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NASA confirms ancient lakes existed on Mars 2 to 3 billion years ago. Billions of years ago, there were lakes shimmering on Mars. That is the conclusion from the team behind NASA's Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity, who used data from the Curiosity rover to determine that water helped deposit sediment into Gale Crater. Three years ago, the rover landed at the crater and it has been exploring the area ever since. "Observations from the rover suggest that a series of long-lived streams and lakes existed at some point between about 3.8 to 3.3 billion years ago, delivering sediment that slowly built up the lower layers of Mount Sharp," said Ashwin Vasavada, Mars Science Laboratory project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif, and co-author of the new Science article to be published Friday, in a press release.

The findings build upon previous work that suggested there were ancient lakes on Mars and offers the latest proof that the Red Planet was wet. Related: Supermoon lunar eclipse in pictures But where did the water come from? Theastronautnetwork.tumblr.com. A black hole in the Orion Nebula? | Space. One of the most recognized constellations is Orion, with its three prominent Belt stars, or three stars in a short straight row on the sky’s dome. This constellation can be seen at night at this time of year, ascending in the east, visible from all parts of the globe.

Last week (November 1, 2012), an international team of astrophysicists announced the result of their work in computer modeling, which suggests that a famous nebula – or cloud – in Orion known as the Orion Nebula has a black hole at its heart, whose mass is some 200 times the mass of our sun. If it exists, the black hole would reside somewhere between the four bright stars which mark the center of the Orion Nebula.

These stars are known as the Trapezium. Image of the central region of the Orion Nebula. Four bright stars lie at the center of the Orion Nebula. The Orion Nebula Cluster has long been known as peculiar. An international team of astrophysicists – led by Dr. These scientists were excited about this result. The Rose. The spinning vortex of Saturn's north polar storm resembles a deep red rose of giant proportions surrounded by green foliage in this false-color image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Measurements have sized the eye at a staggering 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) across with cloud speeds as fast as 330 miles per hour (150 meters per second). This image is among the first sunlit views of Saturn's north pole captured by Cassini's imaging cameras. When the spacecraft arrived in the Saturnian system in 2004, it was northern winter and the north pole was in darkness. Saturn's north pole was last imaged under sunlight by NASA's Voyager 2 in 1981; however, the observation geometry did not allow for detailed views of the poles. Consequently, it is not known how long this newly discovered north-polar hurricane has been active.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 261,000 miles (419,000 kilometers) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 94 degrees. Cassini Sees Saturn Storm's Explosive Power. Red Ice Creations - Solar system. Interactive Sky Map. SLOOH SpaceCamera - Live Event. Exploring the Myths of "Settled Science" Raw: Russian Cargo Ship Docks With Space Station.

Cassini reveals new images of Saturn's rings 2013. Types of Stars. Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter Red giant Betelgeuse. Image credit: Hubble Space Telescope A star is a star, right? Protostar A protostar is what you have before a star forms. T Tauri Star A T Tauri star is stage in a star’s formation and evolution right before it becomes a main sequence star. Main Sequence Star The majority of all stars in our galaxy, and even the Universe, are main sequence stars. A star in the main sequence is in a state of hydrostatic equilibrium. The lower mass limit for a main sequence star is about 0.08 times the mass of the Sun, or 80 times the mass of Jupiter. Red Giant Star When a star has consumed its stock of hydrogen in its core, fusion stops and the star no longer generates an outward pressure to counteract the inward pressure pulling it together.

Red Dwarf Star Red dwarf stars are the most common kind of stars in the Universe. Supergiant Stars The largest stars in the Universe are supergiant stars. Journal of Cosmology. The long sought "grand theory of everything" must begin where there is no beginning and end where there is no ending: patterns which repeat themselves in nature and which give rise to infinite symmetry. Similar patterns are repeated from the micro-atomic to the macro-atomic, from snail shells to spiral galaxies. There is no reason to suspect these patterns end with individual galaxies. The symmetry and patterns exhibited by elementary particles, atoms, snail shells, sea shells, whirlpools, cyclones, solar systems, and spiral galaxies, should be applied to all galaxies, collectively, and to the cosmos. What these patterns have in common is they can be predicted from formulations first proposed by Pythagoras, and secondly, all orbit an eye or hole at their center.

It is these same repeating patterns, within our own Hubble Length Universe which creates the illusion of expansion and acceleration as it spirals and orbits a universe-in-mass black hole. Cochlea Matter is condensed energy. Solar System - Sirius (9 Alpha Canis Majoris - HD48915) Flawless launch of Alphasat, Europe’s largest and most sophisticated telecom satellite / Alphasat / Telecommunications & Integrated Applications. Ariane 5 liftoff with Alphasat Flawless launch of Alphasat, Europe’s largest and most sophisticated telecom satellite 25 July 2013 Alphasat, Europe’s largest and most sophisticated telecommunications satellite, was launched into its planned orbit today from Kourou, French Guiana. The Ariane 5 ECA rocket, operated by Arianespace, took off at 19:54 GMT, 21:54 CEST and delivered Alphasat into the target geostationary transfer orbit about 28 minutes later.

Alphasat’s signal has been picked up by an Inmarsat ground station in Beijing as expected at 20:38 GMT (22:38 CEST), confirming that the satellite is at the predicted location, powered up and transmitting. Alphasat on Sylda Alphasat is a large telecommunications satellite primarily designed to expand Inmarsat’s existing global mobile network. All the partners were present at Europe’s Spaceport to watch the 6.6‑tonne satellite take off. Alphasat partners at Le Bourget Alphasat next to Alphabus platform Alphasat TDPs in Kourou. Orion.jpg (1598×2400) Skynet University - Use Our Telescopes From Anywhere! Star trails, including the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, over Skynet’s 32-inch diameter PROMPT-C7 telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in the Chilean Andes.

Skynet is a global network of fully automated, or robotic, telescopes serving professional astronomers, students of all ages — graduate through elementary school — and the public over the internet. Headquartered at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and funded primarily by the National Science Foundation, NASA, and private donations, Skynet’s telescopes span four continents. They have taken approaching 7 million images for tens of thousands of users. For the most part, access to Skynet is limited to the institutions that have contributed the telescopes (each ~$100K or more). Skynet University offers the same introductory astronomy courses that we have developed for our students at UNC to everyone everywhere.

They include: Skynet University offers these courses online. Background Image: Sculptor Galaxy. The Allen Telescope Array. The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) is a “Large Number of Small Dishes” (LNSD) array designed to be highly effective for simultaneous surveys undertaken for SETI projects (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) at centimeter wavelengths. The initiative for building the ATA emerged from a series of workshops convened by the SETI Institute beginning in 1997. These workshops were charged with defining a path for future development of SETI technologies and search strategies. The relentless advance of computer and communications technologies made it clear that LNSD arrays were more efficient and less expensive than the large antennas traditionally constructed for radio astronomy and SETI. The final report of the workshop, “SETI 2020,” recommended the construction of a so-called One Hectare Telescope, having a collecting area commensurate with its name.

Penguin-Shaped Galaxy Collision Spotted By Hubble | Video. Scale of Earth, Sun, Rigel, and VY Canis Majoris. [full zoom at the end] Planets' and stars' size comparison. Fuck Yeah Nebulas. Shenzhou 10 Launch Chinese Spacecraft Blasts Off With Three Astronauts One of Them A Woman. "Blue & Beautiful" - Neil Armstrong Tribute. The Mighty Ring. Hubble Supernova. Hubble Realms of Light (in 4k UHD) UFOs Sighted During China's Shenzhou 9 Launch. Disc Shaped UFO Near Shenzhou-8 Undocking 2013 HD. Shenzhou 9 launch, China rocket, June 16, 2012. [Soyuz] Launch of Bion-M Capsule on Russian Soyuz 2-1A Rocket. Giant Soyuz Rocket Rolled to Launch Pad in Kazakhstan. Ariane 5 rocket with ATV-4 lifts off. The Majestic Beauty of the Cosmos (Hubble) HD Relaxing space music NASA. A Space Journey.