السبت، 17 نوفمبر 2012

Best Science Photos of the Week

Perfect Penguin Huddle

Greed is good for penguins that huddle together to avoid Antarctica’s icy weather.

According to a new study, penguin groups can maximize everyone’s heat when individual birds act selfishly, huddling in ways that keep them toastiest.

[Full Story: Math Reveals Perfectly Cozy Penguin Huddles]

Putting on Pudge

The newest panda cub at the San Diego Zoo got another checkup this week — his first since being named Xiao Liwu, meaning “Little Gift.”

The pudgy cub weighed in at 10.3 pounds (4.6 kg) and measured 25.1 inches (63.7 cm) long, a pound and 2 inches bigger than last week. In another development, Xiao Liwu has four baby teeth that have broken through his gums, veterinarians at the zoo report.

[Full Story: New Panda Picture: 'Little Gift' Gets Bigger]

Farthest Galaxy

A new celestial wonder has stolen the title of most distant object ever seen in the universe, astronomers report.

The new record holder is the galaxy MACS0647-JD, which is about 13.3 billion light-years away. The universe itself is only 13.7 billion years old, so this galaxy’s light has been traveling toward us for almost the whole history of space and time.

[Full Story: Farthest Known Galaxy in the Universe Discovered]

Swirling Black Hole

The environment around a black hole is, literally, a hot mess.

That mess makes a little more sense to scientists now, thanks to a new computer simulation that shows how the spin of a black hole can align with the doughnut of material orbiting it, as well as with the superfast jets that fly out of it.

[Full Story: Spinning Black Holes Shaped by Magnetic Fields]

Tiny Katydid

Their ears may be on their legs, but katydids hear a lot like humans do, a new study finds.

In fact, even though insect and mammal lineages diverged a staggeringly long time ago, even for the evolutionary scale, our ears have evolved to work in remarkably similar ways. The findings could be useful for engineering miniature sound sensors, said Daniel Robert, a bionanoscientist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

[Full Story: Tiny Katydid Ears Look Remarkably Human]

Lively Lemurs!

If you want to see lemurs, there are two places in the world you may want to visit. The first is Madagascar, the island nation where these unique primates evolved and the only place on Earth they’re found living native.

The second, oddly enough, is western North Carolina.

[Full Story: Wanna Watch Lemurs? Head to North Carolina]

Solar Eclipse from Space

A European satellite has captured video of the moon blocking the sun, as seen from space, during a total solar eclipse that wowed huge crowds of spectators who watched the event from Australia yesterday.

The solar eclipse video from space was recorded by the European Space Agency’s Proba-2 satellite. While the spacecraft did not record the totality of the solar eclipse, it did see partial views of the eclipse three separate times, ESA officials said.

[Full Story: Satellite Sees Solar Eclipse from Space in Video]

This Alien Planet’s an Orphan

Astronomers have discovered a potential “rogue” alien planet wandering alone just 100 light-years from Earth, suggesting that such starless worlds may be extremely common across the galaxy.

The free-floating object, called CFBDSIR2149, is likely a gas giant planet four to seven times more massive than Jupiter, scientists say in a new study unveiled today (Nov. 14). The planet cruises unbound through space relatively close to Earth (in astronomical terms; the Milky Way galaxy is 100,000 light-years wide), perhaps after being booted from its own solar system.

[Full Story: 'Orphan' Alien Planet Found Nearby Without Parent Star]

Up In the Air

Dust, smoke and other particles swirl in the air in this global look at aerosols, or fine particles in the atmosphere. Dust is seen in red, while ocean cyclones pick up sea salt (blue). Smoke from fires is seen in green. White tendrils represent sulfate particles, which come from both volcanoes and human fossil fuel emissions.

This image comes courtesy of NASA’s Discover supercomputer at the Center for Climate Simulation at Goddard Space Flight Center.

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Best Science Photos of the Week

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