February 2012
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Two New Moons Found Orbiting Jupiter →
Two new moons have been found orbiting Jupiter, bringing the Jovian family count up to 66 natural satellites, astronomers revealed this week.
Currently known as S/2011 J1 and S/2011 J2, the new moons were first identified in images acquired with the Magellan-Baade Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile on September 27, 2011.
The objects are among the smallest moons yet discovered...
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The Drake Equation...
…was developed by Frank Drake in 1961 as a way to focus on the factors which determine how many intelligent, communicating civilizations there are in our galaxy.
N = N* fp ne fl fi fc fL
N* represents the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. (Current estimates are 100 billion)
fp is the fraction of stars that have planets around them. (Current estimates range from 20% to 50%)
ne is...
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Distant 'waterworld' is confirmed →
Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a new class of planet: a waterworld with a thick, steamy atmosphere.
The exoplanet GJ 1214b is a so-called “Super Earth” - bigger than our planet, but smaller than gas giants such as Jupiter.
Observations using the Hubble telescope now seem to confirm that a large fraction of its mass is water.
The planet’s high temperatures suggest...
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Saturn's Two Largest Moons Line Up in New Photo →
strictlyastronomy:
“Saturn’s two biggest moons hang together in a stunning new photo from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.”
“The image shows the heavily cratered Rhea in the foreground, while the hazy orb of the huge moon Titan looms in the distance. Cassini snapped the new Saturn moon photo in visible green light on Dec. 10, 2011, and it was released to the public on Monday (Feb. 13).”
“Cassini...
Venus On The Rise →
strictlyastronomy:
You may have noticed it: Venus, a brilliant white beacon in the west, below and a little to the right of another, slightly dimmer white light. (The second one is Jupiter.) Venus rises especially high and bright in the evening sky every 8 years, and this year — the year of its last pass in front of the Sun until the 22nd century — is our lucky break.
For every 8 orbits...
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venusaurphobia:
The only difference between seals and sea lions is that sea lions’ total number of electrons is not equal to the number of protons, giving it a positive or negative electrical charge.
Science jokes are the best :’)
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New icon :D
Thought it was about time I changed it, and I’ve been meaning to share the picture for a while now… It’s from my local paper, in which there was on article (on page 3!) on a local stargazing event I helped out at. :)
It’s very posed (the photographer wanted to get an artistic shot, hence the pretty walls in the background) but I still like it. :D
Oh and if anyone’s...