Kali Yuga, lit. "age of (the male demon) Kali", or "age of vice") is the last of the four stages that the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas described in the Indian scriptures. The other ages are Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga. According to the Surya Siddhant...
Elm Farm Ollie (known as "Nellie Jay" and post-flight as "Sky Queen") was the first cow to fly in an airplane, doing so on 18 February 1930, as part of the International Air Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Read more
Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) was at perihelion in 2003. Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) is a non-periodic comet that appeared in November, 2002. The comet appeared with a magnitude of approximately -0.5, making it currently the 7th brightest comet seen in 70 years. Read more
North Korea completes new missile base launch tower Recent satellite images show that North Korea has completed a launch tower at its new missile base, a key step in efforts to test a missile which could eventually reach the United States, experts say. An image taken on January 10 of the Tongchang-ri...
Title: Quantum to classical transition in a single-ion laser Authors: François Dubin, Carlos Russo, Helena G. Barros, Andreas Stute, Christoph Becher, Piet O. Schmidt & Rainer Blatt The onset of lasing in a 'classical' laser is marked by a threshold that can be characterised by a sharp increa...
Xenacoelomorpha - a new phylum in the animal kingdom An international team of scientists including Albert Poustka from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin has discovered that Xenoturbellida and the acoelomorph worms, both simple marine worms, are more closely related to c...
Title: Spitzer IRAC Infrared Colours of Submillimetre-bright Galaxies Authors: Min S. Yun, I. Aretxaga, M. L. N. Ashby, J. Austermann, G. G. Fazio, M. Giavalisco, J.-S. Huang, D. H. Hughes, S. Kim, J. D. Lowenthal, T. Perera, K. Scott, G. W. Wilson, J. D. Younger High-redshift submillimetre-brig...
A series of small earthquakes that rattled central Arkansas in recent weeks could be a sign of something much bigger to come. By this weekend, seismologists hope to install three measurement devices to gather data about future temblors in the area. That information could show whether the rumbles c...
Title: Looking the void in the eyes - the kSZ effect in LTB models Authors: Juan Garcia-Bellido, Troels Haugboelle As an alternative explanation of the dimming of distant supernovae it has recently been advocated that we live in a special place in the Universe near the centre of a large void describe...
What superficially resembles a giant moth floating in space is giving astronomers new insight into the formation and evolution of planetary systems. This is not your typical flying insect. It has a wingspan of about 22 billion miles. The wing- like structure is actually a dust disk encircling the n...
Title: HD 5388 b is a 69 M_Jup companion instead of a planet Authors: Johannes Sahlmann, Christophe Lovis, Didier Queloz, Damien Segransan (Observatoire de Geneve) We examined six exoplanet host stars with non-standard Hipparcos astrometric solution, which may be indicative of unrecognised o...
Title: UV Spectroscopy of the Central Star of the Planetary Nebula A43 Authors: Ellen Ringat, Felix Friederich, Thomas Rauch, Klaus Werner, Jeffrey W. Kruk About 25% of all post-AGB stars are hydrogen-deficient, e.g. the PG1159 stars with a typical abundance pattern He:C:O = 33:50:17 (by mass)....
Title: Development and Performance of the PHOT (Portable High-Speed Occultation Telescope) Systems Authors: E. F. Young, L. A. Young, C. B. Olkin, K. Shoemaker, R. G. French, J. Regester, M. W. Buie The PHOT (Portable High-Speed Occultation Telescope) systems were developed for the specific pu...
