Eek! Spiders and Snakes; Interstellar Visitor; Sugar Boosts Cancer Growth
Why We Don’t Like Spiders and Snakes Two of the most common fears among people from around the world are arachnophobia, which is a fear of spiders and ophiophobia, the fear of snakes. Whether they live in rural communities or in the heart of a big city, most people generally get, at least, a little […]
Olive Oil Key to a Healthy Heart? – Black Holes – Liquid H2O on Mars?
Diet Rich in Olive Oil Can Help Keep Heart Healthy To keep heart healthy doctors recommend that you keep an eye on your cholesterol levels. But there are two main types of cholesterol – LDL or bad cholesterol and HDL, also known as good cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is bad because it builds up on artery […]
Cosmic Cannon; Mars Dust Storm Forecast; Dione’s Subsurface Ocean
Astronomers Find a Cosmic Cannon Astronomers have spotted super-hot blobs of plasma blasting into space like cannonballs near a dying red giant star, some 1,200 light years away. Using the Hubble Space Telescope to make their discovery, the scientists found that the balls of hot gas are flying so fast a trip from the Earth […]
Oh! No Flowing H2O on The Red Planet?
Last September, with much hoopla, NASA confirmed evidence of liquid water flowing on present-day Mars. But a new study using data from the space agency’s Mars Odyssey mission throws some cold water on those findings. About a year ago, the space agency’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter identified […]
Black Hole Mass Measured; Ice Sheets on Mars; Saliva Diagnoses Disease
Astronomers Precisely Measure Black Hole Mass A group of astronomers have been able to determine the precise mass of a distant black hole in the center of an enormous elliptical galaxy 73 million light years away. The galaxy is called NGC 1332 and is located in the direction of the southern constellation Eridanus. To measure […]
NASA’S MAVEN Solves Mars Atmosphere Mystery
Last month NASA dropped a bombshell when it announced it had found evidence of water flowing on Mars. Yesterday the space agency held a press conference at its Washington headquarters to announce that they may have solved a decades-old mystery of what happened to the Martian atmosphere and its water, when they presented new findings […]
Science Scanner: Venus Mission Ends, Organic Chemistry on Mars, Hormone Changes in Expectant Dads, New High in CO2 Output
ESA’s Venus Express Mission Ends The European Space Agency (ESA) announced this week that the space probe it sent to orbit Venus back in 2006 has reached the end of its life. Called the Venus Express, the spacecraft ran out of its propellant after executing a number of thruster burns that returned the probe to […]
Two Martian Probes Set to Orbit Red Planet
Two unmanned spacecraft headed to Mars, one launched by the United States and the other by India, will soon reach the Red Planet within days of each other. NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) probe, launched November 18 is set for insertion into Mars orbit (MOI) on Sunday, September 21. India’s first interplanetary spacecraft, […]
Science Images of the Week
Science Scanner: Curiosity’s Mars Selfie, Jurassic Caterpillar & an X-ray of Dark Matter?
Odd X-ray Signal Might be Sign of Dark Matter Strange X-ray emissions from galaxy clusters– hundreds of galaxies connected to each other by gravity–are providing clues about mysterious dark matter. Dark matter–if it really does exist–is thought to be invisible, doesn’t produce or attract light, and makes up a majority, 84.5 percent, of the matter […]