... The Chinese would certainly not have invented the magnetic compass. ... Chemically and mineralogically, the lodestone is magnetite, a massive type of iron ore, an oxide of iron, a mineral related the the brown stuff coating the magnetic disks and tapes used by computers. ... But even then, just resting a few million years in the Earth's magnetic field would produce no magnetization. ... Still, as Gilbert observed, in a long iron rod that magnetism was channeled to the ends, where it could be noted. ...

... Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2006 September 16 . Discovery Orbiter Anaglyph . Credit: ISS Expedition 13 Crew, NASA - Stereo Anaglyph: Patrick Vantuyne . Explanation: Approaching the International Space Station on STS-121 in July , the Shuttle Orbiter Discovery posed for a series of photographs. ... About APOD | ... NASA Official: Jay Norris. ...

... Plasma Phenomena in the Solar System: Discoveries of Prof. K.I. Gringauz - a view from the XXI century . ... The conference is devoted to the 90-th anniversary of Professor Konstantin I. Gringauz - a pioneer of in-situ plasma measurements in space, who discovered solar wind, plasmapause, and cometopause. ... 1.Physical processes on the Sun and solar wind formation. ... 3.Solar plasma interaction with the Earth and planets; physical processes in magnetospheres. ...

... Stellar Evolution is driven entirely by the never ending battle between Pressure and Gravity . As imbalances are reached, the star is driven to find a new Energy source. ... Pressure and gravitational forces are equal, the star is stable and its core is sufficiently hot to fuse Hydrogen into Helium More about main sequence stars . ... The luminosity generated by the core fusion of Helium into Carbon is far greater than the shell luminosity associated with the fusion of Hydrogen into Helium. ...

... The effect is strongest in the most evolved, high-latitude supergiant V5112 Sgr=IRAS19500-1709, which has an extended structured envelope (Figs.1 and 2). In the optical spectrum of this object, the BaII ion lines are split into three components (Figs.3 and 4). ... Thus, we discovered for the first time the enrichment of the stellar envelope with heavy metals produced at the AGB stage. ... Detection of heavy-metal lines in the spectrum of the circumstellar envelope of a post-AGB star. ...

... There is also an edge-on view of the asteroid belt here . This video was created by Scott Manley. ... View of the solar system showing the locations of all the asteroids starting in 1980. ... Notice how the pattern of discovery follows the Earth around its orbit. ... At the beginning of 2010 a new discovery pattern becomes evident, with discovery zones in a line perpendicular to the Sun-Earth vector. ... An edge-on view of the asteroids . ... Other asteroid and comet animations by Scott Manley . ...

Image credit: Michael Nolan, Arecibo Observatory. These radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2001 SN263 were obtained on 2008 Feb 12 and 13. ... Image from Feb 12 . ... First near-Earth triple asteroid discovered by Arecibo Observatory . ... was discovered this week by astronomers at the sensitive radar telescope at Cornell University?s Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. ... For example, Arecibo has discovered more than half of the near-Earth binary asteroid systems discovered since 1999. ...

Supernova 2009js in NGC 918 . This page is devoted to information on Supernova 2009js in NGC 918 . Basic information on this SN, including the last reported brightness, on this Supernova can be found on the main page . Information on the original web pages for many of these images can be found on the updates and links web pages. Discovered independently by Lick Observatory Supernova Search (USA) and Koichi Itagaki (Japan). ... 2009/10/11.44 . 17.2 . ... Joseph Brimacombe . ...

This is the homepage of Andrew Fruchter, an astronomer on the staff of the Space Telescope Science Institute . ... Here you can look at an HST images of the optical counterparts of gamma-ray bursts and their host galaxies. ... Therefore, substantial information on the fine scale structure of objects can be obtained by offsetting the pointing of the telescope between exposures and then combining these "dithered" exposures into a single image. ...

The process of determining the number and characteristics of sources in astronomical images is so fundamental to a large range of astronomical problems that it is perhaps surprising that no standard procedure has ever been defined that has well understood properties with a high degree of statistical rigour on completeness and reliability. ... In this analysis we present results from testing such algorithms as implemented in the SExtractor, Selavy (Duchamp), and sfind tools on simulated data. ...

... Nearby Star Epsilon Eridani Has a Planet . ... A planet has been found orbiting a Sun-like star only 10 light-years away. ... The Coma Cluster of Galaxies . ... What does a comet nucleus look like? ... In fact, only 40,000 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus, M15 is one of the most densely packed globular star clusters in our Milky Way Galaxy. ... NGC1850 is a large cluster of stars located a mere 166,000 light-years from Earth in our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). ...

Next: Observational Zoo of Binaries Up: No Title Previous: Contents . In the early 1980s, our understanding of binary star evolution љ based on the pioneer work by Paczynski (1971)[ 150 ], Tutukov and Yungelson (1973)[ 195 ], van den Heuvel and Heise (1972)[ 201 ], allowed us to construct a general evolutionary scenario љ which successfully explained the genesis of well-studied normal stars and offered potential explanation for new X-ray sources discovered in space experiments. ...

... Apache HTTP Server Version 2.2 . ... This Multi-Processing Module (MPM) implements a non-threaded, pre-forking web server that handles requests in a manner similar to Apache 1.3. ... Apache always tries to maintain several spare or idle server processes, which stand ready to serve incoming requests. ... Maximum number of idle child server processes . ... Minimum number of idle child server processes . ... The MinSpareServers directive sets the desired minimum number of idle child server processes. ...

... Apache HTTP Server Version 2.2 . ... This Multi-Processing Module (MPM) implements a non-threaded, pre-forking web server that handles requests in a manner similar to Apache 1.3. ... Apache always tries to maintain several spare or idle server processes, which stand ready to serve incoming requests. ... Maximum number of idle child server processes . ... Minimum number of idle child server processes . ... The MinSpareServers directive sets the desired minimum number of idle child server processes. ...

... The name Discovery Date mag Size(m) Publication MASTER -Observatory --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HAZARDOUS ASTEROIDS : 7 MASTER HAZARD Asteroid 2015 UM67 2015 Oct 28.88218 16.9 940m MPEC 2015-V01 MASTER -SAAO automatically MASTER software 6 MASTER rediscovered HAZARD Asteroid 2011 QG21 2015 Aug 17.94764 17.2 300m MPEC 2015-Q28 ...

... Science . ... Science Users Information > Data Handling and Products > Data Reduction FAQ > I want to process MOS data of the same target from different nights together - how can I do that? ... Observing Facilities . ... Observing with ESO Telescopes . ... However, if you want to process science data from different nights together you should limit the available calibrations to those from one night as the pipeline assumes that the calibration data were taken without mask movement in between. ...

... About meteorites . ... Meteoritic data . Impact Crater Smerdyachee . ... Based on Smerdyachee's depth, near circularity, and its mounded wall, and analysis by N.A. Fillin of nearby Roshal, Russia, the Estonian scientists Yu.V. Krestlane and K.H. Mella proposed in 1987 that Smerdyachee Lake is a meteorite crater. ... In 2002, the Laboratory of Meteoritics of the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences explored this mysterious lake. ...

An Ancient Universe: How Astronomers Know the Vast Scale of Cosmic Time . THE CHANGING UNIVERSE: EVOLUTION HAPPENS! . b) Changes in Stars . One of the great discoveries of modern science is that stars (like people) live only a measurable life-time and then die. Although the lives of the stars are enormously longer than the span of a human life, we can learn about the life story of the stars by studying them at many different stages in their life cycle, from birth to death. ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Planets . ... Our Galaxy . ... Weird and Fun . ... It came from another galaxy: This artistтАЩs impression shows HIP 13044 b, an exoplanet orbiting a star that entered our galaxy from beyond. ... HIP 13044 is one of tens of millions of stars in the тАЬHelmi streamтАЭ, stars that belonged to a dwarf galaxy consumed by our own Milky Way galaxy, some six to nine billion years ago. ... Tweets that mention ESO finds weird doomed planet from another galaxy | ...

... I was in the process of writing on ?model uncertainty? to understand why the same term is used differently in astronomy and in statistics and planned to include some papers to show how statisticians handle uncertainty. ... Draper used the O-ring data set, one of the most frequently cited data sets in statistics textbooks. ... One of my favorite statisticians is John Tukey , of Fast Fourier Transform, higher criticisms, and exploratory data analysis which are all well known to astronomers. ...