NASA is about to embark on an unprecedented asteroid-belt mission with a spacecraft aptly named Dawn. The 3 billion-mile, eight-year journey to probe the earliest stages of the solar system will begin with liftoff, planned for just after sunrise Thursday. Rain is forecast, however, and could force a delay.
Scientists have been waiting for Dawn to rise since July, when the mission was put off because of the more pressing need to launch NASA's latest Mars lander, the Phoenix. Once Phoenix rocketed away in August, that cleared the way for Dawn.
Science & Technology
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has spotted an unusual comet that flies around the sun at regular intervals.
Dubbed P/2007 R5 (SOHO), the object belongs to a rare class of comets called periodic comets. Only 190 of the thousands of known comets are periodic. The most famous periodic comet is Halley's Comet, which can be seen from Earth every 76 years and last passed close to the sun in 1986.
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| ©Space.com |
Dubbed P/2007 R5 (SOHO), the object belongs to a rare class of comets called periodic comets. Only 190 of the thousands of known comets are periodic. The most famous periodic comet is Halley's Comet, which can be seen from Earth every 76 years and last passed close to the sun in 1986.
Eight fruit-filled baskets and 20 sealed jars previously un-noticed by Egyptologists have been found concealed in a chamber adjoining the tomb of King Tutankhamun, a top Egyptian archaeologist said.
The 3,300-year-old find is highly surprising considering the vast number of visitors and researchers that have descended into the boy-pharaoh's tomb since British explorer Howard Carter discovered and broke into the treasure-packed burial place in the early 1920s.
Dr. Zahi Hawass, a world-famous Egyptologist who heads Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said his team of archaeologists had discovered baskets containing "large quantities of well-preserved doum [palm] fruits," and twenty pear-shaped vases bearing Tutankhamun's official seal.
The 3,300-year-old find is highly surprising considering the vast number of visitors and researchers that have descended into the boy-pharaoh's tomb since British explorer Howard Carter discovered and broke into the treasure-packed burial place in the early 1920s.
Dr. Zahi Hawass, a world-famous Egyptologist who heads Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said his team of archaeologists had discovered baskets containing "large quantities of well-preserved doum [palm] fruits," and twenty pear-shaped vases bearing Tutankhamun's official seal.
Adventurer Steve Fossett went missing Sept. 3 about 70 miles southeast of Reno, Nevada, in a small plane. He left no flight plan, and searchers have combed tens of thousands of square miles of Nevada and California. After weeks of fruitless searches, and with the survival window closing, Web users were enlisted to help in Fossett's rescue, from the comfort of their own homes.
Velociraptor, the terrifying predator made famous in the movie "Jurassic Park," appears to have had feathers in real life.
A close study of a velociraptor forearm found in Mongolia shows the presence of quill knobs, bumps on the bone where the feathers anchor, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
A close study of a velociraptor forearm found in Mongolia shows the presence of quill knobs, bumps on the bone where the feathers anchor, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
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| ©AP |
| Enlargement of the lower central portion of the ulna show the presence of quill knobs. |
Researchers from Duke University and the University of Cambridge think there is a way to determine whether some black holes are not actually black.
Finding such an unmasked form of what physicists term a singularity "would shock the foundation of general relativity," said Arlie Petters, a Duke professor of mathematics and physics who worked with Marcus Werner, Cambridge graduate student in astrophysics, on a report posted online Monday, Sept. 24, for the research journal Physical Review D.
"It would show that nature has surprises even weirder than black holes," Petters added.
Albert Einstein originally theorized that stars bigger than the sun can collapse and compress into singularities, entities so confining and massively dense that the laws of physics break down inside them.
Finding such an unmasked form of what physicists term a singularity "would shock the foundation of general relativity," said Arlie Petters, a Duke professor of mathematics and physics who worked with Marcus Werner, Cambridge graduate student in astrophysics, on a report posted online Monday, Sept. 24, for the research journal Physical Review D.
"It would show that nature has surprises even weirder than black holes," Petters added.
Albert Einstein originally theorized that stars bigger than the sun can collapse and compress into singularities, entities so confining and massively dense that the laws of physics break down inside them.
University of Arizona astronomers have pinpointed the origin of powerful bursts from nature's most magnetic objects.
The bursts are from "magnetars," some of the most enigmatic objects in the universe.
Magnetars are a type of neutron star, which are superdense stars that pack the mass of a sun into a body the size of Manhattan Island. Tiny magnetars possess magnetic fields that are at least 100 trillion times as powerful as Earth's magnetic field. They occasionally produce powerful bursts, hurling high-energy radiation cascading across space. The origin of these energetic eruptions and the strong magnetic fields is a mystery.
The bursts are from "magnetars," some of the most enigmatic objects in the universe.
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| ©Robert Mallozzi, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center |
| This is an artistic illustration of a magnetar. |
Magnetars are a type of neutron star, which are superdense stars that pack the mass of a sun into a body the size of Manhattan Island. Tiny magnetars possess magnetic fields that are at least 100 trillion times as powerful as Earth's magnetic field. They occasionally produce powerful bursts, hurling high-energy radiation cascading across space. The origin of these energetic eruptions and the strong magnetic fields is a mystery.
Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists have developed an interactive, online game featuring a little fish named Phil that can teach people how to better recognize and avoid email "phishing" and other Internet scams.
In testing at the Carnegie Mellon Usable Privacy and Security (CUPS) Laboratory, people who spent 15 minutes playing the Anti-Phishing Phil game were better able to identify fraudulent Web sites than people who spent the same amount of time reading anti-phishing tutorials or other online training materials.
Now, the CUPS Lab wants to see how Anti-Phishing Phil performs when he swims in a bigger, more diverse pond. As part of a field test, researchers ask people to visit here and click on the "Play the game!" link. Participants will be asked to take a short quiz, play the game and then take another quiz.
Those who leave their email address and participate in a follow-up quiz a week later will be eligible for a raffle prize of a $100 Amazon.com gift card.
In testing at the Carnegie Mellon Usable Privacy and Security (CUPS) Laboratory, people who spent 15 minutes playing the Anti-Phishing Phil game were better able to identify fraudulent Web sites than people who spent the same amount of time reading anti-phishing tutorials or other online training materials.
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| ©CMU |
| Anti-Phishing Phil |
Now, the CUPS Lab wants to see how Anti-Phishing Phil performs when he swims in a bigger, more diverse pond. As part of a field test, researchers ask people to visit here and click on the "Play the game!" link. Participants will be asked to take a short quiz, play the game and then take another quiz.
Those who leave their email address and participate in a follow-up quiz a week later will be eligible for a raffle prize of a $100 Amazon.com gift card.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, the crown jewels of biblical scholarship, have been guarded for 60 years.
Soon after the existence of the scrolls came to light, a scholarly debate broke out over whether the writings were indeed pre-Christian. Though it was commonly accepted that the scrolls were ancient, many respected scholars had begun to argue that the texts were much more recent in origin.
In short order, a scholarly elite emerged and took possession of the artifacts, keeping them hidden from scrutiny. Recently, that group has been challenged to bring the scrolls to the public for closer examination.
A German-American research team of biologists and geochemists has discovered hitherto unknown anaerobic bacteria in marine sediments which need only propane or butane for growth, as reported by the scientific journal Nature in its current online issue.
The hydrocarbons ethane, propane and butane - as well as the main component, methane - are the major constituents of natural gas. Biological processes may lead to the degradation of these hydrocarbons in underground petroleum reservoirs and other geological habitats.
The hydrocarbons ethane, propane and butane - as well as the main component, methane - are the major constituents of natural gas. Biological processes may lead to the degradation of these hydrocarbons in underground petroleum reservoirs and other geological habitats.
Comment: Indeed, it is highly surprising discovery. Why now? What kind of game Zahi Hawass ('a world-famous Egyptologist') is playing, and who's pulling his strings?
The entire structure of Egyptology rests on a fiction: the Bible. Egyptologists like Dr. Zahi Hawass have a role of maintaining this fiction, and we find it hard to believe that we would hear about such 'surprising discoveries' unless they had a purpose. So we must ask again: what is going on and why now? Who is sending a message and to whom?
Consider this:
From SOTT podcast "Mind Control, HAARP, and the Coming Catastrophe"
Laura Knight Jadczyk said: