The NASA Kepler Mission is designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way Galaxy to discover Earth-size planets in or near the "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist, and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets. It now has another planet to add to its growing list. Researchers have shown that one of the brightest stars in the Kepler star field has a planet with a radius only 1.6 that of Earth
Astronomers have obtained a never-before achieved radio astronomical photograph of the youngest supernova. Fourteen days after the explosion of a star in the galaxy Galàxia del Remolí (M51) last June, coordinated telescopes around Europe have taken a photograph of the cosmic explosion in great detail – equivalent to seeing a golf ball on the surface of the moon.
A precise distance measurement by the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) allowed astronomers to accurately calculate the mass and spin of a famous black hole, thus providing a complete description of the object.
Lightning sprites are out-of-this-world: 'sprites' predicted in atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn and Venus
New images and animated movies from NASA
All heavy elements are created in gigantic supernova explosions. Now scientists are competing to create the world
When biomass is combusted the carbon that once was bound in the growing tree is released into the atmosphere. For this reason, bioenergy is often considered carbon dioxide neutral. Research from Sweden, however, shows that this is a simplification. The use of bioenergy may affect ecosystem carbon stocks, and it can take anything from 2 to 100 years for different biofuels to achieve carbon dioxide neutrality.
A new nanoscale light-emitting diode transmits data at ultrafast rates while using thousands of times less energy than current technologies. It is a major step forward for on-chip data transmission, the researchers say.
CERN has kicked off the High Luminosity LHC (Large Hadron Collider) study with a workshop bringing together scientists and engineers from some 14 European institutions, along with others from Japan and the USA. The goal is to prepare the ground for an LHC luminosity upgrade scheduled for around 2020.
The geological record holds clues that throughout Earth
With European solar markets in decline, the industry is looking to the next hot solar region. Even with political troubles in the U.S., companies still see America as a good long-term bet. (And let
No more cost-effective way to make major cuts in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions exists than retrofitting buildings. Now, from New York to Mumbai to Melbourne, a push is on to overhaul older buildings to make them more energy efficient.
Climate negotiations resume in South Africa today. In the United States, the hot air has yet to stop blowing.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have made advances in better understanding correlated quantum matter that could change technology as we know it, according to a study published in the Nov. 20 edition of <em>Nature</em>.
