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Elephant found on Mars!

There may not be any green men on Mars, but there sure is an elephant there! The image below is actually of the dried flood of lava over the Elysium Planitia volcanic region of Mars, as captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This is a good example of the phenomena ‘pareidolia,’ where we see things (such as animals) that aren’t really there.

The Meissner Effect

Go back to the Chev WIKI to look at the video. (I can’t post video on wordpress. need to upgrade)

All Science then down to physics

My Daughter wont talk to me. She won’t come out of her room!!!

Mr.N

Not gone in a twinkle

It’s actually a myth that the stars we can look at from Earth are already dead.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/not-gone-in-a-twinkle-20120606-1zuur.html#ixzz1x2qqMtHW

Earth Warming Faster Than Expected

By 2050, global average temperature could be between 1.4°C and 3°C warmer than it was just a couple of decades ago, according to a new study that seeks to address the largest sources of uncertainty in current climate models. That’s substantially higher than estimates produced by other climate analyses, suggesting that Earth’s climate could warm much more quickly than previously thought.

Many factors affect global and regional climate, including planet-warming “greenhouse” gases, solar activity, light-scattering atmospheric pollutants, and heat transfer among the land, sea, and air, to name just a few. There are so many influences to consider that it makes determining the effect of any one factor—despite years and sometimes decades of measurements—difficult. Learn more here.

A Habitable Exoplanet — for Real This Time

After years of saying habitable exoplanets are just around the corner, planet hunters have finally found one. Gliese 581g is the first planet found to lie squarely in its star’s habitable zone, where the conditions are right for liquid water.

I love this type of news. Read it all. amazing

World’s most sensitive scales

How do you weigh an atom down to the last proton? With scales accurate enough to measure the smallest unit of mass, aka the yoctogram.

That is 0.000000000000000000000001 grams!

No ordinary scales will do ‐ the tiniest weights are measured using nanotubes, which vibrate at different frequencies depending on the mass of the particles or molecules on them. Until now, 100 yoctograms ‐ or a tenth of a zeptogram ‐ was the smallest mass the most sensitive sensor could detect.

Now scientists have been able to weigh an atom of xenon to the nearest yoctogram, or 10^-24 grams. This makes it the first scale capable of detecting a single proton, which weighs in at 1.7 yoctograms. Learn more here.

Oldest Alien Planets Found

Two huge planets found orbiting a star 375 light-years away are the oldest alien worlds yet discovered, scientists say.

With an estimated age of 12.8 billion years, the host star—and thus the planets—most likely formed at the dawn of the universe, less than a billion years after the big bang.

The Milky Way itself was not completely formed yet at that time!

Despite the newfound planets’ longevity, it’s unlikely the worlds will survive for another 13 billion years.

The parent star will soon transform into a red giant, one of the last stages of a sunlike star’s life. During this stage, the star will swell in size and most likely engulf any nearby planets. Learn more here.

Walking Through Doorways Makes You Forget

Ever get up to retrieve something from another room only to completely forget what you needed after crossing the doorway?

You’re not alone, and scientists think forgetful trips between rooms result from how our brains interpret spatial information.

Researchers already know that walking from one space to another makes people more likely to forget tasks when compared to others who don’t make such a transition. Called “location-updating effect,” the phenomenon also causes people transitioning between rooms (even virtual ones) to take more time while attempting to recall items from memory.

Moving from one space to another seems to cue the brain to refresh itself and pay attention to the new space, making it harder to recall information from the previous space. By then, the previous experience is already filed away in the brain’s working memory, which is why recalling what you need can seem unnecessarily arduous. Learn more here.

Nine-Planet Star System Discovered

A star about 127 light-years from Earth may have even more planets than the sun, which would make the planetary system the most populated yet found.

According to a new study, HD 10180—a sunlike star in the southern constellation Hydrus—may have as many as nine orbiting planets, besting the eight official planets in our solar system.

The star first made headlines in 2010 with the announcement of five confirmed planets and two more planetary candidates.

Now, reanalysis of nearly a decade’s worth of data has not only confirmed the existence of the two possible planets but also uncovered the telltale signals of two additional planets possibly circling the star, bringing the total to nine. Learn more here.