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io9Mysterious “Spider Scar” on Mercury Revealed for the First Time
NASA’s probe MESSENGER flew by Mercury a couple of weeks ago, and the photos have started pouring in. This is one of the most striking. Nicknamed “the spider,” it’s probably the result of a meteor impact with about fifty cracks radiating outward from it. Apparently, it’s the only such structure in the solar system, making … Continued
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io9
Become a Uranographer and Map the Heavens
Uranography is map-making for the cosmos. If you’ve always wanted to know where you stand in outer space, now’s your chance: O’Reilly has a new book called Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders that is one of the most detailed and thrilling how-to books we’ve read in a while. Just a few days after reading it, … Continued
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io9
We Must Leave Earth
Hilary Clinton is currently the only presidential candidate with a space plan, which can’t be pleasing to the scientists and scifi writers who warn that the human race must escape from Earth if it’s to have any future. It’s probably not surprising that 1970s astronomer icon Carl “billions of stars” Sagan was an offworld booster; … Continued
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io9
3D Map of the Milky Way Reveals Billowing Hydrogen Light Clouds
This is part of the first 3D map of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Over 200 thousand objects are included in the map, which was made up of images from a telescope in the Canary Islands that took hydrogen emission-sensitive pictures of the night sky. The result is that the brighter areas show “hotter” … Continued
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io9
More Evidence for Water on Mars
Spirit, one of the Mars rovers, accidentally kicked up some dust with its unsteady wheel the other day, and revealed a possible history of water-saturated land on Mars. The wheel-kick laid bare some white sand deposits whose mineral composition is nearly pure silica — the kind of thing normally left behind by hot springs. Image … Continued
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io9
Space Capsule Parachutes Onto Jupiter
This image started out as a science illustration, then became science-fiction art. Artist Alan Gutierrez submitted this picture to the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA for its Gallileo Probe project. The painting shows the Gallileo Probe parachuting into Jupiter’s atmosphere. When the JPL ended up not using the image, Gutierrez used it as the … Continued
By Charliejane -
Tech News
SmartStar Automagically Shows You the Universe on the Cheap
Mount a telescope on the SmartStar Cube, and you’ll have yourself the lowest-cost way to automatically gaze into the infinite and beyond. This $199 SmartStar Go To AltAzimuth Telescope Mount, otherwise known as the Cube, gives you computerized pointing and tracking, where you select a star, planet or galaxy in a huge database, and it … Continued
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io9
Wind Power Sucks But Brain Damage Is Okay
I’ve got some good science news for you, and some bad. Wind power may not be a clean energy source of the future after all. Though Sweden has just built a massive wind farm at sea, most countries have found wind an inefficient and unreliable energy source. [New York Times] Why brain damage is okay … Continued
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io9
Jupiter’s Explosive Moon Io Built Its Atmosphere Out of Frozen Volcano Gas
At last, a decades-old mystery has been solved about the atmosphere on Jupiter’s volcano-riffic moon Io. This moon, whose super-lavalicious geological situation has earned it the titles “pizza face” and “most volcanically active body in the solar system,” is special to the heart of io9 because we love fire. Turns out that constant fire-spewage will … Continued
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io9
No Interstellar Future For You
Sure, when the Soviets launched Sputnik, it made us frantic. But then we lost the thrill of the race. Just ask astronomer Stuart Atkinson: The Space Age is dead, it died of starvation and neglect, somewhere around 1980. Yes, we fed it and gave it money while it was young, and exciting, and sexy, while … Continued
By Charliejane -
Tech News
Meade’s mySKY Shows Us Our Sky
If you love the great big skies as much as we used to love the iPhone (oh, it hurts) then you may be interested in Meade’s mySKY Personal Guide. The mySKY is a tool to aid you in all your galactic gazing; it contains 30,000 unique items it can identify up in the great spacious … Continued
By Haroon Malik -
Tech News
Control a Telescope Using Your Wii Remote
An ingenious tinkerer over at Cloudy Nights Telescope Reviews decided that the standard remote for his Orion Atlas EQG telescope was too clunky. So he decided to modify the telescope to be controlled by his Wii Remote. Now with the simple flick of the wrist or finger he can control the direction and Right Ascension/Declination … Continued
By Blongo3 -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
World’s Largest Telescope Opens its Eye in Canary Islands
It has taken seven years to construct, and at a cost of almost $180 million, but the Great Canary Telescope – now the world’s largest stargazer – is up and running. Situated on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria Las Palmas, off the African coast, the GTC is 4 per cent larger than the Keck … Continued
By AddyDugdale -
Tech News
Space Navigator Star Locator For Astronomers in a Hurry
Give the Space Navigator your time and location, and it will let you know where over 60 of the brightest stars are, a few dozen constellations, and visible planets. It’s even programmed with upcoming astronomical events up until the year 2020, and comes with 20 star charts. That’s a lot of information to pack on … Continued
By Kevinhall2 -
Tech News
Dalsa Develops 111-Megapixel CCD
Dalsa Semiconductor has manufactured a CCD that can record 111 megapixels of data—that’s a 10560×10560-pixel frame, needing a gargantuan 425MB of storage space for just one picture. The CDD itself is huge—four inches square. Dalsa is one of the pioneers of digital cinema cameras, where its 4K Dalsa Origin (pictured here) was the first ultra-high-def … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Night Navigator Star Finder
The next time we go out with our wives to stargaze, we’ll definitely take along the Night Navigator Star finder. The handheld device will tell you where your favorite constellation or your zodiac sign in almost instantly. Other features: Locates and identifies constellations, stars and planets in just seconds Automatically shows you where to look … Continued
By Jason Chen -
Tech NewsGadgets
Planisphere Watch
This is a hot little quartz watch with a built-in planisphere which shows you the constellations of the northern hemisphere on a glow-in-the-dark face. Not bad for a $50 watch. It even has a rubber bracelet and luminescent hands. It’s sold out right now, but it does look pretty hot. Product Page [ThinkGeek via
By Johnb -
Tech NewsGadgets
Celestron SkyScout Is Almost As Cool As A Pink Floyd Laser Light Show
When I was a kid it was enough to stick those glow-in-the-dark stars and planets on the ceiling. At first, I tried to do a scale model of the universe but realized there was no scale that would make any sense in my bedroom. I got a bit older and turned the ceiling into a … Continued
By Gizmodo.com