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Dinosaur Breath The largest flying creature alive today is the Andean condor Vultur gryphus. At maximum size it weighs about 22 pounds and has a wingspread of about 10 feet. But 65 million years ago in the late cretaceous period, the last age of dinosaurs, there was another larger flying animal, the giant pterosaur Quetzalcotalus. It had a wingspread of over 40 feet, the size of a small airplane. Other pterosaurs were also quite large. The pteranodons of the late jurassic period, the classic flying dinosaurs of magazine illustrations, had a maximum wingspan of about 33 feet. This presents a...

Please pray for Freeper Pegita's Father who has been on a ventilator and "could be taken off the ventilator but his oxygen level is dropping" and she urgently needs prayer for him and information on oxygen enhancing drugs. From Pegita: "His blood was iron poor before hospitalization, and my suggestion for the use of this new medicine (originally for rebuilding blood for chemo patients), has not met with any interest."Meaning she needs prayer help and information from any Freeper in the medical field who might have information on medicine that is specifically for "blood rebuilding" - need this information urgently!

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 October 6 The Lagoon Nebula in Three Colors Credit: R. Barba, N. Morrell et al. (UNLP), CTIO, NOAO, NSF Explanation: The bright Lagoon Nebula is home to a diverse array of astronomical objects. Particularly interesting sources include a bright open cluster of stars and several energetic star-forming regions. When viewed by eye, cluster light is dominated by an overall red glow that is caused by luminous hydrogen...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 September 4 Halo of the Cat's Eye Credit: R. Corradi (Isaac Newton Group), D. Goncalves (Inst. Astrofisica de Canarias) Explanation: The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its haunting symmetries are seen in the very central region of this stunning false-color picture, processed to reveal the enormous but extremely faint halo of gaseous material, over three light-years...

NEW YORK (AP) - Oxygen Media said Tuesday it is laying off nearly two-thirds of the staff at its oxygen.com Web site and is scaling back the site's content because of difficult business conditions. Twenty-nine people, out of a total of 44 at oxygen.com, are expected to lose their jobs over the next three months, bring the site's total staff to 15, said spokeswoman Kassie Canter. The focus of oxygen.com will also shift to promoting the Oxygen cable network, rather than original content. Chat rooms, for example, are being phased out. "The online side is simply not structured in a...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 July 25 NGC 1569: Heavy Elements from a Small Galaxy Credit: C.Martin (UCSB / Caltech), et al., CXC, NASA Explanation: For astronomers, elements other than hydrogen and helium are sometimes considered to be simply "heavy elements". It's understandable really, because even lumped all together heavy elements make up an exceedingly small fraction of the Universe. Still, heavy elements can profoundly influence galaxy and star formation ... not...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 July 12 Recycling Cassiopeia A Credit: R. Fesen (Dartmouth) and J. Morse (CASA, U. Colorado), Hubble Heritage Team, NASA Explanation: For billions of years, massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy have lived spectacular lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear furnaces ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After a few million years, the enriched material is blasted back into interstellar space where star...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 June 15 MyCn18: An Hourglass Nebula Credit: R. Sahai and J. Trauger (JPL), WFPC2, HST, NASA Explanation: The sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped planetary nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a Sun-like star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected - its core becoming a cooling, fading white dwarf. In 1995, astronomers...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 May 12 At the Edge of the Helix Nebula Credit: R. O'Dell and K. Handron (Rice University), NASA Explanation: While exploring the inner edge of the Helix Nebula with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, astronomers were able to produce this striking image - rich in details of an exotic environment. This planetary nebula, created near the final phase of a sun-like star's life,...