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POPSTen thing about Black Hole 7) Black holes aren’t always dark. They’re bright. 8) Black holes aren’t always dangerous. 9) Black holes can get big. 10) Black holes can be low density. and finally 11) It sucks........
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POPS"Will We Soon find Life in the Heavens?" 'let's hope there's intelligent life somewhere up in Space 'cos there's bugger all down here on earth" continues In the coming months, two new tools will greatly expand astrobiologists' capacity to hear and see other promising signs of life. Later this summer, the nonprofit SETI Institute, named with the acronym for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, will begin listening for alien broadcasts on the new $50 million Allen Telescope Array. A spread of 42 radio dishes in California's Cascade Mountains, the array is the first such facility built specifically to listen for E.T. "We're looking for life that's clever enough to hold up its side of the conversation," says Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute. The array, half funded by Microsoft mogul Paul Allen, will search for alien signals at a clip "hundreds to thousands times faster" than current SETI projects, says Shostak.
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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.
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POPS'Filament' Of Dark Matter Strings 14 Galaxies The odds of this occurrence are very rare, leading the researchers to believe that the galaxies might somehow be forming on this elusive filament, made entirely from dark matter, which attracts regular matter that then turns into new stars. "There has long been a theoretical belief that this was the case," says Dr. Brosch, "but this new finding represents experimental results that such a filament really exists, and that possibly it is an entity made from dark matter which is aligning these galaxies." Dr. Brosch compares the work of an astronomer to "looking for hairs of the beard of the Creator."
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POPSIs a Death Star Aimed at Earth? A massive burst of gamma rays may already be on it's way, somehow the state of the economy doesn't seem so important. So, .....live life like there's no tomorrow.......there may not be.
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POPSMcCain's "overhead projector" debate comment Actually referred to the Zeiss planetarium projection system at the world-famous Adler Planetarium, which is falling into disrepair, and no longer has replacement parts. Here's a pic of the "overhead projector." Planetariums in NY and LA have already rec'd federal funding to replace Zeiss systems. They don't sell them at OfficeMax.
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POPSGiant Red Stars set a new Standard The most common red giants are the so-called red giant branch stars (RGB stars) whose shells are still fusing hydrogen into helium, while the core is inactive helium. Prominent bright red giants in the night sky include Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), Arcturus (Alpha Bootis), and Gamma Crucis (Gacrux), while the even larger Antares (Alpha Scorpii) and Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis) are red supergiants.
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