From National Geographic:
Pluto Has “Upside Down” AtmosphereOn March 6, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) successfully launched the Kepler mission. Operated out of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colorado, it is the first mission, space-based or otherwise, designed to look for extrasolar planets en masse: here.Ker Than
for National Geographic NewsMarch 6, 2009
Pluto, the solar system’s oddball, has an upside-down atmosphere compared with Earth. Temperatures rise, rather than drop, with altitude on the dwarf planet, a new study finds.
Astronomers recently made the most detailed measurements to date of the concentration of the greenhouse gas methane in Pluto’s atmosphere using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope.
The measurements showed that methane is the second most abundant gas in Pluto’s atmosphere, and that the gas is actually warmer at higher elevations than at the icy surface.
Large moon of Uranus may explain odd tilt: here.
“Complex” organic molecules detected in space:
Computer models also suggest larger molecules may be
out there, including amino acids, essential for life
as we know it.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090421_organic
Comment by Administrator — April 24, 2009 @ 7:58 am
“Rogue” black holes out there, but fear not:
astronomers:
It sounds like a sci-fi movie plot: rogue black
holes roaming our galaxy, threatening to swallow
anything that gets too close.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090430_blackhole
Comment by Administrator — May 6, 2009 @ 10:36 am
Detection of “furthest object” could pave way
for probing early cosmos:
An explosion detected April 23 marks the most
distant, longest-ago event and object known,
astronomers say.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090428_grb
Comment by Administrator — May 6, 2009 @ 10:37 am