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"I think that the endorsement is a net positive for Leora, but probably too little and too late," said one Connecticut GOP consultant who requested anonymity. "His endorsement came Thursday night, so too late for any direct mail pieces to hit before Tuesday. Sure, she's been texting and pumping it through social media, but I do not think it will saturate enough to make enough of a difference. "If this was a month ago, I'd be concerned if I was Themis, but at this point, I think it is probably too late." Another factor working in Klarides' favor is that...

Nasa scientists have discovered what they think causes the Northern Lights, the dramatic, colourful displays seen in the sky seen near the Earth's poles. After a year of studying the mysterious phenomenon, researchers say explosions of magnetic energy occurring about one-third of the way to the moon are responsible for the lights, known as auroras. Nasa say explosions of magnetic energy occurring about one-third of the way to the moon are responsible for the lights, known as auroras Researchers used a network of five Nasa satellites on a mission dubbed Themis to observe a geomagnetic storm in February. They correlated...

SAN FRANCISCO - Scientists think they have discovered the energy source of the spectacular color displays seen in the northern lights. New data from NASA's Themis mission, a quintet of satellites launched this winter, found the energy comes from a stream of charged particles from the sun flowing like a current through twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting Earth's upper atmosphere to the sun. The energy is then abruptly released in the form of a shimmering display of lights visible in the upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, said principal investigator Vassilis Angelopoulos of the University of California, Los Angeles....

The enormous dust storm raging across Mars' southern half has begun to creep into the northern hemisphere as well, new satellite images reveal. Scientists are using the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter to track the global Martian dust storm that erupted suddenly in late June. THEMIS is a multiwave camera sensitive to multiple wavelengths of both visible and infrared light. The dust storm began in Mars' heavily cratered southern hemisphere and swelled to encircle the entire planet in roughly a week. As winds swept dust into the atmosphere, the atmosphere warmed, creating a positive feedback...

A Mars-orbiting satellite recently spotted seven dark spots near the planet's equator that scientists think could be entrances to underground caves. The football-field sized holes were observed by Mars Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) and have been dubbed the seven sisters --Dena, Chloe, Wendy, Annie, Abbey, Nikki and Jeanne--after loved ones of the researchers who found them. The potential caves were spotted near a massive Martian volcano, Arisa Mons. Their openings range from about 330 to 820 feet (100 to 250 meters) wide, and one of them, Dena, is thought to extend nearly 430 feet (130 meters) beneath the...

Nasa release on the topography of the south polar region of Mars Scientists studying pictures from Nasa's Odyssey spacecraft have spotted what they think may be seven caves on the surface of Mars.The candidate caves are on the flanks of the Arsia Mons volcano and are of sufficient depth their floors mostly cannot be seen through the opening. Details were presented here at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas. Temperature data from Mars Odyssey's Themis instrument support the idea. The authors say that the possible discovery of caves on the Red Planet is significant. The caves...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - NASA is set to launch a spacecraft carrying five satellites on a mission to unveil the secrets of the origin of the aurora borealis. The two-year mission, dubbed THEMIS -- an acronym for Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms -- will be coordinated by a team from the University of California at Berkeley. Once deployed, the satellites will align below North America every four days to observe the formation of the aurora borealis, a bright play of lights in the night sky above the polar area, commonly known as the northern lights. On the...

They may seem small and boxy, but five new NASA probes have a lofty purpose: sifting through the Earth’s magnetic field for the stormy beginnings of the planet’s most dynamic auroras. Set to launch in less than a month, NASA’s THEMIS spacecraft are designed to hunt down the origin of substorm -- tempests of high energy particles that accumulate somewhere in the Earth’s magnetic field, then flow back to the planet and supercharge its aurora borealis – also known as the Northern Lights [image]. “For more than 30 years the source location of these explosive energy releases has been sought...

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 31 In Chandor Chasma on Mars Credit: THEMIS, Mars Odyssey Team, JPL, NASA Explanation: Scroll right and dive into a spectacular canyon on Mars. This daytime infrared view, recently recorded by the THEMIS camera on board the orbiting Mars Odyssey spacecraft, covers a 30 by 175 kilometer swath running along the canyon floor. The north (left) end of the scene is poised at the edge of...