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December 24, 2013

Using an Atmosphere to Weigh a Planet
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Dec 23, 2013
A new study finds that the mass of an exoplanet can be determined solely by looking at the starlight that passes through the planet's atmosphere. When sunlight streaming through a planet's atmosphere reaches our telescopes, the light's spectra acts like a calling card for the different gases that make up that atmosphere. Water vapor has one type of spectral signature, for instance, while carbon dioxide has another. In that beam of light, astronomers can even see how many molecules of each type of ... read more

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Solar activity not a key cause of climate change Climate change has not been strongly influenced by variations in heat from the sun, a new scientific study shows. The findings overturn a widely held scientific view that lengthy periods of wa ... more		The Rise and Fall of Galactic Cities In the fable of the town and country mice, the country mouse visits his city-dwelling cousin to discover a world of opulence. In the early cosmos, billions of years ago, galaxies resided in the equi ... more		How hypergravity impacts electric arcs Arc discharges are common in everyday conditions like welding or in lightning storms. But in altered gravity, not as much is known about the behaviour of electric discharges. For the first tim ... more
				Powerful ancient explosions explain new class of supernovae Astronomers affiliated with the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) have discovered two of the brightest and most distant supernovae ever recorded, 10 billion light-years away and a hundred times more lu ... more		Massive stars mark out Milky Way's 'missing' arms A 12-year study of massive stars has reaffirmed that our Galaxy has four spiral arms, following years of debate sparked by images taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope that only showed two arms. ... more

Electron 'antenna' tunes in to physics beyond Higgs Though it was hailed as a triumph for the "Standard Model" of physics - the reigning model of fundamental forces and particles - physicists were quick to emphasize that last year's discovery of the ... more		Electron's shapeliness throws a curve at supersymmetry A small band of particle-seeking scientists at Yale and Harvard has established a new benchmark for the electron's almost perfect roundness, raising doubts about certain theories that predict what l ... more		Denmark closes airspace to civilian drones amid rise in sightings Top diplomats of North Korea, China agree to oppose 'hegemonism' What is the high seas treaty?		Ultrafast heating of water - This pot boils faster than you can watch it Scientists from the Hamburg Center for Free-Electron Laser Science have devised a novel way to boil water in less than a trillionth of a second. The theoretical concept, which has not yet been demon ... more
				NASA Releases New Earthrise Simulation Video NASA has issued a new visualization of the events leading to one of the iconic photographs of the 20th Century - Earth rising over the moon captured by the crew of the Apollo 8 mission. The photo k ... more		Will the Moon be carved-up? Experts forecast that the Moon will become sort of the seventh continent of Earth by the middle of the 21st century. People will reclaim the polar regions and build residential areas there. In this ... more

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Scientific data lost at alarming rate Eighty per cent of scientific data are lost within two decades, according to a new study that tracks the accessibility of data over time. The culprits? Old e-mail addresses and obsolete storag ... more		Oracle to buy cloud firm for $1.5 bn Business software giant Oracle announced plans Friday to boost its cloud services with a $1.5 billion acquisition of Responsys. ... more		The first animals on Earth may have been sea sponges, study suggests Wildfire-induced thunderstorms recreated in Earth system models for first time Fengyun satellite strengthens China global weather forecasting capacity		Leaner Fourier transforms The fast Fourier transform, one of the most important algorithms of the 20th century, revolutionized signal processing. The algorithm allowed computers to quickly perform Fourier transforms - fundam ... more
				Liftoff for ESA's billion-star surveyor ESA's Gaia mission blasted off this morning on a Soyuz rocket from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on its exciting mission to study a billion suns. Gaia is destined to create the ... more		NASA's Asteroid Hunter Spacecraft Returns First Images after Reactivation NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), a spacecraft that made the most comprehensive survey to date of asteroids and comets, has returned its first set of test image ... more

The Sounds of New Horizons

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NASA ISRO radar satellite beams first Earth images from space

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Swirls in remnants of Big Bang may hold clues to universe's infancy

Nearby failed stars may harbor planet

Juno slingshots past Earth on its way to Jupiter

Astronomers solve temperature mystery of planetary atmospheres

Fast Radio Bursts Might Come From Nearby Stars

Clay-Like Minerals Found on Icy Crust of Europa

Astronomers discover first noble gas molecules in space

Recipe for a Universe

China plans to launch Chang'e-5 in 2017

Innovative instrument probes close binary stars, may soon image exoplanets

China's Lunar Lander May Provide Additional Science for NASA Spacecraft

Think you know what alien life may look like? Be careful!

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CU-Boulder scientist: 2012 solar storm points up need for society to prepare

Noble gas molecule discovered in space

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