NAACAL

The end

2010-04-22T17:28:00.003+02:00

This is my last post on this blog.
As you surely have noticed, the blog has not been updated in a while, and now I have taken a decision and I will close it.
This blog has been a personal experiment. I read a lot of blogs, and I wanted to try to write on one myself. So I opened this blog, where I posted links to science news everyday. The blog has had its popularity, with a peek of 6000 visitors in one day. Many have linked to me, and I thank everyone who has read this blog in the past.
The reason I close this blog is that I don't manage to find the time to update it as I would. I could continue, but I would deliver a "product" that doesn't satisfy myself.

I would like to invite all my readers to keep reading the science articles written by a person who I consider the best astronomy journalist in the world, Nancy Atkinson from Universe Today, who has been linked by me hundreds of times.

And I would also like everyone to bookmark and read a fantastic culture source, the best blog I know: TYWKIWDBI, written by Minnesotastan. It's a must.

Thank you all, see you around.

Naacal

1-Billionth Scale Model of USS Enterprise

2010-03-21T16:52:00.002+01:00

Measuring just 8.8-micrometers long, this 1-billionth scale model of the USS Enterprise "was made with a 30 kV Ga+ focused-ion- beam CVD using phenanthrene gas by Takayuki Hoshino and Shinji Matsui of the Himeji Institute of Technology

source: Techeblog

Trove of shipwrecks found in the Baltic Sea

2010-03-21T16:06:00.002+01:00

A dozen previously unknown shipwrecks have been found on the bed of the Baltic Sea; some of them are thought to up to 1,000 years old, the Swedish National Heritage Board said on Monday.
The underwater treasure trove of nautical antiquities was discovered during a probe of the sea bed to prepare for the installation of a large gas pipeline.

Full article on Discovery Online

The world's only immortal animal

2010-03-21T15:49:00.002+01:00

The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth.
Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life).
The key lies in a process called transdifferentiation, where one type of cell is transformed into another type of cell. Some animals can undergo limited transdifferentiation and regenerate organs, such as salamanders, which can regrow limbs. Turritopsi nutricula, on the other hand, can regenerate its entire body over and over again. Researchers are studying the jellyfish to discover how it is able to reverse its aging process.

Full article on Yahoo!News

Fly over Mars

2010-03-20T23:52:00.000+01:00

This is an animation flying over southwest Candor Chasma on Mars. It was created from NASA's HiRISE DTM and image data.

Google Street View: Giant floating pliers above the sky of West Bromwich

2010-03-20T23:46:00.001+01:00

A curious resident in West Bromwich found a rather unusual aspect to his road when he logged on to Google Street View - a giant pair of floating pliers.
The oddity appears to be down to a mistake by a Google technician who was making adjustments to the car-mounted camera at the junction of Whitehall Road and Compton Road.

Full story on The Telegraph

White Death: the Sniper Who Killed 700 Soviets in 100 Days

2010-03-20T12:47:00.001+01:00

Ensconced in the snow, his white camouflage suit rendering him invisible to the invading Soviet soldiers he stalked, Simo Häyhä steadied himself to fire. During the 1939–1940 Winter War, in temperatures as low as –40 °C, the Finnish sniper undertook a killing spree that saw him single-handedly take the lives of at least 700 men in less than 100 days. Over 500 of these he shot using a standard, bolt-action rifle with non-telescopic sights. Is it any wonder he earned the nickname The White Death among his enemies? Meet the man who would take Rambo to the cleaners on Environmental Graffiti

Drought extinguishes Venezuela's lightning phenomenon

2010-03-19T23:42:00.001+01:00

Darkness rarely lasted long in the skies over Lake Maracaibo. An hour after dusk the show would begin: a lightning bolt, then another, and another, until the whole horizon flashed white.
Electrical storms, product of a unique meteorological phenomenon, have lit up nights in this corner of Venezuela for thousands of years. Francis Drake abandoned a sneak attack on the city of Maracaibo in 1595 when lightning betrayed his ships to the Spanish garrison.
But now the lightning has vanished. A phenomenon that once unleashed up to 20,000 bolts a night stopped in late January. Not a single bolt has been seen since.

Full article by Rory Carroll on The Guardian

Martian avalanche

2010-03-19T23:33:00.002+01:00

Spring is approaching us here in the northern hemisphere on Earth once again, and we are experiencing the annual thaw of the winter ice.
Spring is approaching the northern hemisphere of Mars as well, and with it comes the thaw of carbon dioxide ice. Some of that dry ice sits at the tops of cliffs, and when it thaws it dislodges the material there. The rock and debris on Mars then does the same thing it would do on Earth: it falls. Fast.
And when it does, you get this slice of Martian awesomeness:

More on Bad Astronomy

Large Hadron Collider Triples Its Own Record

2010-03-19T23:28:00.002+01:00

The Large Hadron Collider set a new record for the creation of energetic particle beams this morning. The particle accelerator, which surpassed Fermilab’s Tevatron in December as the baddest atom smasher of them all, smashed its own record, charging particles to 3.48 trillion electron volts.
That’s three times the energy of any beam ever created by human beings and just a shade under half the LHC’s proposed maximum capabilities.

Full article by Alexis Madrigal on Wired

The Multiplying Mystery of Moonwater

2010-03-19T23:25:00.002+01:00

Researchers who once confidently stated that the Moon was bone-dry are now thinking the unthinkable: The Moon has so much water, there's actually a "lunar hydrosphere." International spacecraft have recently discovered no fewer than three "flavors" of moonwater and no one knows when the discoveries will end.

Read full article by Dauna Coulter on Science@NASA

15 of the Meanest CAPTCHAs ever

2010-03-18T23:25:00.002+01:00

Captchas, those distorted images of letters and numbers used to prevent the automated use of websites, are not very sensitive to our feelings. Meet fifteen of the worst ever seen, on Oddee

Fossil of ancient amphibian named after FedEx

2010-03-18T23:23:00.001+01:00

Paleontologists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History named the trematopid Fedexia striegeli after the company, which owns the land on which it was found, and the University of Pittsburgh student who found it.
Fedexia striegeli was a carnivorous amphibian that existed 300 million years ago, 70 million years before the first dinosaurs. It resembled a two-foot long salamander and had newt-like skin.

Full story on The Telegraph

Invisibility Cloak Goes 3D

2010-03-18T23:08:00.002+01:00

European researchers have taken the world a step closer to fictional wizard Harry Potter's invisibility cloak after they made an object disappear, a study published Thursday in the journal Science showed.
Scientists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and Imperial College London used their cloak, made using photonic crystals with a structure resembling piles of wood, to conceal a small bump on a gold surface, they wrote in Science.
"It's kind of like hiding a small object underneath a carpet -- except this time the carpet also disappears," they said.

Full article on Discovery News

Whole flock of birds falls dead from the sky

2010-03-17T23:23:00.002+01:00

On Sunday night, over a quiet Somerset house, scores of swooping starlings tumbled out of the sky and fell, dead, into a single front garden.
Covering an area 12ft across, more than 100 birds carpeted the garden, each with blood oozing from its beak and curled up claws.
Most had died, although some flapped lamely, clearly in pain until the RSPCA put them out of their misery

Read full story on The Daily Mail

How to Move A 900-Ton Generator

2010-03-17T23:12:00.000+01:00

It took six months to plan the trip to move this monstrous generator 250 miles and one month to transport it.

Lunar Orbiter Spots Long Lost Russian Rover

2010-03-17T23:04:00.002+01:00

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has picked out the final resting place of the Soviet Lunokhod 2 rover after a Canadian researcher followed the 37 year old tire tracks captured in recently released moon photos.

Full article by Ian O'Neill on Discovery News

Maya fountain unearthed by archaeologists

2010-03-16T05:13:00.000+01:00

Add plumbing to the mysterious arts of the ancient Maya, investigators report. In a Journal of Archaeological Science study, anthropologist Kirk French and civil engineer Christopher Duffy of Penn State report on a conduit designed to deliver pressurized water to Palenque, an urban center in southern Mexico, more than 1,400 years ago.
"The ancient Maya are renowned as great builders, but are rarely regarded as great engineers. Their constructions, though often big and impressive, are generally considered unsophisticated," say the study authors. However, they add, "(m)any Maya centers exhibit sophisticated facilities that captured, routed, stored, or otherwise manipulated water for various purposes."

Full article by Dan Vergano on USA Today

Star Predicted to Blast Through the Solar System

2010-03-16T03:33:00.000+01:00

In 1.5 million years time, the solar system could be in for a rough ride.
An orange dwarf star named Gliese 710 is powering in our direction and an astronomer has calculated an 86 percent chance of the interstellar interloper smashing through the Oort Cloud, located in the outermost reaches of our solar system.
This could have the devastating effect of scattering the icy Oort Cloud objects (or OCOs), causing them to plunge toward the sun and the inner planets, potentially bombarding Earth with comets.

Full article by Ian O'Neill on Discovery News

Mysterious cosmic "dark flow" tracked deeper into universe

2010-03-15T05:55:00.000+01:00

Distant galaxy clusters mysteriously stream at a million miles per hour along a path roughly centered on the southern constellations Centaurus and Hydra. A new study led by Alexander Kashlinsky at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, tracks this collective motion — dubbed the "dark flow" — to twice the distance originally reported.

Read full article on Astronomy.com

Comet-Kaze Strikes The Sun

2010-03-15T05:26:00.000+01:00

At first glance it looks like aliens are using the sun for target practice.
A string of bullet-shaped streaks of light appear to be shooting straight toward the sun, plunging 300 miles per second toward a fiery end in the sun's atmosphere.
The NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) observed the demise of one comet fragment on Friday, March 12.
The wayward comets are called sungrazers. They are a class of comet that likes to live dangerously. Sungrazers can skirt within a few thousand miles of the sun’s roiling photosphere. Many are torn apart or evaporate as they streak along at a blazing 1 million miles per hour. As their orbits are perturbed, surviving sungrazers can collide with the sun on a subsequent passage.

Full article by Ray Villard on Discovery News

Paris 26 Gigapixels

2010-03-15T05:04:00.002+01:00

Paris 26 Gigapixels is the name of the biggest assembled panoramic image of the world. It shows Paris in a very high definition. A gigapixel is 1 billion pixels! The image is a stitching of more than 2000 individual photos. Paris 26 Gigapixels has been shot on September 8th, 2009 and is now available for eveyone here

Indian man's internal organs all back-to-front

2010-02-11T05:49:00.000+01:00

An Indian man has ben told by doctors that all his internal organs are back-to-front in what is thought to be the only living case of "situs inversus".

Doctors believe that the 64-year-old could be the only man in the world whose internal organs are in the mirror opposite position of where they should be.
Ashok Shivnani was about to have surgery to remove a tumour on his kidney in Mumbai when doctors realised most of his chest and abdominal organs and many blood vessels were on the opposite side of his body.

Full story by Dean Nelson on The Telegraph

Calling ET: Your chance to send a message to alien life

2010-02-11T05:40:00.000+01:00

Is there anybody out there? What would you say if you could send a message into space? Would you say hello, ask the meaning of life, share an insight or just complain about the weather?

In celebration of SETI's 50th anniversary 5000 messages will be sent off in to space in the hope of being picked up by aliens.

The event is being organised by Penguin UK and National Science and Engineering Week, the messages of up to 40 words will be fired up using a radio telescope and can contain anything including greetings, confessions or warnings

Go here and write your message

The strangest liquid: Why water is so weird

2010-02-11T05:32:00.000+01:00

Edwin Cartlidge on New Scientist wrote a great piece about the mysteries of water

We are confronted by many mysteries, from the nature of dark matter and the origin of the universe to the quest for a theory of everything. These are all puzzles on the grand scale, but you can observe another enduring mystery of the physical world - equally perplexing, if not quite so grand - from the comfort of your kitchen. Simply fill a tall glass with chilled water, throw in
an ice cube and leave it to stand.The fact that the ice cube floats is the first oddity. And the mystery deepens if you take a thermometer and measure the temperature of the water at various depths. At the top, near the ice cube, you'll find it to be around 0 °C, but at the bottom it should be about 4 °C.
That's because water is denser at 4°C than it is at any other temperature - another strange trait that sets it apart from other liquids.
Water's odd properties don't stop there...

What came before the Big Bang?

2010-02-10T17:25:00.002+01:00

String theorists Neil Turok of Cambridge University and Paul Steinhardt, Albert Einstein Professor in Science and Director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science at Princeton believe that the cosmos we live in was actually created by the cyclical trillion-year collision of two universes (which they define as three-dimensional branes plus time) that were attracted toward each other by the leaking of gravity out of one of the universes.
In their view of the universe the complexities of an inflating universe after a Big Bang are replaced by a universe that was already large. flat, and uniform with dark energy as the effect of the other universe constantly leaking gravity into our own and driving its acceleration. According to this theory, the Big Bang was not the beginning of time but the bridge to a past filled with endlessly repeating cycles of evolution, each accompanied by the creation of new matter and the formation of new galaxies, stars, and planets.

Full article by Casey Kazan and video of the lecture on The Daily Galaxy

Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Odd X-Pattern of Trailing Debris

2010-02-10T17:01:00.003+01:00

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids. Astronomers have long thought the asteroid belt is being ground down through collisions, but such a smashup has never been seen before.

Full article on NASA

Evidence of Liquid Water on Saturn's Moon Enceladus

2010-02-10T16:59:00.001+01:00

Saturn's moon Enceladus contains a large body of water under its surface, new research has confirmed. This has led scientists to speculate that the icy moon may even have conditions suitable for life.
Data from NASA's Cassini Equinox spacecraft revealed negatively charged water molecules in the moon's atmosphere.
"While it's no surprise that there is water there, these short-lived ions are extra evidence for sub-surface water and where there’s water, carbon and energy, some of the major ingredients for life are present," said Andrew Coates from University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory.

Full article by Ian O'Neill on Discovery News

New Views of Pluto Reveal Weird Bright Spot

2010-02-08T19:46:00.001+01:00

The Hubble Space Telescope has returned the most detailed images of Pluto ever taken.
The new photos reveal the strange mini-world in near true-life color, close to what the dwarf planet would look like to an observer traveling toward it in a spacecraft, scientists said. The surface appears reddish, yellowish, grayish in places, with a mysterious bright spot that is particularly puzzling to scientists.

Full article by Clara Moscowitz on Space.com

Satellite View of "Snowmageddon"

2010-02-08T19:43:00.002+01:00

Did you live through what has been called “snowmageddon” or “snowpocalypse?” Here's a satellite's-eye view of the exceptionally severe winter storm in the Eastern US that dropped several feet of snow on Feb. 6 and 7. Reports of crashed and abandoned cars and hundreds of cancelled flights were interspersed with stories of massive snowball fights. The huge snowfall may hinder highway traffic into midweek, and hundreds of thousands lost electricity. The image comes from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. Snow blankets the area hundreds of kilometers inland from the Atlantic coastline.

source: Nancy Atkinson on Universe Today

World's most precise clock created

2010-02-08T19:36:00.001+01:00

The new record-holder for the most precise timekeeper could tick off the 13.7-billion-year age of the universe to within 4 seconds.
The optical clock monitors the oscillation of a trapped atom of aluminium-27. It is more than twice as precise as an earlier version, reported in 2008, and was built at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. "It's extremely impressive," says Patrick Gill of the UK's National Physical Laboratory, who was not involved with the work.
The second is currently defined by caesium atomic clocks, but optical clocks promise higher precision because their atoms oscillate at the frequencies of light rather than in the microwave band, so they can slice time into smaller intervals. Such clocks could help spot tiny changes in physical constants over time.

source: Jeff Hecht on New Scientist

World's most powerful laser to trigger fusion reaction this year

2010-02-01T16:53:00.002+01:00

A pivotal step in the march towards fusion power, the ''holy grail'' of sustainable clean energy, could be taken this year.
Scientists in the US are preparing for the dramatic moment when the world's most powerful laser unleashes the nuclear force that lights up the sun and achieves ''ignition''.
At that moment, 192 laser beams housed in a building the size of three football pitches will focus on a target the size of a peppercorn to trigger a self-sustaining fusion reaction.
If all goes according to plan, this could be achieved in October. Although no more than a test of the technology, it could mark the start of a revolution that will change the science and politics of energy for ever.

Full article on The Telegraph

The Solar Dynamics Observatory

2010-02-01T16:19:00.001+01:00

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will provide a new eye on the sun that will deliver solar images with 10 times better resolution than high-definition television. This mission will zoom in on the cause of severe space weather—solar activity such as sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections.

The scale of the Universe

2010-02-01T15:48:00.002+01:00

An incredible interactive Flash animation from NewGrounds that provides a scale of the Universe, from the very small (0.0000000001 yoctometers) to as large as we know, the estimated size of the Universe.

via Universe Today

Nasa photographs 'trees' on Mars

2010-01-21T17:24:00.001+01:00

A Nasa probe has sent back photographs of what appears to be trees on the planet's surface.
The images appear to show rows of dark "conifers" sprouting from dunes and hills on the planet surface. But the scene is actually an optical illusion.
The photographs actually show sand dunes coated with a thin layer of frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice, less than 240 miles from the planet's north pole.
The "trees" are really trails of debris caused by landslides as ice melts in Mars's spring.

Full article by Ben Leach on The Telegraph

China To Launch Space Station in 2010 or 2011

2010-01-21T17:20:00.001+01:00

China is planning to launch their own space station, named Tiangong, by the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011. There have been a few instances where information about the station surfaces briefly over the past few years about the development of the space station. Specific details on the program are not being release in large doses by the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA), so the development of the station is somewhat shrouded in mystery.
Qi Faren, one of the designers of the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft, said in an interview on CCTV last month of the upcoming launch, "Quality is the key to technology. We must guarantee a successful launch. We will launch it whenever we are ready. It will be the end of 2010, or the beginning of 2011."

Full article by Nicholos Wethington on Universe Today

Travel to Mars in Three Hours

2010-01-21T17:17:00.001+01:00

If you’ve ever taken a physics course, you know that nothing can go faster than the speed of light, 186,000 miles a second. Seven-hundred-million miles an hour. Everything physicists know says you can’t go faster. But some physicists and engineers think they can do an end run around the speed-of-light limit.
They say that ideas developed about 50 years ago by a German scientist named Burkhard Heim suggest that we could use a very strong magnetic field to push spacecraft into another dimension. A dimension where the physical laws that make the speed of light as fast as anything can go don’t exist.

Read full article by Gene Charleton on Discovery News

10 Craziest Plastic Surgeries to Look Like Someone Else

2010-01-20T23:12:00.002+01:00

From a grandma who spent thousands trying to look like Jessica Rabbit, to another woman who had over 50 surgeries spurred by her belief that she was Nefertiti. Meet the most bizarre stories of people trying to look like their idols on Oddee

Surfing the Dragon: The Quest for the Longest Wave in the World

2010-01-20T23:06:00.002+01:00

When the tide comes in on the China's Qiantang River in the city of Hangzhou, something unusual happens: seawater piles up in the funnel-shaped Hangzhou Bay and roars up the river in a massive wave that can be almost 30 feet high. The tidal wave can capsize boats and upset shipping in the bustling metropolis. Onlookers near the river's banks can suddenly find their lives in danger. But for a peculiar breed of surfers, the chance to ride the world's longest wave is the thrill of a lifetime.

Full article by Michael Reilly on Discovery News

Whole Life Cycle of Stars Revealed in New Image

2010-01-20T20:57:00.001+01:00

Recycled piles of stardust – and the stars that suck them up and spit them out – have been revealed in a new image of a dwarf galaxy near our own Milky Way.
The image, taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, shows the Small Magellanic Cloud and gives astronomers an opportunity to study the entire life cycle of stars up close, as well as the different environments in which stars form.

Full article by Andrea Thompson on Space.com

Historian claims to have finally identified wartime 'Man Who Never Was'

2010-01-19T23:52:00.002+01:00

A historian claims to have conclusively proved the identity of the "Man Who Never Was", whose body was used in a spectacular plot to deceive the Germans over the invasion of Sicily in the Second World War, Ian Johnston reports on The Telegraph

Mysterious Ribbon at Edge of Solar System Explained

2010-01-19T11:50:00.003+01:00

A mysterious ribbon spotted on the edge of the solar system has turned out to be a reflection of particles streaming off the sun, scientists have found.
The space ribbon — a long band of high-energy particle emissions — was first noticed last year by NASA's IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft, which studies the boundary between our solar system and the rest of the galaxy. Scientists were mystified by it, calling the discovery a "shocking result."

But now researchers think they've figured out the origin of the bizarre structure.

Full article on Space.com

Annular Eclipse Photos, Videos From Earth and Space

2010-01-19T11:43:00.002+01:00

The first of two solar eclipses to occur in 2010 took place Friday, January 15. This was an annular eclipse, which means the Sun was not totally covered by the Moon, creating a "ring of fire." The eclipse was visible from a 300-km-wide track that passed over central Africa, across the Indian Ocean, over the southern tip of India and the northern end of Sri Lanka, and then across parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar. At the center of the track, the eclipse endured for 11 minutes and eight seconds, setting a record that won't be beaten until December 23, 3043.

Nancy Atkinson on Universe Today provides many links to pictures and videos

Unprecedented details on the surface of the star Betelgeuse

2010-01-18T23:37:00.002+01:00

Using interferometry, an international team led by an astronomer of l'Observatoire de Paris obtained an unprecedented image of the surface of the red supergiant Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion. The image reveals the presence of two giant bright spots whose size is equivalent to the Earth-Sun distance — they cover a large fraction of the surface. It is a first strong and direct indication of the presence of the convection phenomenon, transport of heat by moving matter, in a star other than the Sun. This result allows us to better understand the structure and evolution of supergiants.

Full article on Astronomy.com

Mexican megacrystals formed by climate back-and-forth

2010-01-18T23:34:00.002+01:00

Why are these crystals so huge? The answer is ancient climate swings.
Gypsum crystals up to 11 metres long were found a decade ago in caves next to the Naica mine near Chihuahua, Mexico. Over the past 200,000 years the regional climate has swung from wet to dry, suggests water trapped in the crystal. Ground level evaporation during the dry period concentrated calcium in salty surface water flowing into the caves. The evaporation repeated as the climate switched back and forth, providing enough calcium to build such big crystals, say Paolo Garofalo of the University of Bologna, Italy, and colleagues

Found on New Scientist

Mystery Object Behaves Both Like a Comet and an Asteroid

2010-01-18T23:30:00.002+01:00

Something awfully curious is happening 250 million miles away in the asteroid belt.
Nothing quite like it has ever been seen before.
There’s a newly discovered object that superficially looks like a comet but lives among the asteroids.
The distinction? Comets swoop along elliptical orbits close in to the sun and grow long gaseous and dusty tails as ices sublimate off their solid nucleus and release dust. But asteroids are mostly in more circular orbits and are not normally expected to be as volatile as comets.
The puzzling object was discovered on January 6 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) sky survey.

Full article by Ray Villard on Discovery News

Faster-Than-Light Pulsar Phenomena

2010-01-06T20:47:00.001+01:00

Observational data from nine pulsars, including the Crab pulsar, suggest these rapidly spinning neutron stars emit the electromagnetic equivalent of a sonic boom, and a model created to understand this phenomenon shows that the source of the emissions could be traveling faster than light. Researchers say as the polarization currents in these emissions are whipped around with a mechanism likened to a synchrotron, the sources could be traveling up to six times light speed, or 1.8 million km per second. However, although the source of the radiation exceeds the speed of light, the emitted radiation travels at normal light speed once it leaves the source. "This is not science fiction, and no laws of physics were broken in this model," said John Singleton of Los Alamos National Laboratory at a press briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, DC. "And Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity is not violated."

Full article by Nancy Atkinson on Universe Today

Kepler telescope spots 'Styrofoam' planet

2010-01-06T20:38:00.002+01:00

A giant planet with the density of Styrofoam is one of a clutch of new exoplanets discovered by NASA's Kepler telescope. The planets are too hot to support life as we know it, but the discoveries, made during the telescope's first few weeks of operation, suggest Kepler is on the right track to find Earth's twins, researchers say.

Full article by Rachel Courtland on New Scientist

Hiroshima, Nagasaki Survivor Dies at 93

2010-01-06T20:35:00.002+01:00

Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person officially recognized as a survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings at the end of World War II, has died at age 93.
Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip for his shipbuilding company on Aug. 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city.
He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) to the southwest, which suffered a second U.S. atomic bomb attack three days later.

Full story by Jay Alabaster on Discovery News

Scientists say dolphins should be treated as 'non-human persons'

2010-01-04T16:56:00.001+01:00

Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons”.
Studies into dolphin behaviour have highlighted how similar their communications are to those of humans and that they are brighter than chimpanzees. These have been backed up by anatomical research showing that dolphin brains have many key features associated with high intelligence.

Full article by Jonathan Leake on TimesOnline

Earth-Sized World Could Lurk in Outer Solar System

2010-01-04T16:53:00.002+01:00

Some astronomers say that a planet the size of Mars or Earth could be lurking on the fringes of our solar system. But even the latest space telescopes that launched in 2009 stand little chance of finding such a distant object.
Such a world, if it exists, would probably have an orbit far beyond Pluto or similar dwarf planets in the outer solar system. It would likely resemble a frozen version of Mars or Earth at best, a most unsuitable home for life. And it would not be alone.

Full article by Jeremy Hsu on Space.com

Extinct ibex is resurrected by cloning

2010-01-04T05:47:00.000+01:00

The Pyrenean ibex, a form of wild mountain goat, was officially declared extinct in 2000 when the last-known animal of its kind was found dead in northern Spain.
Shortly before its death, scientists preserved skin samples of the goat in liquid nitrogen.
Using DNA taken from these skin samples, the scientists were able to replace the genetic material in eggs from domestic goats, to clone a female Pyrenean ibex, or bucardo as they are known. It is the first time an extinct animal has been cloned.

Full article by Richard Gray and Robert Dobsonon The Telegraph

Quirkology tricks

2010-01-03T17:29:00.002+01:00

A video with some wonderful science tricks that you can try at home. Realized by Richard Wiseman, editor of Quirkology

Monkey to be sent to Mars

2010-01-03T05:31:00.001+01:00

A monkey may be sent to Mars, under plans unveiled by Russian scientists.
Although the ape will be looked after by a robot on the mission, the decision is expected to spark controversy with animal rights groups.

Full story by Urmee Khan on The Telegraph

Amazing optical illusion

2010-01-03T05:05:00.000+01:00

A truly amazing optical illusion I had never seen before.

How to Estimate Height of Tall Objects

2010-01-02T02:27:00.002+01:00

Eyeballing the height of a building or tree can sometimes be frighteningly inaccurate. Many a daredevil has injured himself or herself by critically underestimating the height of a tree, cliff or building. Or maybe you just want to know how far you'd have to jump if your fire escape broke. Luckily, there are two methods for obtaining more-accurate height estimates without trying to find a long-enough tape measure.

Wired explains it all.

Voyager Makes an Interstellar Discovery

2010-01-02T01:47:00.001+01:00

The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery.
"Using data from Voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system," explains lead author Merav Opher, a NASA Heliophysics Guest Investigator from George Mason University. "This magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together and solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all."

Full article by Tony Phillips on Science@NASA

Russia May Send Spacecraft to Deflect Incoming Asteroid Apophis

2010-01-02T01:35:00.002+01:00

Russia is considering sending a spacecraft to a large asteroid to knock it off its path and prevent a possible collision with Earth, the head of the country's space agency said Wednesday.
Anatoly Perminov said the space agency will hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis, telling Golos Rossii radio that it would invite NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency and others to join the project once it is finalized.
When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated the chances of it smashing into Earth in its first flyby in 2029 were as high as 1-in-37, but have since lowered their estimate.

Full article by Vladimir Isachenkov on Discovery News

2010

2010-01-01T03:02:00.002+01:00

Happy new year to everybody!
As you've noticed, there haven't been any posts in these days. I've been spending my time digging away giant piles of snow from outside my house and stuffing my two fireplaces with loads of wood. Extreme weather here in Norway, with temperatures down to -25C almost every day.
I'll be back on posting today, after I've finished celebrating the new year.
A rich 2010 to everyone!

Naacal

Black Hole Closer to Earth Than Thought

2009-12-22T23:04:00.001+01:00

Astronomers have accurately measured the distance between Earth and a particular black hole for the first time. And wow, is it close.
The researchers determined that the black hole V404 Cygni is located 7,800 light-years from Earth — or just slightly more than half the distance that was previously assumed.
That puts it relatively nearby to Earth, where the distance to the center of the galaxy is about 26,000 light-years, and the nearest star beyond the sun is a mere 4.2 light-years away.

Full article on Space.com

Single light wave flashes out from fibre laser

2009-12-22T22:47:00.001+01:00

A long-elusive goal of physics has been reached – producing a pulse of light so short that it contains just a single oscillation of a light wave.
The flashes are almost as short as a light pulse can be, according to the laws of physics. The new super-short pulses could used as flashguns to sense very small, very fast events such as a single photon interacting with a single electron, says Alfred Leitenstorfer of the University of Konstanz in Germany. A single-cycle pulse packs in energy more densely than a pulse containing more wave peaks and troughs.

Full article by Jeff Hecht on New Scientist

Jesus-era Home Found in Nazareth

2009-12-22T22:45:00.001+01:00

Days before Christmas, archaeologists on Monday unveiled what they said were the remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth that can be dated back to the time of Jesus -- a find that could shed new light on what the hamlet was like during the period the New Testament says Jesus lived there as a boy.

Full article by Diaa Hadid on Discovery News

12 Amazing Christmas Lights Around the World

2009-12-20T23:47:00.002+01:00

Christmas is celebrated all over the world, and people express their excitement and creativity through decoration. Meet 12 of the most amazing Christmas lights around the world on Oddee

Scientists Discover and Image Explosive Deep-Ocean Volcano

2009-12-20T23:37:00.000+01:00

Scientists funded by NOAA and the National Science Foundation recorded the deepest erupting volcano yet discovered, describing high-definition video of the undersea eruption as spectacular. Eruption of the West Mata volcano, discovered in May, occurred nearly 4,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, in an area bounded by Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

A Look at Titan's Lake

2009-12-20T23:34:00.002+01:00

The Cassini science team has released humanity's first picture of what sunlight glinting off a lake looks like on another world. This is Titan, Saturn's largest moon, which has lakes of liquid hydrocarbons on its surface.NASA says its scientists have been looking for the glint of light off Titan since the well-endowed Cassini spacecraft began circling Saturn in July 2004.
Titan's northern polar region, where most of the lakes are located, has been blanketed in winter darkness. As sunlight returned to the north about six months ago, the team caught what it called a moment of serendipity.

Full article by Irene Klotz on Discovery News

Father Christmas 'buried in Ireland'

2009-12-17T16:25:00.001+01:00

The remains of St Nicholas, the man who inspired Father Christmas, are buried at Jerpoint Abbey in County Kilkenny, Ireland, historians believe.
Experts claim that the philanthropist St Nicholas of Myra is entombed at the 12th century abbey after his body was moved there 800 years ago.

Full story on The Telegraph

Scientists unveil world's first bionic fingers

2009-12-17T16:23:00.001+01:00

Experts have unveiled what they claim are the world's first bionic fingers which they hope will transform the lives of people with missing digits.
The motor-powered ProDigits have been developed by Touch Bionics, the Livingston, West Lothian company which made the bionic i-Limb hand.
The unit fits over the person's palm to help people with any number of missing digits.
Those fitted with the device can bend, touch, pick up and point.

Full story on BBC News

'Jesus-Era' Burial Cloth Casts Doubt on Turin Shroud

2009-12-17T16:21:00.001+01:00

An international team of researchers has found fragments of a burial shroud that cast serious doubt on the Turin shroud, the controversial linen cloth venerated by many Catholics as the proof that Christ was resurrected from the grave.

Full article by Rossella Lorenzi on Discovery News

Indian scientists claim signs of life detected on the Moon

2009-12-16T23:55:00.002+01:00

Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) are on the brink of a path-breaking discovery. They may have found signs of life in some form or the other on the Moon.
They believe so because scientific instruments on India's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, picked up signatures of organic matter on parts of the Moon's surface, Surendra Pal, associate director, Isro Satellite Centre (Isac), said at the international radar symposium on Friday.

Full article by Barghavi Kerur on DNA India

Coconut-carrying octopus

2009-12-16T23:50:00.001+01:00

Veined Octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, showing sophisticated tool use behaviour. Footage shot by Dr Julian Finn of Museum Victoria.

Alice's adventures in algebra: Wonderland solved

2009-12-16T23:46:00.002+01:00

What would Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland be without the Cheshire Cat, the trial, the Duchess's baby or the Mad Hatter's tea party? Look at the original story that the author told Alice Liddell and her two sisters one day during a boat trip near Oxford, though, and you'll find that these famous characters and scenes are missing from the text.

The absurdities of Lewis Carroll's classic disguise an attack on new-fangled mathematics, says literary scholar Melanie Bayley. Read her article on New Scientist

First Super-Earths Discovered Around Sun-like Stars

2009-12-15T23:24:00.001+01:00

Astronomers say it’s a "neck-and-neck race" as to whether the first potentially habitable planets will be detected from the ground or from space, and today an international team of planet hunters announced they have discovered as many as six low-mass planets around two nearby Sun-like stars, using two ground-based observatories. This haul of planets includes two "super-Earths" with masses 5 and 7.5 times the mass of Earth.

Full article by Nancy Atkinson on Universe Today

World's Oldest Santa Figurine Believed Found

2009-12-15T23:16:00.001+01:00

Archaeologists working in Akron, Ohio, claim to have found the world's oldest three-dimensional representation of Santa Claus.
Known as the "Blue Santa," the object was made circa 1884 by The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company, which burned to the ground in 1904. The figurine is 2.5 inches tall.

Full article by Jennifer Viegas on Discovery News

Dark Matter Detected?

2009-12-15T23:09:00.002+01:00

Around the internet, blogs are all abuzz that an experiment searching for dark matter, CDMS, has cancelled all of their upcoming announcements and will be holding a special press conference on the 18th (this Friday!) to release their latest findings.

Ethan Siegel explains everything here

Sorry

2009-12-14T23:49:00.002+01:00

Sorry for not posting yesterday and today. My little daughter has got chickenpox, and I'm taking care of her. Trying to keep her from scratching herself... it's a battle!

I might be able to post tomorrow.

While I'm away, check out TYWKIWDBI

Naacal

STS-119 spacewalkers seen from Earth

2009-12-12T23:38:00.000+01:00

Astronauts working outside the International Space Station on one of the trusses at the Earth side.
When they passed over Europe, at least one of the spacewalkers were captured with a telescope from the Netherlands

First (of many) Gorgeous Pictures from the New VISTA

2009-12-12T23:34:00.001+01:00

Well, the WISE infrared all-sky satellite may be delayed until Monday, but the new infrared southern sky survey telescope VISTA (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) right here on Earth has gone online and released its first few gorgeous pictures.
This first one is of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024), a star-forming region in the constellation Orion.

More pictures and full article by Nicholos Wethington on Universe Today

Super-Massive Black Holes Observed at the Center of Galaxies

2009-12-12T23:31:00.001+01:00

An international team of scientists has observed four super-massive black holes at the center of galaxies, which may provide new information on how these central black hole systems operate.
These super-massive black holes at the center of galaxies are called active galactic nuclei. For the first time, the team observed a quasar with an active galactic nucleus, as part of the group of four, which is located more than a billion light years from Earth.

Full article on ScienceDaily

Brightest Gamma-Ray Flare in Universe Spotted

2009-12-11T18:06:00.002+01:00

A distant galaxy with a giant black hole in its center has been acting up recently, emitting extremely bright flashes of gamma ray light.
The flares began Sept. 15, making the galaxy currently the brightest source of gamma rays in the sky and boosting its own brightness to more than 10 times its regular luminosity over the summer. NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has been observing the phenomenon to learn more about how such active galaxies work. Astronomers think this galaxy, identified as 3C 454.3, is what's called a blazar.

Full story on Space.com

Twin moons above Mars

2009-12-11T18:00:00.002+01:00

Look, up in the sky: It's Phobos and Deimos, in a duo performance captured for the first time by camera. Europe's Mars Express orbiter did the legwork last month, snapping pictures at least every second for 1.5 minutes on Nov. 5. The images, along with a cool movie, were released this morning.

Full article by Irene Klotz on Discovery News

Ancient Amazon civilisation laid bare by felled forest

2009-12-11T17:37:00.003+01:00

Signs of what could be a previously unknown ancient civilisation are emerging from beneath the felled trees of the Amazon. Some 260 giant avenues, ditches and enclosures have been spotted from the air in a region straddling Brazil's border with Bolivia.
The traditional view is that before the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese in the 15th century there were no complex societies in the Amazon basin – in contrast to the Andes further west where the Incas built their cities. Now deforestation, increased air travel and satellite imagery are telling a different story.

Full article by Linda Geddes on New Scientist

Videodump 4

2009-12-10T23:34:00.001+01:00

Russian boy accordion genius:

Moscow Cat Theatre:

Buster Keaton's Stunt:

The Most Psychedelic Lake on Earth

2009-12-10T22:51:00.003+01:00

The Spotted Lake near the city of Osoyoos in British Columbia, right at the Washington state border, is not the result of someone’s too vivid imagination but of the many different mineral deposits found in it: The lake is rich in calcium, sodium and magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts) and even silver and titanium. It is called Kliluk by the Okanagan Indians who have known of the lake’s therapeutic powers for generations.
The lake changes colour throughout the year and therefore is beautiful to look at in any season. But it is only in the summer from about June to mid September that the lake water level lowers due to evaporation and reveals the “walkways” and different pools, the lake’s “spots.” Osoyoos in fact means “narrowing of the waters” in the Okanagan language.

Full article and more pictures on Environmental Graffiti

Earth's Atmosphere Came from Outer Space

2009-12-10T22:45:00.001+01:00

A new study finds the gases which formed the Earth's atmosphere – as well as its oceans – did not come from inside the Earth but from comets and meteorites hitting Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment period. A research team tested volcanic gases to uncover the new evidence. "We found a clear meteorite signature in volcanic gases," said Dr. Greg Holland the project's lead scientist. "From that we now know that the volcanic gases could not have contributed in any significant way to the Earth's atmosphere. Therefore the atmosphere and oceans must have come from somewhere else, possibly from a late bombardment of gas and water rich materials similar to comets."

Full article by Nancy Atkinson on Universe Today

Mega-flood filled the Mediterranean in months

2009-12-10T22:26:00.002+01:00

A flood of biblical proportions filled the present-day Mediterranean Sea in a matter of months. At its peak the mega-flood caused the sea's level to rise by over 10 metres per day.
Around 5.6 million years ago the Mediterranean Sea almost completely evaporated when it became disconnected from the Atlantic Ocean. This was due to uplift of the Strait of Gibraltar by tectonic activity, combined with a drop in sea level. Further tectonic activity 5.3 million years ago lowered the Strait and reconnected the dry Mediterranean basin with the Atlantic.

Full article by Kate Ravilious on New Scientist

Hubble Takes a New "Deep Field" Image with Wide Field Camera 3

2009-12-09T13:15:00.000+01:00

Hubble's latest image is another stunner: a new version of the Ultra Deep Field – this time in near-infrared light and taken with the newly installed Wide Field Camera 3. This is the deepest image yet of the Universe in near-infrared, and so the faintest and reddest objects in the image are likely the oldest galaxies ever identified, and they likely formed only 600–900 million years after the Big Bang. This image was taken in the same region as the visible Ultra Deep Field in 2004, but this new deep view at longer wavelengths provides insights into how galaxies grew in their formative years early in the Universe's history.

Full article by Nancy Atkinson on Universe Today

Click here for a stunning video zooming into the Ultra Deep Field.

More unknown light phenomenons in Northern Norway

2009-12-09T12:20:00.006+01:00

As someone of you probably recalls, I wrote about an unknown light phenomenon observed in Northern Norway one month ago. Now I have to bring up the topic again, after a massive wave of sightings was reported in Northern Norway last night. Moving spirals, blue rays, shape-changing light globes were observed inseveral cities triggering hundreds of phone calls to emergency numbers.

The online edition of the norwegian newspaper VG has many pictures taken in different locations, including this stunning one taken in Tromsø:

or this one taken in Ånstad:

There are also some videos that are really worth seeing, here, here, and here

Norwegian scientist can't find any natural explanations for these phenomenons, and think that the lights could be caused by russian missile testings in the Northern Sea, but Russia has today denied that the lights have been originated by their activities.

I'll post updates if they'll come.

UPDATE: Another picture gallery on yr.no

UPDATE 2: According to the Barents Observer, an anonymous russian military source says the light was the result of a failed launch of a Bulava missile from the Typhoon submarine "Dmitri Donskoy" in the White Sea area.

Mystery of Changing Star Brightness Deepens

2009-12-09T05:37:00.000+01:00

Unusual fluctuations in the brightness of older sun-like stars have long mystified astronomers, and new, detailed observations of the phenomenon have only deepened the mystery.
The new data, taken with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, contradict all of the explanations that astronomers have previously put forward to account for years-long variations seen in the brightness of one-third of sun-like stars that are in the later stages of their lives.
"We have obtained the most comprehensive set of observations to date for this class of sun-like stars, and they clearly show that all the possible explanations for their unusual behavior just fail," said study team member Christine Nicholls of Mount Stromlo Observatory, Australia.

Full article on Space.com

Butterflynauts Emerge from Cocoons on ISS

2009-12-08T18:33:00.001+01:00

Four “butterflynauts” have emerged on the International Space Station. They are part of a suitcase sized educational experiment that was rocketed to space on Nov. 16 on space shuttle Atlantis as part of the STS-129 mission. Students of all ages and the public are invited to follow the tiny crew’s development from larvae to adult butterflies in the microgravity of space.
A free Butterflies in Space teacher’s guide can be downloaded from BioEd Online at the Butterflies in Space website here. The project is sponsored by National Space Biomedical Research Institute.

Full article by Ken Kremer on Universe Today

Cosmic Rays Hunted Down: Physicists Closing in on Origin of Mysterious Particles

2009-12-08T18:21:00.001+01:00

A thin rain of charged particles continually bombards our atmosphere from outer space. The mysterious particles were first detected 100 years ago but until 10 years ago when a new type of telescope began to come online physicists weren't sure where the "cosmic rays" came from or how they were generated. They suspected the particles were accelerated by supernova shockwaves, but suspicions aren't proof.

Imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes now keeping a watchful eye on the night skies are finally providing the evidence needed to solve this longstanding puzzle.

Full article on ScienceDaily

Rumours that first dark matter particle found

2009-12-08T18:17:00.002+01:00

The physics blogs are abuzz with rumours that a particle of dark matter has finally been found.
If it is true, it is huge news. Dark matter is thought to make up 90 per cent of the universe's mass and what evidence there is for it remains highly controversial. That's why any news of a sighting is seized upon.

Full story by Valerie Jamieson on Short Sharp Science

15 Most Outrageous T-Shirts You Can Buy

2009-12-07T16:18:00.002+01:00

Meet some of the most questionable t-shirts you could wear on a first date, but shouldn't, on Oddee

Mythical white stag found in the forests of Gloucestershire

2009-12-07T16:12:00.001+01:00

White stags have long been associated with mythology and legend, an elusive yet magnificent beast.
King Arthur was left frustrated by his attempts to capture one, as were the Kings and Queens of Narnia, who chased the creature through the woods and found themselves tumbling out of a wardrobe.
But photographer Ken Grindle has managed to get a little bit closer, taking this picture of the animal in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.

Full article and more pictures on The Daily Mail

Man marries video game girlfriend

2009-12-07T16:02:00.003+01:00

Last week, a Japanese man, who goes by the name SAL9000, tied the knot with Nene Anegasaki, a character from the digital dating simulator Love Plus. The two had flirted for some time through SAL’s Nintendo DS. Clearly crazy for each other, the pair got hitched in a public ceremony in Tokyo on Sunday and streamed the whole thing over the Internet on the YouTube-like video website Nico Nico Douga.

Full article by Chris Gaylord and videoclip on Horizons Blog

Lightweight 'triple-zero' house produces more energy than it uses

2009-12-06T20:00:00.002+01:00

Overlooking the city of Stuttgart in southern Germany, a four-story modern glass house stands like a beacon of environmental sustainability. Built in 2000, it was the first in a series of buildings that are "triple-zero," a concept developed by German architect and engineer Werner Sobek, which signifies that the building is energy self-sufficient (zero energy consumed), produces zero emissions, and is made entirely of recyclable materials (zero waste).

Full article by Carina Storrs on Scientific American

Single-Atom Transistor Discovered

2009-12-06T19:57:00.001+01:00

Researchers from Helsinki University of Technology (Finland), University of New South Wales (Australia), and University of Melbourne (Australia) have succeeded in building a working transistor, whose active region composes only of a single phosphorus atom in silicon.

Full article on ScienceDaily

Has the Mystery of Uranus' Tilt Been Solved?

2009-12-06T19:53:00.001+01:00

One of the most enduring mysteries of the Solar System may be a step closer to being solved.
Although the general consensus is that Uranus was involved in some kind of cosmic hit-and-run, two researchers from Paris think the gas giant may have gradually wobbled over millions of years, eventually tipping due to the presence of a large moon.

Full article by Ian O'Neill on Discovery News

The Pentagon invites you to play its red balloon game

2009-12-05T02:15:00.002+01:00

From this morning (5th of December), people across the US will start hunting for 10 weather balloons hidden across the country by the Pentagon's research agency DARPA.
The treasure hunt is designed to test how well people can coordinate with one another online and will award $40,000 to the first person to enter the GPS coordinates of all 10 balloons, accurate to within a mile. The 2.5-metre-diameter tethered balloons will be flown only in daylight, and taken down for the night.

Full story by MacGregor Campbell on New Scientist

See the Invisible Sky with Chromoscope

2009-12-05T02:10:00.001+01:00

Unless you're Superman or a rattlesnake and can see in X-ray or infrared, there are aspects of night sky you are missing out on. These days, the wonderful assortment of telescope and spacecraft data at our disposal allow us to "see" our universe in the different wavelengths which otherwise are invisible to our limited human vision. Now, there is a quick and easy way take advantage of this data to explore various spectra, and it's portable, too. At the dotAstronomy Conference, a group of astronomers have revealed a new online tool: Chromoscope. The site shows the sky in a range of wavelengths, from high-energy gamma rays through to the longest radio waves, and allows users to move easily around the night sky and switch seamlessly between different wavelengths.

Full article by Nancy Atkinson on Universe Today

Huge Explosion Reveals the Most Massive Star Known

2009-12-05T02:04:00.002+01:00

All supernova explosions are violent affairs, but this one takes the cake. Astronomers have spotted a new type of extremely bright cosmic explosion they think originates from an exceptionally massive star.
This breed of explosion has been long predicted, but never before seen. Like all supernovas, the blast is thought to have marked the end of a star's life. But in this case, that star may have started out with 200 times the mass of the sun.
The supernova in question, SN2007bi, was observed in 2007 in a nearby dwarf galaxy. Scientists knew at once it was something different because it was about 50 to 100 times brighter than a typical supernova.

Full article by Clara Moskowitz on Space.com