A team of European scientists has deliberately triggered electrical activity in thunderclouds for the first time, according to a new paper in the latest issue of Optics Express, the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal. They did this by aiming high-power pulses of laser light into a thunderstorm.
At the top of South Baldy Peak in New Mexico during two passing thunderstorms, the researchers used laser pulses to create plasma filaments that could conduct electricity akin to Benjamin Franklin's silk kite string. No air-to-ground lightning was triggered because the filaments were too short-lived, but the laser pulses generated discharges in the thunderclouds themselves.
Science & Technology
An ancient burial cave was discovered in the Philippine island of Mindanao, south of Manila, and officials have sealed the site to prevent looting of artifacts, many of them jars made from clay. It was not immediately known whether there are other treasures in the cave which was accidentally discovered by quarry diggers in Maitum town in Sarangani province. The latest discovery in the village of Pinol was near another ancient burial site discovered in 1991 where burial jars, shaped in different human forms, had been recovered inside Ayub cave.
An ivory carving found during a 2007 archeological dig at the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia suggests the whaling culture is older than earlier research had indicated.
Cornell researchers have identified a mating mechanism that possibly could be adapted to prevent female mosquitoes from spreading the viruses that cause dengue fever, second only to malaria as the most virulent mosquito-borne disease in the tropical world.
In the early morning darkness on April 15, 1912, as the R.M.S. Titanic was sinking in the freezing Atlantic, survivors witnessed a large number of streaking lights in the sky, which many believed to be the souls of their drowning loved ones passing to heaven.
Around the world tonight, two shining points of light can be found near the waxing gibbous moon.
They're the planet Saturn and a star - called Regulus - the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion. You can tell which object is Saturn and which is Regulus, because Regulus is the closer body to the moon on Monday night.
They're the planet Saturn and a star - called Regulus - the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion. You can tell which object is Saturn and which is Regulus, because Regulus is the closer body to the moon on Monday night.
A nuclear war involving 100 Hiroshima-size bombs would open a massive hole in the earth's ozone layer, exposing life to dangerous levels of the sun's rays, a new study shows.
Smoke caused by the atomic explosions would trap heat in the stratosphere and lead to the deterioration of more than 20 percent of ozone globally, according to a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings suggest a more severe 'nuclear winter' resulting from a massive nuclear war than was predicted in the 1980s.
Smoke caused by the atomic explosions would trap heat in the stratosphere and lead to the deterioration of more than 20 percent of ozone globally, according to a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings suggest a more severe 'nuclear winter' resulting from a massive nuclear war than was predicted in the 1980s.
The asteroid impact believed to have wiped out dinosaurs 65 million years ago was only about half the gigantic size previously estimated, a University of Hawaii doctoral student has found.
Francois Paquay, in the department of geology and geophysics, developed a method using osmium isotopes in deep-ocean sediments to determine sizes of chondritic meteorites that have collided with Earth.
By his calculations, the asteroid believed to be behind the Chicxulub Crater under Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula - and the dinosaurs' extinction - was about 2.5 to 3.7 miles in diameter. It has been estimated from 9.3 to 12 miles in size from crater simulations.
Francois Paquay, in the department of geology and geophysics, developed a method using osmium isotopes in deep-ocean sediments to determine sizes of chondritic meteorites that have collided with Earth.
By his calculations, the asteroid believed to be behind the Chicxulub Crater under Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula - and the dinosaurs' extinction - was about 2.5 to 3.7 miles in diameter. It has been estimated from 9.3 to 12 miles in size from crater simulations.
Tuesday evening the crescent Moon grazed the Pleiades star cluster low in the west after dark in what was a lovely sight to naked eyes and dazzling in binoculars. Hope you saw it.
As it passed in front of some of the stars, it seemed as if the huge Moon swallowed the tiny stars.
Such occurrences provide excellent examples of how misleading appearances can be, especially regarding sizes and distances in the cosmos. It's easy to see how our ancient ancestors formed what we now know to be such wrong conceptions of the universe.
As it passed in front of some of the stars, it seemed as if the huge Moon swallowed the tiny stars.
Such occurrences provide excellent examples of how misleading appearances can be, especially regarding sizes and distances in the cosmos. It's easy to see how our ancient ancestors formed what we now know to be such wrong conceptions of the universe.
To look at it you'd think the landscape had been carved by aliens.
But these perfectly sculpted sand dunes, resembling crabs' claws, were sculpted by the martian winds.
The images were photographed by a powerful camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. They come from within the Hellspontus region of the planet, where powerful winds blow from west to east.
The MRO probe is equipped with the most powerful camera ever sent into space. It also took detailed pictures of Phobos, the larger of Mars' two moons. Less than 14 miles wide, the asteroid is covered with craters and mysterious grooves.
But these perfectly sculpted sand dunes, resembling crabs' claws, were sculpted by the martian winds.
The images were photographed by a powerful camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. They come from within the Hellspontus region of the planet, where powerful winds blow from west to east.
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| ©MRO |
| Sand dunes on the Hellespontus region of Mars |
The MRO probe is equipped with the most powerful camera ever sent into space. It also took detailed pictures of Phobos, the larger of Mars' two moons. Less than 14 miles wide, the asteroid is covered with craters and mysterious grooves.
