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Physics and astronomy are full of symbols that can seem daunting to the outsider — a secret language that holds non-scientists at arm’s length. Sixty Symbols is The University of Nottingham’s newest project aimed at shedding light on the world of science, explaining the meaning of dozens of symbols and the fundamental part they play in modern life. Sixty Symbols breaks down those barriers with sixty short videos, each just a few minutes long featuring academics chatting about an aspect of the subject they love. This innovative new video project is translating the mysteries of the symbols of science — from Lambda and the Hubble Constant (H) to the speed of light (c), imaginary numbers (j) — into plain English.
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Astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced that stars of a recently discovered type, dubbed "Ultracool Subdwarfs" take some pretty wild rides as they orbit around the Milky Way, following paths that are very different from those of typical stars. One of them may actually be a visitor that originated in another galaxy.
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Astronomers at the University of Texas and the Max Planck Institute have used new computer modeling techniques to discover that the black hole at the heart of M87 is two to three times more massive than previously thought. Weighing in at 6.4 billion times the Sun's mass, it is the most massive black hole yet measured and suggests that the accepted black hole masses in nearby large galaxies may be off by similar amounts. This has consequences for theories of how galaxies form and grow.
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Nasa's Cassini spacecraft has obtained strong evidence that Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus retains liquid water.
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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter launched on June 18, 2009 aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The satellite will relay more information about the lunar environment than any other previous mission to the moon. The orbiter, known as LRO, separated from the Atlas V rocket carrying it and a companion mission, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS. LRO's objectives during its mission orbiting the moon are to identify safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology. LRO will orbit the poles of the moon during a one-year exploration mission followed by a planned multi-year science mission. In about four months, LCROSS will impact the moon, providing key information about the lunar composition and presence of water ice or hydrated minerals.
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In November 2008, Caroline Moore, a 14-year-old student from upstate New York, discovered a supernova in a nearby galaxy, making her the youngest person ever to do so. Additional observations determined that the object, called SN 2008ha, is a new type of stellar explosion, 1000 times more powerful than a nova but 1000 times less powerful than a supernova. Astronomers say that it may be the weakest supernova ever seen.
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A schoolboy has survived a direct hit by a meteorite after it fell to earth.
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Astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have developed a new technique to determine the ages of millisecond pulsars, the fastest-spinning stars in the universe. Ordinary pulsars tend to rotate a few times per second, and they gradually slow down with age, eventually becoming too faint to detect. Millisecond pulsars, however, rotate hundreds of time per second. They achieve these extraordinary spin rates by pulling in material from a binary companion star, a process that transfers angular momentum from the companion to the pulsar.
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This year’s event features more nights and more vendors. Starting on Thursday, August 20th, you can camp and observe for three nights.
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The Suzaku X-Ray Space Observatory is providing new insight into how assemblages of thousands of galaxies pull themselves together. For the first time, Suzaku has detected X-ray emitting gas at a cluster's outskirts. By looking at a cluster in X-rays, astronomers can measure the temperature and density of the gas, which provides clues about the gas pressure and total mass of the cluster. Suzaku, which means "Red Bird of the South" was developed at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in collaboration with NASA.
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An international team of radio astronomers at the Max Planck Institut fur Radioastronomie (MPIfR) in Germany has discovered the secret explosion of a massive star, a new supernova, in the nearby galaxy M82. Despite being the closest supernovae discovered in the last five years, the explosion is detectable only at radio wavelengths and invisible from Earth in normal light due to the dense gas and dust surrounding the exploding star. Without the obscuration, this supernova would have been visible even with amateur telescopes.
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