Thursday 12 May 2016

The Complete Mercury Transition

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A time-lapse video of Mercury’s transition across the sun Monday, which lasted about seven hours.
via New York Times

Space mission first to observe key interaction between magnetic fields of Earth and sun

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Physicists have now provided the first major results of NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, including an unprecedented look at the interaction between the magnetic fields of Earth and the sun. The article describes the first direct and detailed observation of a phenomenon known as magnetic reconnection, which occurs when two opposing magnetic field lines break and reconnect with each other, releasing massive amounts of energy.
via Science Daily
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Small blue galaxy could shed new light on Big Bang

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A faint blue galaxy nicknamed Leoncino, or 'little lion,' about 30 million light-years from Earth and located in the constellation Leo Minor has been identified by astronomers as possessing qualities that could shed new light on conditions at the birth of the universe.
via Science Daily
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Hubble Catches Views of a Jet Rotating with Comet 252P/LINEAR


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For thousands of years, humans have recorded sightings of mysterious comets sweeping across the nighttime skies. These celestial wanderers, "snowballs" of dust and ice, are swift-moving visitors from the cold depths of space. Some of them periodically visit the inner solar system during their journeys around the sun.


via HubbleSite NewsCenter -- Latest News Releases
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/14/

World's first wireless satellite

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A satellite whose components are not connected through electric cables but miniaturized radio modules: This innovation has earned two computer scientists the first place in the INNOspace Masters competition.
via Science Daily
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A Transit of Mercury

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On May 9, the diminutive disk of Mercury spent about seven and a half hours crossing in front of the Sun as viewed from the general vicinity of Earth. It was the second of 14 transits of the Solar System's innermost planet in the 21st century. Captured from Fulham, London, England, planet Earth the tiny silhouette shares the enormous solar disk with prominences, filaments, and active regions in this sharp image. But Mercury's round disk (left of center) appears to be the only dark spot, despite the planet-sized sunspots scattered across the Sun. Made with an H-alpha filter that narrowly transmits the red light from hydrogen atoms, the image emphasizes the chromosphere, stretching above the photosphere or normally visible solar surface. In H-alpha pictures of the chromosphere, normally dark sunspot regions are dominated by bright splotches called plages.

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