At http://phys.org/print287996395.html ... a paper in Nature Geoscience (online) says the iron core of the Earth is wekaer than thought (it has only half the previously estimated strength). Computer models are at the heart of the findings.
Astronomy news
A gobble we will go
At http://phys.org/print287137545.html ... there is a story about the black hole at the heart of our galaxy - still munching away. A dense torus of molecular gas and dust surrounds the galactic centre and within that disc is a central cavity filled with warm dust lower density gas. It is thought the gas is being heated by ultraviolet radiation from massive stars that orbit around the lip of the black hole. The heating also appears to generate strong shocks, generated as gas orbits around the black hole.
Molecular Clouds and the presence of DNA
Interesting post at www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/05/milky-ways-vast-molecular-clouds-w... ... the Spitzer Space Telscope and NASAs GLIMPSE Mission (a ten year survey) has scanned a deep panarama of our galaxy in mid infrared, enabling it to penetrate molecular clouds where some of the Milky Way's 400 billion stars are still forming.
Tom Van Flandern
Tim Cullen, in a post at Tall Bloke's Talk Shop, 'The Other Big Bang Theory', raises an interesting set of issues, not least another example of consensus dictating the line research should follow, the desired path way so to speak. It is basically all about the Asteroid Belt and where did all those comets come from. Their origin of course has been banished to the far reaches of the solar system, beyond the penetration of telescopes (until recently), in the so called Oort Cloud.
Dark Lightning and Water from Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
Water from Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 which spectacularly struck Jupiter way back in 1994 appears to have left behind millions of gallons of water, it is claimed - see www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349941/title/News_in_Brief_Comets_wa... and the paper is in the April 23rd issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics journal. Telescopes had spotted water above the cloud tops on Jupiter, and this has been known for some time.
Cosmic Rays and Supernovae
At http://phys.org/print285836945.html .... speculates on a supernova explosion in AD1006 as texts from the time mention a space light so bright it cast shadows at night. Observations of something unusual in the sky in 1006 come from China, Egypt, Baghdad, Japan and Switzerland. Radio astronomers in 1965 claimed to have identified the culprit, assumed to be a supernova as supernovae were very popular at the time, which exploded and left behind (for the astronomers of 1965 to witness) a 60 light-year diameter shell of glowing gas.
Calendrical paper, must read
Brian Sherwood Jones sent in this link on the Maya calendar - go to http://cryptome.org/2013/03/nsa-mayan-astronomy.pdf
One Thousand black holes captured by the Chandra X-ray telescope
Yes, one thousand black holes have been seen. In reality, beams of light have been captured and these are assumed to mark black holes - see www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/04/image-of-the-day-1000-monster-blac...
It claims material falling into the black hole generates the flashes of intense light that are detected by optical telescopes. Black holes, it is theorised, are galactic nuclei - and every galaxy has a black hole for a heart.
Black Hole eats Giant Planet
This story is at www.space.com/20580-black-hole-eats-giant-planet.html ... so what was actually seen, a feasting event, some munching and consuming, or what? Not a great deal it seems. What is most obvious is that the black hole didn't finish its meal - in fact it may not have eaten anything at all, but it is assumed it did (digging its teeth around the surface of the planet, it is suggested, as most of the planet appears to have been left intact, or all of it for all we know).
Raining Rings
At www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/04/saturns-ring-system-rains-water-in... ... a 'rain' of charged water particles falls over large areas of Saturn according to NASA funded research at the University of Leicester. The 'ring rain' quenches the ionosphere of Saturn and reduced electron densities where it falls ... and so on.