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| Titan and the Lakefront? |
| Topic: Titan |
06/28/05 |
| At a high southern latitude on Saturn's moon, Titan, a dark outline suggests what a terrestrial observer would consider the shorelines of a lake. Cassini Imaging Team Leader, Carolyn Porco, describes the excitement and surprise of their latest titanic discoveries. |
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| Early Black Holes Grew Up Quickly |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
06/28/05 |
| Which came first, galaxies or the supermassive black holes at their centre? Most cosmologists now think the two are inextricably linked, each depending on the other. |
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| The Stuff Stars are Made of |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
06/26/05 |
| Named after Harvard University astronomer Bart Bok, Bok globules may not be the most romantic sounding phrase in astronomy, but they are widely accepted as an important step in the formation of new stars. Now a team of astronomers reports examining ten globules to determine how many of them are stars in the making. |
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| Off-Center Optimism for a Planet |
| Topic: New Planets |
06/23/05 |
| A dust ring around the bright star Fomalhaut is off-center, suggesting a planet may be orbiting the star. Visible images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope show details of this dust ring staring back at us from space. |
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| Just How Earth-Like is the Newest Planet? |
| Topic: New Planets |
06/15/05 |
| In the land rush known as extrasolar planet hunting, the most prized real estate is advertised as "Earth-like." On Monday, June 13, scientists raced to plant their flag on a burning hunk of rock orbiting a red star. |
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| July Fourth: Crashing the Party |
| Topic: Meteorites, Comets and Asteroids |
06/13/05 |
| Having a comet run into your spacecraft sounds like a catastrophe, but Deep Impact mission scientists are hoping for just such an event. They have sent their spacecraft out on a collision course with comet Tempel 1. |
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| Titan's Icy Volcanoes Erupting Methane? |
| Topic: Titan |
06/08/05 |
| Saturn's moon Titan is shrouded in a thick smoggy atmosphere. Methane gas breaks down to form the organic smog particles, but it's a mystery where all that methane is coming from. According to a new report in the journal Nature, icy volcanoes on Titan may be a source. |
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| Opportunity Escapes Sandtrap |
| Topic: Mars |
06/04/05 |
| The Opportunity rover has been stuck in a soft, shallow dune on Mars for weeks. Its extraction today was greeted with celebration by the science team. The sandtrap analogy echoes back to the 'hole-in-one' landing that improbably placed the rover into a crater rich with bedrock and water evidence. |
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| Titan's Face Lifted |
| Topic: Titan |
05/25/05 |
| How old is Titan's surface? For years, Saturn's moon Titan was thought to have mastered the cosmetic surgery of the cosmos, with barely a mark or wrinkle to betray its true age. Close-up views provided by Cassini instruments show that Titan is nearly as flawless as it seems from a distance. |
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| Stopping the Suicide Spiral |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
05/11/05 |
| Young stars in the Orion Nebula have quite a temper, flashing powerful X-rays every few days. Scientists wonder if such X-ray flares could rough up the calm sea of a proto-planetary disk, and thereby rescue burgeoning planets from certain oblivion. Does a temperamental youth ensure the existence of future planets? |
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