First Habitable Earthlike Planet Found

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

The first known planet beyond the solar system that could harbor life as we know it has been discovered, scientists report.

The planet is estimated to be only 50 percent larger than Earth, making it the smallest planet  found outside the solar system, according to a team led by Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland.Known as Gliese 581 c, it is located in the constellation Libra, some 20.5 light-years away.The scientists estimated the planet’s surface temperature at between 32 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit (0 and 40 degrees Celsius) hinting at possibility of water at planet.The new planet was detected using an instrument called a spectrograph at the European Southern Observatory at La Silla, Chile.

read more at National Geographic

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Saturn Lightning Storm Breaks Solar System Record

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

A lightning storm has been raging on Saturn since mid-January, making the tempest the longest-lasting storm ever detected in our solar system, astronomers announced .

The lightning flashes are 10,000 times stronger than lightning flashes on Earth, research team member Georg Fischer, of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, said via email.The lightning flashes are 10,000 times stronger than lightning flashes on Earth.

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Did Venus Once Hold Water?

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

Venus is characterized today as the planet from hell yet may have been closer to a cherished idea that it was once Earth‘s twin, announced at a conference.Data sent back by a European scoutship suggests that even though Venus’ surface is super-heated and smothered by a lethal atmosphere, the planet may once have been lush with water.

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Global Warming Could Cool N. America

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

Meltwater flows across the Greenland ice sheet in an undated picture.A sudden influx of Greenland meltwater into the North Atlantic Ocean could chill down North America within just a few decades, a September 2009 study of ancient Canadian moss suggests.Photograph by James Balog

Global warming could actually chill down North America within just a few decades, according to a new study that says a sudden cooling event gripped the region about 8,300 years ago.Analysis of ancient moss from Newfoundland, Canada, links an injection of freshwater from a burst glacial lake to a rapid drop in air temperatures by a few degrees Celsius along North America’s East Coast.

The results suggest that North America’s climate is highly sensitive to meltwater flowing into the ocean, said lead study author Tim Daley of Swansea University in the U.K.

The work also means that history could repeat itself: Currently Greenland’s ice sheet is melting at a rapid clip, releasing freshwater into the North Atlantic.

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