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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

First Habitable Planet Confirmed by French Scientists


French scientists believe that a planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581 could sustain life similar to Earth.

 
Twenty light years away is a small red star. Orbiting this sun are six planets that range in size from slightly smaller than Earth to about the size of Neptune. Several of these planets fall within the star's "Goldilocks" zone, neither too hot from proximity to the star nor too cold from being too far. If a planet is too hot, all water would be steam but if its too cold then it would be ice, neither of which can support life. Luckily, a group of astronomers from the National Centre for Scientific Research in France believe that the fourth planet - unimaginatively labeled Gliese 581d - is just right.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Random Image #3

Hello there! After some time away from the blog I'm back. Today I bring this image from NASA's site. Enjoy!


Explanation:
 Nebulae are enormous clouds of dust and gas occupying the space between the stars.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Random Picture #2

Another picture from NASA site. I will keep posting these, there is a lot of nice images there.

Click on the image to see in full-size. It's beautiful.

Explanation: This stunning vista represents the highest resolution image ever made of the Andromeda Galaxy (aka M31) at ultraviolet wavelengths. Recorded by NASA's Swift satellite, the mosaic is composed of 330 individual images covering a region 200,000 light-years wide. It shows about 20,000 sources, dominated by hot, young stars and dense star clusters that radiate strongly in energetic ultraviolet light. Of course, the Andromeda Galaxy is the closest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way, at a distance of some 2.5 million light-years. Just slide your cursor over the image to compare the appearance of this gorgeous island universe in optical light with its ultraviolet portrait.