Takahiro Sumi, of Osaka University, the study's lead author, is that when they pass in front of a background star, "we don't see any evidence of the host star." Not, at least, within a billion miles or so of the planets, and based on more conventional studies of exoplanets, that suggests that many if not all of the planets indeed have no host stars at all.

The one caveat offered by both Stevenson and Wambsganss is that while these objects are certainly similar in mass to Jupiter, they could, in fact, be more like small stars, having condensed as the central object out of a swirl of cosmic dust and gas, albeit without sufficient mass to light their nuclear fires. Conventional planets condense out of similar clouds, but they are made up of the leftover dust a parent star didn't use. Some planetary theorists argued that the term "planet" should only apply to the latter, even if two objects have exactly the same mass.
See pictures of Earth from space.

But offsetting that caveat is an even more exciting possibility. If close encounters can throw Jupiter-sized planets out of a solar system, they can throw smaller, Earth-sized worlds out even more easily — meaning they may outnumber even the hundreds of billions of drifting Jupiters. The brief magnifying flashes they produce would be very hard to detect from the ground, but a proposed space telescope known as the Microlensing Planet Finder could do it, and even find planets as small as Mars.

In theory, the mission could fly by 2020. In these days of reduced budgets, however, there's no guarantee that will actually happen. But if it does, we may soon know what the theorists already suspect: that the Milky Way is teeming with free-range planets of all sizes, floating silently and forlornly in the spaces between the stars.

See TIME's Complete Coverage: Space & Astronomy.

Source: TIME

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Space Shuttle Launch

Space Shuttle Launch: Launch Time

The first reusable shuttle was launched April 12th,1981. Just because it has been so many years since the first time doesn’t mean the excitement has died down. Almost every little boys wants to be an astronaut at some time in their childhood. When is the space shuttle launch going to happen though? ( Read Space Shuttle Launch more... )

Space Shuttle Launch: What Do Astronauts Eat?

The big news with today’s space shuttle launch is that the astronauts will be taking a humanoid robot with them that will be capable of doing some of the more dangerous tasks that astronauts would have performed in the past. Wait? We can make humanoid robot astronauts now? It’s like my dreams as an 8 year old are coming true.

Another thing that would have thrilled my 8 year-old soul would have been the knowledge that I could use a computer to get as much astronaut ice cream as I wanted without having to go to the Air and Space Museum gift shop. But, by now I just don’t care about robots or astronaut ice cream. I am kind of curious though- do astronauts still eat astronaut ice cream? What else do they eat? ( Read Space Shuttle Launch more... )

Space Shuttle Launch

The launch of NASA’s Glory spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California has changed its launch date again and is now planned for no earlier than Friday, Feb. 25 at 5:09 a.m. EST.

Currently, NASA and Orbital Sciences Corp. engineers are troubleshooting a technical issue that came up Wednesday during the initial launch attempt. ( Read Space Shuttle Launch more... )

'R2' humanoid robot to blast off with space shuttle launch

Space shuttle launch on Thursday will include a robotic passenger dexterously designed to make astronauts' lives easier

Robonaut 2 surpasses earlier versions of dexterous humanoid robots in strength, yet it is agile enough to safely relieve astronauts of mundane tasks or assist them in complex ones. ( Read Space Shuttle Launch more... )

Space Shuttle Launch: How to Watch the Discovery Liftoff Live with Your Kids

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engine!

The 3-hour process of fueling the space shuttle Discovery began this morning at 7:25 a.m. EST by NASA technicians in preparation for this afternoon’s 4:50 p.m. scheduled launch.

This will be the last flight for Discovery before it is retired by NASA. This particular mission has been three months in the making — the original launch was scheduled for November 1st, but due to bad weather and some mechanical problems, it was delayed. The purpose of this mission is to supply the International Space Station with food and various other supplies and equipment. ( Read Space Shuttle Launch more... )

WATCH: Space Shuttle Launch Online & On Your Playstation! How?

There will be about 50,000 who will make the pilgrimage to watch the launch of the space shuttle Discovery live and in person. The rest of us? We’ll have to watch it online or in a unique and new way…on your Playstation! How do you watch it?

The launch will happen at February 24th, 2011 at 4:50 EST.

You can watch the launch from your computer on NASA TV right here, plus you can get all sort of other information about not just this launch but anything and everything about NASA. ( Read Space Shuttle Launch more... )

Space Shuttle Launch Schedule 2011

NASA Space Shuttle Discovery is set to launch today, February 24 at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Space shuttle Discovery will deliver the Express Logistics Carrier-4 (ELC-4), a Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) and critical spare components to the International Space Station on an 11 day mission.

Launch Time: 4:50 p.m. EST
Landing Date and Time: March 7, 12:44 p.m. EST

NASA’s Shuttle and Rocket Launch Schedule 2011 (Note: Schedules can change any moment. Visit NASA page for updates). The schedule below was updated — Feb. 23, 2011 – 6:10 p.m. EST. ( Read Space Shuttle Launch more... )

Discovery Space Shuttle Launch: 4 Ways to Watch

I love technology. When we were kids and a space shuttle launched, we might get lucky enough to watch it on TV. But you don't need a TV to catch the last ever Discovery Space Shuttle Launch out of the Kennedy Space Center today. And you don't have to be at Cape Canaveral either (although a trip from the northeast cold to Florida sunshine is awfully tempting).

NASA is showing the whole thing -- from soup to nuts -- online today. It runs a website named -- rather ironically if you think about it -- NASA TV, where you can get a look-see at what it takes to get a space shuttle off the ground. And if you happen to own a PlayStation 3, you can make it a party, watching through your PS3 while you chat with other PS3 users about the goings on. ( Read Space Shuttle Launch more... )

Space Shuttle Launch : Space Shuttle Launch Today

NASA’s Discovery shuttle is ready for launch at 4:50 p.m. today, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Right now, as the space shuttle is being fueled-Astronauts are all undergoing medical exams before they head to space this afternoon.

“The space shuttle Discovery was rolled back at launch pad 39A, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011. Discovery, on its 39th and final flight, will carry the Italian-built Permanent Multipurpose Module, Express Logistics Carrier 4 and Robonaut 2, the first humanoid robot in space, to the International Space Station.”(Nasa.gov) ( Read Space Shuttle Launch more... )

Watch space shuttle launch at natural sciences museum Thursday

I know it's a little late to the game here, but just wanted to share that the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh will be showing the final launch of the space shuttle Discovery today.

Starting at 4 p.m., NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Tony Rice will talk about what it takes to launch a space shuttle as the audience counts down a live view of the mission STS-133 launch, which is scheduled for 4:50 p.m. The presentation will include video of other launches along with a question and answer period about the space shuttle program. This will occur even if NASA changes the launch time (though it's looking like it's a "go" as they say). ( Read Space Shuttle Launch more... )

Cargo ship gets to space station ahead of shuttle Discovery

A huge European cargo ship linked up with the International Space Station Thursday, delivering tons of supplies for the outpost's crew just hours before NASA's planned launch of the shuttle Discovery.

The robotic spacecraft, which is the size of a double-decker bus, docked with the space station at 10:59 a.m. EST (1559 GMT) as the two vehicles soared high over the Atlantic Ocean. Known as the Automated Transfer Vehicle 2, or ATV-2, the hefty space freighter is packed with 7 tons of supplies for the station's six-person crew. ( Read Space Shuttle Launch more... )

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Nasa Announcement

NASA Announcement

There are so many new discoveries being made these past few years. Now it appears that there has been a new discovery using Hubble. This is the most distant galaxy discovered yet. This is the big NASA announcement.

Hubble was only launched twenty years ago at the time of this NASA announcement. Who could have imagined that this piece of equipment would have found information that would rewrite the textbooks in such a short period of time? It seems like everything is speeding up and more and more things are going to the light. I don’t think the NASA announcement is going to be the biggest news that we get this year. ( Readmore... )

NASA Announcement Made Days Before 25th Anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger Tragedy

Earlier today NASA announced an exciting new discovery made by the Hubble Space Telescope. The announcement comes on the heels of another announcement recently made by the organization. In the next six days, NASA will formally recognize its three major space-related tragedies. The first one happened on January 27, 1967 — 44 years ago from tomorrow.

A fire broke out in an Apollo I module during a routine test about a month before launch. The blaze killed three astronauts — Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee in what was NASA’s first major tragedy. ( Readmore... )

Nasa Announcement

Nasa Announcement, Speculations abound for NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope. The space agency plans to reveal a new discovery made by one of the most famous telescopes in the world during a media teleconference today.

“Astronomers have pushed the Hubble Space Telescope to its limits and I have seen farther in time than ever before,” teased in a NASA press release. ( Readmore... )

NASA Announcement New Life Form Discovered sputnik

NASA press conference today is expected to clock 02.00 and is an important finding related to their research in the field of astrobiology. The speculation reached a peak after the agency said the finding "will affect the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life." ( Readmore... )

Celebrate the New Nasa Announcement with a Chocolate Sputnik

NASA announced today that the Hubble telescope has discovered the most distant galaxy ever seen – ever – in the entire universe. NASA reports that “the object’s light traveled 13.2 billion years to reach Hubble, roughly 150 million years longer than the previous record holder. The age of the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years. The tiny, dim object is a compact galaxy of blue stars that existed 480 million years after the big bang.” Cool stuff. You can read the whole story, and see the photos, at the NASA website. ( Readmore... )

NASA announcement: space shuttle facilities available for commercial use – Pics

With the end of the Space Shuttle Program, NASA is looking for ways to have the facilities used for commercial purposes.

Today, January 26, 2011, NASA issued a Notice Of Availability and a Request For Information that will help them identify what commercial interests could benefit from using parts of the Kennedy Space Center. ( Readmore... )

NASA to Announce New Discovery by Hubble Space Telescope

NASA is expected to announce a new discovery by researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope on Wednesday (Jan. 26).

The space agency has scheduled a teleconference with reporters for 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT) on Wednesday to announce and discuss the finding, which will also be published that day in the journal Nature. ( Readmore... )

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In Pics, Solar Eclipse 2010

ShareThe solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 is an annular eclipse of the Sun. The eclipse starts at Uganda, passes through Nairobi, enters Indian ocean where the greatest eclipse is taking place in mid of Ocean for a maximum of 11 Mins and 7.7 seconds

Sri Lanka and India simultaneously will be the first Asian lands [...]

The solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 is an annular eclipse of the Sun. The eclipse starts at Uganda, passes through Nairobi, enters Indian ocean where the greatest eclipse is taking place in mid of Ocean for a maximum of 11 Mins and 7.7 seconds.


Sri Lanka and India simultaneously will be the first Asian lands that are kissed by the eclipse. The moon will cover the sun’s disc during the millennium’s longest annular solar eclipse. Last time when India saw this ‘Ring of Fire’ was on Nov 22, 1965, and it will not be witnessed again before June 21, 2020.



The maximum duration of the eclipse would be 11 minutes 08 seconds over the Indian Ocean, thus making it the longest annular eclipse of the millennium.



People in southern parts of the country will be lucky to see the heavenly sight of ‘Ring of Fire’. In India, the eclipse will start around 11 a.m. and end around 3:15 p.m. Delhi will see the partial phase of this solar eclipse. It will start at 11:53 a.m. and end at 3:11 p.m.



An eclipse of the Sun or solar eclipse can only occur at New Moon when the Moon passes between Earth and Sun. If the Moon’s shadow falls upon Earth’s surface, we see some portion of the Sun’s disk covered or ‘eclipsed’ by the Moon.













After leaving Africa, the path crosses the Indian Ocean where the maximum duration of annularity reaches 11 minutes 8 seconds. The central path then continues into Asia through Bangladesh, India, Burma and China.











Solar Eclipse 2010 Update. It’s been 10 years since we have the last solar eclipse and now this January 15, 2010 we will be having one of the longest Solar.

[Source]

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Two Moons 2010 Details

Two Moon 2010 – There has been a lot of talk today about two moons appearing on the sky on August 27 of this year. This is an old rumor that seems to appear every year since 2003, actually it should be called the two moons hoax.

The 2003 email said Mars would be circulating very near Earth which would make it appear as if the sky had two moons during the night. You may recognize the following text from the email if you’ve got one recently:

“The Red Planet Mars is about to be spectacular as it can be seen in the sky. Earth and Mars will be at its closest in 60,000 years. The next time Mars may come this close may be after several years in the year 2287. The encounter between Earth and Mars will culminate on August 27 when the red planet comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be next to the moon the brightest object in the sky at night. It will have a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. In its 75-power magnification, Mars will look as large as the full moon through the naked eye.By August 27 where both planets will be closest to each other, Mars will rise at nightfall and will reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30 am. As such, we will be able to see two moons in the sky – one is the actual moon and the other is the red planet Mars. Mark your calendars to see Mars as the second moon in the sky. This is a rare opportunity as no one alive today will ever witness the second event when this happens again.”

Why this is a hoax? Simply because this won’t happen, you won’t see two moons on August 27, 2010. The close proximity of Mars was registered in 2003, and in 2005 the red planet came close again but not as it happened in 2003. Next time it comes closer to Earth will be in 2287 so have your email ready!

Two Moons 2010 New Video



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Chuva de meteoros é vista no Brasil

A chuva de meteoros Perseidas, pode ser visto na madrugada desta sexta-feira com o céu claro e sem nuvens. Outros pontos do mundo, puderam acompanhar o fenômeno. No Brasil, algumas regiões como Norte e Nordeste tiveram maior facilidade de acompanhá-lo.

Quando a Terra cruza a linha de destroços deixada por um cometa, acontece a famosa chuva de meteoros, desta vez os destroços foram deixados pelo cometa Swift-Tutle, que dá uma volta ao redor do Sol a cada 130 anos.

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2010 Meteor Showers and Viewing Tip

The next meteor shower is the Perseids on the night of August 12. The Moon is just a couple of days past new at the shower's peak, so there will be no moonlight to interfere with the faint meteors. The shower should reach its peak in the hours after midnight (before dawn on August 13), with a maximum of a few dozen meteors visible per hour.

Name	Date of Peak	Moon
Quadrantids	night of January 3	Almost Full
Lyrids	nights of April 21/22	Sets around 3-4 a.m.
Eta Aquarids	night of May 5-6	Rises around 3 a.m.
Perseids	night of August 12	Sets around 10 p.m.
Orionids	night of October 21	Full
Leonids	night of November 17	Sets around 4 a.m.
Geminids	night of December 13	Sets around midnight

NOTES These are approximate times for the Lower 48 states; actual shower times can vary. Bright moonlight makes it difficult to see all but the brightest meteors.

What are meteor showers?

An increase in the number of meteors at a particular time of year is called a meteor shower.

Comets shed the debris that becomes most meteor showers. As comets orbit the Sun, they shed an icy, dusty debris stream along the comet's orbit. If Earth travels through this stream, we will see a meteor shower. Depending on where Earth and the stream meet, meteors appear to fall from a particular place in the sky, maybe within the neighborhood of a constellation.

Meteor showers are named by the constellation from which meteors appear to fall, a spot in the sky astronomers call the radiant. For instance, the radiant for the Leonid meteor shower is located in the constellation Leo. The Perseid meteor shower is so named because meteors appear to fall from a point in the constellation Perseus.

What are shooting stars?

"Shooting stars" and "falling stars" are both names that people have used for many hundreds of years to describe meteors -- intense streaks of light across the night sky caused by small bits of interplanetary rock and debris called meteoroids crashing and burning high in Earth's upper atmosphere. Traveling at thousands of miles an hour, meteoroids quickly ignite in searing friction of the atmosphere, 30 to 80 miles above the ground. Almost all are destroyed in this process; the rare few that survive and hit the ground are known as meteorites.

When a meteor appears, it seems to "shoot" quickly across the sky, and its small size and intense brightness might make you think it is a star. If you're lucky enough to spot a meteorite (a meteor that makes it all the way to the ground), and see where it hits, it's easy to think you just saw a star "fall."

How can I best view a meteor shower?

If you live near a brightly lit city, drive away from the glow of city lights and toward the constellation from which the meteors will appear to radiate.

For example, drive north to view the Leonids. Driving south may lead you to darker skies, but the glow will dominate the northern horizon, where Leo rises. Perseid meteors will appear to "rain" into the atmosphere from the constellation Perseus, which rises in the northeast around 11 p.m. in mid-August.

After you've escaped the city glow, find a dark, secluded spot where oncoming car headlights will not periodically ruin your sensitive night vision. Look for state or city parks or other safe, dark sites.

Once you have settled at your observing spot, lie back or position yourself so the horizon appears at the edge of your peripheral vision, with the stars and sky filling your field of view. Meteors will instantly grab your attention as they streak by.

How do I know the sky is dark enough to see meteors?

If you can see each star of the Little Dipper, your eyes have "dark adapted," and your chosen site is probably dark enough. Under these conditions, you will see plenty of meteors.

What should I pack for meteor watching?

Treat meteor watching like you would the 4th of July fireworks. Pack comfortable chairs, bug spray, food and drinks, blankets, plus a red-filtered flashlight for reading maps and charts without ruining your night vision. Binoculars are not necessary. Your eyes will do just fine.

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Top 10 Beautiful Images of our Solar System

We earthlings are very fortunate to have launched many satelites in to space that have gone close enough to our neighbouring planets to get quite amazing photographs. I have included below the best images of each major object in our solar system. In order of distance from the sun :

1. The Sun



The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy at a distance of approximately 26,000 light-years from the galactic center, completing one revolution in about 225–250 million years. The orbital speed is 217 km/s (135 mi/s), equivalent to one light-year every 1,400 years, and one AU every 8 days. It is currently travelling through the Local Fluff of the Local Bubble zone of diffuse high-temperature gas, in the inner rim of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, between the larger Perseus and Sagittarius arms of the galaxy.


2. Mercury



Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system, orbiting the Sun once every 88 days. Physically, Mercury is similar in appearance to the Moon as it is heavily cratered. It has no natural satellites and no substantial atmosphere. The planet has a large iron core.


3. Venus



Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. It is the brightest natural object in the night sky, except for the Moon. Venus reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset, for which reason it is often called the Morning Star or the Evening Star. Classified as a terrestrial planet, it is sometimes called Earth’s “sister planet”, for the two are similar in size, gravity, and bulk composition.


4. Earth



Home to millions of species including humans, Earth is the only place in the universe known to harbor life. About 71% of the surface is covered with salt-water oceans, the remainder consisting of continents and islands; liquid water, necessary for life as we know it, is not known to exist on any other planet’s surface. Earth interacts with other objects in outer space, including the Sun and the Moon. At present, Earth orbits the Sun once for every roughly 366.26 times it rotates about its axis.


5. Mars



A terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, Mars has surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the volcanoes, valleys, deserts and polar ice caps of Earth. It is the site of Olympus Mons, the highest known mountain in the solar system, and of Valles Marineris, the largest canyon. In addition to its geographical features, Mars’ rotational period and seasonal cycles are likewise similar to those of Earth.


6. Jupiter



Jupiter is the largest planet within the solar system. It is two and a half times as massive as all of the other planets in our solar system combined. The plane is primarily composed of hydrogen with a small proportion of helium; it may also have a rocky core of heavier elements. Because of its rapid rotation the planet is an oblate spheroid.


7. Saturn



Saturn is the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Along with the planets Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, it is classified as a gas giant. The planet Saturn is primarily composed of hydrogen, with small proportions of helium and trace elements. The interior consists of a small core of rock and ice, surrounded by a thick layer of metallic hydrogen and a gaseous outer layer.


8. Uranus



Uranus is third largest planet in the solar system. It was the first planet discovered in modern times. It is visible to the naked eye like the five classical planets, but it was never recognized as a planet by ancient observers due to its dimness. Like the other giant planets, Uranus has a ring system, a magnetosphere, and numerous moons.


9. Neptune



Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun in the Solar System. It is the fourth largest planet by diameter, and the third largest by mass; Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth. Neptune’s atmosphere is primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, with traces of methane that account for the planet’s blue appearance. Neptune’s blue colour is much more vivid than that of Uranus, which has a similar amount of methane, so an unknown component is presumed to cause Neptune’s intense colour.


10. Pluto



I don’t care if it was demoted recently – I grew up with it as a planet so I am including it! This is an artists impression as we don’t have any high resolution photos of Pluto yet. Originally considered a planet, Pluto is now recognised as the largest member of a distinct region called the Kuiper belt. Like other members of the belt, it is primarily composed of rock and ice and is relatively small; approximately a fifth the mass of the Earth’s Moon and a third its volume.


Extra : The Moon


A Stunning Hi-Res image of Lunar, the earth’s moon. The color hues you see are an exaggeration – they are caused by the minerals under the surface.

[Source : Listverse]

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10 Incredible Images of Space

Here are some beautiful images of outer space. I have tried to keep the images as large as possible so they can be used for desktop wallpapers. Click the image for the larger view.

1. The Pillars of Creation


The pillars are columns of cool interstellar hydrogen gas and dust that double as incubators for new stars. The pillars have been carved out and are illuminated by ultraviolet light coming from hot, massive newborn stars that are unseen, above the top of the photo.


2. Mercury in Transit



What better way can we truly appreciate the size of our Sun than to see one of the planets in transit?


3. Supernova



This is a photograph taken by the Hubble Telescope.


4. The Eskimo Nebula



A wonderful explosion of colour (in Gemini) as an old star dies leaving a central tiny, hot, White Dwarf and several layers of exploding gas (NASA, Hubble)

A nebula (from Latin: “mist”; pl. nebulae or nebulæ, with ligature) is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas and plasma. It is the first stage of a star’s cycle.


5. The Catseye Nebula

A nebula (from Latin: “mist”; pl. nebulae or nebulæ, with ligature) is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas and plasma. It is the first stage of a star’s cycle.



A nebula (from Latin: “mist”; pl. nebulae or nebulæ, with ligature) is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas and plasma. It is the first stage of a star’s cycle.


6. A collection of Galaxies



A stunning collection of galaxies – courtesy of the Hubble telescope


7. Exploding Star



Amazing photo of a string of pearls surrounding an exploding star


8. Detail of Saturn’s Rings and Shadow



The rings of Saturn are a series of planetary rings that orbit the planet Saturn. They consist largely of ice and dust particles.


9. Interacting Spiral Galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163



Spiral galaxies are named after the arms that extend—roughly logarithmically—from the bulge.


10. Iridescent Glory of Nearby Helix Nebula



The Helix Nebula (also known as NGC 7293) is a planetary nebula (PN) about 650 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. It is one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth.

[Source : Listverse]

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Trust of Starnight

Dengan sebatang rokok dan segelas kopi hangat ku duduk disini, menatap taburan bintang dilangit, mengagumi kemerlipnya yang saling bergantian.
Hamparannya begitu luas, memberikan suatu ketenangan tersendiri. Begitu agungnya ciptaan dari sang Maha Kuasa.

Ketika tiba-tiba si Merah 'Mars' muncul perlahan, memperlihatkan dirinya yang gagah, besar dan mungkin disana lebih tenang tanpa hiruk pikuk semrawut seperti bumiku saat ini.

Kalian membentuk suatu rangkaian gambar yang sudah tak asing lagi terpampang dibuku-buku astronomi yang harganya selangit.
Disini, ku tak perlu bersusah payah membelinya, hanya dengan bermodalkan sebatang rokok cap Dji Sam Soe dan segelas Kopi Hangat kudapat menyaksikan keindahan alam malam ini.

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The Color of Plants on Other Worlds

Key Concepts

• What color will alien plants be? The question matters scientifically because the surface color of a planet can reveal whether anything lives there—specifically, whether organisms collect energy from the parent star by the process of photosynthesis.
• Photosynthesis is adapted to the spectrum of light that reaches organisms. This spectrum is the result of the parent star’s radiation spectrum, combined with the filtering effects of the planet’s atmosphere and, for aquatic creatures, of liquid water.
• Light of any color from deep violet through the near-infrared could power photosynthesis. Around stars hotter and bluer than our sun, plants would tend to absorb blue light and could look green to yellow to red. Around cooler stars such as red dwarfs, planets receive less visible light, so plants might try to absorb as much of it as possible, making them look black.

The prospect of finding extraterrestrial life is no longer the domain of science fiction or UFO hunters. Rather than waiting for aliens to come to us, we are looking for them. We may not find technologically advanced civilizations, but we can look for the physical and chemical signs of fundamental life processes: “biosignatures.” Beyond the solar system, astronomers have discovered more than 200 worlds orbiting other stars, so-called extrasolar planets. Although we have not been able to tell whether these planets harbor life, it is only a matter of time now. Last July astronomers confirmed the presence of water vapor on an extrasolar planet by observing the passage of starlight through the planet’s atmosphere. The world’s space agencies are now developing telescopes that will search for signs of life on Earth-size planets by observing the planets’ light spectra.

Photosynthesis, in particular, could produce very conspicuous biosignatures. How plausible is it for photosynthesis to arise on another planet? Very. On Earth, the process is so successful that it is the foundation for nearly all life. Although some organisms live off the heat and methane of oceanic hydrothermal vents, the rich ecosystems on the planet’s surface all depend on sunlight.

Photosynthetic biosignatures could be of two kinds: biologically generated atmospheric gases such as oxygen and its product, ozone; and surface colors that indicate the presence of specialized pigments such as green chlorophyll. The idea of looking for such pigments has a long history. A century ago astronomers sought to attribute the seasonal darkening of Mars to the growth of vegetation. They studied the spectrum of light reflected off the surface for signs of green plants. One difficulty with this strategy was evident to writer H. G. Wells, who imagined a different scenario in The War of the Worlds: “The vegetable kingdom in Mars, instead of having green for a dominant colour, is of a vivid blood-red tint.” Although we now know that Mars has no surface vegetation (the darkening is caused by dust storms), Wells was prescient in speculating that photosynthetic organisms on another planet might not be green.

Even Earth has a diversity of photosynthetic organisms besides green plants. Some land plants have red leaves, and underwater algae and photosynthetic bacteria come in a rainbow of colors. Purple bacteria soak up solar infrared radiation as well as visible light. So what will dominate on another planet? And how will we know when we see it? The answers depend on the details of how alien photosynthesis adapts to light from a parent star of a different type than our sun, filtered through an atmosphere that may not have the same composition as Earth’s.

Harvesting Light
In trying to figure out how photosynthesis might operate on other planets, the first step is to explain it on Earth. The energy spectrum of sunlight at Earth’s surface peaks in the blue-green, so scientists have long scratched their heads about why plants reflect green, thereby wasting what appears to be the best available light. The answer is that photosynthesis does not depend on the total amount of light energy but on the energy per photon and the number of photons that make up the light.

Whereas blue photons carry more energy than red ones, the sun emits more of the red kind. Plants use blue photons for their quality and red photons for their quantity. The green photons that lie in between have neither the energy nor the numbers, so plants have adapted to absorb fewer of them.

The basic photosynthetic process, which fixes one carbon atom (obtained from carbon dioxide, CO2) into a simple sugar molecule, requires a minimum of eight photons. It takes one photon to split an oxygen-hydrogen bond in water (H2O) and thereby to obtain an electron for biochemical reactions. A total of four such bonds must be broken to create an oxygen molecule (O2). Each of those photons is matched by at least one additional photon for a second type of reaction to form the sugar. Each photon must have a minimum amount of energy to drive the reactions.

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Firefox logo spotted 20,000 light years away

Behold! The Firefox logo as seen in variable star V838 Monocerotis of the constellation Monoceros. I had Monocerotis one summer and it was NOT fun. I still get residual rashes from time to time and I can feel it in my joints when it’s about to rain.

READ MORE - Firefox logo spotted 20,000 light years away