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Friday, 23 May 2014 Stuart Gary ABC New Australian research suggests Martian minerals may have formed from biological rather than geological origins. The findings, reported in the journal Geology, indicate the mineral stevensite, which is found on both Earth and Mars, can be created either in hot, highly alkaline volcanic lakes, or by mineralisation in living microbes. Stevensite is a magnesium-silicate mineral, used a Nubian beauty treatment for several centuries.

Friday the 13th and a full moon can lead to real fears for some If you’re a selenophobic— people who fear the moon— or suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia— fear of Friday the 13th— you may not want to leave the house today. For the first time in nearly a century, there will be a full moon rising on Friday the 13th. And for some, superstitions of these two phenomena are very real. “In the U.S. there are millions and millions of people who just want to stay home and not take any chances on either one of these – Friday the...

Last month, Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan unveiled his next science-fiction blockbuster. Called Interstellar, it envisages a future where travel to other stars is not only a possibility but a necessity, and tasks actor Matthew McConaughey with leading the main mission. But a Nasa scientist claims such a mission isn’t necessarily just something reserved for science fiction - and has revealed a Star Trek-style ship that could make interstellar travel a reality. Dr Harold White is famous for suggesting that faster than light (FTL) travel is possible. Using something known as an Alcubierre drive, named after a Mexican theoretical physicist...

3D Solar system Simulator For Fun and Navigational Assistance http://solarsystem.appzend.net/

Orginal Title:Study of Equatorial Ridge on Iapetus Suggests Exogenic OriginYou Really Don't Prefer The Original Title, Do You? A combined team of researchers from Brown University in Rhode Island and the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Texas is suggesting in a paper they've uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, that an equatorial mountainous ridge on one of Saturn's moons has an exogenic origin. They are basing their theory on 3D models of the moon they've created and an analysis of the types of peaks present. Iapetus, the 3rd largest of Saturn's approximately 60 moons, is distinct for two reasons. One...

The "blood moons", or so they are called, are a set of eclipses taking place over the next year. There have been several books written about them; even a DVD or two produced about them. But, are they what we think they are? If not, is this a gigantic, prophetic, misunderstanding of astronomical proportions?

Title is the subject, link is to the results. Go to slashdot.org if you want to take the poll, it changes every day, but the results should hang around alot longer than the poll.

something really strange is about to happen …………

Can you imagine the devastation that would be caused if a massive wall of water several hundred feet high slammed into Florida at more than 100 miles an hour? To many people such a scenario is impossible, but that is what people living along the Indian Ocean thought before the 2004 tsunami and that is what people living in Japan thought before the 2011 tsunami. Throughout history, giant tsunamis have been relatively rare events, but they do happen. Scientists tell us that a mega-tsunami can race across the open ocean at up to 500 miles an hour, and when they...

Last night, I watched the second episode of "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" (the reboot of the 1980 series). It was entitled, "Some of the Things That Molecules Do." One of the things Tyson dealt with in this episode was evolution. Now, I myself do subscribe to the theory of evolution, but I found Tyson's treatment to be offensive, condescending, and smarmy. I thought it was an in-your-face chip-on-the-shoulder response against skeptics of evolution. I thought this was supposed to be a science show, not a political show. But this is just my opinion. What is your opinion? If you missed...

NASA really wants to go to Europa, and anyone who knows anything about exobiology really wants NASA to go to Europa. Why? Water. On Earth, water is what fuels life. Of course, there are a lot of other things that fuel life on our planet, but water is an integral part of life as we know it. Indeed, so far all of our research has indicated that–where there is water, there is life (Earth isn’t called “the Pale Blue Dot” for nothing). And while it is possible that alien life could exists on other worlds and thrive off of...

DENVER (AP) – A southern Colorado county with two recreational marijuana stores has become the first in the state to announce tax totals from the new industry. Pueblo County finance authorities announced Monday that its two shops had about $1 million in total sales in January, producing about $56,000 in local sales taxes. ... snip ...

I apologize for the uncharacteristic way I've presented this. It's just that I've gotten involved in some project that's going to be taking amounts of my time for the foreseeable future. And having seen these sites, I've been trying to post it here in some organized, efficient way but just haven't been able to get to it as I usually do, being as involved as I am in this new endeavor, actually just couldn't get around to posting them but was feeling really guilty about not doing the right thing and my very favorite place in the whole world. Hope...

Three Mars One applicants that made it to the second round. From left, Max Fagin, Brian Hinson and Andrew Rader. If you were to find yourself on the Red Planet, what would you do when you get there? Those who made the second round of the Mars One mission (which aims to establish a colony on Mars in the next decade) are a step closer to answering that question. In interviews with Universe Today, applicants Andrew Rader, Max Fagin and Brian Hinson explained what they’ll do if they embark on a planned one-way trip to the Red Planet. It’s impossible...

This colorful view from NASA's Cassini mission is the highest-resolution view of the unique six-sided jet stream at Saturn's north pole known as "the hexagon." This movie, made from images obtained by Cassini's imaging cameras, is the first to show the hexagon in color filters, and the first movie to show a complete view from the north pole down to about 70 degrees north latitude. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton University This colorful view from NASA's Cassini mission is the highest-resolution view of the unique six-sided jet stream at Saturn's north pole known as "the hexagon." This movie, made from images...

YouTube:Saturn:The Planets Op.32 Saturn YouTube:Saturn:The Planets Op.32 Saturn:Bringer of Old Age

YouTube:Gustav Holst - The Planets - Jupiter, and the Orchestral Bringer of Jollity In this composite images from the New Horizon mission, Jupiter was captured in three bands of infrared light making the Great Red Spot look white. Complex hurricane-like ovals, swirls, and planet-ringing bands are visible in Jupiter's complex atmosphere. A volcanic plume is erupting from Io's volcano Tvashtar. Frost and sulfuric lava cover the volcanic moon, while red-glowing lava is visible beneath the blue sunlight-scattering plume. The robotic New Horizons spacecraft is on track to arrive at Pluto in 2015.It is to the sheer size of Jupiter...

ID theorists say that information is the foundation of the universe. Others say matter is. Our choice of who to believe will shape our future. First, suppose the materialists are right. If materialism (naturalism) is simply true, because everything comes down to matter in the end, what future might we expect? Stephen Hawking insists in a recent interview that "Science will win." If we take his current non-realist views seriously, science as we have known it is finished and there is nothing to win. That doesn't mean, of course, that everything shuts down. Some projects will continue as if immortal...

Thanks and gratitude for creating this list of Universe Atlases, Planetary Exploration tools goes to fellow FReeper, lefty-lie-spy, for being the inspiration for me to create this list. Listed below are some of the best sites for viewing the Universe, exploring the Moon, Mars #1 Click Here:WikiSky.org:Best Views of The Universe Make Sure To Explore All The Various Tabs #2 Asterank:Asteroid Database Asterank:Asteroid Database Plus Lots More Asternak does a lot more than offer scientific an economic database of asteroids. Make sure to click through all the available links for all sorts of space-related information About Asterank Asterank is a...

These are two fascinating films about the scale of the universe. I remember seeing the 1968 version at the Science Centre here in Toronto when I was a child. Another version was made in 1977. Powers of Ten - A Rough Sketch (1968)Powers of Ten (1977)