16
POPSTwo asteroid belts found in solar system’s young “twin” Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the team of astronomers found an identical asteroid belt orbiting Epsilon Eridani at a similar distance. They also found a second asteroid belt about seven times further off, about the equivalent of where Uranus lies in our solar system. The second asteroid belt is believed to contain about as much mass as our Moon.
5
POPSNearby Solar System Looks Like Our Own at Time Life Formed Right now, Epsilon Eridani is surrounded by three asteroid rings that scientists believe are held in formation by large planets, the first of which is theorized to sit about half the distance from Mars to Jupiter. In the new paper, two other large planets, slightly farther from their star than Uranus and Neptune are from the sun, are proposed to explain the shape of the outer belts. It will take more sensitive instruments — perhaps like the next-generation of planet-hunting telescopes — to determine whether any would-be Earths lurk inside the habitable zone near the star.
1
POPSMirror-Image Clues to Life's Origins From the source: The meteorites did this by providing building blocks with a slight preponderance of that handedness (known scientifically as chirality) that makes life possible. "We know that all amino acids start mirror-image the same, but in living things they have this handedness," said Ronald Breslow, a Columbia University researcher who published recently on the topic. "This change doesn't happen spontaneously, and we've never been able to reproduce it in the laboratory" under conditions similar to early Earth. "The answer to where it comes from looks increasingly like meteorites," he added, "from extraterrestrial bodies falling to Earth. It's a complex story, but we're beginning to understand it better."
26
POPSNew clues on "The Great Dying" The lessons of the Permian-Triassic massacre are "directly applicable to the present," said John Isbell, a geoscientist at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He said the world today is in danger of exceeding a CO2 "threshold" that could set off an environmental upheaval as great as the one 251 million years ago.
1
POPSForever Is A Long Time- Extinction Of Too Many Watch the slide show attached. Great sadness for the losses incurred and those that are coming in your lifetime. We are a destructive force and our role as caretakers of the world around us is not well exercised.
6
POPSCreate a planet More from the guys who gave us how to disguise an elephant! The contest is on and voting will begin in 2 days - choose your winner or submit one! I liked the monopoly one!
1
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update