#Broken cable damages giant radio telescope in Puerto Rico

“#Broken cable damages giant radio telescope in Puerto Rico” A broken cable caused severe damage at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory, causing a suspension of operations for one of the world’s largest single-dish radio telescopes, officials said Tuesday. The University of Central Florida, which manages the National Science Foundation facility, said in a statement that a…

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#Mystery solved: Bright areas on Ceres come from salty water below

“#Mystery solved: Bright areas on Ceres come from salty water below” Images of Occator Crater, seen in false-color, were pieced together to create this animated view. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA NASA’s Dawn spacecraft gave scientists extraordinary close-up views of the dwarf planet Ceres, which lies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. By the time…

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#Dwarf planet Ceres is an ocean world: study

“#Dwarf planet Ceres is an ocean world: study” Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and has its own gravity The dwarf planet Ceres—long believed to be a barren space rock—is an ocean world with reservoirs of sea water beneath its surface, the results of a major exploration mission…

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#Uncovering our solar system’s shape

“#Uncovering our solar system’s shape” An updated model suggests the shape of the Sun’s bubble of influence, the heliosphere (seen in yellow), may be a deflated croissant shape, rather than the long-tailed comet shape suggested by other research. Credit: Opher, et al. Scientists have developed a new prediction of the shape of the bubble surrounding…

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#Researchers offer unprecedented look into ‘central engine’ powering a solar flare

“#Researchers offer unprecedented look into ‘central engine’ powering a solar flare” Observation of a large solar flare on Sept. 10, 2017 in extreme ultraviolet (grayscale background, by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory) and microwave (red to blue indicate increasing frequencies, observed by the Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array). Light orange curves are selected magnetic field lines…

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#Measuring the structure of a giant solar flare

“#Measuring the structure of a giant solar flare” An ultraviolet image of a giant solar flare on 2017-09-10 as seen by SDO, the Solar Dynamics Observatory. White contours show the magnetic field lines derived from models; the red regions show the high resolution microwave images from the Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA) that reveal…

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#University students develop AI to detect fast radio bursts

“#University students develop AI to detect fast radio bursts” Devansh Agarwal. Credit: Scott Lituchy/West Virginia University West Virginia University’s Duncan Lorimer might be the godfather of the fast radio burst, but a pair of international students has taken exploring these mysterious cosmic flashes to a new level. In 2007, Lorimer was credited for helping discover…

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#Scientists provide new explanation for the strange asymmetry of the moon

“#Scientists provide new explanation for the strange asymmetry of the moon” The composition of the Moon’s near side is oddly different from that of its far side, and scientists think they finally understand why. Credit: NASA/NOAA The Earth‐moon system’s history remains mysterious. Scientists believe the system formed when a Mars‐sized body collided with the proto‐Earth….

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