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The problem with Polaris is that no one can agree on how big or distant it is. Astrophysicists have a few ways to calculate the mass, age and distance of a star like Polaris. One method is a stellar evolution model...Researchers can study the brightness, color and rate of pulsation of the star and use that data to figure out how big and bright it is and what stage of life it's in. These models are especially precise for cepheids, because their rate of pulsing is directly related to their luminosity, or brightness. That makes it easy to calculate the...

Washington, D.C., February 1, 2017 – ADP is designed to contain all decommission U.S. nuclear energy sites … to accelerate decommissioning of shutdown nuclear power facilities through a complete and permanent transfer of ownership of the asset, including used nuclear fuel, from utility owners to an entity who is an expert in decommissioning and used fuel management, Sam Shakir, CEO of AREVA Nuclear Materials. //Back-snip// http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/239819-new-questions-about-clinton-foundation-russian-nuclear Clinton Foundation donors sold one of the largest uranium mining companies in America to a Russian nuclear agency in a deal signed off by the State Department during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of...

Explanation: In only about 12,000 years Vega will be the North Star, the closest bright star to our fair planet's North Celestial Pole. By then, when you fix your camera to a tripod long exposures of the night sky will show the concentric arcs of star trails centered on a point near Vega as Earth rotates on its axis. Of course, presently the bright star conveniently near the North Celestial Pole is Polaris, but that will change as the Earth's axis of rotation precesses, like the wobble of a spinning top with a precession period of about 26,000 years. If...

Rapper Andre Johnson severed his penis and jumped from a Los Angeles apartment building early Wednesday, police said. Johnson was seriously injured, but survived the fall from the second level of the building in North Hollywood, Los Angeles Police Sgt. William Mann said. Johnson, along with his recovered penis, was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was being treated, Mann said. Details about what triggered the incident were not available. Johnson has been a member of Northstar, a Long Beach, California, hip hop group that was part of the Wu-Tang Clan family, according to the Wu-Tang Clan website. He...

General Motors plans to temporarily shut down its Detroit-Hamtramck plant for four weeks, starting in June, to prepare for increased production of the Chevrolet Volt and the export version, the Opel Ampera. They also plan to reconfigure the plant to build the upcoming 2013 Chevy Malibu. Planned upgrades to the plant include installing new tools, equipment and overhead conveyer systems which all add up to increased production of the Volt and Ampera. After the plant reopens GM will still be working on changes for the upcoming production of the 2013 Malibu. The planned closure will temporarily reduce the already limited...

This article was pulled for copyright violationhttp://004eeb5.netsolhost.com/hc133.htmI have searched the list of copyright complainants on the FR main page and "NorthStar Writers Group" is nowhere in evidence.Can I post this article?Can I link to it from within a thread?How can I point Freepers to the specific statements made by Herman Cain in this article, some of which he may now regret??

As the Northstar Commuter Rail line nears its first birthday, ridership has fallen below expectations. A week after it was announced that plans to expand the rail line to St. Cloud have been shelved, officials released numbers showing ridership is about 5 percent below projections. Officials blame the economy and expect the gap to widen.

TORONTO — Former Minnesota North Stars standout Dino Ciccarelli was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, it was announced today. Ciccarelli played 19 NHL seasons with five teams, recording 608 goals and 592 assists in 1,232 games. In nine seasons with the North Stars, he led the team in scoring five times. "This is a tremendous honor that I will cherish for the rest of my life," Ciccarelli said. "I really appreciate the support of my coaches, the fans and mostly importantly my family throughout my 19-year career."

AP) Minneapolis A rare turtle is getting a lot of attention during the planning of the Northstar commuter train, which would run north from Minneapolis to Big Lake in central Minnesota. An environmental review of the route has found that it runs through areas that are home to the Blanding's turtle, which is a threatened species in Minnesota. The turtles have long necks with bright yellow throats and high-domed shells. The turtles need both wetlands and drier sandy land nearby, and that sort of habitat is along the route from Fridley to Big Lake on both sides of the existing...

WASHINGTON - Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed something just as constant as the North Star: a hidden companion. Astronomers now have photographic proof that Polaris, as the bright star and navigational aid is formally called, has two stellar companions. The first, Polaris B, has been known since 1780 and can easily be seen with even a smaller telescope; the presence of the second, Polaris Ab, has been inferred but eluded direct detection because it was close to Polaris and relatively faint. The North Star is a super-giant more than 2,000 times brighter than the sun, while its...

RELEASE: 06-004 By stretching the capabilities of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to the limit, astronomers photographed the close companion to Polaris, known also as the North Star, for the first time. "Hubble's exceptional pointing capabilities combined with the wonderful performance of its instruments allow scientists to see the universe in finer detail than ever before," said Michael Moore, NASA's Hubble program executive. "It is that clear vision that makes these types of images possible," he added. The North Star is thought to be a steady, solitary point of light that guided sailors for ages, but there is more to this...

Lou Nanne still has Dino Ciccarelli's back. The former Minnesota North Stars general manager gave Ciccarelli his big break in 1979 despite skepticism that the undrafted teenager with the sandpaper attitude and poster-boy name was too small and too fragile to survive the NHL. A quarter century later, Nanne is raising Cain with the Hockey Hall of Fame, which decides today whether Ciccarelli's 608 goals, 1,200 points and uncanny tolerance for abuse are worthy of induction. "It's ridiculous he's not in there," said Nanne. "There's no doubt his numbers are there. There are guys in there who are no comparison."...

In Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," the title character declares, "But I am constant as the Northern Star, of whose true fixed and resting quality there is no fellow in the firmament." In modern astronomical terms, Caesar was saying that he was a flaky, unstable guy. Astronomers have known for some time that Polaris, the North Star, sitting almost directly over the North Pole, is a Cepheid variable, a type of star that is caught in a cycle of bloating and collapsing because it has exhausted its hydrogen fuel. In this unsettled state, Polaris brightens and dims every four days or so,...